Voices from the Sudanese Revolution

Abstract

24 | International Union Rights | 26/3 TOWARDS UNIVERSAL RATIFICATION OF C87 AND 98 Sudan ratified ILO Convention No. 98 on collective bargaining and protection of the right to organise as far back as 1957, but it has not ratified Convention No. 87, the principle freedom of association instrument. Given recent instability there is little immediate prospect for ratification, but as the country marks its transition to a new political future there is fundamental concern with the country’s trade union structures and with the concepts of freedom of association. Fathi El Fadl is Vice President of ICTUR in Khartoum The beginnings of the trade union movement in Sudan was closely linked with the upsurge of the movement and struggle for national independence in the late 1940s. This stage of building the union movement was characterised by democratic and mass participation. Rank and file members were actively involved in the discussions and consultation that led to the establishment of the first workers’ trade union. At different times trade unions faced repressive measures, detention of leaders, banning of organisations, attempts to create fictitious organisations and assassinations. But governments and regimes come and go; the Sudanese democratic trade unions continued to live and develop. In 1989 the Muslim Brotherhood took power through a military coup, overthrowing the democratically elected government, banning political parties and trade union organisations. The 1990s were the darkest period in the history of Sudan. Thousands of trade unionists, politicians, women, youth and student leaders were jailed. Tens were tortured to death and over 250,000 were dismissed from work. In their attempt to stifle workers’ resistance, the dictatorship embarked on a policy of privatisation, dismantling the public sector and establishing organisations that were part of the regime. Labour laws were reformed to stifle trade union democracy and abolish independent trade union organisations. This practice continued until 11 April 2019. Sudanese democratic trade unions continued to struggle under very difficult conditions, to fight for their rights and against repressions. Thanks to international solidarity and assistance rendered by trade union organisations such as ICTUR, the democratic trade union movement survived the brutal repression and managed to organise even under the most difficult conditions. Professional bodies started to appear and organise independently. Gradually they managed to present an alternative to the government-controlled bodies. Today there is still a long way to go to reach the goals of the mass uprising: Freedom, Peace and Justice. However the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, a pillar of the mass protest movement, is working hard to rebuild democratic, independent and unified trade union organisations. Sara Abdelgali is President of the Sudan Doctors’ Union (UK) Unions in Sudan have always been fighting for democracy, that is part of our history, and professional unions always played a role in democratic change in Sudan in the 1960s and the 1980s. Since the 1940s we had independent unions, but in 1989 these were demolished and went to work underground, while pro-regime unions were formed [under the government-controlled Sudanese Workers’ Trade Union Federation, SWTUF] which was politically affiliated to the NCP [Omar alBashir ’s National Congress Party]. They re-organised the unions to make them more generalised, including different sectors together, and abolished a lot of rights. This was new for Sudan, because even in the two previous dictatorships, the unions were still there, but this regime demolished them. The SWTUF did not serve its members. In Sudan in the last thirty years there have been a lot of proposals and activities, but these activities have not been reflected in the lives of the professionals or citizens of Sudan. Implementation of any change was not done unless it was in the interests of the regime. The SWTUF leadership was not democratically chosen, they were appointed based on their affiliation to the regime. We continued independently and separately, not only the doctors but also other professionals. It took a while for these unions to gather, but there have been several previous attempts at calling for unity. Mostly this was not successful, for different reasons. One of the doctors [Dr. Ali Fadul of the Sudan Doctors’ Union] was tortured and killed in 1990, following a strike. Others have been arrested, expelled from...