An interview with a 'retired' steelworker

By Denise Winebrenner Edwards

PITTSBURGH - In April, limos hauling executives from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be greeted on the streets of Washington, DC by tens of thousands of workers demanding debt relief for developing countries.

Commercials feature entertainment stars pleading for donations to "save the children" in South America, Central America and Africa. Erasing the crushing debt will be a step toward raising the standard of living for people in all three regions, especially Africa.

In September, Oliver Montgomery represented the AFL-CIO at a conference in Nairobi, Kenya of union leaders from 17 English speaking countries of the sub-Saharan region, which includes South Africa. While two million African union members were represented at the conference, there are a total of 13 million in the whole of the 44 countries of the continent - the same number as the United States.

The IMF and World Bank were also at the conference table in Nairobi - for good reason. At stake in the union leaders' deliberations is the region's social security system.

Montgomery was the right man for the job in Kenya. He has spent his lifetime fighting corporations tooth and nail for racial and economic justice. For 20 years, Montgomery led the fight of African-American steelworkers for equality at Youngstown Sheet and Tube and in the greater Youngstown, Ohio community. He marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. in Ohio and on Washington in 1963.

In 1969, the United Steelworkers of American (USWA) hired him from the mill where he served the union for 30 years. In 1977, Montgomery ran for USWA vice president, joining forces with Ed Sadlowski, running for union president. Their candidacy challenged decades of company union policies.

Although their bid failed, both mavericks continued to advance steelworkers in the mills and their communities, resulting in present USWA policy. In March 1999, Montgomery retired from the USWA as national director of the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) and remains a leader in the fight to save Social Security and Medicare and a warrior in several successful battles to halt privatization schemes. He is a founding member and continues to serve on the executive board of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU).

In September 1999, the AFL-CIO asked him to attend the "Conference on Enhancing the Trade Union Role in Social Security Systems in English Speaking African Countries" sponsored by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) African Regional Organization in Kenya.

Of the 17 countries at the conference, only five have any type of social security system.

"The African unions are pushing their governments to structure and restructure the social security system," Montgomery told the World. On the other hand, the IMF and World Bank were already on the agenda pushing private social security systems. "And the AFL-CI0 wanted to offset that, so my phone rang."

The 12 countries that lack a national system only have leftovers from the colonial system where a few civil servants - "formal workers" - are covered.

Through a series of panels, African union leaders explained that they are fighting for one-pension system, unlike the U.S. retirement system, where companies pay into a government retirement fund, which covers the country's entire work force. The U.S. system is a three-legged stool providing for retirement based on individual savings, company-based pension, covering only workers at that specific corporation and federal Social Security. The system envisioned by African labor leaders would eliminate retiree suffering resulting from bankruptcy, corporation corruption and mega-mergers where pension funds are leveraged to increase private profits.

Montgomery's remarks describing the U.S. Social Security System, a national system covering everyone, drew a standing ovation from the union leaders.

The biggest response, Montgomery said, is when he urged African union leaders to correct the shortcomings of U.S. Social Security including inclusion of women as full and equal recipients of benefits. Pointing out that U.S. Social Security pays about 1 percent of its income for administration, Montgomery called for "transparency," unions have to fight for seats on the government board running their country's social security system and demand a full accounting to guarantee a fund that will grow.

At the conclusion of the conference, IMF and World Bank representatives invited Montgomery to dinner at the fanciest hotel in Nairobi. But he had already been invited by the Kenyan Textile Workers union to visit their community. He went with the women clothing workers. "It was a thrill. Here I was in this town and the public school children greeted us singing 'Solidarity Forever' in Swahili. I couldn't hold back a tear of pride and joy."

The impact of debt on Africa is "economic apartheid" and "commercial colonialism" where millions of Africans are held hostage by banks demanding ransom in the form of interest.

"These same people, the IMF and World Bank, attached so many strings to economic development loans where the countries have to borrow money to pay the interest, put money in the hands of dictators and subverted elections, are in there trying to set up a social security system. But here were the unions with their agenda, really a people's plan, standing up and fighting. They are demanding debt forgiveness."

The IMF, Montgomery reported, demands reductions in wages and social spending, like education and health care. "Imagine, two-thirds of all the AIDS victims in the world are in Africa and IMF demands cuts in health care to pay off the debt. It's beyond criminal," he says, his hands knotting into steelworker fists.

Montgomery's voice turns to ice when he turned his attention to child labor in Africa. "Thousands of children are on the streets of Nairobi. Not begging, streetwise kids. But on the streets. The AFL-CIO has a good program, but it is not nearly enough. Many of the children are refugees from Rwanda and are picked up off the streets by the owners of coffee plantations. They take the kids out there, now we are talking about little children of 5, 6, 7 years old, and work them picking coffee. Our multinational corporations exploit children, the world's nameless children, hidden and forgotten."

"The unions at the conference all supported the bill introduced by Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., African aid and oppose the one crafted by the Clinton administration," he said. "The AFL-CIO is doing a good job, now, in Africa, but everyone has to get in this fight for debt relief and democratic economic development. With all the controversy about trade and the export of jobs, we cannot allow the IMF or World Bank to dictate how workers here or in Africa live. The Africans are organized and organizing into unions and they can determine their destiny. But we cannot permit U.S. corporations to have free rein, exploiting children, first graders, for their profits."

He concludes by saying, "A lot of people in the U.S. thought the problems in Africa ended with Mandela and the overthrow of Apartheid. That was only the beginning. Just a small example. I couldn't leave Kenya without visiting the grave of their great leader, Kenyatta who led their fight for independence.

So my driver goes through the streets and there are all these guys, not cops in uniforms, but civilian dress, standing around with uzi submachine guns. At the grave site, my driver was nervous, checking his watch, looking over his shoulder. And there was a guy with an Uzi - there at the shrine for a national hero. We in the U.S. have a lot to do. The struggle in Africa is far from over. WTO and Seattle is just the start."