Help unions overseas
AFT to spotlight repression abroad

By David Dorn

The AFT, in cooperation with the Albert Shanker Institute, is launching this new column to increase awareness of the struggle for democracy and trade union rights around the globe. We hope that AFT members and their friends, families and students will be inspired to join in campaigns on behalf of democratic unions and labor movement activists who are suffering repression, imprisonment or worse.

The AFT has a proud tradition of involvement in international affairs. Support for democracy and for human and worker rights remains at the core of our trade union values. Without them, strong, independent unions could not survive. The AFT has assisted beleaguered unions and union activists in places as diverse as South Africa, Poland and Chile. Today, this work remains critically important. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has documented the arrest of more than 2,000 trade union activists in 2004 alone, not to mention continued, widespread cases involving repression, intimidation and harassment.

The media can spotlight such abuse, and have focused on high-profile cases, such as Burma’s imprisonment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the ongoing atrocities in the Darfur region of the Sudan, and the Mugabe regime’s recent jailing of the leadership of the Zimbab-
we Congress of Trade Unions. For every case that’s publicized, however, hundreds of others go unreported. Our purpose in launching this column is to let you know how you can help the men, women and even children who are suffering in the fight to protect the rights and freedoms of democratic labor organizations that we value for ourselves.

Letter-writing campaigns are an important tool in this struggle. The AFT and other unions have used them to help secure the release of jailed labor leaders around the world. One recent campaign, conducted over five years in cooperation with Amnesty International and Britain’s National Union of Teachers, led to the release of Taye Woldesmiate, president of the Ethiopian Teachers Association and a prominent government critic. While in jail, Taye Woldesmiate received more than 3,000 letters of support, mostly from teachers.

In subsequent issues of AFT On Campus, we will profile trade union activists—especially those in education, healthcare and other public services—who have been persecuted and jailed for exercising their democratic rights. Cases where labor organizations and democracy activists are under siege also will be included.

We hope that these profiles will put a human face on the ongoing struggle for democracy and for human and worker rights, and spur your involvement in protest campaigns. More in-depth and up-to-date information about each case, sample protest letters and petitions, and postal and e-mail addresses will be available on the AFT Web site, along with information about other human and trade union rights campaigns.