A a Steelworkers reach out to African HIV/AIDS victims When long-time Steelworkers friend Stephen Lewis spoke to our union’s District 6 convention in October, 2003, he was both elo- quent and blunt. Brother Lewis, who is the United Nations’ Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS, laid bare the devastating and horrific effects that African peoples are suffering with the quickly-spread- ing epidemic. In community after community, country after country, entire generations of Africans in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s are becoming infected and dying. In nations such as Swaziland, chil- dren as you as 6 years old are heading up households. Grandparents are caregivers in entire communities. Depending on which country is being refer- enced, between 58- 67 percent of those infected with HIV/AIDS are women. In Africa there fav/aws in Africa: are more than \gtephien Lewis Talks | 17 million lio @ie Steelworkers | AIDS orphans. 2 “We are deal- SSeeee! ing with a phenomenon that the world has- n't come to grips with yet,” says Lewis. He also said that the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which have affected some 29 million women, men in children in sub-Saharan African nations (i.e. Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Uganda, Swaziland, Mozambique), is an issue which global institutions (such as the UN itself) have been unable to deal with. The HIV/AIDS epidemic has com- pounded the difficulties that those who live in predominately agricul- tural nations face. As sickness affects people, they are unable to harvest crops as food supplies diminish. The result is a vicious cycle in which disease and famine flourish. By 2010, says Lewis, there could be an estimated 25 million orphans on the African continent. And the fears that HIV/AIDS could spread to India and China, are very real. Lewis told the Steelworkers crowd that their Humanities Fund is doing a tremendous job com- bating the disease with field pro- ject work in Mozambique. He said that unionists in Canada get the message about HIV/AIDS. “You know what is just and right,” he said, “and you know what doesn’t have to be.” In Africa, Lewis said projects, like those run by the Steelworkers and by his founda- tion, offer hope to a population which “has tremendous capacity and solidarity at the grass-roots level.” He said that African com- munities know how to educate and offer counseling to victims. They also know how to adminis- ter retroviral drugs. African nations have the capacity to com- bat the epidemic — but they lack resources. In response to Lewis’ speech, conference participants pledged some $47,000. For more information on how your local can help, contact the Humanities Fund. PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA = The joint education program is leading to organizational gains for the Chilean forest workers’ confederation. Gearing up for another year’s activities International Solidarity project will deliver and develop new courses in southern Chile Plans and preparations are under- way for another year of progressive activities with our compafieros and compafieras in the South American The Steelworkers- IWA Council International Solidarity pro- ject, in coopera- CTF (the National Confederation of Forest Workers of Chile) will head into an exciting phase. The success- ful project, which has provided trade union educational opportunities for re nation of Chile. tion with the 486 union activists since March, 2000 will soon be marking its fifth year of ongoing activities. In February of next year International Solidarity Coordinator Rolando Quintul plans to be in Chile to con- duct an instructors training course. Twenty CTF activists will learn how to instruct any of the eight courses that have been developed in the past five years. A new course on New Members Orientation will be written during the the same time period. The two-day course will include training union activists on educating the many young workers that are members of CTF. Later in the year, likely in May, a week-long Collective Bargaining Course will be delivered at the CTF - IWA Council Education Centre in Concepcion, Chile. Then, tentatively scheduled in August, 2005, will be the delivery of a ‘ae on Occupational Health and Safety. In 2002 two pilot OH&S courses were delivered to 40 members. “Next year we will be completing the initial nine courses that our joint project outlined in 1999,” says Brother Quintul. “We are proud the fact that we have continued wil our program and that the CTF lead- ership and membership has been so enthusiastic about the joint Education Centre’s activities.” CTF president Sergio Gatica, who is from the community of Curacautin, and was elected as leader in early 2003, sends thank to all former IWA Canada locals who are now Steelworkers locals. “What you have done for our membership we will always be thankful for,” says Brother Gatica. “Together we have made much progress and we give our commitment to continue to pow gram that we started. With our joi project, we have been able to educate hundreds of union activists which have reached thousands of workers in the forest industry. As CTF mem- bers we have shared our education and training with many other mem- bers in the Chilean labour move- ment - metallurgical workers, con- struction workers, fishermen, agri- cultural workers, service sector workers and others.” Upon completion of the New Members Orientation _ course (Course 9) the next step is to revise the Courses 1-9 in order of priority for the CTF. In December of 2004, the CTF will produce the first issue of it own national newspaper “El Forestal.” The publication, produced in-house with a desktop computer system purchased by our International Solidarity Fund, will be a milestone for the confederation. impacts of globalization GLOBALIZATION, WE'RE TOLD by the mainstream media, is inevitable. Sure, middle-class workers are being eradicated as multinational corporations export investment out of the country. Big busi- ness want us to believe that’s good for Canada and good for developing countries too. Corporate-driven globalization, says our government(s), brings jobs and pros- perity. So why is economic growth declin- ing, are social programs being eliminated and our labour standards being watered down? Well, to this and many other ques- tions about the global economy, you can read a new comic book. The Canadian Labour Congress, in coop- eration with cartoonist and progressive activist Tony Biddle, have released, in hard copy and PDF format, a publication simply entitled: Globalization: Whose Winning and Whose Losing. In twelve pages Mr. Biddle packs in a lot of infor- mation: from the definition of Globalization, to its basic program (the enshrining of corporations’ rights in “free trade” deals, privatization of the public’s assets and the de-funding and privatiza- tion of public | services, deregulation S| of labour and environmen- tal standards, (induding the }| increased —4 labour “flexi- bility” that we being forced to accept), and the eradication of human rights’ stan- dards. The comic book includes a brief historic background on the 2oth century's last great experiment with unbridled globalization, which precipitated the Great Depression of the 1930s, a World War and a thirty-year recovery period where government intervened in the economy to found social programs and services and protect and grow vital indus- tries with provided more and better jobs. The struggles of the trade union move- ment brought collective bargaining rights and better health and safety standards. As = The informative booklet is availableon 27¢ the CLC’s website. the 7o’s approached and inflation and prices rose, so too did the business estab- lishment declare war on the labour move- ment. The comic uses three characters to takt us through these and other historic tran- sitions: through the 1980s and gos, when Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Brian Mulroney led attacks on labour and the high interest rates policies that caused recession and job loss. Meanwhile the affects of high debts and deficits were much more brutal on developing coun- tries who were saddled with high interest payments to first world banks. Most importantly the comic points out the tran- sition of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank from being mostly post WWII instruments of economic stabili to promoters of privatization and del repayment in the 80s and current day world. The CLC says that activists should get their union to join the global resis- tance and promote an alternative agenda which includes full-employment with liv- ing wages, respect for basic human and labour rights and universal access to social services. For more information visit: www.clc-ctc.ca 20 | THE ALLIED WORKER, DECEMBER 2004