EC Meeting Papers January 2018

Speech to European Conference Freedom for Ocalan 6 th December 2017.

Doug Nicholls. General Secretary, General Federation of Trade Unions, Member of the Trade Union Committee Freedom for Ocalan campaign.

Sisters and Brothers, it is an honour to be with you and make a contribution on behalf of the General Federation of Trade Unions and the British trade union Freedom for Ocalan Campaign. Our thoughts over these two days are especially with Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas who face the trumped up courts and charges. Our progressive paper the Morning Star has sent a journalist again to observe. This Conference will consider some of the wider geopolitical issues and some of the more detailed issues concerning the Kurdish struggle and the continuing imprisonment and aggravated isolation of Abdullah Ocalan. I will touch instead on some other issues to inform you of recent progress in Britain. I consider myself to be a patriot, socialist and internationalist. I have been a trade union General Secretary since 1987 and always active nationally in my trade union. In Britain there are some important differences in the nature of the trade unions compared with those particularly on the European and Scandinavian mainlands. Firstly they are non-sectarian. You do not join a trade union because of your political or religious view. In Britain you join a trade union because it represents the trade or occupation you are in. If you are

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