Fwd: Nezavisnost and the European Trade Union Confederation

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 12:18:41 -0500
>To: marxism at lists.panix.com
>From: Louis Proyect <lnp3 at panix.com>
>Subject: Nezavisnost and the European Trade Union Confederation
>
>The American SWP, the British SWP and presumably the Australian DSP are all
>feeling rapturous about the emergence of an "independent" trade union
>movement in Serbia called Nezavisnost. What they fail to mention is that
>this outfit is owned and controlled--lock, stock and barrel--by the
>European Trade Union Confederation, an umbrella group for the social
>democratic trade unions of Western Europe. Nezavisnost was "independent" of
>the old system in Yugoslavia as Solidarity was of the Polish government.
>Unlike Solidarity, however, Nezavisnost never seemed to have made much
>headway on its own. It appears to be a satellite of the same imperialist
>power structures that made Yugoslavia cry uncle. If you go to the ETUC
>website, you will find dozens of Nezavisnost press releases, including one
>that opposed demonstrations against NATO bombing by Serb factory workers.
>Beneath are some of the cheerleading for Nezavisnost from the comrades,
>followed by a Financial Times article illustrating the blatantly
>class-collaborationist character of ETUC.
>
>The Militant:
>"The majority of workers at Ikarbus, for example, have quit the old trade
>union, which was tied to the former Milosevic regime, and organized
>themselves into the metalworkers branch of Nezavisnost (Independence), the
>largest trade union federation not linked directly to the former ruling
>party. In the same period, Nezavisnost supporters told us, membership has
>jumped from 200,000 to as much as half a million."
>
>Socialist Worker:
>Cedanka Andric works for the Nezavisnost trade union confederation, which
>was independent from the old regime and faced repression. She explained how
>in areas where the opposition to Milosevic was at its strongest, such as
>the cities of Cacak and Novi Sad, almost all the old directors of major
>workplaces have been forced to resign. Control has not passed to the
>workers. New directors are in place. However, workers have had a taste of
>their power and many crisis boards have not been dismantled.
>
>====
>
>Financial Times (London), May 12, 1995, Friday
>
>EU jobs plan from bosses and unions
>
>By ROBERT TAYLOR
>
>BRUSSELS
>
>Europe's main employers' associations and trade unions have reached
>agreement on a joint strategy of economic expansion to reduce mass
>unemployment in the European Union.
>
>In a confidential four-page draft declaration, the two sides of European
>industry call for 'sustained and job-creating growth'.
>
>The draft guidelines will be presented to the European Commission on Monday
>and will be discussed at the next meeting of the EU's finance ministers
>later this month.
>
>The document has been prepared by UNICE, the European employers'
>federation, CEEP, the European public employers' body, and the European
>Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). It is a contribution to the preparations
>of the EU's economic policy guidelines in the aftermath of last December's
>Essen EU heads of government conference which made reducing unemployment a
>priority.
>
>In recent years the employers and trade unions have made common cause on a
>number of issues. But the new document shows that both sides want to
>restore what many see as a loss of momentum from the white paper on growth,
>competitiveness and employment drawn up two years ago by the then president
>of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Delors.
>
>This document committed the EU to halving its unemployment by the year 2000
>and creating 5m new jobs by the end of the century. There are presently
>17.9m unemployed in the EU, according to Eurostat.
>
>The new joint employer/union document says that only 2 per cent, or 3m of
>the 11 per cent unemployed in the EU, will secure jobs in the present
>recovery. 'Reducing significantly the remaining 9 per cent will require
>both turning the recovery into a long lasting investment-led growth process
>and implementing more active and efficient labour market policies,' the
>paper says.
>
>Both sides have agreed, despite some union reservations, that the large
>budget deficits in many EU countries will have to be tackled as 'an
>essential' ingredient in any economic recovery. 'If deficits cannot be
>tackled now, when can they be?' asks the document. 'This is essential to
>preserve the basic social functions of modern states, and to regain the
>room for manoeuvre which has often been lost as a result of high public
>debt burdens.'
>
>Louis Proyect
>Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org

At 7:36 PM +0100 10/31/00, Johannes Schneider wrote:
>From: "Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider at gmx.net>
>To: <marxism at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: Re: Nezavisnost and the European Trade Union Confederation
>Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 19:36:59 +0100
>
>Louis Proyect quoted:
>  > The Militant:
>>  "The majority of workers at Ikarbus, for example, have quit the old trade
>>  union, which was tied to the former Milosevic regime, and organized
>>  themselves into the metalworkers branch of Nezavisnost (Independence), the
>>  largest trade union federation not linked directly to the former ruling
>>  party. In the same period, Nezavisnost supporters told us, membership has
>  > jumped from 200,000 to as much as half a million."
>
>Not even Nezavisnost itself is claiming this number. In a letter to
>Kostunica they claim 'more than 200.000 members'.
>
>I think Louis is correct to say that the term 'independant' is nonsense.
>Nezavisnost demands inter alia:
>'Comprehensive and radical economic reforms based on privatisation, economic
>efficiency and social justice'
>I would rather call this Thatcherism than Social-Democracy.
>
>All quotes are from their website at:
>
>http://www.nezavisnost.org.yu
>
>Johannes

At 2:48 PM -0500 10/31/00, Louis Proyect wrote:
>====
>
>FROM THE NEZAVISNOST WEBSITE:
>
>Main goals
>--Restoration of the rule of law 
>--Constitutional and legal protection of human and union rights 
>--Democratic labour laws harmonised with international standards 
>--Genuine multiparty parliamentary democracy 
>--Comprehensive and radical economic reforms based on privatisation,
>economic efficiency and social justice
>
>=====
>
>Some Links:
>
>--International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)  (see additional
>info at bottom)
>--American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
>(AFL-CIO)
>--Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (see additional info at bottom)
>
>=====
>
>VISIT OF THE DELEGATION OF THE NEZAVISNOST TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION AND
>PARTNERSHIP FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE TO THE United States of America ON THE
>INVITATION OF THE "SOLITARY [sic] CENTER AFL - CIO
>
>/16- 30 JULY 2000./
>
>1. Meeting with the AFL-CIO President Jon Sweeney and Phil Fishman,
>Assistant Director of the International Department.
>2. George Meany training center of the American unions.
>3. Seminar in George Meany center.
>4. Work in small groups. 5. Members of the delegation with American
>colleagues after receiving certificates.
>6. Elise, Nada, Pepe and Zoran, singing "De Colores", anthem of the
>participants.
>7. Nebojsa and Elise singing "Milkina kuca na kraju". Our American friends
>learned to sing this Serbian folk song.
>8. Entertainment in the George Meany Center club.
>9. Visit to union colleagues from Baltimore.
>10. Visit to "Baltimore Sun" daily
>11. Coctail party at Anca Hassing s home given in honor of our delegation.
>12. President of UGS "Nezavisnost" Branislav Canak hands the Nezavisnost
>banner to the AFL-CIO president Jon Sweeney.
>
>====
>
>Nezavisnost is member of the European Forum of the European Trade Union
>Confederation and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
>
>====
>
>SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION (Not from Nezavisnost website)
>
>THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary
>
>July 30, 1999
>
>FACT SHEET ON STABILITY PACT FOR SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
>
>Today President Clinton joined over forty leaders from across Europe and
>North America in reaffirming our shared commitment to support the
>reconstruction, development, democratization, stabilization and integration
>of southeast Europe, in the wake of victory in Kosovo, by formally
>launching the Stability Pact.
>
>The Stability Pact, signed last month by representatives of over 27
>democracies, including the United States, is an initiative to prevent
>regional crises such as the Kosovo conflict from repeating in the future.
>It seeks to help build a Southeast Europe animated by cooperation and
>democracy rather than further conflict and ethnic cleansing. Its goal is to
>stabilize, transform and eventually integrate the region into the European
>and transatlantic mainstream.
>
>It reflects a vision, shared by our European friends and allies, that the
>President articulated in San Francisco on April 15, to "do for Southeast
>Europe what we helped to do for Western Europe after World War II, and for
>Central Europe after the Cold War: to help its people build a region of
>multiethnic democracies, a community that upholds common standards of human
>rights, a community in which borders are open to people and trade, where
>nations cooperate to make war unthinkable."
>
>=====
>
>The Washington Post
>February 12, 1989, Sunday, Final Edition
>
>OBITUARIES
>
>Irving Brown, AFL-CIO Official, Dies
>
>Irving Brown, 77, a senior adviser to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland who
>also had served the labor federation as its director of international
>affairs from 1982 to 1986, died of cancer Feb. 10 at his home in Paris.
>
>"We have lost a giant," Kirkland said. "No other individual did more than
>Irving to protect and advance workers' rights in every nation around the
>world."
>
>Mr. Brown was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in October by
>then-President Reagan for his work in leading the resistance to communist
>takeovers of trade unions in Western Europe after World War II.
>
>During World War II, he served as a labor representative to the War
>Production Board. After the war, he represented the AFL and the CIO with
>the Foreign Economic Administration.
>
>As the U.S. labor movement's emissary to Europe after the war, Mr. Brown
>was instrumental in rallying support among unions there for the Marshall
>Plan.
>
>In 1950, he helped found the INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE
>UNIONS, which broke with the communist-dominated World Federation of Trade
>Unions.
>
>Much of his work in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s focused on preventing
>communist takeovers of labor organizations. During those years, he was
>denounced by communist groups as a tool of the State Department and the
>Central Intelligence Agency. At the same time, he was attacked by right
>wing groups in the United States as a communist sympathizer.
>
>Over the years, he made a number of secret visits to Warsaw Pact countries,
>meeting with labor leaders. He also helped arrange for radio broadcasts to
>Iron Curtain countries by exiled labor leaders.
>
>
>Louis Proyect
>Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org