Democratic Palestine : 17 (ص 26)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 17 (ص 26)
- المحتوى
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Both governments committed them-
selves to the agreement and attended the
Arab Labor Conference. The agreement
was Officially documented in the Arab
Labor Organization. Yet the agreement
was only on paper, and the working
class in these two countries is suffering
from the authorities’ repression.
In North Yemen, the controversy
continues over the issue of the legiti-
macy of the trade union. The authorities
dissolved the existing union (that is still
active outside the country) and formed a
new one. The majority of the working
class is still not allowed to form its own
trade union anywhere in the country.
In Tunisia, the authorities invaded all
the centers of the Tunisian trade unions,
confiscated all their finances and pos-
sessions, and encouraged a number of
the ruling party’s puppets to form new
national committees instead. The
general secretary of the union, Ashoor,
and a number of union leaders and
cadres were imprisoned, or placed under
town arrest. The authorities called for a
conference outside the framework of the
legitimate union, where they elected a
new leadership of their own men in an
attempt to liquidate the legitimate lea-
dership. The legitimate leadership con-
tinues to struggle under very harsh
conditions.
In addition, there are all the common
cases, that occur in most Arab coun-
tries, of restricting demonstrations and
strikes and forcifully repressing them,
prohibiting meetings and rallies, and
government censorship of any organi-
zational work. The Arab Labor Orga-
nization and the trade union freedoms
committee were unable to take a firm
position on these oppressive measures.
Their silence is exactly what the autho-
rities want.
THE REGIMES’ ROLE
2. Government agents within the
Arab Labor Organization collaborate
with employers to minimize the wor-
kers’ role. They cooperate in aborting
any project intended to benefit the
working class, or raise the workers’
technical, organizational or educational
level. These government agents outdid
themselves to abort the Arab center
project for technical training. They
forbade the construction of the center,
although the project was intended to
raise the technical capabilities of the
working class. Government agents, in
cooperation with the employers, also
hindered the work of the Arab Institute
for Technical Safety and Health, by
minimizing its budget to the point where
it became completely paralyzed. This
occurred despite the fact that this insti-
tute contributes to protecting workers
by providing them with specific studies
about workers’ safety rules for each
industry.
These government agents also
aborted the project of the Arab Institute
for Workers’ Studies, that is affiliated
to the International Union for Arab
Workers’ Trade Unions. They did not
carry out the resolutions of the Arab
Labor Organization’s 9th to 13th con-
ferences. They created obstacles to
hinder the establishment of the institute
that the Arab working class badly
needed.
These facts show which way the Arab
Labor Organization is going at present.
The Saudi government plays a major
role in distracting the organization’s
attention from its main goals, hindering
its work and transforming it into a
marginal organization with no effect on
labor and laborers, and no role in pro-
tecting trade union freedoms and rights.
RESOLUTIONS IGNORED
3. The conferences of the Arab Labor
Organization have adopted many reso-
lutions concerning the rights and free-
doms of workers, technical guidance
and training, and paid leave of absence
for education.
These resolutions were generally
adopted to achieve a better life for the
Arab working class. Yet up till now,
they remain ink on paper. They were not
carried out in most Arab countries. The
Arab Labor Organization did stress
implementation of these resolutions in
seminars and lectures. The resolutions
were also brought up as points on the
agendas of the conferences, to be used to
criticize the Arab governments that vio-
late them. What is worse is that the Gulf
countries, especially Saudi Arabia, do
not adhere to any agreements that do
not please them. These agreements are
not implemented by the government or
the administration of the Arab Labor
Organization office in these countries.
The offices work to freeze these agree-
ments in order to please the government.
Thus, over time, the agreements are
forgotten.
SLAVE LABOR
4. During the past years, a new phe-
nomenon started in Saudi Arabia and
the Gulf countries: total dependence on
Asian labor without any rules to regu-
late this phenomenon and protect the
Arab laborers’ rights. This phenomenon
grew due to the import offices and
companies that wanted to increase their
income at the expense of the Asian
workers. This trade has become similar
to a slave market. Employers started
enslaving both Asian and Arab workers
who have no human or social rights
whatsoever.
The International Union for Arab
Trade Unions puts forth these facts,
which all aim to defeat the working
class, in order to expose the exploitation
and inhuman practices against our
workers. We will work to confront these
practices by all means possible. We will
also confront all the authorities’ in-
struments and methods used against
workers and their organization. We will
work to make the Arab Labor Organi-
zation a means for supporting the rights
of the Arab working class, for raising
their technical and economic level, and
for respecting their freedom of organi-
zation.
We, in the General Secretariat,
request that you use all your potentials
to help us in this confrontation to eli-
minate oppression, free leaders from
prison, enforce respect for human rights
and carry out the agreements and reso-
lutions of Arab and international labor
organizations in all of the Arab coun-
tries. We will continue to expose these
oppressive practices to Arab and inter-
national public opinion, and to the
masses of the Arab working class, to
consolidate their confrontation, achieve
their goals and establish and activate
their organizations. e@ - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 17
- تاريخ
- يونيو ١٩٨٦
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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