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Organising globally gets on the map in Central Africa
26 June 2007
 |  | view larger image |  | | Joe Katende (left) receiving a copy of DRC' s labour code from Boniface Bola Bolailoko |  |
Delegates at an ITF planning meeting in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), talked global organising strategies earlier this month.
The meeting, the first to be held in several years in the state as a result of its five-year civil war, took place on 4-6 June in the capital city of Kinshasa. Twenty-one participants from, Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, DRC and Rwanda attended the event; ITF representatives included Guy Gedila Kuku, the ITF’s Subregional Coordinator. He was commended for his critical role in organising activities on the ground in Kinshasa. Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary of DRC’s ministry of labour, Boniface Bola Bolailoko gave the opening address.
Focusing on ways of implementing the ITF’s organising globally strategy, participants decided that key Central African hubs needed to be targeted in any proposals if the strategy was to be effective. These included Matadi, the chief seaport in DRC, and Goma, part of a major DRC transport corridor.
ITF African Regional Secretary Joe Katende, who was also at the event described a “chain of negative developments” that had left transport unions “totally devastated.”
“The only viable option in the midst of those threats is to plan properly for sustainable change both in terms of the nature of work and the methods to adopt towards a more sophisticated coordination at all levels,” he said.
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