Trade Unions as actors of development education and awareness raising for global solidarity

There is a wealth of campaigns lead by trade unions that aim to raise awareness of the realities of development. These campaigns often result in direct North-South partnerships between trade unions in developed and developing countries. The Trade Union Development Cooperation Network has recently compiled a number of them into a new publication which is freely available online in multiple languages: www.ituc-csi.org/TUDCN-DEAR-brochure

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Workers’ education has been at the core of trade union efforts since their creation, and awareness raising has always been one of the key actions of trade unions in the form of organising, campaigning, etc. DEAR interventions have therefore been going on for many decades within trade unions, in the context of international solidarity actions with colonised peoples, against dictatorships and against apartheid, among others. This work has been evolving towards more elaborate forms of DEAR actions and programmes that show a great expertise on the part of trade unions on the subject.

Trade unions understand DEAR to be a form of engagement with citizens and workers in order to educate and raise awareness on the realities in partner countries, and to put forward common responses to common problems, through increased international solidarity.