International

Centenary celebrations for the PSI – creating firmer international ties for workers

By the ASU - a union partner in international solidarity

The global union Public Services International (PSI), of which the ASU is an affiliate, was formed in 1907 after a number of European trade unions met to improve support between unions for the betterment of workers across the continent. Those original municipal, power, gas and water unions were subsequently joined by over 600 unions from all parts of the world.

Founded on 27 August 1907, the PSI is now celebrating its 100th anniversary which will be a theme at this year's Centennial Congress later this month.

Over the hundred years since that initial meeting, PSI membership has grown to cover some 20 million members in 651 affiliates in 154 countries and territories around the world.

PSI has produced a history book, "Fighting for public services: a better life, a better world" which will soon be available on a dedicated website.

A little history

In March 1907, the executive of the German "Verband der Gemeinde- und Staatsarbeiter" (Federation of Municipal and State Workers), based in Berlin, called on "the workers employed in municipal and state undertakings, in power stations, in gas and water works in all countries" and convened the "First International Conference" from 25 to 27 August, 1907, in Stuttgart.

The invitation read: "The purpose of the conference is to bring about an exchange of views on pay and working conditions and on worker welfare in general, to pave the way for support in pay disputes and create firmer international ties for the workers."

On 25 August 1907, four Danes, two Dutchmen, eight Germans, a Hungarian, a Swede and a Swiss met in the Stuttgart trade union building for the First International Conference of Workers in Public Services. The 17 delegates represented six unions with a combined membership of some 44,500. They talked for three days, mainly about the legal status, pay and working conditions of workers in public services in their respective countries. The unanimously adopted a "Resolution on the establishment of an international secretariat".

Let's go "back to the future"

What happens when an international trade union organisation reaches its 100th birthday? We focus on the challenges of the coming decades, says General Secretary Hans Engleberts.

Your international trade union federation, Public Services International (PSI), is 100 years old this summer. Naturally, it's a time to celebrate our past. The vision and hard work that brought together six European trade unions in 1907 and, over a century, turned PSI into a truly global federation that represents 20 million workers in 651 unions in 154 countries - including the Australian Services Union.

The struggles and successes that saw us through the tough times of European fascism, the cold war, apartheid and, more recently, nearly 30 years of neo-liberal attacks on working people and their public services.

Over the last three decades, we turned what had become a male-dominated, conservative organisation, into a progressive force. Today, two-thirds of our members are women, who make up at least half of all our committee members and congress delegates.

Most important of all, we have shifted a trade union federation exclusively focussed on public service pay and conditions into a campaigning organisation that works daily with NGOs and civil society groups to build high quality public services, human rights and equality. This is the future for public service trade unions.

As part of our centennial celebrations, PSI is publishing a history called "Fighting for Public Services: Better Lives, A Better World". The book explores the development of public services, as well as the history of public service trade unionism.

It shows how, over the last century, public services and the people who provide them have risen to meet the big challenges, which the profit-driven private sector was unable or unwilling to overcome.

For instance, privately organised water supply, waste systems, energy and transport completely failed to meet the needs of growing towns and cities at the end of the nineteenth century. The public sector proved it could do the job better, although far from perfectly in some cases. In most places, we're still delivering over a hundred years later.

After the Second World War, public services were at the heart of Europe's economic and social reconstruction, laying the foundations for the economic success of the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, in many post colonial societies, the public sector delivered vital services and played a central role in nation building by providing competent and credible civil administration.

These were big challenges that could only be met by strong public services. And we're facing similar challenges now, only this time on a global scale. Just as in the past, profit-driven corporations are failing to tackle big issues like poverty, HIV/AIDS, migration, inequality and global warming. Once again, public services are uniquely placed to help deal with them.

What's also striking about our history is the number of times unions have been written off by our opponents as a spent force, irrelevant to the problems and opportunities of the times.

But we bounced back from the devastation of Nazi Europe, when thousands of trade unionists were sent to the concentration camps and PSI was forced to flee from Amsterdam to Paris and, finally, to London. (Our HQ is based in France again now).

We rebuilt our credibility after the CIA infiltrated PSI's inter-America region at the height of the cold war. And we became a truly global federation from the 1960s, when our membership really took off in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Our predecessors - activists, affiliates and leaders - overcame huge problems by frankly assessing our strengths and shortcomings, and courageously doing what was necessary to put things right. We have to do the same thing today.

We've had 30 years of neo-liberalism, where powerful governments, multinational corporations and international financial institutions have force-fed the world with public spending cuts, privatisation and unfettered free markets, while eroding citizens and workers' rights.

But the neo-liberals have failed. Their policies have mainly resulted in more expensive and worse services. And they haven't fulfilled their promise of greater prosperity for all either. Today, over a billion people live in abject poverty. A quarter have no access to clean water and over 800 million are unemployed. Meanwhile, the gap between the rich and poor keeps widening.

Across the globe, people, communities and civil society groups are telling us they're no longer prepared to accept neo-liberal ideology over human rights, prosperity and decent services.

They want trade unions to help them develop high quality, responsive public services that meet today's needs and expectations. And PSI affiliates in different parts of the world are developing quality public service initiatives that show we are up for that challenge.

As PSI enters its second century, public servants and their unions can develop a major role in solving today's big problems. Because only determined, collective - and public - action will successfully tackle poverty, AIDS, global warming, inequality and other global challenges. We want to be part of that, just as we successfully delivered for our peoples and communities in the past.

Hans Engelberts is General Secretary of Public Services International. Find out more about PSI, and its centennial Congress on http://www.world-psi.org.