GFTU BGCM 2019 Minutes

I am going to be brief, because I think we have already heard all the detail

from Osman, but the point is make is that after being in Kurdistan I was flown to

Strasbourg to speak at a mass rally demanding the freedom of Ocalan, a mass

rally. It is probably the biggest rally I have ever spoken at. There must have

been several hundred thousand people at it. It was an absolutely huge, huge

rally. I said from the rostrum there to Erdoğan, and I think that this is a

message we all have to take back, that if any, any of the hunger strikers died, if

any of them died, that we will never forget and we will never forgive and that

their blood, that their blood will be on his hands, because there is a very simple

way to end the hunger strike. The hunger strikers are not demanding the world.

All they are demanding is that Turkey abides by its own laws which say that

people cannot be held in isolation, which say that every prisoner has got a right

to see their lawyer. This is not asking for the world. This is asking for very,

very basic human rights and I urge everyone in this room that when we leave

from here tomorrow that you go back into your trade unions, that you go back

and you speak with your activists and we make this a rallying cry, because I

also said at that rally, and I really will finish on this, that like Mandela, like

Mandela, Ocalan will be released and he will lead his people one day into a

democratic settlement within the Turkish State. Thank you. (Applause)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Manuel. Thank you for that. Osman, we

have got a gift for you which we forgot to give you when you were here.

The presentation was made amidst applause

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for that. There is a booklet here which is a report

of the delegation to Imrali which Manuel was talking about. Doug has got some

copies. It is well worth a read. We will have them there at the coffee break and

at lunchtime. Thank you again. We move on now to the GFTU history. Doug,

do you want to introduce this?

THE GENERAL SECRETARY: It is just a brief item really to get us in the mood for

this evening and the fact that we are celebrating our 102th year. There is a

book on the history of the GFTU by Alice Prochaska who will be with us this

evening, but we have also commissioned some more work by way of

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