Hello sir, at the beginning of this New Year, do you have any special wishes to your comrades trade unions members?

Mr. ADU-AMANKWAH: I think it is traditional and proper to wish our colleagues around the continent all the best for the New Year, to wish all my colleagues good health and the strength to continue to represent the workers of Africa. But beyond that we would also like to focus a bit more on issues that directly relate to workers around the continent. And if we look around, already there are some signals of what some of these issues are. At the end of last year, we saw what happened in Cote d’Ivoire during their presidential elections. The crisis which arose from the elections is still not resolved. So to our colleagues of Cote d’Ivoire, we urge them to remain vigilant and try to refrain from undertaking actions that can divide workers. We also know from the news that there have been disturbances in Tunisia where large numbers of people have been on the streets over an issue related to an informal economy worker who felt pushed to commit suicide to draw attention to his conditions. Prior to that the Tunisian trade unions had outlined their own discontent with the economic situation of the country. We have also learnt about the difficulties in Algeria where there have been demonstrations over increases in food prices. Obviously, these disturbances show that people have been sitting on things for a long time. They have suppressed their views and feelings of a difficult situation over a long period so it has taken something little to have the situations explode. We urge our unions in this part of Africa to remain vigilant and to stand firm and to seek to stay in front of the struggle of the workers and the people. In Senegal for instance, we know there have been some difficulties about social elections. Here again, we will ask the trade unions, especially our affiliates, to stand together and to press to ensure that the social elections are organized in a way that produces a fair outcome. You look around the continent and I think for this year, we hope to make some further strides in the struggle for democracy in Swaziland, where already, two of our affiliates have clearly indicated that they are ready to come together. We hope that they will work towards coming together as one organization. This would certainly l help their ability to struggle and preserve the interests of the workers and people of Swaziland. Also in Zimbabwe, we urge our colleagues to remain steadfast on the side of the people and to continue to struggle. Victory will come to the people.

On the whole, we wish all our colleagues around the continent a lot of fortitude, a lot of courage as we begin this year which promises to be a challenging one.

The first African trade union New Year school will start on Monday 10th January. What are the targets of this activity?

The New Year school is meant to bring together trade union leaders from around the continent, particularly those who have responsibilities to all of us in Africa. And this includes the members of our General Council and Executive bureau as well as the members of the Governing Body of ILO who come from Africa. We are bringing this crop of leaders together with others and some intellectuals from around the continent so that we can provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge and information on Africa’s needs. First of all, we shall reflect on the imperatives of African Unity and emancipation, and what we think should be the building blocks for achieving African unity. But the New Year School will also consider some specific and current items. This will involve looking at a number of reports and their implications for Africa. These include the World Bank and IMF reports on Africa, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNTAD) Africa report, the report of UN Economic Commission for Africa. Other current issues will include the agenda items of the World Trade Organization and other international trade questions like the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), the agenda items of the ILO Governing Body as well as the International Labour Conference, the ILO Global Employment Trend Reports as well as the UNDP Human Development Report. We would like the School to look at all these Reports and their implications for Africa and African workers. The School is to provide a forum for us to join ideas on how as trade union in Africa we should relate to these reports and their issues.

What main problems and priorities of trade union will be discussed during the New Year school?

As I have pointed out, there are two broad areas. One, the question of Pan Africanism and how we think the trade union movement can contribute to this. The second major areas of consideration are those reports I have alluded to. We want to look at what the World Bank is saying about Africa, what the strategies for Africa are and how we as trade unions should relate to the World Bank perspectives for Africa. The same with IMF and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. What are the issues on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation today? What should the trade unions be looking at? What kind of policies should we develop? And in the long run, to look at how unions should help to shape economic and social policy on this continent as well as how unions should be intervening with decisions of the African Union and also how the trade unions should defend and promote human and trade union rights.

The theme is about Africa emancipation. Why are the trades unions interested in this matter?

Obviously, the trade union like any social group has to be interested in the question of emancipation. Because we think that there is an emancipation challenge for Africa. Everybody is deciding for Africa. Africa is not deciding and doing things for itself. We as trade unions need to engage on that issue and find out what contribution the union movement can make to ensure that Africa acts for itself and for its people.