Photo: Delegates vote unanimously in support of backing Coca-Cola workers.

A resolution submitted by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents around 14,000 CCE and Coca-Cola workers in the USA was unanimously supported by the Congress.

Full details are here.

CONDEMNS the slaughter of villagers protesting against Government seizure of agricultural land in Nandigram by police and ruling party goons. On March 14 at least 31 villagers were shot dead. Many women were raped, innumerable bodies (including children) have disappeared.

support IUF affiliate PBKMS in its struggle to protect agricultural jobs and land;

protest to the ILO, other relevant parts of the UN, and to the Indian Government

demand an immediate end to the violence and forced seizure of agricultural land and an impartial investigation.

Submitted by: PBKMS, India

Notes the dangerous trend towards the creation of a Police State which has arisen under President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Emergency Regulations under which abductions, disappearances and arbitrary detentions have occurred including the abductions of trade unionists and journalists;

Demands the release of all detainees;

Calls on all IUF affiliates to support the defense of trade union, human and democratic rights in Sri Lanka.

Submitted by: The Ceylon Mercantile, Industrial and General Workers’ Union (CMU)

NOTES that seven farmers who led protests defending their land in Guangdong province were detained and brutally beaten by the police. They had their crops destroyed, were charged with extortion in December 2006 and had their lawyers barred from entering the court.

CONDEMNS this police brutality and the shocking denial of legal rights.

RELEASE the farmers, immediately and unconditionally;

STOP forced land eviction;

GUARANTEE all accused the right to legal representation as a basic principle of justice.

CALLS UPON IUF and its affiliates to campaign for these demands and to support their defence of their means of livelihood.

submitted by:
Catering and Hotels Industries Employees General Union
Swire Beverages (Hong Kong) Employees General Union

For more information about "The Internationale" including lyrics in different languages, click here.

Aliaksandr Yarashuk, from the Belarus Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions
Mark Lauritsen, from the UFCW in North America
Branislav Canak, from Nezavisnost in Serbia

All the videos can be seen on YouTube.

My name is Anas Haryanto, I work in Alila Hotel Jakarta as a butcher in Kitchen Department. On the 3rd FSPM Congress, back in April 2005, I was elected as President of FSPM, a federation of Workers’ Union in Hotel, Restaurant, Plaza, Apartment, Food Retail, Catering and Tourism in Indonesia.

For 3 years after its establishment, this federation didn’t show any development due to Shangri-La case. And without support and solidarity that each of unions in this room has contributed, this federation could not possibly have survived.

When you showed solidarity action toward Shangri-La workers, you could never know that at the same time you were contributing to the development of an independent and democratic icon of union for all of Indonesian workers.

Through this best opportunity, I, on behalf of my members, general council, executive committee and women committee of FSPM would like to convey our gratitude for the solidarity actions, financial support and prayers for the Shangri-La workers. We thank you most of all for giving us, the hotel and restaurant workers in Indonesia, the opportunity to build a union for the future for our interests.

We would especially like to convey our thanks and respect to Bro. Ron Oswald, and to our teacher, friend and comrade in struggle, Bro. Ma Wei Pin. He has given all his time, his thoughts, his life to us, something which our federation will always remember.

From the beginning, IUF and 9 local unions in 2 cities had to decide what was the most appropriate strategy for Indonesia, after the country was freed the regime of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998. Suharto had been in power for 33 years.

It would have been easy just to affiliate the unions which were already there, which had been created when Suharto was in power. But IUF Asia Pacific took the view that such a strategy would not bring the change that was really needed by the workers of Indonesia, especially in IUF’s jurisdiction.

For that reason, IUF decided to take a longer and more difficult road – that is to assist Indonesian workers to organise and build a new federation. The first stage of the orgaising work was to decide: where to start, what issues should be put as organising tool, How big the scoup should be, and how, what way do we have to take.

Result from long discussion over strategic planning, we decided to start from Grand Hyatt Jakarta Hotel Union, because it’s located in the heart city of Jakarta and the local union has many influence to the rest of hotel sector in Jakarta.

To work focus in the islands of Java and Bali where the most population and tourism industry are located, and to take wage and service charge issues as a main organising tool and enlarged the capacity of Grand Hyatt Jakarta Local Union to be an alliance and front liner on the organising work and to be a promotor for the significance of having an independent and democratic tourism workers’ movement.

Every plan will never gone through as we expected. Every one of us has to be able to adapt for whatever possibly happen. In the case of organising hotel workers, our strategic plan was interupted by Shangri-La case. For what, at the end of the day has given us opportunity to show the work of internasionalism and bringing evidence and facts to ensure Indonesian workers of the importance of being part of International Federation such as IUF. In that stage, we could even put IUF as an organising tool to address participation of workers and increasing membership of FSPM.

Now, FSPM has growing in a very fast track. Surely, there are a lot of work in every development. There always be a new local union wants to joint FSPM every week or month. But then we have to work even harder to consolidate the federation, to increase the capacity of secretariat and to expand the level of leadership and every committee in FSPM.

If you doubt in how IUF’s way and work could deliver the result, then FSPM and its’ development can testify as prove. It is working, and still will be needed for the power of workers’ movement both in international and national level in our future.

Our federation could not have existed without IUF, without all the unions from Latin America to Africa, from North America to Australia. Without unions in Sweden, Belgium and Japan. Only by taking the IUF path, have we had success in our struggles. We ask for the opportunity in the next few years to become, in the future, a federation which is truly strong, independent and democratic as you all would expect.

Thank you very much.

Following the adoption of several resolutions (Sri Lanka, West Bengal, etc. - details to follow), the first speaker was Kirill Buketov from the IUF's Moscow office, who spoke about the challenge of organizing workers in the former Soviet Union.

He was followed by Kumushbek Mambetov, president of the AWU in Kyrgyzstan, who addressed problems faced by his union in the largely rural, mountainous former Soviet republic, where the privatization of agricrulture led to a massive decline in union membership among small farmers.

Mark Lauritsen of the UFCW in North America spoke about the struggles at Smithfield, one of the world's largest meat manufacturers, which seems intent upon exporting its low-wage, anti-union model to Europe.

Adela Torres of SINTRAINAGRO (Colombia) closed the session.

Delegates are now responding and discussing the issues raised.

The second session featured speakers from Germany, Indonesia and North America.

Franz-Josef Mollenberg from NGG (Germany) spoke about NGG's organizing strategy.

Anas Haryanto, president of FSPM (Indonesia) emphasized the key role played by the IUF and international solidarity, which he said were essential to the union's survival and growth.

Bruce Raynor, president of UNITE HERE, talked about organizing hotel workers, private equity, and other issues facing unions in North America and around the world.

The 25th IUF Congress:

NOTES the continuous deterioration of the socio-economic situation in Zimbabwe and gross violations of human and trade union rights;

CONDEMNS the brutal attack on the opposition resulting in the killing of innocent people;

DEMANDS that the Government of Zimbabwe respect freedom of association and the rule of law;

CALLS on the IUF and its affiliates to campaign for the full respect of trade union and human rights in Zimbabwe.

The panel, moderated by BBC journalist Paul Mason, included Sharan Burrow (president of the Australian Trade Union Congress and the International Trade Union Confederation), Graciela Camano (vice president of the Argentinian Parliament and former Labour Minister) and Franck Riboud, CEO of Danone Group, one of the world's largest corporations and a key player in the food sector.

Sharan Burrow (pictured) commented on IUF documents distibuted at the congress, urging unions to go further than what they have done so far, and stressing the key role to be played by global unions -- including organizing workers in countries where there are no unions today.

Franck Riboud (pictured) spoke about the importance of there being "strong trade unions" around the world, and cited Danone's largely positive experience with the IUF, having signed several joint agreements. When asked what would be the one thing he would like to change, Riboud spoke about having managers in different countries who shared his vision -- and who were willing to work closely with unions.

Graciela Camano (pictured) pointed out that unions several decades ago were in many ways more international than they are today -- citing the example of the world-wide struggle for the eight-hour day.

Discussion followed, with participation from delegates.

The IUF has a website on the subject of private equity, here.

The 25th IUF Congress:

CONCERNED about the political implications of President Bush's recent visit to Latin America and his promotion of bio-fuels.

Challenge claims that agro-fuels are “green fuels”. They are produced in poor social conditions, demand extensive use of pesticides and water, cause deforestation.

CALLS on IUF to:

make organizing throughout the palm oil chain a priority bearing in mind the lack of freedom of association and widespread use of migrant workers ;

develop clear policy on the models of agricultural production needed to ensure food sovereignty and decent jobs in agriculture and the food chain, including food versus fuels issues in agro-fuels production.

The 25th IUF Congress meeting in Geneva, March 19-22, 2007

NOTES WITH CONCERN the increased use of precarious employment practices by employers in all IUF sectors throughout the world, involving:

Defining Food Sovereignty as the right of people to define their own sustainable policies and strategies for the production, distribution and consumption of food, to guarantee food for the whole population.