[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 25 (Wednesday, March 9, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
    THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION A 
                      COMMUNITY OF SOCIAL PURPOSE:

                                 ______


                          HON. JOHN J. LaFALCE

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 9, 1994

  Mr. LaFALCE. Mr. Speaker, as the United States continues to 
participate in an unprecedented era of global economic expansion and 
integration, it is imperative for us to look beyond purely economic 
interests when evaluating our approach to our trading partners such as 
China and Mexico. All too often, issues such as human rights, social 
justice, and the living and working conditions of our neighbors risk 
being subordinated to the desire to expand growth in the gross domestic 
product and in exports. Although I agree that these economic goals are 
worthy and admirable, I believe that it is incumbent upon the United 
States to monitor and foster the development of democracy and social 
justice throughout the world. It is for this reason that I have 
followed and admired the work of Msgr. George Higgins, the American 
Catholic Church's long time and premier advocate and commentator of 
labor and trade unions.
  Monsignor Higgins spent the majority of his priesthood directing the 
social action department of the U.S. Catholic Conference. In this 
capacity, and since then, he has applied the social teachings of the 
Catholic Church to defend the rights of organized labor. Through his 
special ability to relate the norms of Catholic social doctrine to 
specific situations, Monsignor Higgins has achieved an international 
reputation in the related fields of labor, economics, and social 
action. In his autobiography entitled ``Organized Labor and the Church: 
Reflections of a Labor Priest'' (1993), he reminds American Catholics 
of their blue collar origins and of the importance of unions in their 
economic and social development. He further stressed the role that 
unions continue to play for the Nation's new immigrants who are now 
struggling to compete in a high-tech society.
  I would like to take this opportunity to introduce into the Record a 
recent article authored by Monsignor Higgins entitled, ``The Catholic 
Church and the I.L.O.: A Commonality of Social Purpose,'' America, 
January 29, 1994, which he wrote to honor the 75th anniversary of the 
ILO, an organization which the church has long seen as a principal ally 
in the cause of social justice for working people everywhere.

  The Catholic Church and the I.L.O.: A Commonality of Social Purpose

                         (By George G. Higgins)

       For a long time. We have been following the work of the 
     International Labor Organization. . . . We know all that it 
     has done to promote social justice, to improve working 
     conditions and to raise standards of living--all matters to 
     which the Church, ever preoccupied with the true good of man, 
     devotes the closest attention.--Pope Paul VI, 1969

       A fact-finding mission of the International Labor 
     Organization (I.L.O.) to El Salvador last fall reported 90 
     instances of violence against trade unionists. Included in 
     the violence were 29 murders, 11 disappearances, along with 
     physical assaults, death threats, detentions, the searching 
     of union premises and the kidnapping of a union official's 
     six-month-old son.
       The 258th session of the I.L.O.'s Governing Body last 
     November condemned the acts of violence and urged the 
     Salvadoran Government to prevent their repetition and to keep 
     the I.L.O. informed of judicial investigations. Further, the 
     Governing Body urged the Salvadoran Government, in revising 
     its labor code and in a future industrial relations law, to 
     guarantee protection against dismissal and other acts of 
     anti-union discrimination.
       Chakufwa Chihana, a trade unionist and freedom fighter in 
     Malawi, was released from prison last summer. He had been 
     jailed in 1992 for his long-standing fight for free trade 
     unions and democracy. Shortly after gaining his freedom, he 
     expressed, during a visit to the I.L.O. Washington, D.C., 
     office, his gratitude for the ``strong support'' given by 
     I.L.O. Director-General Michel Hansenne for his release from 
     prison.
       Four years ago, Mamoun Ahmed Hussein, M.D., a leader of the 
     national doctors' union in the Sudan, was behind bars 
     awaiting execution for his role in a strike. His death 
     sentence weighed heavily on the minds of concerned men and 
     women throughout the world. In late 1989, I.L.O. Director-
     General Hansenne appealed to the Sudanese Government to spare 
     the physician's life. Dr. Hussein's life was spared.
       These are dramatic examples of how the I.L.O., created by 
     the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, stands up for working men 
     and women around the globe. As the I.L.O.'s 75th anniversary 
     is commemorated in 1994, the organization, with 169 member 
     countries, strives quietly and without fanfare to foster 
     economic and employment growth worldwide.
       Since the early years of the I.L.O.'s existence, the 
     Catholic Church has encouraged and supported the humanitarian 
     work of this agency, which was founded to improve living and 
     working conditions everywhere. Its first director-general, 
     Albert Thomas, cemented close relations with the church in 
     the 1920's. Because of this close link, a priest has served 
     as a regular member of the I.L.O. staff since 1926--just 
     seven years after the organization was created. This 
     ``special relations'' post, now filed by Louis Christiaens. 
     S.J., of France, builds linkages with key religious and other 
     groups worldwide.
       In 1969, two major events highlighted the commemoration of 
     the I.L.O.'s 50th anniversary year. The I.L.O. was awarded 
     the Nobel Peace Prize for ``earnestly and untiringly'' 
     introducing reforms ``that have removed the flagrant 
     injustices in many countries.'' And Pope Paul VI, as the 
     featured speaker at the International Labor Conference in 
     Geneva, paid homage to the organization, whose ideal is 
     ``universal and lasting peace, based on social justice.''
       In his rousing address, Pope Paul VI said of the I.L.O.: 
     ``It has a single aim: not money, not power, but the good of 
     man. It is more than an economic concept, it is better than a 
     political concept: It is a moral and human concept which 
     inspires you--namely, social justice, to be built up, day by 
     day, freely and of common accord.''
       The Pope went on to assert: ``More than this, you translate 
     it into new rules of social conduct, which impose themselves 
     as norms of law. Thus, you insure a permanent passage from 
     the ideal order of principles to the juridical order, that 
     is, to positive law. In a word, you gradually refine and 
     improve the moral conscience of mankind.''
       Before and after that historic address, other popes voiced 
     their support of the I.L.O. and further cemented relations 
     between the church and this unique tripartite organization in 
     which representatives of labor and business have equal voices 
     with representatives of government in improving the world of 
     work.
       Addressing the I.L.O.'s 1982 conference, Pope John Paul II 
     pointed out that the church and the Holy See ``share your 
     organization's concern for its basic objectives, just as they 
     are at one with the entire family of nation's in its aim of 
     promoting the progress of mankind.''
       The Pope, who himself was once a stonemason and chemical 
     worker, went on to declare: ``The merits of your organization 
     shine forth in its conventions and recommendations 
     establishing international labor standards.''
       In efforts to give human labor ``a truly moral basis--which 
     is consistent with the objective principles of social 
     ethics--the aim of the International Labor Organization,'' he 
     said, ``are very close to those which the church and the 
     Apostolic See are pursuing in their own sphere with means 
     adapted to their mission.''
       Noting that this point has been stressed on ``several 
     occasions'' by his predecessors Pius XII, John XXIII and Paul 
     IV, Pope John Paul II added: ``Today, as before, the church 
     and the Apostolic See take great joy in their excellent 
     cooperation with your organization, cooperation which has 
     already lasted for half a century and which culminated in the 
     formal accrediting in 1967 of permanent observer to the 
     International Labor Office.''
       In a message published in the I.L.O. conference record in 
     June 1992, Pope Paul II underscored the agency's vital role 
     in contemporary times with this comment: ``The slow and 
     laborious development of many countries which have chosen to 
     follow the rules of market economics and the path of 
     democratization clearly has reinforced the mission of the . . 
     . organization and the need for it to be vigilant. Indeed, it 
     is sometimes said that you are the social conscience of the 
     world.''
       The community of nations benefits from I.L.O. expertise in 
     three basic ways. First, the I.L.O. sets a code of 
     international labor standards (now numbering 174 conventions 
     and 181 recommendations) and supervises their observance. 
     Second, it provides a wide range of technical assistance 
     designed to spur economic and job growth. Third, it tracks 
     workplace trends and problems through extensive research and 
     publications activities to help fashion workable solutions to 
     problems.
       To guide its work as the 21st century approaches, the 
     I.L.O. has set three major priorities. There are, first to 
     broaden the framework of protection available to workers; 
     second, to assist democratic efforts that are spreading 
     around the globe, and, third, to galvanize forces to combat 
     the poverty that afflicts one billion people worldwide.
       Globally, the problems confronting humanity are mind-
     boggling. The rapid and pervasive change occurring in Eastern 
     and Central Europe and many developing lands is staggering. 
     And so is the misery and hopelessness that reaches the shores 
     of every continent. In the third world alone, the magnitude 
     of suffering and deprivation is overwhelming: 900 million 
     people impoverished; 70 million unemployed, and 500 million 
     underemployed.
       In the 1990's the I.L.O. estimates, some 400 million jobs 
     must be created to absorb new entrants in the world work 
     force as the working-age population soars by more than 700 
     million, In Africa, alone, the I.L.O. calculates that 100 
     million new jobs have to be created to maintain present 
     levels of employment. The task ahead for the I.L.O. and its 
     member nations is enormous. Time will not wait for any pause.
       In developing countries, as well as those in the former 
     Soviet shadow, where unemployment, poverty and hopelessness 
     pervade the daily lives of the masses of men, women and 
     children, the I.L.O. is helping the emerging democracies 
     build a human core in their new orders. This is the social 
     dimension of economic structural adjustment and political 
     reform.
       The I.L.O. is guided by the principle that lasting and 
     stable economic reform will not emerge without a fundamental, 
     built-in charter for working people. As the organization has 
     stated: ``Capitalism must have a human face if it is to 
     flourish.'' In this 75th anniversary year, the I.L.O. is 
     guided, more than ever, by this precept from the preamble to 
     its constitution: ``Universal and lasting peace can be 
     established only if it is based upon social justice.''
       Through its international labor standards, let by 
     conventions on freedom of association and the right to 
     organize and bargain collectively, and through its worldwide 
     technical-cooperation program, the I.L.O. is providing the 
     emerging democracies with a wide range of assistance. It is 
     helping them develop free and independent trade unions and 
     employer associations. It is helping them draft 
     legislation and create a framework for collective 
     bargaining to flourish. It is helping them formulate 
     policies to create freely-chosen employment and to provide 
     training and retraining. And it is helping them establish 
     social security systems.
       Many nations have shaped their labor laws on I.L.O. 
     conventions, recommendations and codes of practice. Social-
     security systems in numerous lands have profited from the 
     guiding principles and methods of the I.L.O. And labor-market 
     systems and labor-law revisions in developing countries and 
     Eastern and Central European nations have been based on 
     I.L.O. expertise.
       Since the foundation of the I.L.O., the similarity of the 
     social objectives of the church and this organization have 
     been crystal clear. Because of the commonality of interest 
     between the church and the I.L.O., their mutual pursuit of 
     social justice and of universal human rights, will continue. 
     In the I.L.O.'s 75th anniversary year, we might rightfully 
     ask: What can America do to further the goals of the I.L.O.?
       My answer is that, as the world's leading democracy, the 
     United States has a challenge--and, yes, an obligation--to 
     assume a strong and clear leadership role in the I.L.O. With 
     the Cold War ended, the I.L.O. offers the nation and 
     President Bill Clinton the best vehicle for advancing the 
     fundamental principles of freedom and democracy on which the 
     United States was founded. It offers a world forum and the 
     institutional machinery for the United States to lead the 
     fight for universal social justice in a world rocked by 
     change and turmoil.
       One way for our nation to signal that it intends to assume 
     a larger leadership role in the I.L.O. would be to move the 
     determination to ratify the organization's human-rights 
     conventions. These basic conventions, not yet ratified by the 
     United States, deal with freedom of association, the right to 
     organize and bargain collectively, discrimination and child 
     labor. By ratifying these core conventions, the United States 
     would send a positive message to the rest of the world.
       An appropriate gesture for the United States in this 
     historic 75th anniversary year would be for President Clinton 
     to pledge the nation's full support of the humanitarian work 
     of the I.L.O. and to lead the community of nations toward 
     fulfillment of this principle from the I.L.O.'s 1944 
     Declaration of Philadelphia: ``All human beings, irrespective 
     of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their 
     material well-being and their spiritual development in 
     conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and 
     equal opportunity. . . .''

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