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PROGRESS IN LATIN AMERICA
by Pat Horn, StreetNet International Co-ordinator
From 24 - 26 April 2003, I represented StreetNet at a Latin American regional workshop on “Challenges for Workers in the Informal Economy” organised by Dan Gallin of the Organisation & Representation Programme of Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing’s (WIEGO), with the assistance of PLADES (Programa Laboral de Desarollo) in Lima, Peru.
This workshop brought together trade unionists, researchers, International Labour Organisation (ILO) representatives and organisations of workers in the informal economy from the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Uruguay, Venezuela and of course the host country, Peru. Action plans were developed on organising workers in the informal economy, on social security for these workers, and on social dialogue. At this workshop we were able to make great progress in expanding StreetNet’s contacts in most of these countries, and we have been in further contact with many of them by e-mail.
We also met members of the Latin American regional office of the ILO in Lima, and discussed further co-operation between WIEGO, StreetNet and the ILO in the region. Already, the ILO has followed up by arranging a workshop on decent work in the informal economy for the Andean region.
We also met with representatives of PLADES and ORIT, the inter-American regional organisation of workers of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and discussed how to work more closely together in the Latin American region. Our talks resulted in a Co-operation Agreement being signed early in August between StreetNet International, WIEGO, the International Federation of Workers’ Education Associations (IFWEA - to which PLADES is affiliated) and ORIT-ICFTU.
Field visits
Peru
After the workshop, I met with Lima-based and other organisations and NGOs with which StreetNet International has had working relationships since the first StreetNet workshop in Lima in 2001, to discuss how to co-ordinate our work since StreetNet’s international launch. I also met with a number of Lima-based street vendors’ and informal market vendors’ organisations. An interesting development since the first StreetNet workshop is that FEDEVAL, a federation of street vendors’ and market vendors’ organisations based in Lima, have now affiliated to CUT Peru national trade union centre. This is assisting them with building their organisational capacity and strengthening their democratic structures - and it is also bringing CUT Peru directly into the world of organising in the informal economy.
Bolivia
In Bolivia I was hosted by the StreetNet International Treasurer, Sara Medina Munguia, of the Union Sindical Femenina das Floristas de 22 mayo 1936, and Fundacion Solon, an NGO which has provided great support to the Union. I visited the flower market for which the Union had successfully struggled in the 1950s. Sara and Fundacion Solon organised a meeting for me with women’s organisations and NGOs, as well as a meeting with different street vendors’ and informal market vendors’ organisations. I also met with some ILO representatives and we agreed that it would be important for StreetNet to try to meet sometime with the Bolivian trade union confederation COB (Confederacion dos Obreros de Bolivia) to discuss ways of working together.
We attended the May Day Parade in La Paz on 1 May. Apart from formal trade unions and political organisations, there were many informal sector organisations (gremiales) as well as community organisations, rural people’s (campesinos/campesinas) organisations, organisations of ex-workers and workers without pensions, participating in the parade - reflecting very much of what has happened to workers in recent years under globalisation and the decline of the Bolivian mining industry.
Ecuador
In Ecuador I was hosted by Rosario Curichumbi and the Asociacion de Mujeres Tahuantinsuyo (one of StreetNet’s affiliated organisations). I attended a workshop on the collective rights of street vendors, which had been organised for indigenous street vendors from different organisations. We agreed that in order to be able to improve the lives of street vendors and informal market vendors of Ecuador, it would be important for all the street vendors’ organisations to come together and form a national alliance.
Colombia
In Colombia I was hosted by the CGTD (Confederacion General de Trabajadores Democraticoa) which is affiliated to CLAT (the Latin American regional organisation of the World Confederation of Labour or CMT). The organiser of the CGTD affiliate FENALTRAC, Cristobal Camargo, took me to see the union’s organising activities in the informal economy in different areas of Bogota. It is clear that they have been organising for some years in the informal economy.
The municipality of Bogota has been embarking on programmes to remove street vendors from the city centre and relocate them to commercial markets, most of which have proved not to be commercially viable. One market which had been established by the vendors themselves in Cuidad Bolivar, is working well, but the municipality is now threatening to take back the land. However the vendors are ready to fight to keep their market. The CGTD has established a training centre in Cuidad Bolivar for women and youth, in co-operation with the government training body SENA (Servicio Nacional de Aprendizage) and are fighting against child labour by educating the children about child labour and childrens’ rights.
The CGTD also organised a meeting for me with representatives from the other trade union centres in Colombia, ie. CTC and CUT. There is already co-operation between the three national centres through a joint women’s committee (COMOANDE) which also works with PLADES (Peru).
This trip enabled me to identify more potential Latin American affiliates for StreetNet, and encourage them to apply for affiliation. It has also assisted tremendously in building our contacts and networks in the region, in addition to the signing of the Co-operation Agreement with ORIT-ICFTU, WIEGO, IFWEA, with PLADES as regional co-ordinating organisation.