[fse-esf] Report meeting network on Labour in Lisbon

[Marco Berlinguer]

This is the report of the meeting of the Network on Labour held in Lisbon
during the ESF preparatory assembly.
Sorry for the delay.
Marco Berlinguer
 
REPORT
The meeting has been organized to present the initiative which has been
launched in the WSF of Nairobi during the assembly "Labour and
Globalization". The assembly in Nairobi has been participated by more than
200 people and tens of organizations and ended with an appeal for the
creation of a Global network on Labour in the WSF process. (see attachment)
The basic assumptions of the appeal are: the willing to give more centrality
and visibility to the labour issues in the WSF process; the conviction that
for scaling this gap, it is necessary to facilitate the emerging of a new
and enlarged concept of labour; and, finally and connected, that it is
necessary to strengthen the communication and the relationships among trade
unions, social movements and centres of research engaged on issues related
to the labour.
The meeting in Lisbon has been the first opportunity to debate in Europe
this initiative and the possibility to create around the ESF process a
European articulation of the Network on Labour.
In the meeting of Lisbon, participated by about 30 persons (see attachment),
we agreed on the idea of beginning the development of this initiative in
Europe.
We also agreed on the following concepts:
1) To consider this European space as an articulation of the Global Network.
This means that we maintain the engagement in the development of the global
network and that this initiative, though it is focused on Europe, it is also
aimed to reinforce the whole network. 
For this reason we also agreed on maintaining, for now, as our common basic
space of communication the group "Labour and Globalization" created around
the assembly in the WSF of Nairobi and set up in the WSF process website
(see instructions to join the group in attachment).
2) To consider the network not like an actor but as a space of
communication, exchange of experiences and promotion of debate.
We also started to identify the character of the debate we would like to
promote through this space, that is: first, a more strategic debate on
issues related to the labour in the globalization; and second, to develop a
thematic articulation of the debate privileging the issues that are, for
their same nature, fields of meeting, dialogue and confrontation between
trade unions and social movements, like for example: income/right to work;
development/ecology; precarity; International trade policies; migrants.
3) To consider as fundamental tasks of the network in the ESF process: 
a) the enlargement of the participation and the involvement of actors
concerned with labour issues (trade unions, social movements and centres of
research) in the ESF process and the reinforcement of the same utility of
the ESF for this kind of issues;
b) the accumulation, during the preparatory process of the next ESF, of
materials and relationships and the definition of lines of research that
will be used to prepare the next ESF (planned in Scandinavia for September
2008).
 
Last, we also received in the meeting, from both the comrades of the CGIL
and (by Hugo Braun) from the comrades of IG Metall, the offer to host a
specific meeting of the network. And we agreed on thanking them and on the
opportunity to use this possibility in the next future.
The next meeting of the European network will be anyway during the next
preparatory assembly planned for September in Sweden. 
 
PROPOSAL FOR THE NEXT MEETING
In order to start a more structured work, we discussed about how to use
better the preparatory assemblies to develop our initiative.
An idea emerged that is to use the Friday before the assembly, traditionally
devoted to the networks meetings, to organize an half day of a full day of
meeting and discussion. 
That would be also a way to motivate more people to participate to the ESF
process and to enlarge the utility of the preparatory process.
We also collected some proposals about the topics to discuss, that could be:
- the welfare state as an historical model, its crisis and its possibilities
of renewal (the proposal in this case is to start from the work that has
been developed by the Campaign for the Welfare State, led by the trade
unions in Norway)
- the International trade policies, the issue of the EPAs (trade agreements
with Africa) and their impact on labour conditions in Europe (using in this
case, the work done by the friends of Attac Austria and Germany)
- the movement against CPE in France, as a case of self-organized movement
on issues related to the "precarisation" of the work (inviting, through our
French comrades, somebody coming from this experience).
But all these are yet proposals to be discussed.
 
Also it remains that a basic common task is the enlargement of our network. 
So, please, forward all the information you think can be useful to any other
people you think can be interested to join our group.
 
SOME NEW FROM ITALY
About Italy, as it has been told in Lisbon, the new is that all the CGIL
structures that promoted the assembly in Nairobi decided to structure a
common space for consolidating the initiative. This space of coordination
will be called "Lavoro in Movimento", and has been created by all the main
CGIL structures that worked in the last years in the WSF and ESF process.
Actually they are: the International Department; Secretary for Europe; FP
(Public employees); FIOM (metal mechanic workers); FLC (school and knowledge
workers); Di Vittorio Foundation; and several territorial structures:
Bologna, Brescia, Cosenza, Imperia, Roma e Lazio and Reggio Emilia.
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.fse-esf.org/pipermail/fse-esf/attachments/20070509/4b61177d/attachment.htm