Re: [Fwd: Trade union statement to IMF/World Bank Spring meetings (ICFTU

My thanks to Professor Chase-Dunn for posting the most informative
declaration by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
(ICFTU), International Trade Secretariats (ITS), and the Trade Union
Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC).  

I'm curious about one matter, however.  According to TUAC's Web page, its
affiliates consist of "55 national trade union centres in the 29 OECD
industrialised countries which together represent some 70 million workers
(TUAC, online)."  ICFTU says its affiliates represent 125,000,000 workers
in 145 countries and territories on five continents (ICFTU, online).   As
far as I can tell from the report prepared for its 17th World Congress to
be held in April, about 55 percent of the membership of its affiliates came
from the advanced market countries as of the end of 1998.

I can't immediately come up with similar data for the International Trade
Secretatariats.

In any event, my questions is, considering that evidently 100 percent of
TUAC's members and some 55 percent of ICFTU members come from advanced
countries, to what extent can these organizations be considered to
represent the workers of developing countries, as opposed to the trade
unionists of Western countries?  Are we looking at the views of labor
aristocracies, North and South?

Provocatively yours,

Jeff







International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.  "ICFTU:  What It Is,
What It Does."  Available online at
http://www2.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?DocType=Overview&Index=990916422&L
anguage=EN  

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.  "Report on
Activities--Financial Reports 1995-1998."  Available online at
http://www2.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?DocType=Publication&Index=99120924
8&Language=EN

Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD.  "About TUAC."  Available
online at 
http://www.tuac.org/about/about.htm


--
Jeffrey L. Beatty
Doctoral Student
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
2140 Derby Hall
154 North Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210

(o) 614/292-2880
(h) 614/688-0567

Email:  Beatty.4@osu.edu
______________________________________________________   
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--this is the motto of Enlightenment--Immanuel Kant,
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