CUPE members gave a warm welcome to global trade unionists at Wednesday’s International Solidarity Forum, where workers from around the world came together to discuss building collective power across borders.
Santiago Dasmariñas of COURAGE, a public sector union in the Philippines, described the terrifying practice of “red-tagging,” labelling activists as terrorists and effectively declaring “open season” on them. COURAGE is fighting back through education and organizing abroad, including in Canada, guided by their motto: “AOM: arouse, organize, and mobilize.”
Lana Nazzal, president of the Palestinian Governmental Health Service Employees’ Union, and her colleague and translator Carine Metz of the Democracy and Workers’ Rights Centre in Ramallah, painted another picture of workers under siege: health workers in Gaza and the West Bank saving lives amid bombings and sniper fire. They shared their own words of solidarity and encouragement: “Hope is not born in comfort but hardship,” they said. “When workers far away hold a banner that says Freedom for Palestine, we feel our words rise from beneath the rubble and reach the world.”
From Colombia, Margarita López, president of the Acuavalle Workers’ Union, spoke of deepening inequality, the rise of the far right, and privatization that “wants to turn each drop of water into a business.” Despite threats and violence—156 union leaders have been killed—López and her members continue to fight for public services. “As public sector workers, we have an enormous potential to fight and defend our public services,” she said. “Unions are leading a social transformation that will allow us to become leaders against privatization.”
Ethan Young of Public Services International closed the evening with a call to action: “There is no avenue of struggle that is acceptable to the oppressor… Get organized, learn from your comrades, and bring international solidarity to the bargaining table, to the picket line, and across the world.”