The 2004 summer school was held in Burg Schlaining Austria, between 22-27 August. The Austrian Railway Workers Union (GdEÖ) hosted this seventh summer school since 1999. Twenty-eight participants from various parts of the world and transport sectors took part. The theme was privatisation and many participants had the opportunity to share with others their own experiences of privatisation.

Overall  presentations during the summer school provided high quality training on international issues to participants. Presentations were not just theoretical but also very exciting, insightful and thought provoking. Linking concrete experiences with wider political, economic and industrial trends. A session on Strategic campaigns was one of the most exciting for the participants. Participants were able to plan actual campaigns to take back to their unions.

The 2004 summer school has been captured in a report, detailing all the week's activities. To download the report, see attached document below.

The article below was taken from the August edition of the ITF Education Bulletin: Summer School special. The article is an account of the host union's experience of the summer school.

The myth that trade union education in Austria is more about climbing trees!

Since my participation in the 2000 Summer School in Germany, our union, the GdEÖ, has continued to send participants to take part in this great event. It has been an opportunity for my colleagues and myself to understand the global context in which we work and the strategy put forward by the ITF. Together with two other Austrian unions, we gladly took the opportunity not only to participate, but also to use our capacity and our ideas to host this year’s Summer School. Finding the venue and the appropriate date was the easy part. Much more demanding was the administration of visa formalities for participants. Now that the hard work has been completed, it has to be said that my previous perception of how the Austrian visa policy system works underestimated the great effort and level of organisation that would be involved in bringing everybody together in Austria. From previous experiences, I was aware that Austrian embassies are strict when it comes to Schengen visas, but to find such hindrances was really surprising. I would like to apologise to those who were affected.

The Summer School itself was again a great experience for our participants and for myself. Globalising Solidarity was a great overall theme. The focus on globalization, privatization and on campaigns was a good mixture connecting the global context to our local struggles for fair working conditions. In addition our local unionists and resource people were really touched by the international spirit and the positive energy, which came from the group. They felt that the Summer school is something special and have already asked if they can participate in next year’s summer school in Sweden.

We hope that the myth, which came out of the educators’ seminar in London following the presentation by our education officer on the outdoor activities we use in our training, has been dispelled. We hope this experience can be transferred enabling participants to integrate the methodology into their trade union education processes. It is a pity that not all of us had the experience of the great adventure of abseiling from the big tower of the Austrian study centre for peace and conflict resolution. Thanks for the great time we shared.

Harald Voitl, International Secretary, Austrian Railway Workers’ Union (GdEÖ)