Comrades,

Before I begin my speech, I would like to warmly thank the FNE for hosting the 20^th Congress of FISE.

The conditions created by our Moroccan comrades guarantee that this Congress will be successful and worthy of all our expectations.

FISE is a valuable pillar for the WFTU. It expresses the struggles and demands of a group of workers whose object is education, learning, culture, and ultimately the consciousness formation of the new generations of every society.

It is one of the longest-operating TUI of the WFTU, founded just one year after the establishment of the WFTU, and its history is rich in struggles and creative contributions to the achievements related to education as well as the intellectual and cultural development.

It is true that in recent years, FISE has not been as mobilized and active as we would have wished.  Organizational, financial, and other problems have limited its activity and presence.

That is why I am confident that our conference here in Rabat will be a new dynamic start.  The discussion that will take place here, the exchange of experiences, the decisions that will be taken, will constitute a guideline for action that will lead us to the new struggles that await us, and the fresh and renewed leading bodies that we will elect will, I am sure, undertake the burden and the noble responsibility of organizational reorganization and a more active and productive operation of this historic International.

Dear colleagues, brothers and sisters,

Our era is characterized by the generalization and deepening of the capitalist crisis, which is accompanied by new attacks on workers’ rights and achievements, a dramatic widening of social inequalities, further environmental degradation, and reckless overexploitation of our planet’s natural resources.

The genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza and in the West Bank, with the support and encouragement of the USA, the EU, and their allies, has once again revealed in all its grandeur the hypocrisy, cynicism, and inhumane nature of imperialism.

Global geopolitical and economic rivalries continue to directly threaten world peace and security, even with the risk of nuclear destruction. Imperialist wars, interventions, sanctions, and blockades continue and intensify.

The USA, the EU, and their NATO allies are announcing new massive increases in military spending, which, apart from being a threat to global peace and security, also mean even harsher austerity policies and widening social inequality.

Nowadays, the shift towards a war economy is clearly a priority for the ruling circles of capitalism, as it ensures profitability for multinational monopolies and the expansion of the geopolitical power of developed imperialist states.

Harsh and intense attacks continue against the labor and social achievements and the democratic and trade union freedoms.

The high cost of living and inflation are brutally undermining workers’ and pensioners’ living standards.

Unemployment, precariousness, and the overexploitation of cheap labor of vulnerable workers due to mass economic migration or refugee flows, as well as anti-popular and anti-labor legislative measures systematically promoted by neoliberal governments, have significantly undermined labor with rights and regulated collective agreements that reflect the modern needs of workers.

Individual contracts, privatizations, outsourcing, teleworking, and “service leasing” are just some of the forms taken by this harsh neoliberal attack. The authoritarian and arbitrary increase in retirement ages continues methodically.

Major social achievements such as public education, social security and public health are being privatized.

Thousands of workers are killed or injured daily due to the lack of measures to protect against workplace accidents and occupational diseases.

Safety and health at work are seen by employers as undesirable costs that reduce their profits.

This attack is, of course, also faced by the workers in the education sector that all of you delegates at this conference represent.

It is obvious that for the dominant circles of global capitalism, education is not a public good to which everyone is entitled rightfully and equally, but is still a commodity that must be profitable.

Hence, education is continuously privatised, state expenditures are constantly shrinking, and responsibility for public education is shifting onto the parents themselves and, consequently, onto the popular strata.

The attack against universal, free, and quality education has not only economic incentives.  The education sector shapes the consciences of the new generation and the bourgeoise aims in the creation of a new shift of the working class which will not be overall educated but fragmentary and superficially trained as tool in the market need, a new shift of the working class that will be taught a falsified and distorted history and will be socially indifferent and ideologically conservative.  Consequently, FISE and the progressive teachers also have a crucial task to defend the scientific, quality, progressive, and human-centered education.

The attack on the rights and achievements of teachers continues, as their work is increasingly becoming precarious and temporary, without security and without employment contracts, with humiliating wages and with all the consequences for the quality of the education they provide.

The encouraging and hopeful element in the depressing picture of today’s world, is the fact that workers do not passively accept the neoliberal capitalist, anti-popular, and anti-labor offensive. Millions of workers around the world are choosing the path of struggle to defend their trade union, social, and political rights.

With militant mobilizations in every corner of the globe, they are demanding work with rights that ensures the satisfaction of their contemporary needs.

The WFTU members or friends are always on the frontlines of these struggles.

The response of bourgeois governments to the just popular demands is the sharpening of state repression and authoritarianism, and such attacks and persecutions are particularly intensified against the struggling teachers.

At the same time, employers and governments are attempting to manipulate labor struggles, betting on the role of yellow unions and compromised trade union leaders.

It is no coincidence that the ITUC have intensified its attacks, aiming to limit the presence and influence of the WFTU within the global trade union movement, either by exerting blackmail and undue pressure or by distributing promises and luring with buy-offs.

The more they feel the increasing questioning by workers of the path of class collaboration and trade union tradition that they serve, the more their attacks will intensify.

That is why a particularly important goal for us, in today’s conditions, is to ensure the greatest possible expansion of the presence and influence of the WFTU in all sectors and all regions of the world.

We do not underestimate the means at their disposal.

But we also have weapons. Strategically much more powerful than theirs. We have our ideology and our class orientation, our history and our action, our militant spirit, and our moral advantage.

But to utilize these weapons, we need good organization, enlightenment, and ideological and political education.

Dear colleagues, brothers and sisters,

2025 is the year we will celebrate 80 years since the founding of WFTU.

Born from the ashes of the most destructive war in the history of humanity, the WFTU completes 80 years of continuous and uninterrupted struggle for the rights of workers, for justice and social progress, against all forms of discrimination, against wars and imperialist interventions, against may by man exploitation.

80 years of solidarity and internationalism.

These celebrations should be used as a motivation and impetus to highlight the history of the struggles and actions of the WFTU and to emphasize its difference from the organizations of compromised trade unionists and yellow unions that promote class collaboration and integration into the system of exploitation.

The Presidential Council of the WFTU already approved a declaration and a rich program of activities in honor of the 80th anniversary.

A program that includes seminars, local and regional events, publications, podcasts and video clips, photography and poster competitions, events all over the world by our members, and of course the central commemorative event, which is going to be organized on October 3 in Paris, the city where the historic founding Congress took place.

Comrades, fellow comrades,

It is obvious that in our era, the prerequisites for truly dignified working and social living conditions for all workers exist in abundance. The rapid development of science and technology has led to a leap in the productive capabilities of human labor. What we are fighting for these capabilities not to be utilized to increase the profits of capitalists and create unimaginable wealth for a few, but to ensure dignified living and working conditions for those who, through their labor and toil, are the true creators of the produced wealth.

Organization and struggle are the only path that can overturn the existing realities of misery, exploitation, and social injustice.

The weapon of workers everywhere is solidarity and internationalism.  The WFTU remains firmly committed to these principles.  It continues its 80-year path with the same vision that inspired its founding: for a world without wars and imperialist interventions, without exploitation and discrimination.  A world where work will be permanent, stable, regulated, and safe.

Long live the unity and struggles of the Working Class.

Long live FISE and the WFTU.

The post WFTU General Secretary Opening Speech at the 20th FISE Congress first appeared on Labor Today.

Comrades,

Before I begin my speech, I would first like to warmly thank the VGCL for hosting this very important meeting of the WFTU Presidential Council here in Hanoi today. It is a great honor for all of us that today’s meeting is hosted by the trade union organization of a country whose people have become a global symbol of dedication to the struggle for national independence and social liberation. With incredible courage and self-sacrifice, they managed to crush foreign imperialist intervention and achieve a victory that was not only strategic but also ideological, political, and, above all, moral.

The contribution of VGCL to the preservation and development of the WFTU during difficult times has been immense, and I would like to once again express our gratitude on behalf of everyone for this.

The excellent conditions created by our Vietnamese comrades guarantee that this meeting will be successful and worthy of all our expectations.

Our era is characterized by the generalization and deepening of the capitalist crisis, accompanied by new attacks on the rights and achievements of workers, a dramatic widening of social inequalities, further environmental degradation, and reckless overexploitation of our planet’s natural resources.

The genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza and now in the West Bank, with the support and encouragement of the USA, the EU, and their allies, has once again revealed in all its grandeur the hypocrisy, cynicism, and inhumane nature of imperialism.

The source of instability, violence, and turmoil in Palestine and the broader Middle East is none other than the Israeli occupation, colonization, and usurpation of the rights of the Palestinian people, which has continued for decades.

We are proud because, under the banner of the WFTU, millions of workers in dozens of countries around the world have mobilized in solidarity with the Palestinian people, demanding justice and freedom for Palestine, and condemning not only the barbaric Israeli aggression but also the complicity and encouragement of this aggression by the ruling circles of imperialism.

Global geopolitical and economic rivalries continue to directly threaten world peace and security, even with the risk of nuclear destruction. Imperialist wars, interventions, sanctions, and blockades continue and intensify.

The shift towards a war economy is clearly a priority for the ruling circles of capitalism today, as it ensures profitability for multinational monopolies and the expansion of the geopolitical power of developed imperialist states.

The USA, the EU, and their NATO allies are announcing new massive increases in military spending, which, apart from being a threat to global peace and security, also mean even harsher austerity policies and widening social inequality.

That is why the struggle for peace, for us, means first and foremost a struggle for the dismantling of NATO and all military coalitions, a struggle to defend the right of every people to choose the path of their economic and social development without interventions, sanctions, blockades, and economic wars.

Harsh and intense attacks continue against the labor and social achievements of workers and their democratic and trade union freedoms.

The high cost of living and inflation are brutally undermining workers’ and pensioners’ living standards.

Temporary, precarious, and unsecured employment, despite slogans and declarations, is expanding and becoming entrenched.

Unemployment, precariousness, and the overexploitation of cheap labor from vulnerable workers due to mass economic migration or refugee flows, as well as anti-popular and anti-labor legislative measures systematically promoted by neoliberal governments, have significantly undermined labor with rights and regulated collective agreements that reflect the modern needs of workers.

Individual contracts, privatizations, outsourcing, teleworking, and “service leasing” are just some of the forms taken by this harsh neoliberal attack.

Major social achievements such as social security and public health are being privatized, while the authoritarian and arbitrary increase in retirement ages continues methodically.

Thousands of people continue to be buried daily under the ground in mines operating under medieval conditions, trains continue to collide head-on because they operate with outdated control systems, factories burn with workers trapped inside, and workers are killed or injured daily due to exhaustion and the inability to concentrate caused by the continuous intensification of work and the lack of measures to protect against workplace accidents and occupational diseases.

At the altar of profit and despite the achievements of technology and science, human sacrifices continue as safety and health at work are seen by employers as undesirable costs that reduce their profits.

The encouraging and hopeful element in the depressing picture of today’s world is the fact that workers do not passively accept the neoliberal capitalist, anti-popular, and anti-labor offensive. Guided by class-oriented trade unions, millions of workers around the world are choosing the path of struggle to defend their trade union, social, and political rights.

With militant mobilizations in every corner of the globe, they are demanding work with rights that ensures the satisfaction of their modern needs.

The class-oriented trade unions, which are usually members or friends of the WFTU, have led and supported large mass and militant struggles that have made us all proud.

In France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Cyprus, Turkey, the Spanish state, in Argentina, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and in so many other parts of the world, the flag of the WFTU has flown very high, and thanks to these struggles, it has gained even greater prestige and respect.

As the resistance of workers strengthens and the struggles become more massive and militant, so do the phenomena of authoritarianism and repression, and the police persecution of trade union leaders, as well as the attack on trade union freedoms, particularly the right to strike, intensify.

The response of bourgeois governments to the just popular demands is the sharpening of state repression and authoritarianism. At the same time, employers and governments are attempting to manipulate labor struggles, betting on the role of yellow unions and compromised trade union leaders.

It is no coincidence that the ITUC globally and the ETUC in Europe have intensified their attacks, aiming to limit the presence and influence of the WFTU within the global trade union movement, either by exerting blackmail and undue pressure or by distributing promises and luring with buy-offs.

The more they feel the increasing questioning by workers of the path of class collaboration and trade union tradition that they serve, the more their attacks will intensify.

That is why a particularly important goal for us in today’s conditions is to ensure the greatest possible expansion of the presence and influence of the WFTU in all regions of the world.

We do not underestimate the means at their disposal, nor the help they receive from the mechanisms available to the ruling circles of global capitalism.

But we also have weapons. Weapons that is strategically much more powerful than theirs. We have our ideology and our class orientation, our history and our action, our militant spirit, and our moral advantage.

But to make use of these weapons, we need good organization, enlightenment, and ideological and political education.

Today and tomorrow, here in Hanoi, the Presidential Council in this regular session will evaluate the action and presence of our Federation during the past year and formulate an Action Plan for 2025.

I sincerely believe that we have responded satisfactorily to the implementation of an ambitious plan and have developed a wealth of activity at all levels, centrally, regionally, and locally.

The detailed report of action for 2024 is in your hands, and you can evaluate it. Therefore, I will not go into much detail.

But allow me to make some brief remarks, which I consider important for a discussion that will focus on our action in all its forms, as a means of credibly communicating the principles and values that the WFTU stands for, and expanding its prestige and influence in the international trade union movement.

Apart from the solidarity and support mobilizations for the heroic people of Palestine that dominated our action in 2024, once again we carried out the annual international campaigns on the occasion of October 3, the founding day of the WFTU, and September 1, which we have established as the World Day of Trade Union Action for Peace. We have established July 26 as the World Day of Mobilization in Defense of Heroic Socialist Cuba and have mobilized our forces in many other cases for solidarity actions with struggles that have developed in many parts of the world.

We have a presence and intervention in international organizations; we participated with female cadres in the UN meeting on women’s rights in New York in March, and we had interventions at the FAO and UNESCO. However, we placed particular importance on our intervention at the ILO, where we had a fairly successful presence during the ILC in June. In addition to the speech of the General Secretary at the plenary session of the Conference, we held a global conference in Geneva on democratic and trade union freedoms. We firmly demanded the democratization of the way the ILO operates and denounced the unacceptable anti-democratic and unethical monopoly of labor representation by the ITUC. Even as observers, we actively participate in the discussions of the Governing Body, particularly on the hot issue of the right to strike, which, as is well known, employers’ organizations, supported by many governments, provocatively challenge.

We worked to further strengthen the relations of the WFTU with our traditional regional allies, such as ICATU in the Arab world and OATTU in Africa.

A particularly important event that we achieved after considerable effort is the high-level visit of a WFTU delegation to China at the invitation of the ACFTU.

There, high-level meetings were held with the President and the General Secretary of the ACFTU, where the will for cooperation and joint action was reaffirmed, as well as the intention for this cooperation to take specific and practical forms.

A closer and more stable cooperation between the WFTU and the ACFTU, based on principles and common goals and values, will certainly be a significant and mutually beneficial development that will strengthen in many ways the action of the class-oriented trade union movement.

We also successfully held the 4th World Congress of Working Youth in November in Marseille, France, as well as two regional conferences, one in Francophone Africa in August and recently in Paris, the European Conference of EUROF, which was a great success.

The TUI Metal, Miners, and Metallurgy held its 4th World Congress in Buenos Aires in May. The TUI Pensioners and Retirees held its 3rd Congress in April in Athens.

World Congresses are planned for 2025 by FISE for next April in Morocco. The TUI Textiles and UITTB will soon announce dates.

Comrades,

The Action Plan for 2025 must allow us to further expand our role and intervention among workers and their unions, on the path of class struggles in defense of their very own genuine class interests. It should be a program of actions and initiatives leading to the organizational strengthening and the even more collective and effective functioning of all the regional, sectoral, local, and thematic structures that constitute the great edifice of the WFTU.

2025 is the year we will celebrate 80 years since the founding of our Federation.

Born from the ashes of the most destructive war in the history of humanity, the WFTU completes 80 years of continuous and uninterrupted struggle for the rights of workers, for justice and social progress, against all forms of discrimination, against wars and imperialist interventions.

80 years of solidarity and internationalism.

These celebrations should be used as a motivation and impetus to highlight the history of the struggles and actions of the WFTU and to emphasize its difference from the organizations of compromised trade unionists and yellow unions that promote class collaboration and integration into the system of exploitation.

Tomorrow, the Presidential Council of the WFTU will be called upon to approve our declaration and a rich program of activities in honor of the 80th anniversary.

A program that includes seminars, local and regional events, publications, podcasts and video clips, photography and poster competitions, events all over the world by our members, and of course the central commemorative event, which we aspire to organize on October 3 in Paris, the city where the historic founding Congress took place.

We will need funding for these activities. Particularly for the main event, which needs to be ambitious.

For this reason, I propose that we set up a special fund for this purpose. The goal should be to collect €50,000.

10% of the 2025 annual fees are to be allocated to this fund. The rest is to be collected with extraordinary contributions from our members and friends. So be prepared for that!

In addition to the activities that the WFTU will carry out centrally or regionally and are included in the program that we will approve, we call on our affiliates to organize, in consultation with each other, at least one event in each country. The WFTU Headquarters will support these events with materials, speakers, or other assistance requested.

I am sure that all of us understand that the financial operation of the WFTU is a key issue to which we must, of course, pay special attention. It is obvious, comrades, that we need more resources to meet the demands that life puts before us.

The report of the Financial Control Committee is, I think, quite enlightening and touches on the issues we need to pay attention to. I support its conclusions, and we will work to implement them.

Comrades, fellow comrades,

It is evident that in our era, the prerequisites for truly dignified working and social living conditions for all workers exist in abundance. The rapid development of science and technology has led to a leap in the productive capabilities of human labor. The question is, how are these capabilities being utilized?

To increase the profits of capitalists and create unimaginable wealth for a few, or to ensure dignified living and working conditions for those who, through their labor and toil, are the true creators of the produced wealth.

The natural discontent and anger stemming from the deterioration of living and working conditions experienced by many, as well as from the decay and corruption that capitalism, especially in its harsh anti-popular neoliberal form, drives societies into, create conditions that are exploited by far-right and neo-fascist forces. These forces invest in the anger, despair, and deception of the popular masses.

The class-oriented Trade Union movement will continue to fight so that the justified disappointment, despair, and anger of workers are not transformed into fatalism and social marginalization, not into racism and social obscurantism, but into organization and action.

Organization and struggle are the only path that can overturn the existing realities of misery, exploitation, and social injustice.

We struggle under very difficult and often harsh conditions. Against enemies who possess unbelievable means and who do not hesitate to employ a fifth column within the trade union ranks. However, we remain optimistic.

We have faith in the judgment and orientation of the working class. When the working class realizes its position and role in the progress of society, when through daily small and large struggles it becomes aware of its strength and understands its historical mission, it becomes an invincible force.

With our united and organized struggles, the system that generates crisis and reproduces exploitation can be defeated. A world free of wars and imperialist interventions, free of exploitation and discrimination; a world where work will be permanent and stable, regulated and safe, is achievable.

The post WFTU General Secretary Pambis Kyritsis Introductory Speech to the 2025 WFTU Presidential Council Meeting first appeared on Labor Today.

On behalf of the class family of the World Federation of Trade Union, I would like to convey our sincere condolences and our undivided solidarity with the workers in Valencia affected by the torrential rain and the consequent flash flooding that hit the wider region the last days. Our thoughts are with the relatives of the more than 200 people who lost their lives and all the affected ones.

Unfortunately, once again, the lack of adequate protection and prevention measures, and civil protection has been proven fatal.  The poor and popular part of society is vulnerable and unprotected against the danger of meteorological phenomena and once again, they bear the brunt of capital exploitative policies that devastate nature for the sake of profit.

The World Federation of Trade Unions representing 105 million workers in the 5 continents, stands by the side of the workers, the popular strata in Valencia, and all affected areas.  We join our voice with the class-oriented trade unions, demanding the immediate implementation of adequate measures to guarantee the safety of the citizens’ lives.  Simultaneously, we demand the authorities to be prepared for the recovery of the destroyed areas with the financial support to the affected people.

Pambis Kyritsis,
WFTU General Secretary

The post WFTU General Secretary solidarity message on the floods in Valencia first appeared on Labor Today.

The ITUC General Secretary met with Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog, political leaders, and Histadrut, reiterating the ITUC equal distance stance that equates the perpetrators with the victims which constitutes an unacceptable political backing and support for Israel and the conducted crimes in Palestine.

The ITUC during its solidarity visit to Israel “forgot” to say a single word for the decades-long occupation, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and daily crimes conducted by Israel in Palestine, with the provocative tolerance and support of the USA, the EU, and their allies. The ITUC is once again irreversibly exposed before the eyes of the workers.

We demand an immediate and unconditional stop of the genocide in Palestine and an end to all the military campaigns and attacks of the Israeli murderous state, the implementation of its international legal obligations in occupied Palestinian land and to immediately address the life-threatening conditions faced by the Palestinians.

We reiterate that the crucial precondition to secure and consolidate peace in the wider Middle East is to immediately end the Israeli occupation and settlements in the occupied Arab territories, guarantee the right of return for the refugees, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The post Shameless Stance of the ITUC Leadership Amid the Genocide in Palestine first appeared on Labor Today.

On behalf of the leadership of the WFTU I transmit to you and through you to the workers of agroalimentary chain  all over the world, class and militant greetings.   Moreover I would particularly like to thank our hosters, the National Union of Food Industry Workers of Senegal for there hospitality and there care to provide the appropriate conditions for a successful congress.

Your congress is taking place in a period that  the nature of imperialism is once again revealed in all its hypocrisy, cynicism, and inhumanity.  The massacre and genocide of the Palestinians of Gaza continue unabated and this heinous crime is being shamefully attempted to be presented as Israel’s right of self-defense.

Right of self-defense for a state that for decades has illegally occupied Palestinian and other Arab territories, that has uprooted and displaced millions of people out of their homes and land, that denies the Palestinians the right to have their own independent state and continues the settlements, murders, and arrests, establishing in practice an Apartheid regime.

WFTU from the very first moment, stood by the Palestinian people and highlighted the real cause of instability, violence, and unrest in Palestine, which is none other than the Israeli occupation and settlements, the usurpation of the rights of the Palestinian people that has been going on for decades.

We are proud that millions of workers in tens of countries around the world are mobilizing, with the WFTU flags, in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Within the International Trade Union Movement, not everyone can feel proud.  Some have lost their voice and remain silent in the face of this crime.  They insist on an equal distance stance and their ‘yes, but’ positions, equating the perpetrators with the victims.

WFTU demand justice and freedom for Palestine, immediate ceasefire, and the creation of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

For WFTU which born in the ashes of world war the  struggle for peace is inherent and integrated with the broader struggles of the labor movement for a better world.  It is obvious that the world peace is threatened. Not for human rights, as some would prefer us to believe, but for imperialist geopolitical and economic interests.

We demand an end to NATO’s war with Russia in Ukraine which they maintain by all means, and to replace weapons with diplomacy.  For us the struggle for peace  has a specific content. It means first and foremost a struggle for the dismantling of NATO and all military coalitions, a struggle to defend the right of every people to choose the path of their economic and social development without interventions, sanctions, blockades, and economic wars. Against the double-standards policy where international law ends up being in practice the law of the strong.

Dear comrades, brothers and sisters

We live in a period that the crisis of capitalism is generalized and deepens. Social inequalities are widening dramatically and democratic and trade union freedoms are under a harsh new attack.

The high cost of living and inflation are brutally undermining workers’ and pensioners living standards. Τhe right to organize and collective bargaining and the holy right to strike are under attack.

Individual contracts, privatizations, outsourcing, teleworking and “service leasing” are just some of the forms taken by this harsh neoliberal attack.

Major social achievements such as social security and public health care are being privatized while the authoritarian and arbitrary increase of the retirement age methodically continues.

In the sectors covered by your Trade Union International, the problems of the workers are certainly no different in substance from those in any other sector. The systemic crisis is manifesting itself, not only as an economic crisis, but also as a food and environmental crisis.

The harsh realities experienced by those who earn their livelihood working in the agri-food sector, are far from approaching the otherwise nice-sounding slogans of the sustainable development and the social and justice green transition.

The intensification of imperialist aggression, interventions and military conflicts are leading agricultural resources to destruction and large parts of the sector to collapse.

The increasing penetration of multinational monopoly capital into agricultural holdings and the food chain in general, is leading to the plundering of natural wealth and an unprecedented attack on workers’ labour, social and trade union rights.

By the ruling circles of the system and the huge business groups, unfortunately, the primary priority remains their unbridled speculation and the control of the global agro-industrial chain.

Economic, technological and productive inequalities, instead of being reduced, on the altar of profit are constantly widening, with the result that vast areas of the world with populations of billions of people remain fortuned to poverty and underdevelopment.

The results of monopolistic penetration and exploitation of agricultural and food production are increasingly felt not only by the workers in the sectors, but also by small and medium-sized farmers who see their incomes reduced and their efforts destroyed.

The outpouring of their anger is evident in the huge farmers’ mobilisations that we have witnessed in recent years, not only in Asia, Africa and Latin America, but also within Europe as well.

We stand in solidarity with these struggles.

It is obvious that the burden of the capitalist  crisis, is being attempted once again to be put on the shoulders of the working people and the weak popular strata in general.

The workers and poor farmers do not passively accept the neoliberal, anti-grassroots, and anti-worker attacks.  They refusing to pay the bill of the capitalist crisis.

With militant mobilizations in all corners of the globe, they demand the satisfaction of their contemporary needs. They demand agreement-regulated, permanent, and stable work. Safety and health at work, social security, reliable public health systems, full, free and universal education, and the right to leisure, culture, and intellectual development.

The sharpening of state repression and authoritarianism is the response of the bourgeois governments to the just popular demands; unfortunately, very often under the cooperation or tolerance of surrendered trade union leaders along with yellow unions.

For the WFTU is clear that only through struggles the workers can build a militant front able of defending their rights, principles, and values, and pave the way for another course that leads to peace, social justice, and the abolition of man-by-man exploitation.

Dear Comrades,

Just few weeks ago the Presidential Council of WFTU had its annual meeting in Sao Paolo where estimated our action and collectively decided about our plan for the next year.

In 2023 we had implemented a rich action plan after a fairly long period of mandatory restrictions on our activities due to the COVID pandemic.

Our ambition for the 2024 action, is to be even rich and more multilayered.

There is no doubt that TUI’s action must remain at the center of our attention. Through this action we come closer to the contemporary needs and daily struggles of the workers in the sectors they work in.  Closer to the demands for work regulated by collective agreements and for guaranteed labor rights and trade union freedoms.

An ambitious Action Plan for the next years I am sure that will adopted from this congress that it will be rich and diverse to develop the coordination and guidance of the struggles, the expression of solidarity and internationalism, the dissemination of information, the intervention in international organizations the continuous upgrading of the educational work within the workers and of course the organizational development and the expansion of the prestige and influence of the International class oriented movement.

On behalf of more than 105 million members from 133 countries in all corners of the world, I wish every success in the work of your congress and in your future struggles.

Be certain that you will never be alone in your struggles. You can always rely on the solidarity and support of the WFTU.

The system that generates crisis and reproduces exploitation can be defeated.   The weapon of the working class is Solidarity and Internationalism.

For the class-oriented International Trade Union movement, for the workers who resist, who do not compromise with oppression, discrimination and exploitation, there is only one path of dignity: the path of the struggles.

Long Live the Trade Union Class Struggle!
Long Live solidarity and internationalism!

The post Speech of WFTU General Secretary, Pambis Kyritsis, at 5rd Congress of Trade Union International Agroalimentary, Food, Commerce, Textile & Allied Industries (UISTAACT) first appeared on Labor Today.

Indeed, while all over the world on the 1^st of May, workers will either be celebrating their rights or demonstrating for more, our colleagues in Palestine will be “busy burying dozens of bodies murdered every day in the genocide being carried out by Israel”.

Indeed, a number of trade unions, affiliated and led by the ITUC, not only in the United States of America, but all over the world, ought to offer much more in the cause of support and solidarity with the struggling Palestinian people.

Indeed, a part of the international trade union movement, subordinated to the instructions and interests of the imperialists, has lost its voice and remains silent in the face of the crime that is being committed, maintaining the unacceptable position of equal-distance and equating the victim with the perpetrator.

However, it is useful to note an important point: The above findings do not concern the entire international trade union movement, but only a part of it.

Representing more than 105 million workers around the world, from the first moment, the WFTU has remained firm to its principled positions. It showed that the root cause of the tragic events of October 2023, is the ongoing occupation and illegal settlement of the occupied Palestinian territories by Israel and the continuous, daily crimes and the blockades of Gaza that have been committed against the Palestinian people for years. Crimes which are committed with the provocative tolerance and support that Israel receives from the USA, the European Union and the rest of their allies. That the only way to secure and consolidate peace and security for the people in Palestine, but also in the wider Middle East, is to immediately end the Israeli occupation and settlement in the occupied Arab territories, as provided for in the UN resolutions, and to establish an independent Palestinian state on the [pre-]1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and guarantee the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

For the World Federation of Trade Unions and the international class-oriented trade union movement, the cause of the Palestinian people has always been a priority in the development of actions for practical support and solidarity.

During the last months, 3 international campaigns have already been launched and implemented, with a call for mass mobilizations of workers in streets and workplaces all over the world, with the main demands being the end of the bloodshed and the non-participation of their respective countries in the genocide. Millions of workers in dozens of countries, under the banner of the WFTU, and despite the persecution and repression they have endured in many cases, have repeatedly taken to the streets and squares demanding “Freedom for Palestine”. The 4^th in a row solidarity campaign has been launched by the WFTU and is currently running, on the occasion of the Palestinian Land Day, and is, among other things, calling for a boycott of the murderous state of Israel and its interests.

In every International Organization, where the WFTU was given a platform for expression (e.g. ILO and UN), the representatives of our Federation in their official statements have appealed for solidarity, while officially condemning the hypocrisy of the imperialists.

Special sessions of solidarity with the Palestinian people, with the participation of Palestinian trade unionists, have been held in the framework of the annual session of the WFTU Presidential Council, at the world congresses of the WFTU sectoral Trade Unions Internationals held in previous months, as well as at the WFTU Women’s World Congress.

With all available means of expression, the media of the WFTU, attempt daily and continuously to strengthen public awareness and mobilization, but also to pressure states and organizations to turn towards the practical and decisive demand for an end to the war.

Trade union organizations in Europe and elsewhere, affiliates of our Federation, have tried with strikes and mobilizations to prevent the shipment of military munitions for the support of the murderous state of Israel.

An official visit of the General Secretary and a delegation of the WFTU to the Middle East took place in November 2023, during which meetings and solidarity events were held with the participation of Palestinian militants in Syria and Lebanon. Now, a solidarity visit of a delegation of the WFTU delegation to Palestine is being planned, with the aim of strengthening the support of the international class-oriented trade union movement with the struggling people.

Therefore, it is not the international trade union movement that is silent and deaf in the face of genocide, but only a part of it.

On the one side there are those who, representing the interests of the imperialists, actively or silently support the genocide committed by Israel, and on the other side there is the international class-oriented trade union movement, which not only now in the struggle of the Palestinian people, but also in every previous case, has actively stood in every way on the side of all peoples struggling for survival and liberation.

The World Federation of Trade Unions will continue to struggle alongside Palestine. It will continue to fight for the strengthening and the enrichment of the role of the international trade union movement in the struggle of the Palestinian people. It is deeply rooted in the way the class-oriented trade union movement functions and acts that internationalist solidarity is the most powerful weapon of the peoples. Until the final victory, in Palestine and throughout the world.

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The gathering took place in the headquarters of the General Federation of Trade Union (GFTU) Syria and had a massive participation of hundreds of workers from Syria and Palestine.

As the General Secretary addressed, for the WFTU it is clear that the Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people, receive the support and tolerance of the big imperialist powers, the USA, the European Union and the rest of their allies. We will continue standing in solidarity with Palestine, and to condemn the new barbaric aggressiveness, which aims to impose by brute force of arms, the perpetuation of the occupation of the Palestinian land, the colonization of Palestinian and other Arab territories and the denial of the right of refugees to return to their homes in peace and security. It is also clear that today, the need for international solidarity might be more needed and more urgent than ever.

On behalf of the WFTU, the General Secretary assured for the readiness of the Federation to strengthen even more the solidarity wave in support of Palestine. To mobilise the working class against the Israeli aggression, against the hypocrisy of the imperialist states, against the barbaric behaviour and the mass killing of innocent people!

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Dear comrades,

Before going on with my intervention, I feel the necessity to express once again our anxiety and concern about the new bloodshed that is unfolding in Israel and Palestine and threatens to ignite the entire Middle East region.

For the class-oriented trade union movement, is clear that the root cause of this blood cycle is the ongoing occupation by Israel and the continuous, daily crimes that have been committed against the Palestinian people for years.

It is clear that the only way to secure and consolidate peace and security is to immediately end the Israeli occupation and settlement in the occupied Arab territories, as provided for in the UN resolutions, and to establish an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

It is obvious that under the well-known pretext of counter-terrorism Israel and its allies continue and intensify the imperialist crime in the same direction.

The WFTU continues to stand consistently and principled beside the suffering and struggling Palestinia people!

As a first global reaction and action in solidarity the WFTU calls class-oriented and militant trade unions around the world to organise in the coming days, actions, protests and demonstrations around the world under the slogan:

• SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
• NO TO IMPERIALIST HYPOCRISY
• A JUST AND PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO THE PALESTINIAN CAUSE

Dear comrades,

On behalf of the World Federation of Trade Unions, of the 105 million members in the 5 continents, I convey to all of you militant greetings. I also convey the congratulations for the SEGDAMELIN – PEO for organizing and hosting this seminar and I wish full success to its tomorrow Conference.

There is no doubt that discussing regarding the “national and international trade unions’ action in defending of the workers’ rights”, can be useful and timelier for all of us.

The 18th World Federation of Trade Unions’ Congress took place in Rome on May 2022 in a spirit of unity and collectivity, reaffirming the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-fascist character of the WFTU and its commitment to the principles and values of class struggle, solidarity and internationalism; commitment to defending the autonomous, democratic functioning of Trade Unions, away from Bureaucracy, careerism and corruption.

Nowadays, the global capitalist crisis is deepening even more, inflation is mercilessly undermining the living standards of working people, democratic and trade union freedoms are being threatened, labour and social rights are under severe attack by capital and its representatives, unfortunately with the tolerance and even the active cooperation of the collaborationist and “yellow” trade unions.

The COVID period has been also exploited for even tougher measures that shrink the right to organize, to demand, and to protest collectively.

In the face of this attacks, workers are not indifferent. They are resisting and reacting.

We are watching the development of militant reaction in all regions of the earth by workers who refuse to pay the bill of the capitalist crisis, and choose the path of struggle, in defense of their trade union, social and political rights.  The class-oriented unions are in the forefront of these struggles.

It is not accidental that in addition to countries that have a “tradition”, let’s say, of street militancy, we are witnessing a strong wave of mobilisations in other corners of the world. Even today, as we speak, over 300,000 striking workers in the automotive industries and healthcare workers are on the streets of the United States.

As WFTU,  our main axis of action, is rooted in the timeless principles of workers’ rights, and the relentless pursuit of the building of a better world, free of exploitation and any oppression.

At the heart of our efforts, since the foundation of the WFTU, lies the unwavering commitment to safeguarding the rights of the working class. We struggle for the defense of the democratic and trade union freedoms, the collective bargaining and the stable, permanent, and agreements-regulated labor. A few days ago, on the occasion of the International Action Day of WFTU, we celebrated our 78^th anniversary with a campaign with massive participation from every corner of the world, with 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!”

Furthermore, we keep the anti-imperialist character of the WFTU, and actively express our solidarity to the people in need. Walk hand in hand with those fighting against imperialist wars and interruptions for national liberation and the right to follow their own path!

Trade Union  Education is one main axes that the WFTU relies its actions too. We believe in equipping the Trade Unionist  with the knowledge and skills they need to advocate effectively for the workers rights.

Gender equality, environmental sustainability, and equinity had always been core principles that motivate and guide  actions and struggles.

Important issue us a global organisation is intervention to the International Organizations and Institutions. We have a clear knowledge, that International Organizations today, are functioning in a way that not serves the interests of the working people and most of them are under the influence of imperialism. Despite the objective difficulties and the deprivation of the right to participate and vote in the Governing Body of the ILO even though we represent 105 workers,  do not stop for fighting inside these foundation for a different presentation which will promote the interests of the working people.

It is clear that only through the organised, mass and class struggles can working people challenge the system that gives birth to imperialism and to exploitation.

The weapon of the working class is Solidarity and Internationalism.

We know very well the reality of today’s world, we know very well that the balance of power at this moment is not as we would like it to be and the difficulties for the workers’ movement are so many. We do not have illusions! The attack to the working class achievements and rights is very hard and it is global-wide. The monopolies and multinational giants, while fiercely competing for control of markets and raw materials, at the same time, they are cooperating on the attack against labor and social rights. But for the WFTU, for the class-oriented International Trade Union movement, for the workers who resist, who do not compromise with oppression, discrimination and exploitation, there is only one path of dignity: the path of the struggles.

Thank you.

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