On March 21st in 1960 the police in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against the Apartheid. Since then, the 21st of March is observed as the International Day of Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The World Federation of Trade Unions since its foundation has been at the forefront of the fight against Apartheid in South Africa.
As stated in the Rome Declaration of the 18th WFTU Congress, imperialist wars, poverty and misery as a result of the exploitation of the developing countries, the environmental crisis, create millions of refugees and immigrants. Workers who are more vulnerable in the exploitation of the employers and in the unsafe and unregulated working conditions. At the same time, it is clear that the big immigrant flows of the last years, are being instrumentalized by nationalist and neo-fascist forces, in order to reinforce xenophobia and racism.
The World Federation of Trade Unions expresses its internationalist solidarity with the more than 280 million migrant workers around the globe, who struggle to survive away from their homelands which they left to escape from the horror of wars and misery, and at the same time are the victims of racism and discrimination.
As a fundamental principle, the international class-oriented trade union movement, unites all workers in the struggles for their rights and just demands, regardless of origin, color, language and religion, against capitalist exploitation, racism, fascist ideology and xenophobia.
On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the WFTU calls upon its affiliated trade unions and the workers of the world in general, to continue and intensify the organized and militant struggles against the system that creates displaced peoples, migrants and refugees, exploitation, inequality and discrimination.
