GFTU BGCM 2017

5. China

personalities of the leaders – they are now so exposed you don’t get charismatic leaders and it destroys the person and their values. Unemployment is at an all-time high; 72% young women 60% young men 27% nationally (30% if self-employed are included) Greece has got a long and rocky road ahead of them and it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. As we were leaving the metro and rail services were being closed for a day as the government couldn’t afford to pay the staff. This was being followed by a national strike over the changes to pensions and taxes that are being proposed which are simply unliveable and will result in more suicides, higher unemployment and greater poverty in a country that is already on its knees. The Europe Union is not the institution it once was. It was built upon a need for prosperity, development and strength through democratic processes for the member states and it has grown into a corrupt, undemocratic monster that is focused on making the rich richer and the poor poorer. One thing is for sure though we need to strengthen the trade union movement beyond our borders and fight together for the rights of all our workers and to force the refugee crisis to be dealt with properly by fixing the source of the problem not sweeping thousands of desperate people under the carpet like they are a burden someone else should deal with. Dami Benbow, Deanne Ferguson, Bindu Paul, Sarah Woolley.

5.1 A group of eight leading Chinese trade Unionists from Guandong province, the most industrious in China responsible for 10% of China’s GDP, visited Quorn on 16th January at short notice. They presented us with a wonderful silk embroidery of the Silk Road which will make a beautiful picture at the hotel. 5.2 As the Chinese delegations always do they invited us to visit them and are keen to invite affiliates to their country. 5.3 There is 90% trade union membership in their region and they have 30 million members. They have 3,000 full time lawyers in their region working for the trade unions. A big part of their work is looking after migrant workers into their region from other parts of China. 6. Venezuela 6.1 The GFTU was pleased to assist with a tour for two leading trade unionists at a critical time for Venezuela. 6.2 The contribution made by Wills Rangel, the leader of the most powerful trade union in Venezuela the Oil Workers and their TUC when he visited Quorn, has been translated by Dr Francisco Dominguez as follows: Wills Rangel President of the CBST, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Socialist Trade Union Congress of Workers, Peasants and Workers of the Sea We have come to the UK invited by the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign to participate in their AGM but also to hold various meetings and events with fellow trade unionists, activists on Latin America, journalists and others to bring them up to date regarding the latest developments in our country and the struggles we are going through but particularly our role as working class and organised workers in them. As you probably know, the country’s oligarchy in alliance with imperialism has massively intensified the decade-and-a-half-long efforts to oust the Bolivarian government the moment President Hugo Chavez passed away in March 2013. They are going for the kill and as a result we are now engaged in a life or death struggle for the Bolivarian Revolution.

Below: Photo courtesy of Bindu Paul and Sarah Woolley

Bottom right: Wills Rangel, President of the CBST

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