[WSF-Discuss] Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum, (3) : A Global Labour Charter for Humanity : If Not Now, When ?

Fri Nov 21 10:16:56 UCT 2008

Invitation to help CACIM plan events at the Belem Forum, (3) : A  
Global Labour Charter for Humanity : If Not Now, When ?

Friday, November 21, 2008

And dear friends on WSFDiscuss, greetings again – for the last of  
these four companion postings…

             Further to our similar postings over the past few days,  
we from CACIM are planning to also organise – again, hopefully  
together with others – the following event at the Belem Forum,  
coordinated by labour internationalist Peter Waterman :

A Global Labour Charter for Humanity : If Not Now, When ?

Once again, this posting is both to give you advance notice of this  
event – and to invite you to join us there then ! – but also to  
invite you to help us plan for it.

Specifically, and just as yesterday and the day before, we are both  
attaching and pasting on below a brief write-up that we have prepared  
for the event, and we would be very happy if you would :

1.     Please let us know whether you are coming to Belem, and if so,  
whether you would like to take part in this event. (Apologies to  
those with whom we have already been in preliminary touch about our  
events at Belem and from whom we have already heard in this regard.   
But now that we have finalised our four events, please do write in  
again and let us know !  Thanks.)

2.     Comment on the draft outline for the event.  Please either  
respond here, on this list, or send us your comments in TRACKED  
CHANGES on the attached version.  Thanks !

3.     Make suggestions for key speakers for the event, with the  
following details :

Name :
Name of organisation or institution or movement, if any :
Full contact details (email id, country and preferably city / town /  
village location, and phone contacts) :
Languages spoken :
and also :
A 50-100 word blurb on each person so that we know a little WHY you  
think the person is relevant to the event.

4.     Suggest appropriate organisations who might like to co- 
organise the events with us (again, FULL DETAILS, please, as above,  
with reasons as to why these organisations).

5.     Suggest possible sources of funds for this event – and in  
general, the set of four events we are proposing to organise at Belem.

Finally : PLEASE DO REPLY ALL, in particular so that Peter remains in  
the loop.  Thanks !

One more point : Just so that there is no confusion, please do note  
that we are proposing to organise four events in Belem, in all; as  
follows.  We have already posted similar letter for the first two (as  
noted below) and are going to be also posting similar letters for the  
fourth one tomorrow, with each one inviting you to help us with them :

v     The Politics, Potentials, and Meanings of the Belem Forum : The  
Significance of the Forum for the Indigenous Peoples of the World (as  
per the message posted yesterday (posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008)

v     Critically engaging with the principles underlying the World  
Social Forum  (Wednesday, November 19, 2008)

v     Facing the Future : The World Social Forum, the Global Justice  
Movement, and Beyond  (Thursday, November 20 2008)

v     A Global Labour Charter for Humanity : If Not Now, When ? (this  
message).

We look forward very much to hearing back from you !  And also to the  
chance of meeting you there in Belem, and to your taking part in one  
or more of these events.

With warm greetings

for CACIM

             Jai Sen

att
Facing the Future - The WSF, GJM, Beyond - Disc Note d1 js1411,  
201108 for comments TC.doc

Discussion Draft. For completion this week, I hope!

A Global Labour Charter for Humanity:

If Not Now, When ?

A Labour Project for the World Social Forum,

Belem, Brazil, January 27-February 1, 2009

Peter Waterman

p.waterman at inter.nl.net

***

If  I am not  for myself, then who will be for me ?

And if  I am only for myself, then what am I ?

And if not now, when ?

Rabbi Hillel

Se non ora, quando ?

Primo Levi

***

This is an open – and urgent - proposal for a seminar, workshop or  
other appropriate event to take place at the coming World Social  
Forum in Belem, January 27-February 1, 2009. ‘Open’ means anybody  
and any body can take the baton from here and pass it forward.  
‘Urgent’ means now.

(Note : CACIM has agreed; with coordination by Peter Waterman.)

The one condition is that any such event be open to all interested  
comers.  (Agreed.)

Behind this proposal is the feeling that international labour’s  
current strategy declarations, campaigns, manifestos – or whatever  
– have either 1) too low a profile, or are 2) too modest/defensive,  
are 3) too scattered or partial and, in any case, are 4) in need of  
synthesis and refinement. They are not yet adequate to the increasing  
war on labour by a globalised, informatised, neo-liberal capitalism  
(and the threat of its current financial crisis).

Whatever one’s opinion, however, of such strategies as are below  
listed (or others that will surely be added), it cannot but be  
beneficial to bring such together in free public dialogue.

Some of the positions I am aware of are the following (details under  
resources below):

Decent Work for a Decent Life (ILO/ITUC/Global Unions)

·      Declaration of Maputo: V International Conference of La Via  
Campesina (Via Campesina)

Labour's Platform for the Americas (ORIT/TUCA),

The International Labour and Trade Union Movement in the 21st Century  
(WFTU)

Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights  
Declaration (SIGTUR)

IV European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit [Union]  
Declaration (TUCA, ETUC, ITUC)

The Appeal of the [Labour and Globalisation] Assembly in the WSF of  
Nairobi - January 2007

Preamble to the IWW Constitution (IWW),

To Build a Workers’ United Front (World Forum of Alternatives,  
Bamako Appeal, 2005)

Towards the Global Emancipation of Labour (Labour Group, World Forum  
of Alternatives Conference, 2008)

Global Labour Charter Project (Peter Waterman)

For the Promotion of Informal Workers of the World (StreetNet)

Sex Workers´ Declaration at the 2008 International Aids Conference in  
Mexico (SWOP-USA)

·      Workers in the Informal Economy: Platform of Issues (WIEGO)

The case for bringing such positions or declarations together in one  
(or several alternative?) documents needs hardly to be made. It is,  
rather, demonstrated  by the following ones:

Women’s Global Charter for Humanity (WMW)
·      The Global Economic Crisis: An Historic Opportunity for  
Transformation (TNI/FGS)

The Women’s Global Charter was drawn up after rounds of discussion  
by an international women’s network, the World March of Women. It is  
an impressively brief and forceful declaration of principle.  
Inevitably, it deals also with capitalist globalisation and work.

If women, as collective subjects and global actors can do this, why  
not workers (including working women)?

The Global Economic Crisis document addresses itself to a global  
problem as it presents itself at one critical moment. Proposing an  
all-round alternative to neo-liberal globalisation, it also touches  
on work. But what is striking about this appeal is its immediate  
launching in cyberspace, with a call for endorsement and an  
invitation to discussion.

If left economists can do this, why not the global labour movement?

I have drafted and circulated a model (not the model) for such a  
global labour charter. It has so far been only privately approved. No  
problem. It is an individual attempt and may be considered too  
revolutionary, too reformist, too utopian, too unrelated to present  
labour struggles. But, given the low labour profile in a rising  
global justice and solidarity movement, I am hoping it will be  
considered a challenge.

If not now, when?

Peter Waterman
Malmo, Caracas, The Hague
October 2008

Peter Waterman (London 1936) worked twice for the international  
Communist movement in Prague, the second time experiencing the Soviet  
invasion of 1968, the worker and popular response to this and the  
failure of the World Federation of Trade Unions to back this up. He  
became an academic labour specialist at the Institute of Social  
Studies, The Hague, and, later, a specialist on labour and other  
internationalisms, old and new. In the 1980s he edited the Newsletter  
of International Labour Studies. Around 1986 he launched the  
international debate on ‘Social Movement Unionism’. Since  
retirement in 1998, he has concentrated on the relationship of labour  
with/in the World Social Forum  and the global justice and solidarity  
movement. He publishes widely and is well represented on the web.

Resources

Appeal of the (Labour and Globalisation) Assembly in the World Social  
Forum, Nairobi), http://openesf.net/projects/labour-and-globalization/ 
the-appeal-of-the-assembly-in-the-wsf-of-nairobi-january-2007-strong- 
span

Decent Work for a Decent Life (ILO/ITUC/Global Unions) http:// 
www.decentwork.org/index.php? 
option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=29

Declaration of Maputo: V International Conference of La Via Campesina  
(Via Campesina), http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php ? 
option=com_content&task=view&id=623&Itemid=1

For the Promotion of Informal Workers of the World (StreetNet),  
http://www.streetnet.org.za/english/StreetNetpolicies.htm#For%20the% 
20Promotion%20of%20Informal%20Women%20Workers%20of%20the%20World.

Global Labour Charter Project (Peter Waterman), http:// 
www.netzwerkit.de/ projekte/waterman/gc

IV European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit (Labour)  
Declaration http://www.etuc.org/IMG/pdf_CLIMADeclarationFInal-EN-2.pdf

Labour's Platform for the Americas (ORIT), http://www.cioslorit.net/ 
english/palavra01.asp?palavra=plataeng

Preamble to the IWW Constitution (Industrial Workers of the World),  
http://www.iww.org/culture/official/ preamble.shtml

Sex Workers´ Declaration at the 2008 International Aids Conference in  
Mexico (SWOP-USA), http://www.swopusa.org/node/157

Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights  
Declaration (SIGTUR) http://www.sigtur.com/index.php? 
option=com_content&task= view&id=81&Itemid=73

The Global Economic Crisis: An Historic Opportunity for  
Transformation (TNI/FGS) http://casinocrash.org/

The International Labour and Trade Union Movement in the 21st Century  
(WFTU) http://www.wftucentral.org/?page_id=40&language=en

To Build a Workers’ United Front (The Bamako Appeal), http:// 
www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=66

Towards the Global Emancipation of Labour (Labour Group, World Forum  
of Alternatives Conference, 2008) ???@???

Declaration of Maputo: V International Conference of La Via Campesina  
(Via Campesina), http://www.viacampesina.org/main_en/index.php? 
option=com_content&task=view&id=623&Itemid=1

Women’s Global Charter for Humanity. (WMW). http://www.iefd.org/ 
manifestos/womens_global_charter.php

Workers in the Informal Economy: Platform of Issues (WIEGO), http:// 
www.wiego.org/program_areas/org_rep/ILC%202002%20Platform%20of% 
20Issues%20eng.pdf

Women’s Global Charter for Humanity. (WMW). http://www.iefd.org/ 
manifestos/ womens_global_charter.php

______________________________

Jai Sen
jai.sen at cacim.net
CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India
www.cacim.net
Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, 4155 0963 - PLEASE NOTE NEW SECOND NUMBER !

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