A speech by George Mavrikos, General Secretary of the WFTU, to the international conference of CGTP Peru (General Confederation of Peruvian Workers) and the WFTU at the 13th Congress of CGTP Peru – Lima, November 16, 2011

It’s a great honor and pleasure for the WFTU to be here today, together with various representatives of the international trade unions and trade unionists from Peru.

We are particularly happy because we are celebrating a historic event, the 13th Congress of CGTP Peru, a militant, class-oriented, historic organization that has been a member of the WFTU for many years. The WFTU has led the class struggle for the interests of the working class all over the world for 66 years.

Another historic event that happened this year was the 16th World Trade Union Congress in Athens, Greece, April 6 – 10th, in which more than 828 trade unionists and 101 countries participated.

We are proud of the 16th World Trade Union Congress, because it was a big celebration for the working class where trade unionists from many countries met, discussed various problems, and exchanged opinions and ideas. We are proud because it was a congress that took place during a serious economic crisis of the capitalist system, but the talks managed to range over all the main present-day problems of the workers during a period of a crisis.

It was an open and democratic congress, where all people had the right and the opportunity to express their opinion freely, to suggest their ideas, to make criticisms and to vote when we were choosing the new leadership, and also to participate in the voting for all the final decisions and documents. The congress managed to choose a new leadership, which has all the prerequisites for reviving the WFTU via initiatives for action and class struggle.

We are sure that the new leadership of the WFTU, working on the new decisions taken during the congress, will continue its way based on the principles of:

· The ‘class line’
· Proletarian internationalism
· Anti-imperialism
· Class unity
· The goal of creating a world with no exploitation of man by man, a world with no capitalist barbarism

We live in a period that has three basic characteristics. The first of them is the deep and prolonged economic crisis of the capitalist system; the second is the imperialist aggression of the USA, NATO, the EU and their allies, and the third is the important struggle of the working class and the people for their lives, for their present and for their future.

We encounter all around us markets full of stocks and unimaginable wealth that belong to the few. We see productive forces being destroyed, and we see the debasement of the working class (the main productive force). Increasing unemployment, decreasing GDP and world trade are being registered, and also an increase in the number of workers all over the planet living in poverty and misery, both in the developed capitalist countries and even more so in the so-called developing countries. At the same time, it is known that the incredible possibilities of science and technology could ensure common prosperity of the people.

Each honest and conscientious worker, each trade unionist who respects himself and the co-workers that he or she represents, should in these conditions accept the conclusions of Karl Marx, the great intellectual of the working class, conclusions which prove that the capitalist way of production is not everlasting and is historically over.

Marx found out through his work that an economic crisis reveals the main contradiction of capitalism – the contradiction between the social character of production and capitalist ownership of the means of production and the appropriation of the goods that are produced. In periods of crisis, the whole mechanism of capitalist production is brought to its knees under the pressure of the productive forces created by the same capitalist kind of production. Engels underlines precisely the fact that ‘the productive forces rebel against the relations of production which have already grown old and been left behind…

Means of productions, means of existence, available workers, in other words all the productive forces and the social resources are in abundance’.

In spite of the optimistic notes that the representatives of the capitalist system skilfully put forward whenever even the smallest sign of a positive development in one economy or another reveals itself, in spite of their estimates of growth of the world GDP in 2011, the economic capitalist crisis continues in its catastrophic way. It gives birth on the one hand to poverty, unemployment, uncertainty of the people, and on the other to enormous profits for capital. According to official data from October 2011, unemployment in Europe is continuing to rise, and more specifically:

Spain 22.6%
Greece 17.6%
Latvia 16.1%
Ireland 14.2%
Portugal 13.0 %
France 9.9%
Italy 8.5%
UK 8.1%

This is official data, and according to a decision of the EU if a worker has worked even for one day during the last month he is not included in the percentage of unemployed!!! In other words – the reality is much worse than these percentages.

This crisis of capitalism is deep and is constantly deepening, becoming more serious and giving birth to hard intra-imperialist competition. Competition between the euro and the dollar over which should be the leading currency; this is one of the competitions that defines the strategies between the USA and the EU.

Inside the EU, intra-capitalist competition is also becoming more serious and inequality is increasing. On the one hand, France is trying to find allies in the Mediterranean area and, on the other, Germany is doing the same with countries in northern Europe and Russia.

In the region of the Middle East and Asia, the results from all this are the wars on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on Georgia, the threats to Iran and Syria, in North Africa – the imperialist war on Libya for control over its petroleum resources and natural gas.

Today we don’t know where this serious intra-imperialist competition will lead. In Europe, there are already many people who believe that in the near future the EU won’t be like the present-day EU. It may change, it may break up or some may try to turn it into a federation like the USA. The capitalists fear that crisis might break out in Italy, in Spain and maybe in France after that.

Based on all these contrasts and all this compulsion, we see unequal capitalist development between different countries and between different areas.

The Crisis in Greece
Within these boundaries, the EU and the USA are making use of the crisis in Greece. Greece is a country with population of 11 million people and with a national debt of 340 billion euros, which is around 140% of GDP.

This debt was not created by the workers, by the farmers, by the women or by the youth. It was created by enormous military expenditure for NATO, by capitalist loans that have been lost, by the 15 billion euro cost of the Olympic Games in 2004, and by the break up of industry and agriculture that led to an inevitable increase in imports and decrease in exports. At the same time when the Greek debt is 340 billion euros, there are 620 billion euros in deposits of Greek capitalists in Swiss banks!!!

And while the Greek people are not to blame for the debt, the Greek governments, together with the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank are violating the workers’ rights to insurance and to payment, they are privatizing all the public assets, and they are slandering the workers and the Greek people! They are trying to humiliate the Greeks by saying that they are just consumers, that they are lazy, etc., presenting lies and defamations in the Greek and international mass media.

They are slandering a nation that in modern political history has fought against fascists and imperialists.

In 1940-1944, with a population of 7 million, Greece struggled bravely for four years against German and Italian fascism, a war that led to 220 000 victims (more than the UK, with a so much bigger population, sacrificed in the course of the whole second world war). The Civil War raged from 1946 to1949. Many fought heroically but lost. The result was that 75 000 partisans withdrew to the socialist republics and 35 000 more were thrown into jail in Greece by the reactionist regime.

The same working class that struggled against the dictatorship imposed by the USA in the period from 1967 to 1974, the same nation that in two years has organized 16 general strikes and is opposed to capital, the IMF and the imperialists. In this fight, the Greek working class has yielded four victims, but has not taken fright or stepped back. It goes onward and forward.

This disobedience and the pugnacity of the Greek people have scared the EU, Merkel and Sarkozy, and all capitalists. A few days ago, the EU and the USA together with the Greek capitalists set up a government of social democrats and neoliberals in order to be able to oppress the workers’ resistance.

Some comrades who are here with us today, like Valentin Pacho, who has been living for the last six years in Athens, have become acquainted with many Greek workers. Valentin has visited a lot of factories, has spoken at many demonstrations and to thousands of workers. 35 days ago he made a speech as a member of WFTU,  outside the Greek parliament building at a demonstration of PAME. Comrade Ramon Cardona has also visited and has spoken at various workplaces, at demonstrations and with many comrades. They can convince you of the basic characteristics of the workers in Greece.

We know that in each country the workers are hard-working, and are trying to do their best. It is unfair and wrong to believe that they are to blame, and not the antisocial policies and those who oppose the workers.

The new government of social democrats and neoliberals shows that social democracy these days is marching more and more to the right of the political spectrum, and it has identical strategies with the conservatives, imperialists and capitalists.

This government today is continuing with its crimes against the Greek people, stealing public assets and the natural resources of the country, and is trying to convince the Greeks that the IMF loves Greece, that bankers give away money to workers. Nobody believes their fairy tales. The Greek workers know that the monopolies speculate resolutely. The so-called ‘help’ from others is just a big lie. A few days ago for example, Germany was buying from the markets at 2,4 per cent interest, while on the same day it was lending the same amount of money to Greece at 5,5%!!!

At the same time, another lie is that the problems of the Greek people are due to the big national debt. There is a big debt in almost all the capitalist countries. Here are some examples:

· USA         $ US 15 trillion
· U.K.         $ US 10 trillion
· France      $ US 6 trillion
· Germany  $ US 5.6 trillion
· Japan       $ US 2.8 trillion
· Italy         $ US 2.7 trillion
· Australia   $ US 1.2 trillion
· Canada     $ US 1.1 trillion

The Greek debt (340 billion euros or $ US 533 billion) is used by the upper class to impose new taxes, to cut salaries and pensions, to raise the pension age, to discharge 30 000 public servants this year and 75 000 more in the first half of 2012.

What is important, for all these reasons, is solidarity, internationalism, and ethical support for the working class of Greece. They are needed, and they need to be strengthened.

Our Strategy

The trade union movement and the working class movement in general should create and support a strong ideological front of resistance to those who try to confuse the workers about the causes of the economic crisis and the ways out of it. Of course, these voices which try to hide the truth and to present alleged painless ways out of the crisis, which would combine the interests of the capitalists and the workers, are not a new phenomenon in the history of the working class movement.

From the beginning of this movement, from the time of the first capitalist crises, illogical voices like these have emerged. Their final goal is to convince everyone that capitalism itself is not to blame for the crisis, and to stop the workers understanding that unless capitalism is overcome the crisis will continue to be their companion and tormentor.

Having in mind the reaction of the different social forces to the capitalist economic crisis, it is again corroborated that the working class in each country cannot progress, cannot plan its own, independent way of meeting its needs without a major clash with and separation from the opportunist and defeatist forces inside the trade union movement.

It’s not the time for self-deception that the leaders of the yellow trade unions might change direction, might be forced by the working class in a positive direction, and might lead the class struggle. All honest workers who still follow them should be convinced to join us, to join the WFTU, the united front of the working class and the trade unions, which is open to all who want to get involved in the class struggle. These workers should integrate with our actions, our goals, our principles.

The economic crisis with the hard sufferings that it brings to the working class is a big, complex opportunity for the workers to understand the power that they have, to organize their struggle, to put their priorities and their needs for social and economic progress on to the agenda.

This is a serious opportunity to understand the historic boundaries of the capitalist system, the anarchy of production, the confrontation between social production and consumption, which grows stronger as the standard of living and the consumption of the working class decreases.

It’s an opportunity to realize the vital necessity of nationalization, central planning and public control. It’s the right time for restructuring the workers’ movement in order decisively to implement and impose policies or measures that will be against the capitalist logic and the arithmetic of the owners of the public means of production, fighting for the power of the working class.

Here is an opportunity for the workers’ movement to become a motive force for transformation, and not a firefighter. A prerequisite for this is a change in the situation of the working class movement, a defeat for the policies and for the trade union powers of employers’ syndicalism, reformism and opportunism that have not ceased to fight for the benefit of the capitalists and for strengthening the corporate groups. A precondition for this is that the people must understand their own power, because nations that have goals and fight to achieve them have enormous, undefeatable power.

Imperialist Aggression

The deep crisis of the capitalist system and the intra-imperialist rivalries have created a great threat to international peace and friendship among the nations. These rivalries have led to an enormous increase in military expenditure in many countries, and all this is paid for by the workers.

Some data about the military expenditure of the 10 countries with the highest expenditure for 2010:

1. Saudi Arabia 11.2% of GDP
2. United Arab Emirates 7.3% of GDP
3. Israel 6.3% of GDP
4. Iraq 5.4% of GDP
5. Kuwait 4.4% of GDP
6. Russia 4.3% of GDP
7. Angola 4.2% of GDP
8. Colombia 3.7% of GDP
9. Chile 3.5% of GDP
10. Greece 3.2% of GDP

It is worth mentioning that Libya was bombarded with 16 000 shells in the course of the war there. There were more than 75 000 victims, the damage done in Libya was catastrophic, and now the imperialists will steal Libyan petroleum and other resources in order to ‘rebuild the country’.

The international economic crisis speeds up the process of building up arms in an attempt by the monopolists to find a way out of the crisis. A characteristic sign of this is the enormous increase in the military expenditure of the developing countries, in other words the countries with the most serious economic problems. The big imperialist powers, which are also the biggest military manufacturers, make some of the poorest countries spend tremendous amounts on arms, while millions of people are starving to death. Guns become an instrument of compulsion; having in mind that in order to secure the economic help of ‘the rich’, ‘the poor’ have to buy guns from them.

A typical example is Pakistan, which, two days after the terrible catastrophe caused by floods and the millions of homeless people, decided that it was more important to buy weapons costing $1.28 million for its defense system than to bother about the disasters.

According to data for the period 2004-2008 (International Peace Research Institute – SIPRI) sales have increased by 24%, and it should be remarked that the developing countries have taken a dangerous path of arming themselves. Selling weapons is an instrument of compulsion, because if the developing countries want to be helped by the developed imperialist countries, the former have to continue buying from the latter.

As far as the achievements of the military industry are concerned, according to data from 2007, the five biggest defense technology companies (Boeing, BAE Systems, Lockheed, Northrop and General Dynamics) gathered a net income of $12.8 billion.

The demand of the WFTU is: ‘Put an end to the course of arms purchases. Spend the money on the needs of the poor and the unemployed, not on nuclear weapons’.

All foreign troops must leave the territories that they have occupied. All nuclear weapons must be destroyed and banned. The imperialist military organizations and unions must be demolished by the people. The same must happen with NATO. A stop must be put to imperialist interventions. We must say no to war and yes to peace.

What Kind of International Trade Union Movement Do We Need?

Under these conditions, an important question is ‘What kind of international trade union movement does the international working class need these days?’ The role, the pattern, the strategy and the tactics of the international trade union movement were seriously discussed for the first time in 1864, when Karl Marx set up the First International Working Men’s Association. Those discussions were very serious, deeply ideological, theoretical and practical.

Two basic, contradictory strategies clashed. The first suggested that the trade unions should be mass organizations of the working class that would struggle for a better standard of living, for work, for the rights of the workers, and would continue to fight until the liberation of the working class from exploitation.

The second strategy suggested that the trade unions should be mass organizations of the working class that would co-operate with the feudalists, the capitalists and the imperialists to improve the standard of living and to modernize the capitalist system. In brief, these were the two strategies. From these different strategies there have emerged the different tactics, the differences in the essence and in the kinds of the trade union actions and struggle.

These serious differences were the main reason for the dissolution of the Second International. They are also the reason for the positions of the trade unions these days, for example their positions on the Cuban revolution, on the fight for the Palestinian nation, and on the imperialist war on the Libyan people.

These basic topics, the ideological and political platform of the international trade union organization, were seriously discussed at the first congress of the WFTU in Paris, France in October 1945. At that congress two ideas and two theories clashed. The first was that of the USA, the UK and their allies, who hypocritically claimed that the new trade union organization ‘should not be involved in politics’.

The second theory, supported by the Soviet trade unions and by the trade unions in countries from all around the world stated that the emerging international trade union organization as a class organization should get involved in everything, in economics and politics, and in the liberation of the working class.

When in December 1949 the trade unions of the USA, the UK and their allies, under the guidance of the CIA, split the WFTU and founded the ICFTU (the present-day ITUC), the strategic differences soon became clear.

The ICFTU supported all the dictatorships around the world (Guatemala, Chile, Panama, Cuba, Korea, Vietnam, Portugal, Greece), the apartheid regime, etc. The WFTU, on the other hand, has always supported revolution and progress, and has always been against the imperialists and against capitalist exploitation.

Today, in the period that we are living in, we know that the proposals of the WFTU concerning the economic crisis in the capitalist system are an attempt to unite the workers so that it is not they who will pay the crisis, but the capitalists who created it.

We are searching for a unity that will unite the workers against the monopoly companies, a unity that will unite the workers against capitalist exploitation, a unity with goals and demands that will not get lost in modernizing the capitalist system, but that will lead toward a socialist perspective.

The WFTU expresses its opposition to the privatization of sectors of strategic importance. The WFTU demands a free public health system, free education, and abolition of all the public debts of the third world countries. It supports Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Palestine and the people of Syria, while the ITUC has exactly the opposite views; it collaborates with the G20 and the IMF.

The WFTU fights for democratic and trade union rights and freedoms. It does not do this in the way that the democratic NATO bombed the people of Libya ‘to ensure democracy’, and not in the way that the democracies of Sarkozy, Berlusconi and Hilary Clinton caused the death of 75 000 Libyans for the ‘democratization’ of Libya.

We as the leadership of today’s WFTU claim that, under the conditions we live in, the international working class and the people need an international trade union organization which will basically have the following main characteristics:

1. Class orientation and revolutionary thinking, which will emphasize that we’re talking about an organization of workers that steadfastly fights against capital and against imperialism

2. Democratic and open dealings with simple people; reforms at all levels, supporting leaders who will come from the basis of society, who will be honest, will respect criticism and self-criticism, and also discipline, leaders who will fight bureaucracy and corruption

3. The kind of unity that will unite all workers, irrespective of sex, color or religion; it will unite workers, poor farmers and the youth in order to include them all in the fight against capital and the monopolist companies; it will unite them in the struggle and teach them not to step back or give up

4. Its international character, workers’ solidarity, cooperation and support (both ethical and economic) for each country’s working class, for each branch that fights for its freedom, for its trade union and democratic rights, for its life and rights.

5. The use of all kinds of class struggle, from the simplest to the most complex; launching ideas and goals that will demand satisfaction of the present-day needs of all workers, and will at the same time lead to a class struggle to end the exploitation of man by man

6. The use of international organizations to implement the ideas of the workers; coordinating the actions of different movements that are fighting for the same goals

7. Education for the working class, especially so that the workers will love the history of their nation, the traditions, the culture and the history of the international working class movement; providing an education to make the workers cleverer as a class, to believe in the values of the class struggle, and to know the class struggle.

These are some of the most basic criteria, and we believe that the struggles in recent years have been about these issues. The big strikes in Chile, Greece, Mexico, India, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Brazil and many other countries show that the ideas of the class struggle are understood and supported by the workers.

Most of these struggles (both in their kind and in their essence) draw on the rich experience of the international trade union movement. Through all these struggles, millions of workers have understood that their future is not capitalism but socialism, and that overcoming the weakness that emerged in the first attempt at implementing it will give essential and lasting solutions to the problems of the people.

On behalf of the WFTU, I want to reassure the people of Peru, the working class and the leaders of the CGTP, that we will continue to support you, to be by your side. The WFTU fights for democratic and trade union rights and freedoms. It does not do this in the way that the democratic NATO bombed the people of Libya ‘to ensure democracy’, and not in the way that the democracies of Sarkozy, Berlusconi and Hilary Clinton caused the death of 75 000 Libyans for the ‘democratization’ of Libya.

We as the leadership of today’s WFTU claim that, under the conditions we live in, the international working class and the people need an international trade union organization which will basically have the following main characteristics:

1. Class orientation and revolutionary thinking, which will emphasize that we’re talking about an organization of workers that steadfastly fights against capital and against imperialism

2. Democratic and open dealings with simple people; reforms at all levels, supporting leaders who will come from the basis of society, who will be honest, will respect criticism and self-criticism, and also discipline, leaders who will fight bureaucracy and corruption

3. The kind of unity that will unite all workers, irrespective of sex, color or religion; it will unite workers, poor farmers and the youth in order to include them all in the fight against capital and the monopolist companies; it will unite them in the struggle and teach them not to step back or give up

4. Its international character, workers’ solidarity, cooperation and support (both ethical and economic) for each country’s working class, for each branch that fights for its freedom, for its trade union and democratic rights, for its life and rights.

5. The use of all kinds of class struggle, from the simplest to the most complex; launching ideas and goals that will demand satisfaction of the present-day needs of all workers, and will at the same time lead to a class struggle to end the exploitation of man by man

6. The use of international organizations to implement the ideas of the workers; coordinating the actions of different movements that are fighting for the same goals

7. Education for the working class, especially so that the workers will love the history of their nation, the traditions, the culture and the history of the international working class movement; providing an education to make the workers cleverer as a class, to believe in the values of the class struggle, and to know the class struggle.

These are some of the most basic criteria, and we believe that the struggles in recent years have been about these issues. The big strikes in Chile, Greece, Mexico, India, Peru, Portugal, South Africa, Brazil and many other countries show that the ideas of the class struggle are understood and supported by the workers. Most of these struggles (both in their kind and in their essence) draw on the rich experience of the international trade union movement.

Through all these struggles, millions of workers have understood that their future is not capitalism but socialism, and that overcoming the weakness that emerged in the first attempt at implementing it will give essential and lasting solutions to the problems of the people.

On behalf of the WFTU, I want to reassure the people of Peru, the working class and the leaders of the CGTP, that we will continue to support you, to be by your side.

On behalf of the WFTU, acknowledging the important role of the CGTP in the WFTU, allow me to give this present to the CGTP, to its General Secretary – Mario Huaman.

Viva CGTP!

Viva WFTU!