"International solidarity works"

GHANA: The IMF-affiliated Industrial & Commercial Workers' Union (ICU) has come out victorious following severe political harassment and intimidation by the former government of Ghana in 1999-2000. Readers will recall that in October of 1999, in attempts by that government and by employers to destabilise the union and block its democratically-elected leadership, an injunction was slapped on the ICU, forcing it to postpone its 7th Quadrennial Delegates Conference. However, due to the serious scheming and wrongful court cases brought against the union's leadership, when the next national general elections were held, ICU members massively voted against that government, helping remove it from power. When the new government was in place, three judges over a period of two years were able - without any interference - to investigate the court cases brought against the ICU, and in separate rulings have now dismissed all the plaintiffs' actions as "frivolous, vexatious and without any merit." Thus, after almost four years, the ICU will finally be able to hold that 7th Quadrennial Delegates Conference. On behalf of his union, the ICU's general secretary and IMF Executive Committee member, Napoleon Kpoh, has conveyed the union's gratefulness to the IMF and other global union federations for the massive support they gave to the ICU in helping to defeat its adversaries. Kpoh has expressed his personal appreciation and gratitude to all IMF affiliates around the world who sent solidarity messages to the union and protest messages to the government and employers. "International solidarity works," he stated.