Trade union internationalism and practical solidarity

This weekend a very productive joint region international seminar at the Mechanics Institute in Manchester brought together 50 UNISON activists from Northern, North West and Scotland. Building on a session in Glasgow in 2013, the event heard a keynote presentation on TTIP from Polly Jones of the World Development Movement and following workshops an action plan was agreed to step up campaigning/lobbying on the proposed trade deal which will open up public services to US corporations as well as undermine democracy.

Another world is possible

This was the theme of a joint UNISON Scotland and North West international seminar in Glasgow yesterday. Delegates heard the optimism of young Cuban trade unionists, the ongoing struggle against the continuing human disaster of Bhopal, the human cost of the sweatshops that make our clothes and the arguments against austerity across Europe. "It's a robbery not a recession", delegates were told.
   Whatever the independence referendum result, the seminar underlined that working people in Scotland, the North West of England and indeed across the world have far more in common with each other than with the rich exploiters in their home countries or regions. The real division is between rich and poor, the powerful and the dispossessed, with the need to fight the inequality that transcends borders. See report on UNISON Scotland blog http://unison-scotland.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/unison-scotland-and-north-west-join-for.html