May 1st, 2009: International solidarity! International militant coordination!

[IndianaGreen]

May 1st, 2009: International solidarity! International militant coordination! STOP dismissals. STOP exploitation.

16 April 2009

Brothers, sisters

On Labour Day 2009, the WFTU sends warm militant greetings to the workers, the unemployed, the immigrants, the women and young people throughout the world and calls you to move forward on a course of a coordinated and dynamic counter-attack of the class-oriented trade union movement to defend our rights and our achievements.

The true face of capitalist globalization is now clear. We see it in the injustice existing in the world with an unprecedented concentration of wealth in the hands of a few while the overwhelming majority of people live in poverty. Statistics prove that 1% of the world’s population possess 40% of total wealth while 50% of world population lives in poverty, owning 1% of the global wealth. In India, for example, 48 people, billionaires, represent 30% of the national income of India!

In the last meeting of UNCTAD, an African delegate described the situation in this continent saying that what is happening now is a real “blood-transfusion” in the reverse. The blood is taken from the starving Third World countries and flows to the advanced capitalist countries to the benefit of multinationals and monopolies.

Today, according to official UN data, the average life expectancy in African countries such as Zimbabwe is 42 years in Nigeria and Liberia 41 years, 40 years in Zambia and in Angola and Sierra Leone 37 years. This picture shows the cruel exploitation of the Europeans and American imperialists against the Third World.

Also today, in the period of deep capitalist economic crisis that began in the U.S., passed over into Europe and is spreading worldwide, the ILO estimates the unemployment will rise more and the number of unemployed to be increased from 190 million in 2007 to 210 million in 2009. Workers are losing their jobs in all sectors but particularly in the construction industry, banking, car-manufacture, metal, tourism. Part-time employment with reduced salaries has become the rule, worsening of working conditions, attack on trade union rights and freedoms as well as the dramatic impact on migrants who are forced to return to their countries.

http://www.wftucentral.org/?p=2662&language=en