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13 December, 2007
Marcello paid tribute to Brian Fredricks, former IMF assistant general secretary at the Central Committee meeting in Brazil, November 28, 2007.
Brian Fredricks is retiring and going back to his beloved South Africa and Durban. I have tried hard to convince him to move to Gothenburg but he resists. I am afraid that I have lost that battle.
Saying "thank you" to a man who has devoted his entire life to the cause of the workers is not easy.
Having known Brian for almost 30 years I know that the best way of thanking him would be just to say thank you.
Brian is a humble person who believes short speeches are the best.
It is not easy to summarise Brian's long and intense trade union work since 1968 when he started as a young worker at the Toyota assembly plant in Durban, through the formation of a new non-racial auto workers union, the strikes of the 1970s, the development of international solidarity linkages, and the establishment of the first IMF South Africa office. All of that represented a crucial contribution to the unification of unions in the metal sector and the foundation of NUMSA.
Brian started working for the IMF in 1982 when the Central Committee of the IMF meeting in Rome expelled two South African Unions from its ranks for being racist and discriminating against black people in South Africa.
It was a difficult time for the democratic workers' movement in the Country, which was under tremendous pressure from the Government. The police were attacking and arresting workers' leaders every day.
In fact, the IMF office that Brian opened was illegal and he, like many other comrades, put his life and safety at risk.
Brian worked hard to create the conditions for the three IMF-affiliated South African Metalworkers' Unions to come together and build a new unified Metalworkers' Union.
He was requested by his fellow workers to take the lead in the merger process and he did so successfully, laying the basis for what then became the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, NUMSA -- which is today is an example of a real, strong and activist trade union.
Together with a journalist, Ian Bissel, Brian initiated a newspaper that the IMF intended to distribute among metalworkers in South Africa. The newspaper was meant to be not just a voice of the IMF in South Africa, but a voice for all South African workers who did not have the possibility to speak up.
The second issue of the newspaper was confiscated and the police banned the IMF from publishing anything further. I'll leave it to you to figure out why, but needless to say, this was the end of Brian's short but intense career as editor!
However, he continued his work based on a difficult balance between legality and outlaw to defend workers' rights.
I have a lot of memories from the time when he was director of the IMF office in South Africa. I was with him when I had my traumatic first direct experience of the Country's apartheid system. It was in 1983, shortly after the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the IMF. Brian came to pick me up at the airport to drive me to Port Elisabeth to run a Health and Safety seminar for our shop stewards. He showed me beautiful beaches where he told me he wasn't allowed to go because of the colour of his skin. If he wanted to go for a swim in the warm ocean he had to travel 30-40 km away, where a special beach was "reserved" for African people.
Another terrible memory I have is in Durban where Brian took me to visit the area of the city where he grew up. We stopped for a beer in the pub where he used to go before he moved to Johannesburg. The owner of the pub told Brian that he would be served but I wouldn't. Much to his regret, he couldn't violate the law that didn't allow both of us to sit together and have a drink.
The humiliation I felt was obviously nothing compared to the harassment that millions of black people in South Africa went through during the almost 50 years of apartheid regime!
Brian has been a true and solid pillar for our organisation.
Always close to reality, with both feet on the ground.
Always close to comrades, ready to understand and support them.
Always a man of vision, and a reliable friend.
For 13 years I have enjoyed working with Brian as AGS. He has been an indispensable support in all difficult decisions, always ready to share responsibilities and concerned with what would be the best for the organisation. An indispensable support for me in my work as GS.
I am sure that some of you noticed that even when sometimes we had different opinions, or disagreed on some issues, our discussions always ended up in decisions that we both would stand up for. For all of this, I have to thank you Brian, for your loyalty to me and to the organisation.
Also I have to thank you for being an example in how you have lived your life ... to me and I believe to many metalworkers around the world.
Through your behaviour -- humble, generous, open and straight-forward, always ready to discuss and to listen -- you have been a great teacher for many of our generation and for many younger trade unionists.
For those younger comrades, let me just remember your joy and happiness when you received at the beginning of 1994 the card that entitled you to cast your vote for the first time ever in a democratic election that was going to be held in South Africa in April 1994.
You had been waiting for 50 years to exercise the most fundamental of Human Rights, the right to vote.
I am not going to ask you for whom you voted, it is your right to keep that secret, but knowing that around 70% of the votes went to Mandela I think we can guess! And I will never forget seeing you so very happy for that outcome.
Brian, you and Lynn will now be returning to your home in Durban, but I hope of course to see you again soon. I am sure that you will come back to Geneva from time to time, perhaps not specifically to see me but to see your children who have both decided to stay in Switzerland. I hope you will pop by the office for a cup of coffee and a good chat.
Lynn, let me say that we owe special gratitude to you, so the IMF is once again saying thank you to both of you, for everything you have done for the metalworkers of the world and we all wish you both a long and happy retirement.