Photo credit: Gerardo Iglesias
Alberto Broch, Vice President of IUF affiliate CONTAG in Brazil and newly elected Vice President of the Agricultural Workers Trade Group Board, took the floor during the recent conference to celebrate the victory of fellow trade unionist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the presidency of Brazil and to call on all IUF affiliates, together with Andrea Coinu of IUF affiliate FLAI-CGIL, to focus attention on the global growth of fascism. His message:
- Having lived through the fascist government of Jair Bolsonaro and having seen the terrible impacts, we see great urgency for the international labour movement to build a large-scale campaign against fascism
- Bolsonaro’s fascism would make Benito Mussolini himself jealous, and we must be clear that democracy and trade union rights are incompatible with fascism, so we must work quickly to stop this great current that has been infiltrating all continents
- In the United States, Brazil and Europe, we should be very concerned that so many workers and trade union members are voting for politicians on the extreme right; therefore, our task alongside our daily trade union work must be to build awareness about what fascism is, what the extreme right is, and what the consequences of these political movements are for working people around the world
The Conference also heard an update on the fight against fascism in Italy from Andrea Coinu (FLAI-CGIL) and agreed to support and refer to the IUF Executive Committee a call from the Italian trade union confederations to launch an international anti-fascist trade union network.
