wftu poster

Letter from the Zapatista women to women who struggle in the world

February 2019

To: Women who struggle in the world

From: The Zapatista Women

Sister, compañera:

We as Zapatista women send you our greetings as the women in struggle that we all are.

We have sad news for you today, which is that we are not going to be able to hold the Second International Encounter of Women in Struggle here in Zapatista territory in March of 2019.

Maybe you already know the reasons why, but if not, we’re going to tell you a little about them here.

The new bad governments have said clearly that they are going to carry forward the mega-projects of the big capitalists, including their Maya Train, their plan for the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and their massive commercial tree farms. They have also said that they’ll allow the mining companies to come in, as well as agribusiness. On top of that, their agrarian plan is wholly oriented toward destroying us as original peoples by converting our lands into commodities and thus picking up what Carlos Salinas de Gortari started but couldn’t finish because we stopped him with our uprising.

All of these are projects of destruction, no matter how they try to disguise them with lies, no matter how many times they multiply their 30 million votes. The truth is that they are coming for everything now, coming full force against the original peoples, their communities, lands, mountains, rivers, animals, plants, even their rocks. And they are not just going to try to destroy us Zapatista women, but all indigenous women—and all men for that matter, but here we’re talking as and about women.

In their plans our lands will no longer be for us but for the tourists and their big hotels and fancy restaurants and all of the businesses that make it possible for the tourists to have these luxuries. They want to turn our lands into plantations for the production of lumber, fruit, and water, and into mines to extract gold, silver, uranium, and all of the minerals the capitalists are after. They want to turn us into their peons, into servants who sell our dignity for a few coins every month.

Those capitalists and the new bad governments who obey them think that what we want is money. They don’t understand that what we want is freedom, that even the little that we have achieved has been through our struggle, without any attention, without photos and interviews, without books or referendum or polls, and without votes, museums, or lies. They don’t understand that what they call “progress” is a lie, that they can’t even provide safety for all of the women who continue to be beaten, raped, and murdered in their worlds, be they progressive or reactionary worlds.

How many women have been murdered in those progressive or reactionary worlds while you have been reading these words, compañera, sister? Maybe you already know this but we’ll tell you clearly here that in Zapatista territory, not a single woman has been murdered for many years. Imagine, and they call us backward, ignorant, and insignificant.

Maybe we don’t know which feminism is the best one, maybe we don’t say “cuerpa” [a feminization of “cuerpo,” or body] or however it is you change words around, maybe we don’t know what “gender equity” is or any of those other things with too many letters to count. In any case that concept of “gender equity” isn’t even well formulated because it only refers to women and men, and even we, supposedly ignorant and backward, know that there are those who are neither men nor women and who we call “others” but who call themselves whatever they feel like. It hasn’t been easy for them to earn the right to be what they are without having to hide because they are mocked, persecuted, abused, and murdered. Why should they be obligated to be men or women, to choose one side or the other? If they don’t want to choose then they shouldn’t be disrespected in that choice. How are we going to complain that we aren’t respected as women if we don’t respect these people? Maybe we think this way because we are just talking about what we have seen in other worlds and we don’t know a lot about these things. What we do know is that we fought for our freedom and now we have to fight to defend it, so that the painful history that our grandmothers suffered is not relived by our daughters and granddaughters.

We have to struggle so that we don’t repeat history and return to a world where we only cook food and bear children, only to see them grow up into humiliation, disrespect, and death.

We didn’t rise up in arms to return to the same thing.

We haven’t been resisting for 25 years in order to end up serving tourists, bosses, and overseers.

We will not stop training ourselves to work in the fields of education, health, culture, and media; we will not stop being autonomous authorities in order to become hotel and restaurant employees, serving strangers for a few pesos. It doesn’t even matter if it’s a few pesos or a lot of pesos, what matters is that our dignity has no price.

Because that’s what they want, compañera, sister, that we become slaves in our own lands, accepting a few handouts in exchange for letting them destroy the community.

Compañera, sister:

When you came to these mountains for the 2018 gathering, we saw that you looked at us with respect, maybe even admiration. Not everyone showed that respect—we know that some only came to criticize us and look down on us. But that doesn’t matter—the world is big and full of different kinds of thinking and there are those who understand that not all of us can do the same thing and those who don’t. We can respect that difference, compañera, sister, because that’s not what the gathering was for, to see who would give us good reviews or bad reviews. It was to meet and understand each other as women who struggle.

Likewise, we do not want you to look at us now with pity or shame, as if we were servants taking orders delivered more or less politely or harshly, or as if we were vendors with whom to haggle over the price of artisanship or fruit and vegetables or whatever. Haggling is what capitalist women do, though of course when they go to the mall they don’t haggle over the price; they pay whatever the capitalist asks in full and what’s more, they do so happily.

No compañera, sister. We’re going to fight with all our strength and everything we’ve got against these mega-projects. If these lands are conquered, it will be upon the blood of Zapatista women. That is what we have decided and that is what we intend to do.

It seems that these new bad governments think that since we’re women, we’re going to promptly lower our gaze and obey the boss and his new overseers. They think what we’re looking for is a good boss and a good wage. That’s not what we’re looking for. What we want is freedom, a freedom nobody can give us because we have to win it ourselves through struggle, with our own blood.

Do you think that when the new bad government’s forces—its paramilitaries, its national guard—come for us we are going to receive them with respect, gratitude, and happiness? Hell no. We will meet them with our struggle and then we’ll see if they learn that Zapatista women don’t give in, give up, or sell out.

Last year during the women’s gathering we made a great effort to assure that you, compañera and sister, were happy and safe and joyful. We have, nevertheless, a sizable pile of complaints that you left with us: that the boards [that you slept on] were hard, that you didn’t like the food, that meals were expensive, that this or that should or shouldn’t have been this way or that way. But later we’ll tell you more about our work in preparing the gathering and about the criticisms we received.

What we want to tell you now is that even with all the complaints and criticisms, you were safe here: there were no bad men or even good men looking at you or judging you. It was all women here, you can attest to that.

Well now it’s not safe anymore, because capitalism is coming for us, for everything, and at any price. This assault is now possible because those in power feel that many people support them and will applaud them no matter what barbarities they carry out. What they’re going to do is attack us and then check the polls to see if their ratings are still up, again and again until we have been annihilated.

Even as we write this letter, the paramilitary attacks have begun. They are the same groups as always—first they were associated with the PRI, then the PAN, then the PRD, then the PVEM, and now with MORENA.

So we are writing to tell you, compañera, sister, that we are not going to hold a women’s gathering here, but you should do so in your lands, according to your times and ways. And although we won’t attend, we will be thinking about you.

Compañera, sister:

Don’t stop struggling. Even if the bad capitalists and their new bad governments get their way and annihilate us, you must keep struggling in your world. That’s what we agreed in the gathering: that we would all struggle so that no woman in any corner of the world would be scared to be a woman.

Compañera, sister: your corner of the world is your corner in which to struggle, just like our struggle is here in Zapatista territory.

The new bad governments think that they will defeat us easily, that there are very few of us and that nobody from any other world supports us. But that’s not the case, compañera, sister, because even if there is only one of us left, she’s going to fight to defend our freedom.

We aren’t scared, compañera, sister.

If we weren’t scared 25 years ago when nobody even knew we existed, we certainly aren’t going to be scared now that you have seen us—however you saw us, good or bad, but you saw us.

Compañera, hermana:

Take care of that little light that we gave you. Don’t let it go out.

Even if our light here is extinguished by our blood, even if other lights go out in other places, take care of yours because even when times are difficult, we have to keep being what we are, and what we are is women who struggle.

That’s all we wanted to say, compañera, sister. In summary, we’re not going to hold a women’s gathering here; we’re not going to participate. If you hold a gathering in your world and anyone asks you where the Zapatistas are, and why didn’t they come, tell them the truth: tell them that the Zapatista women are fighting in their corner of the world for their freedom.

That’s all, compañeras, sisters, take care of yourselves! Maybe we won’t see each other again.

Maybe they’ll tell you not to bother thinking about the Zapatistas anymore because they no longer exist. Maybe they’ll tell you that there aren’t any more Zapatistas.

But just when you think that they’re right, that we’ve been defeated, you’ll see that we still see you and that one of us, without you even realizing it, has come close to you and whispered in your ear, only for you to hear: “Where is that little light that we gave you?”

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast,

The Zapatista Women

February 2019

En español: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2019/02/13/letter-from-the-zapatista-women-to-women-in-struggle-around-the-world/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EnlaceZapatista+%28Enlace+Zapatista%29

 

 

The Speech of the WFTU General Secretary, George Mavrikos

We honor the past and we build the future

 Dear comrades, brothers and sisters,

 We thank you all for your presence at this honorary event in the memory of the two first General Secretaries of WFTU, who were both French: Louis Saillant and Pierre Gensous. We particularly thank the wife of Pierre Gensous, comrade Alena, as well as the daughter of Ibrahim Zakaria, who travelled from Prague so as to be with us v, and we inform her that for her father, who was also an elected General Secretary of WFTU, we will organize a similar honorary event of commemoration and respect.

Dear friends,

 We started these honorary events last year, in 2017, in Foggia of Italy, by honoring there a militant personality of the International class oriented trade union movement, the Italian Giuseppe Di Vittorio, President of WFTU, and we will continue.

 Why are we doing and will we continue these events?

 Because we want to honor the heroes of the working class, the pioneers militants who opened new ways with their ideas and most importantly with their action.

 Because we want, by utilizing the positives and negative points of each time period, to learn and to build the present and the future of the trade union movement with contemporary materials.

 Because we want the young generation to know the real history of WFTU, the world trade union history, so that through the knowledge to be able to judge and decide by themselves, without the lies of the bourgeoisie and of the governments who write and re-write the history according to their own interests.

 Because us, the WFTU, we are proud of our history, because everywhere and always the WFTU has been with the Peoples, with the workers, against Imperialists, against the capitalist barbarity, against the founding of NATO, against the Marshall plan, by the side of Vietnam, of the Cuban revolution, of Chile of Allende, of Spain, of Portugal, of Greece, always with the peoples, against dictatorships, against colonialism. In Iraq, in Libya, in Yugoslavia, in Syria, in Palestine, always with the peoples.

The yellow trade unions hide their history because until today it is a history of shame. Always with the Imperialists and with the mechanisms of the Capital.



The History is a window to the future

Dear comrades,

 By reading, by studying the life and action of Louis Saillant and Pierre Gensous, I think that some timely and useful conclusions for the present emerge. Allow me to highlight some of them.

1. They were Leaders born within the working class, they were workers themselves, they themselves had experienced the capitalist exploitation, they loved their sector and respected the workers. They were not bureaucrats of the elites.

2. They believed in the principles of the class struggle, they fought for the overthrow of capitalism, they came into conflict with the opportunists who wanted the make-up of the capitalist system. They fought against the reformists.

3. They were protagonists in the general political developments of their period as well. They were anti-fascists, present during the war against the Nazis, they were internationalists and anti-imperialists. They fought the Marshall plan, the founding of NATO, the antisocialist hysteria. They did not pretend to be neutral.

4. They opened new ways in their epoch, by establishing new trade unions, by coordinating the struggles in every continent, by analyzing the developments of their times.

5. They were selfless, honest, sincere, they placed the group above themselves. They had morality and dignity. They had courage and patience. They had values and sensitivity for the ordinary people.

With these basic characteristics from this first period of WFTU, the moral, political and ideological superiority of WFTU and of the class-oriented trade union movement over the yellow trade union leaderships and the instruments of the capital began to be built.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 They did their duty. Louis Saillant, Pierre Gensous, Henri Krasucki, Vice-President of the WFTU who wanted the CGT to have an active and leading role inside the WFTU, Ibrahim Zakaria, General Secretary of WFTU, they did their duty, they opened new horizons to the trade union movement in their epoch. They defended and gained rights for the workers, they improved the lives of the ordinary people, they achieved trade union and democratic freedoms, we will always honor them.

Now, it is our own duty as trade unionists of today, to respond to the modern needs of our times.

We live in a world with two most basic characteristics: the first one is the barbarity of the capitalist system, that generates poverty and unemployment. In the framework of a profound economic crisis of the system, the achievements of the workers are under fierce attack. The second basic characteristic is the aggression of the imperialists, the intra-imperialist rivalries and the harsh consequences on the peoples.

In Europe, where all of us live, the situation is even more complicated because of:

A. International Mechanisms such as the European Union, the IMF, the WB, NATO, who process the most extreme anti-labor policies in all European countries.

B. Governments who implement anti-labor policies and dissolve labor relations, social security, salary rights, who privatize everything, having the “social dialogues” as their basic instrument.

C. Dangerous rise of racism, xenophobia, populism and of neo-fascist political parties.

D. But at the same time, a strong trade union bureaucracy has been formed in Europe, totally cut off from the base, who has a reformist line and controls big trade union organizations. This reformist trade union bureaucracy objectively, shares responsibility for the suffering of the workers of Europe today, since with its position, it undermines the workers’ struggles. For example, the positions and role of CFDT in France, CGIL and UIL in Italy, DGB in Germany, LO in Norway, of trade unions in Denmark, Turkey, Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, TUC of England, are the most typical examples of such reformist, compromised trade union leaderships, who are soldiers of class collaboration, and funny figures of the “social dialogues”. Moreover, they have evolved into powerful mechanisms that “export” their reformist theories to other continents.

On the other hand, we have the optimistic picture. In contrast to all the above difficulties, we see a significant part of European workers come out on the streets, resist, show disobedience, with class-oriented spirit and with militancy, against the decisions of governments and supranational organizations.

Big strikes, demonstrations, militant activities took place and continue to take place in France, Greece, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Turkey, Spain and other European countries. These parts of workers and the trade union organizations who lead these mobilizations are the most lively and promising part of the pan-European working class.

These militant activities have positive quantitative and qualitative elements and are the hope for the reconstruction of the class pole inside the trade union movement of Europe.

What should we do?

What is the alternative?

The leaders of the ITUC and CES claim that the “management” … and, to a small degree, the trade union corruption, are the problems of the trade unions. But while the managers keep changing in these organizations, their line becomes more and more reformist. The managers change, but their support to imperialist wars, the subordination to the European Union’s strategy, the engagement with the IMF and NATO remain stable.

It is obvious that the big problem of reformism is its strategy. Capitalism cannot put on make-up, imperialism cannot become humane. So, whether the manager is from Australia or from Italy, the train will move on the same rails and more and more to the right.

On the other side of the river are standing all of us, who accept and believe in the immortal Marxist theory of social classes. In the principles of the class struggle. All of us who know that societies are moving forward and progressing not with prayers but with social class struggles, as the modern history of the mankind has shown.

However, since we have a correct theory, since in general we have a good strategy, since we have existing and militant forces almost everywhere, since we organize important struggles, why the anti-labor policies of the governments and of the European Union are finally implemented?

The WFTU is really concerned about this issues. We have discussed both at our European Office and at a central level. This debate is open, long-lasting and we will take concrete initiatives for a more essential exchange of opinions.

We do not claim that the struggles are not working. All struggles have results even when there is a long distance between the sowing and the harvest. Without struggles the workers would have lost even more rights. In Greece we say “a lost struggle is only the struggle that was never carried out.”

But let us point out only 3 points, which are not only issues of tactic:

• Coordination: At national and pan-European level, the strikes that are carried out even periodically, once a month, once a year, in one sector today and in another one five months later, are useful. They are useful but do not make it difficult for the bourgeoisie, they do not stop production, they give time to governments and bosses to find solutions, they do not unite the working class against the other social class. They do not strengthen the political content of the struggle.

• Concentration of forces: Some of the trade unions who accept the Marxist theory of the social classes belong to the WFTU, some others move on their own, some are “hosted” by CEC or by ITUC. So we have a division of militant forces. While we need class unity of the working class and unity within the trade unions, and all together to build the pan-European trade union movement. A pan-European trade union river, INTERNATIONALIST -UNITING – CLASS-ORIENTED – ANTI-MONOPOLIST – MASSIVE – ANTI-IMPERIALIST.

• Gap between the bases and the leaderships: There is a gap between the militancy of the base and the tactics of the leaderships. This gap is getting bigger and bigger and generates disappointment at the base, and at the same time it strengthens undemocratic practices at the leaderships. The solution is that the leaderships listen to the base. The base should be at the forefront. Class-oriented trade unions necessarily means: two eyes and two ears always open to the base. To see and to listen to the messages of the base.

Comrades, our own vision for Europe, for the trade union movement of Europe, imposes to us the necessity to meet all the militant trade unionists together, to analyze the situation in depth, to find the causes of the problems of the trade unions, to draw together our strategy and our tactics for a modern, class-oriented, internationalist, anti-monopolist and antiimperialist European trade union movement. Such a movement, with freshness and liveliness, with respect for the base and with solid democratic functions, can bring back hope and optimistic perspective.

Since the month of May, 2018, we have sent to the leadership of the CGT France some of our thoughts, and some proposals for discussion, on these serious issues. In the same way, of course, we had invited them by written invitation to this honorary event, to come and talk. We have not received an answer until today.

In this effort, we need the CGT – France, which, with its militant history, its struggles and prestige, can and must play a leading role in the necessary effort for the class reconstruction of the trade union movement of Europe.

In 2019, we will take initiatives and try to open a sincere, fraternal discussion about the priorities of Europe’s trade unions in contemporary conditions. We are open to an honest, equal dialogue with mutual respect and comradely spirit.

In such an effort, we hope that all fighters, we will move forward together for the interests of the workers and peoples of Europe.

 

With such initiatives, we will honor with actions, we will honor in practice and not just in words, the memory of the pioneer militants of WFTU, like Louis Saillant and Pierre Gensous.

We thank the members and friends of WFTU in France who despite the difficulties and obstacles, they managed to organize this beautiful event.

We ask from all of you to promote the values, the positions and the action of WFTU inside your country. First of all inside France. This is a basic duty of all the members and friends of WFTU.

We thank you for your attention.

 

 

 

 

WFTU 2006-2018 MAY DAY POSTERS

The NGOs and their role

The World Federation of Trade Unions, which represents more than 92 million workers in 126 countries on 5 continents, condemns in the most emphatic way the facts that came to light about the British Non-Governmental Organization “Oxfam”. According to the revelations, in 2011 the leaders of “Oxfam” were “using” funding for the assistance of the people of Haiti which was affected by the earthquake, to live in luxurious homes and hotels as well as for the trafficking and prostitution of women, including of girls. After the revelation of the events, there were also some others, new revelations that show similar facts within the Red Cross and other NGOs.

Workers around the world should not consider this case as an isolated incident that constitutes an “exception to the rule”. The NGOs, in their great majority, are private organizations, financed by states and private companies and act under the tolerance or with the blessing of monopolies at the service of private interests. In practice, they function as a state within the state, camouflaged under the name of the “social interlocutor” or the “humanitarian” and “non-profit” organization. The NGOs, in their overwhelming majority, are being taken advantage of by the bourgeois states as an excuse for exemption from the most basic services that they must provide to the workers and the poorest layers of the people. In this way, governments through the financing of an institution that promotes private interests, wash their hands and renounce state obligations in a large list of socio-economic issues and popular needs.
In addition, many NGOs are being used by the imperialist centers to do the “dirty work” that even the bourgeois states themselves can not do. A striking example is the role of NGOs during the biggest humanitarian crisis of recent years, the refugee crisis. According to the confidential report of the European border agency itself, evidence of partnership between NGOs and refugee traffickers has been noted. On the other hand, there have been many cases of horrible treatment and terrible living conditions in the reception centers of the NGOs, despite the resources available to them. In addition, there are times when NGOs openly attack trade union movements, trying to buy consciences and educate trade unionists with the principles of class collaboration. All this happens at the moment when EU funding to NGOs for certain issues exceeds the respective funds offered to the states and the UN.
For the class international trade union movement it is clear the dirty role and the interlocking of the NGOs with the imperialist interests. The workers and the poor popular strata have nothing to expect from these institutions and organizations that are created and supported by the very enemies of the working class. The workers can trust only in themselves and in their class union movement. Only the unions that were created, composed and supported exclusively by the working class itself can defend workers’ rights in a combative and effective manner. Only the workers themselves with their decisive struggle in a class orientation and with their internationalist solidarity can satisfy the contemporary needs of the popular strata.
We strengthen the class union movement – We strengthen the struggles and solidarity of the working class

WFTU-PRESS RELEASE-The protests in Iran and the imperialists’ “barking”

 

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) as an internationalist, classoriented, unitary trade union organization, defends the workers’ right in every corner of the world to demonstrate freely, to go on strike, to claim their rights, to protest against the anti-labour policies of their governments and employers.

This is a statutory principle of the WFTU. This way, we also support the right of Iranian workers to protest and demonstrate freely, asking for better working conditions for their lives. We understand the workers of Iran who ask for a limitation of high prices, for wage improvements and social benefits.

At the same time, the World Federation of Trade Unions, as a genuine antiimperialist trade union organization, informs loud and clear the workers of the whole world that the support to these demonstrations by the U.S. President Trump, by the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, by the Prime Minister of the UK T. May, by the kings and monarchs of the Middle Ages who in their own countries ban trade unions’ operation, by the EU etc, reveals that imperialists in their hypocrisy are trying to take advantage of the existing high prices and salary problems in Iran, in order to promote the strategic plans of Imperialism.

Over the last period, strikes, also massive ones, have been organized in India, France, Greece and Brazil, but kings, monarchs, Trump and all the others have never stated that they support these demonstrations. So, it would be better if they stopped their hypocrisy.

Today, after the scenario of the so-called “Arab spring”, after the looming defeat of the US and their allies in Syria, after the three-year bombings against the poor people of Yemen by Saudi Arabia, after the Trump government’s fascist decision to give Jerusalem as a “gift” to Israel, all workers perceive reality. No one is convinced by the imperialists’ tears who want to start a new fire in the region. The vast majority of the peoples and workers understand that imperialists are barking in order to promote their imperialist strategic goals.

Athens, Greece – 4 January 2018

 

JACK LONDON