(Durban 07.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) The 17th ICFTU Congress ended today in Durban. The extensive preparations and a whole week's work by 1,200 delegates and others involved in the event produced a remarkable success for the international trade union movement. Social movements on all continents, focusing on a large variety of problems of working men and women, may well count on the ICFTU as a strong and constructive partner in the common struggle.

"At earlier Congresses the ICFTU used to be content to define the goals sought by the global trade union movement. This time we went further. The Congress launched a process which will make the entire ICFTU family a more effective tool in the hands of those whose share of the world's enormous wealth is not a fair one," commented Turo Bergman, Secretary for International Affairs at Finland's largest central trade union organisation, SAK.

"We expect this process, due to last until the end of next year, not only to invigorate our way of working, but also to solidify and broaden our very roots, our base, which is the strength of the rank and file."

"The events of four months ago at the WTO Seattle conference clearly demonstrated the prospects for tackling growing global injustices by increased cooperation between the trade unions and the rest of organised civil society. Development in this direction has been surprisingly rapid", Bergman notes.

More pressure in the North towards enterprises operating in the South

"The ICFTU currently represents 125 million organised working men and women in 145 countries. We want these figures to rise. By oiling our own machinery, by better defining our priorities on the broad range of our goals and by analysing more deeply the areas in which we can advance, we can make the trade unions as a whole more attractive to those who, for various reasons, have not yet become part of the organised labour movement."

"One obvious point of leakage is the huge and expanding informal sector of the economy. To overcome inadequate organising rates will demand tireless labour and expert application at all levels."

"After this Congress the trade unions of the industrialised countries will increase the pressure on enterprises operating both in the North and in the South. All of these companies must begin to understand and show practical respect for internationally approved core labour standards and other requirements for decent working conditions. We shall forge closer ties with the consumer movements and other forces that share this goal with us."

Bergman had not taken the unity of the 17th Congress for granted. "I was prepared for more contextual contradictions between the delegates from the North and the South", he admits. "It is a fairly new development that we can agree with such unanimity, for instance, on fundamental rights issues in working life. "

Interviewed by Trade Union News from Finland, there was one further point which Bergman chose to add. "After this Congress, the role of the Finnish trade union movement, and especially that of SAK, will become more central."