IWW WISERA Address ICL-CIT 3rd ICL-CIT Congress

International delegates of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wales, Ireland, Scotland & England Regional Administration) have been warmly welcomed at the 3rd Congress of the International Confederation of Labor (ICL-CIT) in Italy.

In addressing the audience of international delegations, one of the IWW WISE-RA said:

Industrial Workers of the World-WISERA warmly welcomes the 3rd Congress of the International Confederation of Labor (ICL-CIT), which is going to take place in Massenzatico, Italy, on September 25–27.

The 3rd Congress is taking place at a historic juncture marked by new and critical processes at the global level since the Confederation’s last congress in Germany in 2023.

The genocidal war in Gaza and the West Bank of Palestine, the deadlocked continuation of the war in Ukraine, the outbreak of USA-Israel's disastrous war against Iran, as well as, the wars in Sudan, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Yemen, Kashmir, the Congo, and elsewhere constitute the climax of the antagonistic contradictions and dead-ends of the global system of capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, and nation-states, whose destructive impacts have become even more visible in the lives of the working class across the globe.

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Part of this same equation of class war against the working class is the increasingly visible and clear rise and massification of fascism, from Trump’s America to France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Modi’s India. Anti-immigrant hysteria and the increasing authoritarianism of state apparatuses and anti-immigrant policies—following the catalytic developments in Ceuta— putting the working class and the revolutionary syndicalism on high alert.

At the same time, new workers' strikes have erupted—from the factories of Amazon, Google, and Starbucks, to delivery workers on various platforms, and even in Europe’s ports, with the dockworkers of Genoa and Italy being a significant example. Workers' and social struggles in the blazing Asia are raging ceaselessly, and anti-war and feminist movements around the world are reigniting. On the one hand—and particularly with the outcry over the genocidal crimes, ethnic cleansing, and destruction wrought by the Israeli war machine in Palestine— on the other hand, with femicides, attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, and gender-based labor over-exploitation and oppression on a global scale.

ICL-CIT has made its own contribution in recent years to the international and multinational workers' and feminist struggles and to practical solidarity among workers, particularly through the work it has done alongside labor unions in South Asia. The Asian continent in general is of key importance to revolutionary and solidarity-based workers' struggles, since, in addition to its very strong interdependence with those in Europe, the United Kingdom, and North America, it consists of geographical spaces in which working class and social dynamics have been on the rise in recent decades. Meanwhile, strikes and social struggles in Latin America—from Chile and Brazil to Argentina and, more recently, Bolivia—have shaken the continent in the last few years. That is why building strong bonds of solidarity with workers of these countries and continents is of vital importance, and we must strengthen them.

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This new conference provides an opportunity for workers and labor unions from around the world to come together, rebuild bonds of solidarity, and share experiences from their struggles, organizational efforts, and the diverse conditions that exist worldwide.

Particularly, the participation in the conference of a Palestinian union and the new members of the Confederation—the Federation of Revolutionary Syndicalist Organizations of Brazil (FOB) and the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) at the conference is a very significant event. As Industrial Workers of the World, we salute the struggles waged by our fellow workers, and from now on we are pleased to continue and carry them out in common.

To this extent, we will contribute towards advancing and supporting the new ICL-CIT campaign for a two-day global anti-war and anti-militarist action on October 30 and 31, as in a period of global war, practical action and mobilization are a matter of life and death for the working class. This campaign must reverberate in the ears of workers and labor unions in every corner of the globe, and as the IWW, we will work toward that aim.

Industrial Workers of the World -WISERA, in the spirit of workers’ solidarity and cooperation, we are eager to work toward a creative and militant congress to achieve our goals as the ICL-CIT for the revolutionary and solidarity-based unionism that we, as the working class, need on a global scale!

Solidarity Forever!

Industrial Workers of the World – Regional Administration of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and England