DECENT WORK: THE HEART OF A FAIR GLOBALISATION

Porto Alegre, January 30th 2005.

We, trade unionists, social movements, progressive politicians and other civil society actors have met at the 5th World Social Forum in Porto Alegre on January 27-30 2005 to explore avenues opened up by the report of the “World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation” promoted by the ILO and have agreed the following:

• We denounce and oppose the current model of neoliberal globalisation, which has promoted unfair financial and trade rules, creating poverty and greater inequality. This model has failed to meet the basic needs and aspirations of working people and their families for a decent life, condemned millions to abject poverty and failed to protect our environment.
• We support the recommendations of the World Commission and commit ourselves to the struggle for a fair and just globalisation, calling on our organisations and movements to work in solidarity to reach our common goals.
• We call on all to put decent work at the heart of social and economic policy so that it may become the cornerstone for a just, democratic and participatory society. Decent work with social protection and equality between women and men is the only way out of poverty, and yet it is absent as an objective in trade, financial and monetary policies.
• Governments must now deliver the commitment made to increase the levels of development cooperation to 0.7% of GDP, and to take effective measures to cancel the debt of the developing countries, so that they can invest in jobs, education, health, social programmes and public services for all.
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  The attainment of these social goals is jeopardised by the danger of HIV-AIDS. We, therefore, commit ourselves to the fight against the HIV-AIDS pandemic.
• Governments must ensure equal rights for migrant workers We therefore commit ourselves to guarantee the rights of migrants and their families.
• Globalisation has given multinational corporations new opportunities to exploit the weaknesses of national and international legislation. Corporate Social Responsibility is no substitute for legislation at the national and international levels based on binding mechanisms and on control. We commit ourselves to work together to better enforce existing regulations such as the ILO Conventions, as well as the OECD Guidelines on multinational corporations, to promote new legislation and to work together to strengthen new forms of trade union collaboration and solidarity.
• The informal economy condemns millions of workers and their families to not having a voice or social protection. Trade unions and NGOs must work together to overcome the challenges of the growth of the informal economy and to organise workers from that sector giving them a voice and supporting them to develop adequate systems of credit, self-help and social protection.
• We must continue to pressure governments to make trade agreements work for sustainable development and not overwrite social and human rights. Trade agreements must not be a way of by-passing core labour standards. The EU and US must also be pressured not to use bilateral trade agreements to achieve gains not won at the multilateral level. We support moves towards regional integration that must necessarily include a strong political, social and environmental dimension and the full participation of workers’ organisations along with other sectors from the civil society.
• The delocalization of jobs, both North/South and South/South, is posing enormous challenges and strains for our societies. Governments have a responsibility to ensure that they put in place the necessary policies to create and guarantee decent jobs for all, and educational and social protection policies.
• The imbalance in a global governance system gives too much weight to finance and trade concerns to the detriment of social and environmental considerations. This must be changed. We support demands for the reform and strengthening of the UN and the creation of a new Social Economic and Environmental Security Council, with supervisory authority over all UN organisations. The WTO must also be brought under UN control. We support the call for a mass mobilisation on September 10th in support of the UN reform and of the Global Call for Action to Make Poverty History.
• We, the participant organisations, ICFTU, ETUC, WCL, Solidar, Social Alert and Global Progressive Forum, commit ourselves to take forward the debate begun by the World Commission and to work to make decent work, a concept that includes respect for workers’ rights, full employment, equality between women and men, social protection and access to quality public services for all central to our common political vision and mission.
• We call on all civil society movements and progressive political forces to join this vision and our campaign to make DECENT WORK a global goal!!!