Global unity needed to organise workers: WFTU

The World Federation Trade Union has urged unity within all trade unions across the globe in order for unorganised working class to become organised.

The World Federation Trade Union (WFTU) has urged unity within all trade unions across the globe in order for unorganised working class to become organised.

Speaking at a WFTU seminar in Johannesburg on Tuesday, the federation’s deputy general secretary, Hariharan Mahadevan, said: “The working class of each developing nation is characterised by a small segment of organised labour and inordinately large segment of the unorganised and the unemployed.”

The WFTU is in South Africa as part of preparations for its world congress in Durban in October.

It held a seminar on Tuesday on the role of the class-oriented trade union movement in the transnational corporations.

Mahadevan said that the growing rate of unemployment in South Africa and the rest of the world would prove to be a lethal weapon in a “fascistic attack” on the organised working class and the democracy.

This was why trade unions had to rise to the occasion on time.

“Trade unions need to act on time to organise the unorganised and the unemployed to fight for decent employment for all as an integral part of the working class organising,” he said.

Mahadevan said it was important for workers to jointly fight for their interests in the workplace in all regions and continents, no matter their status or origin. “The need for unity is of paramount importance,” he said.

Labour Bureau