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personalities of the leaders – they are now so exposed
you don’t get charismatic leaders and it destroys the
person and their values.
Unemployment is at an all-time high;
72% young women
60% young men
27% nationally (30% if self-employed are included)
Greece has got a long and rocky road ahead of them
and it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. As
we were leaving the metro and rail services were being
closed for a day as the government couldn’t afford to
pay the staff. This was being followed by a national
strike over the changes to pensions and taxes that are
being proposed which are simply unliveable and will
result in more suicides, higher unemployment and
greater poverty in a country that is already on its knees.
The Europe Union is not the institution it once was. It
was built upon a need for prosperity, development and
strength through democratic processes for the member
states and it has grown into a corrupt, undemocratic
monster that is focused on making the rich richer and
the poor poorer.
One thing is for sure though we need to strengthen the
trade union movement beyond our borders and fight
together for the rights of all our workers and to force
the refugee crisis to be dealt with properly by fixing
the source of the problem not sweeping thousands
of desperate people under the carpet like they are a
burden someone else should deal with.
Dami Benbow, Deanne Ferguson, Bindu Paul, Sarah
Woolley.
5.
China
5.1 A group of eight leading Chinese trade
Unionists from Guandong province, the most
industrious in China responsible for 10% of
China’s GDP, visited Quorn on 16th January
at short notice. They presented us with a
wonderful silk embroidery of the Silk Road
which will make a beautiful picture at the hotel.
5.2 As the Chinese delegations always do they
invited us to visit them and are keen to invite
affiliates to their country.
5.3 There is 90% trade union membership in their
region and they have 30 million members.
They have 3,000 full time lawyers in their region
working for the trade unions. A big part of their
work is looking after migrant workers into their
region from other parts of China.
6.
Venezuela
6.1 The GFTU was pleased to assist with a tour for
two leading trade unionists at a critical time for
Venezuela.
6.2 The contribution made by Wills Rangel, the
leader of the most powerful trade union in
Venezuela the Oil Workers and their TUC when
he visited Quorn, has been translated by Dr
Francisco Dominguez as follows:
Wills Rangel
President of the CBST, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Socialist
Trade Union Congress of Workers, Peasants and Workers
of the Sea
We have come to the UK invited by the Venezuela
Solidarity Campaign to participate in their AGM but also
to hold various meetings and events with fellow trade
unionists, activists on Latin America, journalists and
others to bring them up to date regarding the latest
developments in our country and the struggles we are
going through but particularly our role as working class
and organised workers in them. As you probably know,
the country’s oligarchy in alliance with imperialism
has massively intensified the decade-and-a-half-long
efforts to oust the Bolivarian government the moment
President Hugo Chavez passed away in March 2013.
They are going for the kill and as a result we are now
engaged in a life or death struggle for the Bolivarian
Revolution.
Below: Photo courtesy of
Bindu Paul and Sarah Woolley
Bottom right: Wills Rangel,
President of the CBST