International unions

By Sacha Ismail In the run up to May Day, Iranian socialists and labour movement activists in the International Alliance in Support of Workers in Iran have launched a new call for international solidarity. The statement puts forward a clear “third camp” perspective against both US war threats and Iran’s theocratic dictatorship, in refreshing contrast to the mealy-mouthed pro-Islamist position of much of the British left. The initiative could not have come at a better time. An important element of the Iranian rulers‚ show down with Bush is their attempt to create a nationalist release valve for...

Message of Congratulations and Solidarity of the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company on the victory of the workers, students and people of France. 11 April 2006. Over the past few weeks, the people of Iran, the working people, students and our union, have been closely and with much interest following the news from France, hoping in our hearts for the victory of the just movement of the great workers’ and students’ unions and the people of France. The news of this movement was inspiring and exhilarating for the imprisoned union activists in Iran. The Syndicate of Workers of...

David Broder went to Bolivia during April as part of the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign delegation of British trade unionists. In Solidarity 3/90 I argued that while Evo Morales has failed to deliver what the masses demanded during the gas nationalisation protests of last summer, the trade unions and social movements have failed to come out strongly enough in criticism of the new Bolivian president. Having seen more of the objective situation on the ground, I realise that such an analysis is only partly correct. While many trade union leaders are keen for revolution, they remain generals without...

Brie and Diane from the Living Wage Action Coalition are visiting the UK at the end of May and start of June. They will be speaking at various events including the student activist school at Sussex University on Saturday 27 May. Diane was a student activist at Georgetown University, and was an organiser and hunger-striker during the Georgetown Living Wage campaign. Brie was active in organising around farmworker rights with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Student/Farmworker Alliance through the victorious Taco Bell Boycott. She was the US national co-ordinator for the Student/...

By Laura Schwartz Recently I attended the United Students Against Sweatshops conference in San Francisco. It lived up to everything I had heard about the energy and increasing power of the US anti-sweatshop student movement. 450 delegates were united in their commitment to 'solidarity not charity'. Support for the international workers' movement was firmly at the centre of all USAS discussions; they understood that workers and students would both benefit from united action.

A series of US student initiatives that link worker struggles to student solidarity now form the biggest protest coalition on US campuses since the Vietnam war. As Dan Katz argues, this practical, effective movement should inspire UK students and show a way forward to home-grown initiatives like Students Against Sweatshops and People and Planet. Beginning with the anti-sweatshop struggles of the 1990s which were focussed on the garment-making transnationals, the activists of the US student movement have extended their campaigning. Activists have worked with the unions during “Union Summer”...

Police shot and killed two workers, another was crushed to death in a melee, and over 40 others were wounded, most by gunshots, when authorities launched an assault to expel striking workers occupying the SICARTSA steel mill in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico on 20 April. Reports from the scene suggest that others may also have been killed or may die from their wounds. Workers and townspeople retook the plant, but were then besieged by the police. Parts of the plant have been taken over by the Mexican Army and the Mexican Navy. Mexican unions have demanded the resignation of the country's...