Declaration of the Congress of South African Trade Unions International Solidarity Conference, Johannesburg, June 24-26, 2009.
COSATU — Gathered at this historic International Solidarity Conference of COSATU are workers, activists and internationalists committed to a new and just world order, free from poverty, hunger and injustice. We have concluded two days [...]

At the moment, among the US workers there is a feeling of shock, disbelief, anxiety, fear and depression. But that will not last forever. There is a profound questioning of the very system taking place, and eventually, fear and frustration will be transformed into anger and a desire to take action. Many have sincere illusions [...]

FRENCH EXPERIENCE
What are the broad lessons we can take away from the French experience?
For one thing, the protests and strikes, and the organizing that made them possible, show that resignation, panic and “everyone for themself” are not the only possible responses to the onset of economic hard times. While people will often respond in a [...]

MICHAEL D. YATES
We live in a complex, multiply-divided society. We are divided by wealth, by income, by education, by housing, by race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation. These divisions are much discussed; in the last two years, there have been entire series in our major newspapers devoted to the growing income divide. Even the wealth-flaunting of [...]

by Rick Wolff
Capitalism has generated recurring “crises” everywhere and throughout its history.  It alternates bursts of growth and prosperity with crisis periods when many workers lose jobs and homes, bankruptcies close enterprises, production shrinks, and governments reduce public services.  Growth periods almost always promote speculation, overproduction, inflation, and excess debts that crises then erase or [...]

July 16th, 2009

GENEVA (ILO ) 19 June 2009
Faced with the prospect of a prolonged global increase in unemployment, poverty and inequality and the continuing collapse of enterprises, the International Labour Organization (ILO) today adopted a Global Jobs Pact designed to guide national and international policies aimed at stimulating economic recovery, generating jobs and providing protection [...]

This short summary is limited in two ways, first of all because it relies on information of the public media, which in most cases only covers official labour disputes. Secondly, because it covers the limited time-frame of October 2008 to December 2008. Out of the total 50 to 60 strikes and protests that were mentioned [...]