Final Declaration for the 3rd International Miners’ Conference
Final Declaration for the 3rd International Miners’ Conference No struggle must stand alone, anymore! Solidarity, coordination and coope...
Final Declaration for the 3rd International Miners’ Conference
No struggle must stand alone,
anymore!
Solidarity, coordination and
cooperation across borders,
that’s the order of the day!
The 3rd International Miners’ Conference (IMC),
held from 31 August to 3 September 2023, took a great step forward concerning
the international unification of the world’s miners. 35 experienced delegates
from 19 countries[1]
exchanged opinions and experiences and decided with great seriousness on a
closer and more powerful cooperation in the future. The actual reach of the
conference is much wider still: entry into the Schengen area has been denied to
30 delegates from 18 countries due to visa harassment via the isolationist
policy of the EU. The conference strongly protested against these rigorous
bureaucratic measures which clearly aim to undermine the self-organised association of miners within their
grassroots unions and organisations. They did not succeed! All of the
suppressed delegations have been with us in one way or another.
After the 1st IMC in Arequipa, Peru, in 2013
and the 2nd IMC in Ramagundam, India, in 2017, this time the 3rd IMC convened
in the potash mining area of Thuringia, Germany. Since the first conference,
the number of miners worldwide has increased to 50 million – a huge force as
well as responsibility!
The background of
this increase is the greedy hunger of international mining monopolies,
e.g. from the USA, China, India or the
EU, and the fierce capitalist competition for raw materials, cheap labour and
markets. This means not only economic war, but aggravating exploitation and
oppression of miners. It also includes militarising whole mining areas as well
as criminalisation, abduction and murdering unionists. One third of these 50
million miners are women, mostly located in the growing informal mining sector,
which does not even stop at the exploitation of children. Wages are nowhere
near enough, especially in view of horrendous inflation. Work safety is being cut
back, resulting in tens of thousands of work accidents and thousands of dead
miners. In particular, the expansion of open cast mining destroys nature and
drives people out of their ancestral living space. This capitalist and
imperialist domination, supported by state policies, leads not least to armed
conflicts with endless suffering and to a global environmental catastrophe
which threatens to destroy the natural foundations of human life.
The 27 country
reports clearly showed this. But above all, they demonstrated the power of
the international miners’ community. Tough struggles are being fought in
numerous countries for higher wages, health and safety at work, political
rights within companies including the right to strike. But still, these
struggles often stand alone. That must change!
During the 1st and
2nd Miners’ Conferences in 2013 and 2017 important foundations for the
coordination of our struggles have been laid and the rich experiences
associated with that have been evaluated. But today we commit ourselves to take
even more responsibility for each other in the future. We will
further develop the unique features of our international solidarity and
cooperation:
1. The actual,
practical solidarity, coordination and cooperation of our struggles is crucial.
We have to inform and learn from each other, also by means of mutual visits, as
soon as during the run-up of struggles, and even more so in their course. This
information, this international solidarity and the organisation of cooperation,
from solidarity resolutions and donation campaigns to solidarity visits and
even strikes, must go around the world. For this purpose, coordination has also
been strengthened at continental levels.
2. We miners along
with our families at the grass roots of trade unions and movements know the
harsh reality in the factories and in our lives. We expand our competence
and deepen our knowledge about the international mining monopolies and the raw
material policies of imperialist countries. To this end, we have exchanged
opinions and experiences in nine forums[2]
and designed our future cooperation based on specific topics.
3. The 3rd
International Miners' Conference reaffirmed the international days of
struggle agreed upon (incl. May Day, Anti-War Day, Environmental Day of
Struggle, and International Women's Day). Also, the idea of an international Miners’
Day of Struggle was born!
4. The reliable
team of the International Coordination Group (ICG) has been reconfirmed
(miners from Peru, Colombia, the Philippines, India, Morocco, Congo, Kazakhstan
and Germany) and supplemented by a miner from Ukraine who could not be there in
person because of the war. A new achievement is the election of deputies. Four
preparatory groups for continental conferences have been founded.
5. We miners
know that we must be able to rely on each other at work and in struggle! The thrilling
culture of the conference including inspiring cultural evenings, was pure
fraternization. It strengthens the firm friendship and basis of trust among
each other.
6. We cannot
win alone, we need many and strong alliance partners. We witnessed this
here by the impressive participation of delegations of steel, dock and
automotive workers, of the militant environmental, women’s and youth movements.
Their contributions and solidarity enriched the conference.
7. The newly
decided formation of an anti-imperialist platform of miners within the
international miners’ coordination provides each person or individual
organisation with the possibility to add the vigorous power of the workers to
an anti-imperialist and antifascist “United Front”. Hence we’ll be able to
fight, together with all the oppressed, against the imperialist perpetrators of
global crises, without this being obligatory for everybody.
8. The
conference has been self-organised and it went smoothly all the way! We
give our thanks to those 250 helpers who fed us and cared for us!
9. Fundraising,
volunteer work, partnership support – all this ensured the financial
independence of the conference. It even reached a surplus of at least
10,000 €, constituting initial reserves for our future work.
10. One thing
is certain: in four to five years’ time the 4th International Miners’
Conference will take place.
Let us take responsibility for each other and social
progress for ourselves, for our children, workers in all countries, and for
mankind as a whole!
[1] Belarus, Germany, Dominican Republic,
Georgia, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Congo, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, South
Africa, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda
[2] Forum Titles:
1.) Miners against war and fascism,
2.) For the
unification of struggles for the environment and jobs,
3.) Miners’
wages, pensions and the struggle for higher wages and pensions
4.) The
struggle against the scorched earth policy of RAG (former Ruhrkohle AG)
5.)
Situation, conditions and exploitation of under-age youths
6.)
Struggle for health safety and social security of miners
7.) Living
conditions, women and families
8.) Miners
and socialism
9.) Further
development of the miners’ coordination and cooperation worldwide
