A large percentage of the world s population feels it is being excluded from the benefits of globalisation. Since then, the backlash against globalisation has been witnessed on all continents. Globalisation has become the shorthand for the pounding that working people have suffered in recent years. Insecurity and a widening gap between rich and poor have brought into question the established orthodoxy on the route to economic success. Half of the world s population lives in extreme poverty.
Workers everywhere feel the pressure on wages, working conditions and job security.
It is said that only fools stand in the way of trains. 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.