GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

the great composer and his cultural contribution to Poland and the wider world,

so they are now experts in the field.

I suppose the biggest reflection for me personally on the Poland trip was the

position of having a UKIP type Government there and a repressive agenda and

it made me shiver when I think of the possibilities here in our shores of those

sorts of people getting a foothold in our political system. It is a country, of

course, that suffered from Nazi and Stalinist repression over many years and

one where, of course, we saw the horrors of Auschwitz and Berghaus and I

was able to make a personal visit to those places and it was the most moving

thing I have ever experienced. I know many of you have probably been there

too. I guess for me, if you forget the lessons of the past they will come back to

haunt you. We can only hope that that particular Government is removed at

some stage and we can see a more trade union friendly situation develop out

there, but thank you very much. (Applause)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Ian. It was quite clear that the unions are a bit under

the cosh and the did their very best to make us welcome, but it is not a very

good environment for them.

In the report you will see that we did send a delegation to Venezuela and there

is a comprehensive write up of that and we were able to entertain our friends

from Vietnam, I think three times. We took them to the PFA offices in London

and they went to the hotel and it was very nice to meet them and to keep those

contacts open.

But we will move on now to the Kurdish issue that the GFTU has been involved

with now for many years and I am going to ask Oshor, Vice-President, to just

report on the Kurdish Festival that we held at Quorn Grange.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Chair. Oshor Williams, PFA. The Kurdish

issue, since the GFTU first became involved and active in supporting the

Kurdish plight, has now become critical. Obviously before I go on to the

Kurdish Festival, I think it still merits some framing before we actually

contextualise how important the Kurdish Festival was to us and, of course, we

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