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EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 17 - Page 8

TUC globalisation web site goes live

THE TRADE UNION CONGRESS recently added another internet site to its extensive set of web pages. The Globalisation site went live on the 5th November, timed to coincide with a day of action on the subject held on the 9th. The fairly attractive home page includes a short introduction to Globalisation: 'The rapid and huge increase in the amount of economic activity taking place across national boundaries has had an enormous impact on the lives of workers and their communities everywhere. The current form of globalisation, with the international rules and policies that underpin it, has brought poverty and hardship to millions of workers, particularly those in developing and transition countries'. There follows, at the bottom of the page a link to an update on the Doha conference (see page 3). Consisting of one photograph of Pascal Lamy, the EU Commissioner at Doha, in a meeting with International Congress of Free Trade Union (ICFTU) officials and some text, the page gives the TUC view of the conference saying that 'Once again, core labour standards, which are the fundamental human rights of workers, have not been adequately addressed by WTO members'.Other links from the home page include photos from the day of action, 'about globalisation' has a definition and description of the process and ways to improve it. 'Trade union priorities' outlines campaigns that the TUC and other federations are engaged in with demands such as 'promote development and eliminate poverty' and 'respect fundamental workers' rights' while you can also click on 'trade unions in action', 'get involved', 'resources' and 'useful links'. Most of this site consists of text though you can download a 'powerpoint' presentation, the first time that the 'European Review' has seen this technique used, and ILO posters to be used as computer wallpaper.
		The English and Spanish versions of the International Labour Organisation's poster declaring workers' rights in the face of globalisation

New web site for EU citizens' rights

A NEW INTERNET WEB SITE has recently gone live which ties together several pages on the EU server. The Justice and Home Affairs directorate has provided a 'Citizenship, Fundamental Rights, Racism and Xenophobia' page which starts by outlining the rights to travel freely, to take part in elections, to have access to a mediator and to petition the European Parliament. It goes on to describe the anti-discrimination rôle given to the EU by the Amsterdam treaty (see issue 11 for an article on these pages) and the charter of fundamental rights which was proclaimed last year at the Nice summit. On a more practical level, following the link to 'Dialogue on Europe' takes the web surfer to a useful site on which you can choose both the country you are from and the Member State in which you are interested. The European Review chose the UK and Portugal and was rewarded with a wealth of information on living, working. studying, consuming, travelling and equal opportunities in the latter although some of it was more general in character. Following the 'Europa' link accesses a page on how the idea of EU citizens' rights came into being with the Maastricht treaty.

The addresses of Web Sites mentioned on this page are as follows:

TUC Globalisation home page is at:	http://www.tuc.org.uk/globalisation/index.htm
The 'about globalisation' page is at:	http://www.tuc.org.uk/globalisation/about.htm
The 'trade union priorities' page is at:	http://www.tuc.org.uk/globalisation/priorities.htm
The resources page from which you can download the presentation and posters is at:	http://www.tuc.org.uk/globalisation/materials.htm
The Citizenship, Fundamental Rights, Racism and Xenophobia page is at:	http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/unit/citoyennete_en.htm
'Dialogue on Europe' is at :	http://ec.europa.eu/citizensrights/front_end/index_en.htm

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