Interview with the IWA General Secretary
Comrade, can you tell us about the current situation of the IWA and the struggles of the Sections? We know that there were recently solidarity actions for ZSP, which is fighting in the Post Office.
First thanks to the comrades who showed solidarity. It was very important for us and introduced the concept of international solidarity to some workers for the first time.
Right now in the IWA, we see a lot of work at the base and international work to move forward and bring our ideas and struggle to new areas of the globe. As the IWA is an international organization and is federalist, there is some diversity amongst the organizations. This means that our Sections have different opportunities and challenges and some are on different levels of development. But most are involved in workplace or community struggles.
Some Sections have been regularly confronting workplace problems in areas where other unions have not been active, particularly among precarious workers because this is an area where usually the mainstream unions have no interest. We can see many confrontations in workplaces such as restaurants or cafes, in places such as the UK, Spain, Australia, Poland, Slovakia or Serbia. Some of the Sections, like the Solfed, have had quite successful ongoing campaigns which are well-known and effective and in Australia the comrades have been doing very good work in activating immigrant workers, who normally face many challenges in defending their rights. And ZSP many years ago became the first union in its country to organize in temporary work agencies and fight against the numerous abuses found there.