International Labour Organization and Global Social Governance

Dear Colleagues,

As the only international, multilaterial agency tasked with specific task of working towards decent work for all those engaged in any form of economic activity, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is an organisation I pay close attention to.

I have been extremely fortunate to have been able to spend time researching around the work of the ILO (and allied organisations) and teaching around - including having opportunities to take groups of UK trade unionists on study visits to the ILO head offices in Geneva. I have also been fortune to spend time teaching at the ILO's International Training Centre in Turin, Italy.

And, I have had the great honour of working closely with those ILO staff who comprise the staff union, which is a member of the umbrella body for all UN staff unions, the Co-ordinating Committee of International Staff Unions and Associations (CCISUA): https://www.staffunion.org/ccisua

Because of this - and an even broader interest in forms of global social governance - I was very pleased to see that a new book on this issue has been published, and available freely via open access.

International Labour Organisation and Global Social Governance is a critically important opportunity to reflect constructively on the impact of the ILO, which is the UN's oldest agency. I particularly welcome the book's focus on the political diplomacy needed by the ILO to manage the competing priorities of the Global North and South. As the book blurb states:

The book examines the persistent dilemma of balancing the benefits of globalization with the protection of workers. It critically assesses the challenges that emerge when international labour standards are implemented and enforced in highly diverse regulatory frameworks in international, regional, national and local contexts. The book also identifies feasible ways to achieve more inclusive labour protection, putting into perspective the tension between the economic and the social in the ILO’s second century of operation.

Download now and take this excellent opportunity to benefit from this excellent critique. Download the book here: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/42935

In solidarity

Ian

The Purpose of Power: How to build movements for the 21st Century

Dear Colleagues,

I was honoured to be invited to chair a panel discussion on 9th September with Alicia Garza - co-founder of Black Lives Matter - to discuss her new book, The purpose of power. Although the book is frameworked around her life in the form of biography, it is a powerful insight to the challenges and opportunities of mobilising maginalised and excluded people. 

The event was organised by the Ella Baker School of Organising, of which I am proudly a founder member: https://www.ellabakerorganising.org.uk/

A video of the panel discussion is available here: https://www.facebook.com/ellabakerschooloforganising/

I found the book to be one of the best I have read in a long time on the sheer hard of organising for social justice. And so, the opportunity to interview Alicia was a really priveledged opportunity to hear from her first hand on what drove her towards a life of activism, and what she has learned from it.

Personally speaking, I find her finding that 'hashtags don't make a movement' to be such an instructive point. I tend to find that one of the challenges of organising - particularly amongst younger people - is that social media is the be all and end all of mobilisation.

Just as importantly though is here insistence that class is a key defining means to establish solidarity between all workers, and not least within an economy so brutally exploitative as that in the US.

Here, she says: There are very practical reasons why multiracial movements are vital to building the world we deserve. Segregation by race and class has been used throughout history to maintain power relationships. Segregation, whether through redlining or denying citizenship, helps to create an other, which helps in turn to justify why some people have and other people don't. It reinforces the narratives that make unequal power relationships normal.

I wholeheartedly recommend that you read the book, and that you take the time to read it in parts and reflect on what the key messages mean for you and your work in organising.

In solidarity

Ian