Washington, DC
Current congressional efforts to end all American government contributions to the International Labor Organization are ill-considered and would greatly harm the U.S. national interest.
The American labor movement is justifiably proud of the ILO and its accomplishments. Largely the brainchild of Samuel Gompers, the founder and first president of the American Federation of Labor, the ILO was established at the end of World War I to promote peace by working on behalf of social and economic justice. It was and still is the only international body in which worker and employer delegates have an equal voice with government representatives in policy determination. Its unique supervisory machinery effectively focuses attention on worker rights violations. And, despite modest resources, the ILO has made significant progress over the years in the struggle against totalitarianism and for basic human and trade union rights.
At a time when capital and technology move across international borders with increasing ease, communities of working people are becoming ever more vulnerable to the decisions of multinational employers and to the ravages of a market uncontrolled by democratic debate and decision. To ensure that this new global economy benefits, and does not exploit, the workers whose activism and sacrifices made it possible, democratic governments must do all they can to ensure that economic development is not achieved at the price of human freedom.
The ILO is uniquely qualified to serve in this endeavor because its fundamental test of a society's worth is whether it provides human beings -- be they employers, workers or anyone else -- the freedom to band together to pursue their common interests. While it's one thing to espouse the rhetoric of progress, freedom and human rights, it is wholly another to actually protect the right of ordinary working men and women to decide for themselves -- through their own, independent institutions -- how their societies will be fashioned. This is a challenge that has been met by the ILO many times over. We expect no less from our elected representatives when they decide the fate of U.S. participation in this most vital organization.