conferences
SOCIALISTISK
UNGDOMSLEJR 98
Tuzla international trade union conference March 14-15 1998
Bosnia-Herzegovina's Autonomous Trade Union of Coal-mine Workers (Samostalni sindikat radnika rudnika uglja) is organising an "International workers" conference against privatisation, casual labour and unemployment." Contact: Resad Husagic, Secretary, Tuzla Miners, Mije Kerosevica Guje 1, 75000 TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Tel: (++387) 75 282 111 ext. 542. Fax: 283 412 Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference Sydney, Australia, April 1998
Organised by the Asia Pacific Institute for Democratisation and Development. See full page advertisement in September 1997 issue.
The Institute welcomes applications to present papers at the conference, and suggest specific themes for discussion under the general framework of supporting democratisation, self-determination and social justice and opposing the neo-liberal austerity offensive. Contact: Dr Helen Jarvis, School of Information, Library and Archive Studies, (SILAS) University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052 Australia. Or Email to: apiaustralia@peg.apc.org. Or fax to: 02-96901381 EuroMarch Assizes Brussels, Belgium, 18-19 April
EuroMarches against Unemployment will hold new 'hearings' to look at unemployment campaigns in 1997, and plans for the future. Special focus on European institutions, the reduction in the working week, debates on minimum revenue, and links between civic groups and associations and trade unions in building the European unemployment movement. Registration: through your national EuroMarch network, or at Rue Potagère 103, 1210 Brussels, Belgium. Tel. +32.2.223 3533. Fax 223 3982 Socialist Action (Canada) May Day celebration, Saturday 2 May, 7 p.m. 58 Cecil Street, Toronto
Theme: Fight for an Unlimited General Strike. Speakers (so far) include: Sid Ryan, CUPE; John Clarke, OCAP; Joe Flexer, CAW and SA. Music by InfraRed, Marie-Lynn Hammond and Len Wallace. East Indian veg. and nonveg. multi-course buffet dinner. Tickets: advance $15 waged, $8 non-waged; at door $20
International socialist youth camp i Jutland, Denmark. 25-31 July
Denmark's Socialistisk Arbejderparti, 1 (SAP) will host the 15th European camp, of youth organisations in solidarity with i I the Fourth International.
This year's theme is "Reclaim Free-, i dom." In the North, our democratic free-! i doms end when we confront economici i power. In the South, economic exploita-! Ition is often combined with authoritarian, i regimes. This camp will be a place for! i young women fighting to liberate them-i i selves from discriminatory traditions ,and rules, for unemployed youth, demanding decent work and decent! i pay, for activists in solidarity work with! freedom movements in Latin America, i ¡Africa and Asia, anti-racists, and i students opposed to elitist education.
Costs inside the camp are adjusted to! i reflect the differential revenue of young, ¡people across Europe. Participation! ¡ costs from US$ 100-200 i For more information contact your International ¡Allé 11 A, DK-2200, Copenhagen N. fax +45-35373217. ! Viewpoint distributor or write to SAP, Box 547, Nørre i E-mail <socinf@inet.uni2.dk> Trade Unions, homosexuality & work Amsterdam, 29-31 July 1998
The 1998 International Conference on Trade Unions, Homosexuality and Work will bring together lesbian and gay workers from all over the world to discuss ways of building on the work that is already being carried out and to develop proposals for action by trade unions, employers, and other bodies. The aim is also to bring together representatives of trade unions, employers, experts and politicians as part of the conterence.
The conference's aims are to:
• provide a forum for lesbian and gay trade unionists to exchange information, policies and strategies
• educate participants on campaigning for lesbian and gay rights in the workplace and ensuring that policies are implemented and address the concern of all lesbian and gay workers
• look at strategies for work within and alongside the trade union movement at national and international level
• determine outline agendas for action towards and by such bodies as the United Nations, the International Labour Organization, the European governments and
• draw up recommendations for
• develop links between lesbian and gay members of trade unions in all
• establish an international network to provide a means of continuing to exchange information, co-ordinating initiatives, and providing international support and solidarity, particularly to lesbian and gay workers in countries where homosexuality and/ or trade union organisation can lead to persecu-
The conference is the result of many years of joint work by a number of trade union lesbian and gay groups and a growing level of international networking between lesbian and gay activists involved in the labour and trade union movements. The Steering Group consist of members of the lesbian and gay workers groups in the tollowing unions: AbvaKabo, AOb, Önderwijsbonden CNV and AFMP (Netherlands), ÖTV (Germany) and UNISON (UK), together with representatives of ABVV-BTTK Antwerpen (Belgium), CGIL (Italy), AFT, AFL-CIO (United States), Egalité (the European Union Lesbian and Gay Workers Group), and the ILGA. The Steering Committee is seeking the widest possible endorsement and support for the conference from the trade union movement. So far, six unions (UNISON [UK]. PCO, KOV, AOb, AFMP, AbvaKabo [NL] & OTV [D]) have agreed to support the conference, and many of these unions have also greed to contribute towards some of the costs of organising it. The two largest Dutch trade union federations FNV and CNV are also supporting the conference, both in organisation and financially. The registration for the conference starts in May, 1997. The conference fee will be 225 Dutch guilders for those who register early, increasing to 325 nearer the date. Travel costs, housing, breaktast and dinners are not included in this fee. Applications for financial assistance must be received by 1 April 1998. PO Box 732, NL 2700 AL, Zoetermeer, Netherlands Tel: +31-30- 273 2627. fax: 271 0512 E-mail: <modijk@knoware.nl> utopia.knoware.nl/users/modijk Solidarity Summer School Chicago, USA. 3-6 August
The US socialist and feminist group will hold its annual summer school at the usual venue. The group's convention will run from 7-9 August.
waged, S12 non-waged
Info: 416-535-8779, fax 416-535-9079
4. INTERNATIONALE/SAP:
Finnish voung commuists
Finland's Young Communists and others will organise a Solidarity meeting in Helsinki on June 5-6. A summer camp will be held at the end of June.
PL 288, 00171 Helsinki, Finland. <komnuor@dic.fi>
Internet: www.dlc.fi/-komnuor/
2 International Viewpoint #298
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INTERNATIONAL
Germany's unemployed take to the streets initiatives against unemployment that go schemes to help them find some kind of themselves. *
On February 5th over 50,000 people demonstrated in response to new statistics showing an official unemployment rate of 12.6% (20% in east Germany). Angela Klein reports.
The real number of Germans unemployed or under-employed is closer to 7 million than the official estimate of 4.8 million. But, even according to official figures, unemployment is now twice as high as the post-war structural unemployment' level. Despite continued growth in the economy, which is expected to expand by 2% in 1998.
Over 50,000 people, most of them unemployed, demonstrated in 200 towns and cities in all parts of the country. This was the first national demonstration of the unemployed since the early 1980s. As such, it represents an important step in the growth of political awareness by the unemployed, and in their capacity to express their strength through their demands by putting pressure on officia political bodies - governments, political parties, and the trade unions.
Most actions on February 5th were "conventional." But, in a handful of towns, demonstrators copied their French counterparts and occupied social security administration offices The best-attended actions took place in the East of the country: Berlin, Erfurt and Chemnitz (formerly Karl-Marx Stadt).
Germany has no national organisation of the unemployed. The call to demonstrate on February 5th came from the Coordination Office of Trade Union Initiatives of the Unemployed - which also supported last year's European Marches against Unemployment. The planning of
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