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27 October, 1999Last Saturday, October 23, the people of Sweden again demonstrated their disgust for intolerance and racism, which are deep-rooted in all societies, without exception.
The occasion was the funeral of trade union leader Björn Söderberg, murdered by young nazis just a couple of weeks ago. The murderers have been caught, will be tried in court and will hopefully receive a severe sentence as punishment.
Trade unions, political parties and other organisations - all of them together wanted to show that people in general, regardless of ideology, refuse violence.
For the trade union movement, fighting against racism is nothing new. Long before any other organisation, the United Autoworkers of America (UAW) fought hard against companies in order to include language in collective agreements to guarantee that there was no discrimination based on race or skin colour. This was as early as in the fifties.
It is time to renew the fight.
Now the unions are fighting hard to get one of the world's largest transnational companies, Ford, to apply and honour the agreement in the USA and elsewhere.
In many countries, right-wing political parties are speculating on people's fears and ignorance in order to win votes among the working-class population. In Austria, and most recently in Switzerland, the voters turned their backs on progressive forces, to give their support to parties which are anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, anti-social, anti-tax - in other words anti-everything which does not originate from themselves.
Many slogans were heard during these election campaigns which reminded us of a not-too-distant but yet forgotten time. This populist way of running election campaigns in a country in order to obtain power and responsibility is very dangerous and must end.
This can lay good ground for new Nazism and racism and intolerance. When politics are turning reactionary and create social conflicts which will damage an entire society, trade unions have to fight back.
At the workplace, we, the trade unions, have the greatest opportunity to inform and educate our ranks by talking about and discussing this whole problem with them. When we confront our opinions, we have the best chance to win them over to our side.
The problem cannot be solved in collective agreements alone, but we can definitely contribute to influencing public opinion and making our members aware of the danger and of the consequences of reactionary politics.
At the end, everyone will be convinced that racism and intolerance are devils which have to be eliminated from our society.
Trade unions, political parties and other organisations - all of them together wanted to show that people in general, regardless of ideology, refuse violence.
For the trade union movement, fighting against racism is nothing new. Long before any other organisation, the United Autoworkers of America (UAW) fought hard against companies in order to include language in collective agreements to guarantee that there was no discrimination based on race or skin colour. This was as early as in the fifties.
It is time to renew the fight.
Now the unions are fighting hard to get one of the world's largest transnational companies, Ford, to apply and honour the agreement in the USA and elsewhere.
In many countries, right-wing political parties are speculating on people's fears and ignorance in order to win votes among the working-class population. In Austria, and most recently in Switzerland, the voters turned their backs on progressive forces, to give their support to parties which are anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, anti-social, anti-tax - in other words anti-everything which does not originate from themselves.
Many slogans were heard during these election campaigns which reminded us of a not-too-distant but yet forgotten time. This populist way of running election campaigns in a country in order to obtain power and responsibility is very dangerous and must end.
This can lay good ground for new Nazism and racism and intolerance. When politics are turning reactionary and create social conflicts which will damage an entire society, trade unions have to fight back.
At the workplace, we, the trade unions, have the greatest opportunity to inform and educate our ranks by talking about and discussing this whole problem with them. When we confront our opinions, we have the best chance to win them over to our side.
The problem cannot be solved in collective agreements alone, but we can definitely contribute to influencing public opinion and making our members aware of the danger and of the consequences of reactionary politics.
At the end, everyone will be convinced that racism and intolerance are devils which have to be eliminated from our society.