ABSTRACT
In April 2000 the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) held its 17th World Congress in Durban, South Africa. The theme of the gathering was Globalising Social Justice: Trade Unionism in the 21st Century. Several speakers commented on the significance of the ICFTU holding its congress in South Africa, where the labour movement was instrumental in ridding the society of its apartheid regime, and debated issues such as social clauses to trade agreements and the merits of reforming global institutions such as the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. A document proposing a ‘Millennium Review’ argued:
Unions are increasingly looking to their international structures for effective, coherent and co-ordinated action to transform the institutions that govern the global economy, to achieve sustainable development, to counter-balance the power of multi-national enterprises, and to channel practical and effective solidarity among national trade union organizations.
