I am truly delighted to greet all participants in this 8th ICFTU World Womens Conference.

And let me start by thanking you all for being here for your commitment to the issues you will be tackling under the Congress theme Unions for Women; Women for Unions.

Although this is the first time I have attended a World Womens Conference, I know that many of you were at the last one four years ago in Brazil, and how much was achieved there. And you cant help noticing that today Brazil has a new progressive government led by a great trade union leader dedicated to putting an end to poverty and injustice in his country and putting the global economy at the service of humanity. It is a source of inspiration to all of us across the world.

If the Conference could repeat the performance here and do it a bit quicker because we dont want to have to wait four years to see an Australian Government again putting working people first then we really would be seeing something. And I guess there would be no shortage of affiliates queuing up to host the next Conference.

But wherever that is, they will have a very hard act to follow. Because the Australian Council of Trade Unions has done more than any of us in the ICFTU could reasonably have expected in the organization of this event and in welcoming us to this wonderful country in all its diversity. To the ACTU, and especially to President Sharan Burrow who does so much for the cause of equality in the ICFTU but also in giving leadership to our Asian and Pacific Regional Organisation our sincere thanks and gratitude.

And we are honoured by the presence of the leader of a country who has shown commitment to working women and men through her leadership. In the 1990s, New Zealand, the first country in the world to recognize the right of women to vote, was suffering under some of the most draconian anti-union legislation imaginable. The New Zealand model was being touted around the world as the cutting edge of the neo-liberal paradigm with the promise that a scorched earth policy for workers rights would open new vistas of economic prosperity.

Well, it didnt work out that way. And thanks to the leadership of Prime Minister Clark, who will be giving her message to the Conference very shortly, and to the determination of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, the tide has turned here too.

Indeed, trade unionists can draw encouragement from the growing opposition to the policies which have driven the global economy along a path which has promoted inequality and injustice, dealt a lousy deal to working families, and partly diminished us all in the international community. But the tragedy is that the price of these failures is tragically left and being paid by the weakest in our societies.

The ILO has just produced its Work Unemployment Figures - up to 180 million Europeans look to a bleak economic outlook with trepidation. Growth forecasts are being revised repeatedly downwards. In the Americas Bolivia last week dramatically joined the growing list of States teetering on the brink of social and economic implosion. The plight of Africa remains a reproach to humanity Africa, the excluded region of the global economy, ravaged by poverty and by the HIV-AIDS pandemic. Here in Asia/Pacific the climb out of the 1997/98 melt down has been long, painful and uncertain, and the accession to the WTO of the economic colossus which is China poses dramatic challenges to its own people and for us all. And the core of the drama is that countrys denial to allow its workers the right to argue.

Colleagues, none of this had to happen. There is no fatality about globalization. But policy makers nationally and in international organistations have for far too long, been facing decisions which have held that it is up to the market to provide solutions and that governments should get out of their way. And our trade unions have been cast in the role of obstacles, self-interested distorters of the market, part of the problem, enemies of solution.

The World Bank has been one of those peddling this sort of stuff, with some enthusiasm too. With such enthusiasm, in fact, that it neglected until quite recently to have a look at the facts. Now that is has done so it has surprised itself.

It has found that trade unions are good for the economy and good for their members. They can improve productivity, bring down unemployment and inflation, promote adjustment to economic shocks. What is more, we reduce inequality. The wage mark-up of organized over unorganized workers is generally substantial and crucially for this conference union mark-up for women is often greater than for men. So here is evidence that unions are back as crucial partners, says the Bank, but also of unions working for women.

The evidence of inequality in the world of work is voluminous. A lot of it is presented in the Conference documents. You find it in the wage gap, labour market segregation, precarity at work, harassment and underpinned by social attitudes and cultural constraints.

And here is the real imperative to action, the real importance of this Conference. The need to recruit women to our movement, and to assure their full role in leadership and decision-making to work for equality can, and often is, presented as a condition for our survival, giving rising participation rates of women in the workforce. It can sometimes appear, too, as a reflex of political correctness without true substance or commitment.

But above all this our movement needs to be moved by the realization that this is quite simply the right thing to do. Everything trade unions stand for demands that we make equality a key goal it is simply an integral part of what we are and what we do. None of us would recognize or identify with a movement that did NOT make equality a headline priority.

And the fact that women are concentrated in those areas of work which are our key organizing challenges the informal economy, part-time, and other atypical work, the rural sector only underlines the urgency of the challenge. Which is why the worldwide organizing campaign for women launched last year is so important, moving us on from words and good intentions to action and results.

Some of the findings from the campaigns make tough reading. The survey work done tells us not only what women expect from unions, but also where unions are failing to deliver. We need to work hard at our shortcomings and put them right, and if that means major change, then so be it.

It was famously said by a leader from a past century one obviously not versed in the basics of non-sexist usage that all significant change has been the work of unreasonable men.

How many women last trade unionists fighting for needed change in their organizations how many of you? have run up against the dismissive argument that they are being unreasonable? Many of you, I expect.

I know that this happens in the ICFTU. Ive found myself caught in the crossfire telling some colleagues in our equality department that their positions on womens representation in our bodies is unreasonable that it cant be done and then going out to affiliates and being told by them to get real when we seek their cooperation to make them happen.

But the truth is that the path of progress consists of converting the unreasonable into the necessary and then the indispensable. And I am clear that the ICFTU has had and must have a leadership role. We cant just reflect national realities we need to change them and be agitating and pushing for change. And all of our work to progress the representation and role of women, for change in trade unions to which this Conference is a critical contribution, seeks to be seen in the context of renewal and strengthening of the international movement as a whole.

Globalisation means ever greater convergence and interdependence of national and international trade union agendas. That means opportunity or difficulty, success or failure it depends on our capacity to react.

Which is why the ICFTUs Congress in 2000 launched the millennium review process to examine our strategies, structures and priorities. We are carrying the process forward to our next World Congress next year.

A key element has been the formation of Global Unions, grouping the ICFTU with the ten Global Union Federations and TUAC as a common identity for the movement, and a vehicle for joint action. And in November we agreed together to launch in two Global Union Campaigns.

Our campaign on globalization will kick-off on 1 May where we are asking affiliates to integrate into their activities the theme of respect for worker rights, for safety and health for quality services though the fight against poverty and for young workers. Gender will be mainstreamed throughout.

Our second campaign is aimed at maximising the Trade Union role in the struggle against AIDS, the struggle against HIV/AIDS where we are convinced we can and must have an important impact to halt and turn pack the pandemic and effects on women. These are some of the key challenges and priorities which compete for our attention, our resources and our energy.

But today the most pressing concern of working people everywhere is the threat of war. The millions who marched for peace in recent days and reports indicate that in some areas 70% of demonstrators were women delivered a resounding message: that war must be avoided and that we have the means and opportunity to avoid it.

Let us be clear: the Iraqi regime is an odious and dangerous dictatorship dangerous in the first instance to its own people who have been its primary victims, but also to the international community. That community has a duty to react. But is has to act in a manner which safeguards our common security and which has the authority of international law. That means working through the UN and under the unique legitimacy of its Security Council.

The ICFTU has made clear that any military action outside that framework is, on present evidence, unnecessary and would be unacceptable. Today our leaders need to show strength, resolution and courage by sticking with the UN process, by taking the tough road which can still bring us to peace and real security.

I hope that our Conference can echo that message, and the one that says that equality and social justice is the soil in which peace can take root and endure.

You have the opportunity here in Melbourne to enrich and strengthen our movement as only working women can. I urge you to do just that and wish you all success.