ReturnIFWEA’s 20th Annual Congres: Workers’ Education in the Informal Economy on the agenda
The 20th International Federation of Worker Education Associations (IFWEA) Congress “Workers’ Education in the Informal Economy”, was held from 1-5 December 2007 in Ahmadabad, India. Delegates from worker organisations from all over the world cele-brated the 60 years of IFWEA which is the single independent forum operating at global level whose exclusive interest is workers’ education. The outgoing General Secretary, David Spooner, in the opening note stated that “the celebration of 60 years of IFWEA was a significant achievement, a testament to successive generations of workers’ education leaders, practitioners and activists who have given their energy and commitment to our international movement.” Delegates discussed workers’ education in the informal economy at a two-day seminar and developed recommendations for a four-year plan on informal economy worker education for adoption during the congress discussion on programmes and activities.
Seminar objectives
1. To build awareness among IFWEA member organisations and partners of various worker education experiences aimed at supporting the democratic organisation of informal economy workers.
2. To enable representatives of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) to share their work in building a million-strong union of informal economy workers.
3. To use these experiences as a basis for hearing what works and what does not, so as to expand and strengthen programmes and activities designed to defend informal economy workers’ rights.
4. To consolidate, expand and strengthen IFWEA’s education activities with workers in the informal economy through discussion and debate.
5. To record key observations and develop a series of recommendations for building workers’ education in the informal economy. On the first day, informal economy organising experiences were shared.
Two perspectives on the theme Organising in the informal economy - The Workers’ Agenda were presented. Arbind Singh of NASVI, presented a paper based on the experiences of an informal economy workers’ association, while Marao Raimondo, General Secretary OTM, Mozambique spoke from the perspective of a trade union organising in the informal economy. Four workshops “Learning from the Experiences of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)” were held and included:
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Organising Informal Economy Workers (how SEWA has built its membership to become the largest union of informal working women), led by Manali Shah;
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Social Security (how the six organisations for social security provision contribute to members’ social protection), led by Mirai Chatterjee; · Micro-finance & Capitalisation (SEWA Bank), led by Jayshree Vyas; · Income generation, Rural Development and Co-operatives (how these build and consolidate SEWA’smembership base), led by Bharti Bhavsar and Uman Swaminathan.
In the afternoon, a session on “context, experience and strategies”, produced recommendations to feed into discussions focused on the four-year plan for informal economy education.
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New materials and new approaches
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Organising and educating
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Promoting solidarity
On the second day, discussion was structured around how informal economy worker’s organisation can be supported and drawing on the presentations made the previous day participants developed a draft four-year education plan for workers’ education in the informal economy.
Resolutions passed by delegates at the Conference emphasised the importance of building workers’ organisation and education in different sectors, particularly the informal economy. The Conference resolved to “build a long term worldwide programme of workers’ education to support the organisation of informal economy workers, based on capacity building and training in each region, supported by full-time regional programme staff.”
Susan Schuman of AFL-CIO/NLC/Rutgers was elected President, Sahra Ryklief of the LRS of South Africa was elected Secretary General. Namrata Bali of SEWA, Paroli Gyorgy de Mszosz of Hungary, Karl Setter of ABF, Sweden and Juan Carlos Vargas de Plades, Peru, were elected vice-presidents.