The World Federation of Trade Unions on the 3rd October, celebrates again this year the historic date of its founding by declaring the International Action Day, which this year focuses on the defence of democratic and trade union freedoms against authoritarianism and repression and the struggle to protect the right to organise, collective bargaining and the sacred right to strike. We intensify our struggle for permanent, stable, and regulated work with collective bargaining and social rights.
For us it is clear that only through class struggles and organised militant demands the aims of the labour movement be are realized and social progress is achieved: Struggles for the satisfaction of the contemporary needs of workers at all levels, for dignified work, wage and living conditions. For the protection of trade union autonomy and class orientation away from bureaucracy, corruption and manipulation by capital and employers. The demands that the employers or the bourgeois governments are forced to accept, are achievements already won by the workers and their unions through class unity, solidarity, and their joint action, at the grassroots, in the workplaces.
The matter of democratic and trade union freedoms is a non-negotiable matter of vital importance for workers and their trade unions. Full respect and practical implementation of democratic and trade union freedoms and the unhindered functioning and autonomy of trade unions are essential for the genuine collective representation of workers and the effective defense of their just demands. For this reason, the violation and infringement of trade union and democratic freedoms, in particular the right to strike, which is constantly being attacked and restricted, is a casus belli for the class-oriented trade union movement.
The struggle for trade union and democratic freedoms is inextricably linked to the struggle for labor achievements and dignified working and living conditions.
It is no coincidence that, with the willing support of yellow unions and compromised and corrupt trade union leaderships, an attempt is being made to degenerate trade union organized struggle and replace it with a harmless “social dialogue” where workers will remain disarmed and alienated from organized struggle and true collective bargaining
It is no coincidence that in the long period of the many successive capitalist crises we are experiencing, along with the harsh and all-out attack on wages and other labour and social rights of workers, the attack on the violation of trade union and democratic freedoms is intensifying.
Particularly in conditions of price rise and inflation where labour force is devalued and the living standards of workers are impaired, the attack on democratic and trade union freedoms is intensified in order to silence the workers and limit their ability to defend their class interests and put forward their just demands.
Over the years, as well as nowadays, the attack on wages and other labor and social rights of workers comes with an attack on democratic and trade union freedoms and an intensification of authoritarianism and repression. The COVID period has been also exploited by the capital and its representatives, in order to promote even tougher measures that shrink the right to organize, to demand, and to protest collectively. These measures promote further deregulation of working conditions and undermine the sacred right to strike.
The World Federation of Trade Unions and the international class-oriented trade union movement intensify its struggle to defend unfettered democratic and trade union freedom, against the attack on wages, healthcare, and social security and to denounce authoritarian onslaught against toiling people!
The WFTU calls upon the class-oriented and militant trade unions all over the world to honor its 78th anniversary with mass participation in the establishment of International Action Day under the slogan:
- No to authoritarianism and to the shrink of democratic and trade union freedoms!
- Work with Rights! No to the “flexibilities” and to exploitation!
The Secretariat
