Damascus hosts the 10th conference of the IFATU

The 10th conference of the general federation of the International Federation of the Arab Trade Unions (IFATU) will be held in Damascus on November 29 through December 2, 1999.

The federation's general secretariat has prepared three memorandum on changes of the economic and social role of trade union; the economic and social impact of the policy of structural adjustment on the Arab labor force and the third memorandum was on poverty and unemployment in the Arab states.

The first memorandum speaks about social and economic changes on the international level. Annual average for the flow of direct foreign investment reached in the period during 1981- 1985 US $50 billion. This average has become US $55 billion for the period between 1986-1990. In 1993, it reached US $173 billion.

These investments were not distributed equally among the developed countries and the developing countries.

According to the development report of 1996, the developed industrial states in the 1960s had the majority of these investments at US $168 billion.

The memorandum notes the reflection of public changes about the labor and cultural situation and the importance of informatics.

The memorandum highlighted the economic and social changes in the Arab states, stressing that these changes constituted a recession in the economic growth average and the escalation of unemployment. The memorandum also talked about women's loosing equality at the labor environment.

The memorandum on poverty and unemployment in the Arab states stressed that what has been applied by economic reforms programs and the hasty openness of markets which came on the background of the failure of the development process in previous stages on the process of sustainable development is one of the main causes behind poverty and unemployment in the Arab states.

The memorandum also talked on the social and economic impact of the structural adjustment on the Arab labor and internal and external efforts which helped in imposing structural adjustment programs as well as certain negative reflections of these programs on the Arab labor forces and backing efforts to eliminate the adverse consequences of these programs.