The aim is not to turn the train back but to change its direction. Unions have always been international in their outlook. During the last century, working people fashioned their own global organisations. Linked together through our own net, we have developed an effective mechanism of solidarity. We are informed instantly of abuses of workers rights anywhere in the world.
Unions recognise the spread of economic interdependence both globally and regionally.
It is nonsense to suggest that we are creating new barriers to trade. Ours is not a protectionist agenda. Rather we have taken a long hard look at the impact of globalisation on economic management, wealth distribution and increasing corporate power, and we have found it wanting. A technological revolution has occurred, but most of the world is not sharing in it or seeing the benefits. Someone out there is employing over 300 million children under the age of 14 in intolerable conditions.