There's a battle outside ragin': Unions take centre stage in the fight for democracy
For those of us who support the growth of democracy in the world, it almost goes without saying that we support workers' rights and trade unions. But sometimes that support is only perfunctory.
After all, when we think about dictatorships in the world today and the struggle for democracy, we usually think of political and spiritual leaders, writers, intellectuals and others before we think of the workers. Aung San Suu Kyi and the Dalai Lama have become household names. For some of the larger and better known human rights organizations, workers' rights have long been seen as a bit of a footnote -- though there is some evidence that this is now changing.
While most of us will be vaguely familiar with key international human rights documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), most human rights campaigners will have difficulty naming the eight core conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) which lay out what are universally recognized workers' rights -- such as the right to form and join a trade union and to bargain collectively.
Everyone remembers the central role played by independent trade unions in bringing down Communist rule in Poland and triggering the collapse of the entire Soviet empire in the process. But my guess is that few are aware of the key role being played by trade unions today -- unions which find themselves on the front lines of what amounts to a fight to the death with dictatorships. Those dictatorships are often far more severe in their repression than the Polish Stalinists ever were.