International Solidarity Messages to UİD-DER
Solidarity Message from Doro-Chiba
Dear brothers and sisters of UID-DER!Doro-Chiba sends you a heartfelt message. With UID-DER, we have long been developing a close international solidarity as a railway workers union fighting against neoliberal offensive.
We earnestly wish a great success of your rally to organize an all-out struggle to fight back capitalist onslaught on working class. We know that they are trying to victimize working class in a desperate attempt for their survival in the final stage of capitalism, which inevitably brings worst workplace accidents and disastrous illness to working class.
We are awfully sorry not to be present at your significant rally this time. Instead please accept our appeal of sincere labor solidarity with you.
Doro-Chiba has been waging a common struggle with you, who are heroically fighting against neoliberal offensive of extreme exploitation and brutal repression. Our struggle has a great significance in confronting capitalist greed which brings about grave accidents in workplaces and elsewhere and also serious illness to workers. Through carrying on the struggle in workplaces we have been promoting our effort to organize militant labor unions in various industrial branches to fight against capital uncompromisingly.
We are convinced that our struggle constitutes an important part of the counter-offensive against neoliberalism, which is driving workers into unbearable conditions of mere existence through privatization, outsourcing and casualization. Our counter-offensive will be strengthened by organizing militant labor unions all over Japan. Let’s fight together in this common cause.
We have been fighting for 26 years against the Division and Privatization of National Railways in 1987, which triggered an overall capitalist attack of privatization, outsourcing and casualization and caused the destruction of employment and collapse of workers’ safety. In this struggle we had to face a severe situation of labor world, in which established labor unions under the system-friendly national leadership completely abandoned to fight back neoliberalism and has even become its promoter. It has become, therefore, our urgent task to establish a fresh militant labor union movement.
The struggle of 1,047 dismissed national railway workers for their reinstatement has been developed into a forefront of all-out fightback of Japanese working class against capital and the state power. A nation-wide campaign of gathering 100,000 signatures for the support of 1,047 dismissed national railway workers is an important instrument to promote our movement.
Another urgent agenda for us Doro-Chiba is to strengthen a nation-wide movement to abolish all nuclear plants immediately. We have been engaged in this struggle at the forefront since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster on March 11, 2011. We feel it our duty as a labor union to organize protest action against contaminated work of nuclear plant workers and also to defend inhabitants of Fukushima, who are forced to be back to their still highly-contaminated home town as well as against compulsion to work in workplace exposed to radioactivity. Doro-Mito, our sister union, has been organizing several waves of strikes to stop the management’s attempt to force railway workers dangerous work of decontamination of trains, which have been abandoned for long in the vicinity of the wrecked nuclear plants.
While 59 Fukushima children have been diagnosed as thyroid cancer or suspected cancer and have got treatment or operation, Abe administration, totally regardless of these serious developments, is letting radioactive water leak from the wrecked nuclear plants into the sea and contaminate the oceans of the whole world. Now for the time being, there is no nuclear plant in operation in Japan because of our consistent struggle against nuclear disaster for these days. In face of this unfavorable situation for the ruling class, Japanese government is intent to restart a certain numbers of nuclear plants simultaneously at the beginning of the next year and to export nuclear plant facilities to numerous countries of the world. As you already know, Abe concluded an agreement with the Turkish government on last October 28 to construct a nuclear power plant in your country by the hand of Japanese enterprise.
We deeply appreciate once again your precious support for us by collecting a great number of protest signature amounting 16,000 against nuclear plants. We pledge here to carry out our struggle to stop the dangerous plan of nuclear plant export to your country to materialize our thankfulness to you.
Let’s strengthen international working class solidarity and fight together for the establishment of a society, in which workers enjoy a real human life of their own.
With greetings of solidarity!
President of National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba (Doro-Chiba)
TANAKA Yasuhiro
Solidarity Message from IWSN
To our dear class brothers and sistersWe received the great news about UID-DER reaching its target of 100,000 signatures in the “Work Accidents are not Destiny, Stop Workers Dying of Work Accidents!” campaign with heartfelt joy.
This is a great achievement in itself. The fact that these signatures were collected mainly in working class neighbourhoods and at factory gates, following face-to-face contact with about half a million people, makes the campaign a significant development in the post-coup history of the Turkish workers’ movement.
Furthermore, the way that hundreds of UID-DER activists were mobilised and organised to carry out the campaign following their own educational sessions will surely help in building and developing not just this particular campaign but the Association itself. The way you first raised workers’ consciousness about work accidents and occupational diseases and then developed their discontent into concrete support for the campaign will also have long-term positive results.
At a time when trade unions are legal in Turkey, but are not active as organisations that truly fight to defend and expand workers’ rights and improve their standard of living, this type of campaign and the way it patiently worked among the mass of workers is very important. It surely has lessons that workers and labour activists in other countries can learn from.We hope that the success of your campaign will prompt many other workers and labour activists to become involved in reducing the shocking statistics of 100 workers losing their lives every month, and many thousands being injured and mutilated, due to workplace accidents and occupational diseases.
We wish UID-DER’s campaign, with its bold slogan of “no more work accidents, no more deaths”, every success among the broader layers of the working class and other sections of Turkish society (including parliament).
Long live the international unity and struggle of the working class!
Iranian Workers' Solidarity Network (IWSN)
Solidarity Message from Alliance for Workers’ Liberty
On behalf of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, we send greetings and solidarity to your conference and campaign.A lack of safe working conditions, leading to dangerous and often deadly accidents, is a daily reality of life for hundreds of thousands of workers. Over 100 years after the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire killed 113 workers in New York, factory fires and similar disasters are still killing thousands of our brothers and sisters – in Bangladesh, in 2012, and just last week in Italy, where eight Chinese workers died in a textile factory fire.
In Britain, trade union activists in the construction industry have faced systematic blacklisting for attempting to organise for safer conditions on construction sites. On a construction site for Crossrail, Europe’s largest transport construction project, 32 workers were sent to operate a tunnelling machine whose rescue chamber only had capacity for 29. When the workers’ trade union rep spoke out, he along with dozens of other workers were sacked. A militant campaign of trade union direct action succeeded in securing his reinstatement.
As anti-capitalists, we know that these “accidents” and abuses of safety are not really accidental; they are inevitable consequences of a system that sees human beings as disposable material and will cut any corner, abuse any safety regulation, and take any risk if it means the chance to make greater profit.
Against the barbarism of such a system, we counterpose our vision of socialism — a system that puts human need first, and where no worker will face injury or death for the sake of the bosses’ profit.
Best wishes and solidarity for a successful conference and campaign.
Alliance for Workers’ Liberty
Patrick Murphy, National Union of Teachers National Executive Committee
I’m Patrick Murphy, Workers’ Liberty in England, and National Union of Teachers (NUT) Executive. Capitalism kills and maims workers every day. The only organisations we can rely on are workers’ organisations. So, solidarity comrades; international solidarity in your fight to protect workers.
Becky Crocker, London Underground worker and activist in the RMT
Hi, I’m Becky Crocker. I’m activist in the RMT transport union. I work on London Underground. At the moment, London Underground is getting rid of 1,000 jobs from the railway, which is going to make London Underground less safe. This is a really important issue, so I wish you all the best for your conference.
Cathy Nugent, editor, Solidarity
Hello, my name is Cathy Nugent, and I’m the editor of the socialist newspaper Solidarity. I think health and safety is obviously an incredibly important issue, and has been for workers everywhere in the world for as long as capitalism has existed, but it’s becoming increasingly important as the bosses go on the offensive around the world, especially for vulnerable workers, like migrant workers. So I wish you all the best in your conference this weekend.
Message from The Council of Iranian Political Organizations
We have been informed that you have organized a campaign in defence of Iranian workers. We are also aware that a general campaign in Turkey as “crimes of incidents against workers” in preparation for the conference will follow the requirements of this campaign.
Please let us to use this opportunities to thank you and all those comrades that campaigned to support workers right and we highly value your attempts to Solidarity with workers In Iran and Turkey.
This is a solution that our global class in Turkey, Russia, Spain, Iran and many other countries have strived and sacrificed for. While we are addressing our immediate needs and issues, we need to think of and strategize for this long-term solution.
The Iranian workers, despite their deprivation from workers' basic rights are trying and struggling daily to improve our social and working situations. While in struggle they are facing brutality and paying big price. But we will continue our struggle until we will achieve our aims including the achievement the right of freedom of association. Your solidarity and support will help us in this struggle.
Yours sincerely
The Council of left and communist political parties, organizations and committees in solidarity with workers in Iran
Von Solidarität Komitee mit Arbeiter Bewegung in Iran – Köln
Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen, liebe Genossinnen und Genossen!Wir begrüßen Euch herzlich und wünschen Euch viel Erfolg in Eurer wichtigen Konferenz.
Es geschieht jede Minute und zwar überall, dass die Arbeiter ihr Leben einfach wegen Mangel an Schutz und Sicherheit am Arbeitsplatz verlieren.
Arbeitsunfälle sind inoffizielles Verbrechen, weil sie oft durch die lange Arbeitszeit, unsichere Arbeitsgeräte und Akkordarbeit verursacht werden. Um mehr Gewinn und Profit zu erreichen, verzichten die Kapitalisten und die Arbeitgeber auf die Ausgaben und Investitionen für die Arbeitssicherheit ihrer Arbeitsnehmer.
Nach der neusten offiziellen Statistik fallen täglich im Iran drei Arbeiter im Durchschnitt bei Arbeitsunfällen zum Opfer. Das ist ein gemeinsames Leid der Arbeiterklasse Weltweit und daher erfordert einen gemeinsamen Kampf. Die Zusammenarbeit und der Erfahrungsaustausch kann ein gutes Mittel sein, damit wir voneinander mehr lernen und uns gegenseitig besser helfen können.
Um Arbeitsunfälle zu vermeiden oder mindestens zu verringern, haben die Gewerkschaften eine große Verantwortlichkeit. Alle Arbeiterorganisationen unter anderen die Gewerkschaften müssen zur Durchsetzung der folgenden Anforderungen Hand in Hand nehmen:
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Verkürzung der Arbeitszeit und Erniedrigung der Arbeitsgeschwindigkeit
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regelmäßige Sicherheitskontrolle der Arbeitsplätze
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ständige und ausreichende Verfügbarkeit der Schutzmittel und Schutzkleidungen
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qualifizierte Ausbildung der Arbeiter über den Umgang mit den Gefahren auf der Arbeit.
Wir sind gespannt und warten auf die Ergebnisse Eurer Konferenz. Euere Diskussionen bzw. Euere Erfahrungen können bestimmt unseren Kolleginnen und Kollegen im Iran sehr nützlich sein.
Für eine solidarische und erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit!
Hoch die internationale Solidarität!
Sprecher der Solidarität Komitee mit Arbeiter Bewegung in Iran – Köln
S. Sadeh
