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Building alliances in Latin America
Pat Horn, StreetNet Co-ordinator
As StreetNet Co-ordinator, I spent July and August in Latin America developing contacts and building StreetNet’s organis-ational base with street vendor and informal economy organisations.
During the two months, StreetNet held a regional workshop and contacts were built and renewed with organisations during country visits to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Brasil. StreetNet was based in Lima, Peru and ISCOD, the development project of the Spanish trade union centre, UGT, generously provided me with office space and internet facilities.
StreetNet’s regional workshop, held between 24-26th of August in Lima, was organised by PLADES. The purpose of the workshop was to find out about organising initiatives in the informal economy of the region, to discuss and debate different ongoing strategies and ways of co-ordinating work in the Latin American region. Participants from over 20 trade unions and organisations working in the informal economy, attended from the following countries:
Andean Region: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela Central\American Region: Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua Southern Cone (Mercosur): Brazil, Uruguay
PERU
I visited district federations and organisations in different districts of Lima which are a part of StreetNet’s affiliate, FEDEVAL, and also met members of the women vendors’ network, Red de Mujeres, which is very active. On 11th August a one-day negotiations workshop was held for leaders of FEDEVAL. Leaders of other informal economy organisations were also invited and attended.
Meetings were held with three trade union centres, CUT, CATP and CGTP. The CGTP is the most prominent trade union centre in Peru, and has recently formed a union called Federacion Unica de Trabajadores Ambulantes. The CUT has three unions of own-account workers affiliated to it: FEDEVAL, FETTRAMAP, a national union of market porters, and FEDAMPI, an organisation of micro-entrepreneurs. CUT’s strategy is to organise the three sectors of own-account work, and to create a national alliance in the street vendors’ sector.
ECUADOR
I attended the Social Forum of the Americas in Quito, and resumed contact with the organisation Asociacion Mujeres Tahuantinsuyo. The trade union movement consists of five different trade union centres and one has a vendors’ organisation, Federacion de Trabajadores Autonomos de Quito. There are two other major vendors’ organisations in Quito – Frente de Defensa and Paz y Justicia.
BOLIVIA
Carlos Camargo of LABOR, an IFWEA (International Federation of Workers Education Associations) affiliate, is willing to assist us with co-ordination between different street vendors’ organisations in co-operation with PLADES. This is possible in terms of our regional working agreement with IFWEA, ORIT-ICFTU (International Confederation of Trade Unions, Americas region) and WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing).
I also met the local co-ordinator of the ILO’s Programa Regional de Empleo Sostenible (PRES) who reported that in the first phase of the programme, it has assisted the municipality of La Paz in a process of social dialogue with street vendors’ organisations. In the second phase, the ILO will organise a seminar between the municipality and the organisations. However, they may have to wait until after the La Paz municipal elections which are due to take place in December 2004, to avoid problems of continuity.
COLOMBIA
I travelled to Colombia and Venezuela with Guillermo Perez of ORIT-ICFTU. In Bogota, Colombia, we met with the three trade union centers, CUT, CTC and CGTD, and independent street vendors’ organisations. All the centres have street vendors organisations affiliated to them and all participate in negotiations with the municipality of Bogota. They agreed to participate in the formation of a united structure such as a city alliance and/or a national alliance.
In Medellin, the Andean regional co-ordinator of PSI (Public Services International), Juan Diego Gomez, has been working with a group of fast food vendors who are forming a co-operative, COOMIRAPID (see report in this issue). The local PSI affiliate, ADEM (Asociacion de Empleados Oficiales del Municipio de Medellin) is ready to work with street vendors’ organisations and assist them to negotiate with the municipality.
VENEZUELA
We were in Venezuela on the day after a historic national referendum about whether President Hugo Chavez should continue as President. The General Director of ORIT-ICFTU Programmes and the representative responsible for the informal economy from CTV, one of the country’s trade union centres, met with us. We learnt that CTV and ORIT-ICFTU have been working to build and restructure FUTRAND, a union of autonomous workers affiliated to CTV. We met with FUTRAND and discussed affiliation to StreetNet.
Maritza Chirenos, the Regional Secretary of the Latin American and Caribbean structure of the World Council of Labour, CLAT, also met with us.
BRAZIL
In Sao Paulo there are 770 associations of street vendors, mostly run by mafia-like leadership. Since the Workers Party (PT) won the national elections and Lula da Silva became President two years ago, a new approach about organising workers in the informal economy has developed under the banner of the national trade union centre, CUT. In Sao Paulo, CUT has organised a union called SINTEIN (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores na Economia Informal). Although there is a progressive local government in Sao Paulo under the popular mayor Marta Suplicy, there are many differences of opinion between them and the union about the regulation of street vending.
REGIONAL
Victor Baez, regional secretary of ORIT-ICFTU, met with StreetNet in Quito. He is interested in developing a strategic approach on the informal economy to give more substance to the working agreement between StreetNet and ORIT-ICFTU – with particular interest in the theme of negotiations training. The relationship between StreetNet and ORIT-ICFTU needs to be developed further. However, discussions conducted during this visit with Victor Baez and members of his office in Caracas have taken us further than before.
The relationship between StreetNet and PSI in the region was also strengthened. Jocelio Drummond (PSI Co-ordinator Sao Paulo, Brazil) set up meetings for the day I passed through Sao Paulo on the way back to South Africa. We discussed the possibility of organising a joint event with PSI at the World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre in January 2005. SINTEIN in Brazil is enthusiastic about participating in the WSF and hosting a visit by StreetNet to work with them for a couple of weeks.
The work in Latin America deepened our knowledge of the organisation of street vendors and other workers in the informal sector in the Latin American region. We now know about more organisations in the informal economy and about trade union dynamics in the region – and strengthened our working relationships in the trade union movement.
In two countries, Colombia and Uruguay, we have laid the basis for a continuing relationship with organisations who are willing to work towards forming national alliances. In five other countries, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela, we have identified national organisations which we have invited to affiliate to StreetNet.