President Sweeney, thank you for that very warm introduction, delegates, guests, friends,

Thank you for this opportunity. I am honoured to be here.

All of you embody the struggle for social justice and human dignity. A number of your international guests come direct from the frontline of the fight for freedom. They are symbolized by the presence of Muktahar Pakpahan and Branislav Canak.

I wish that one more person could have been with us today as he had been in the past, my fellow Chilean Manuel Bustos, who died last month.

Manuel was a historic trade union leader who led the fight against dictatorship in Chile for nearly two decades. And in the darkest moments you and others in the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and ORIT (I salute Luis Anderson who is here today), stood by us Chilean democrats. We do not forget. Your solidarity means that our victory is also yours.

My own life has highlighted the simple but fundamental truth that there is no social progress in any field without struggle. Congressman Gephardt said it earlier today - it's a fight, it's about power. It's about power sharing so that societies stabilize by including different needs and interests. The capacity to organize and mobilize for a cause is the foundation of a better life for all of us, and an even better one for our children. Yes, we have to negotiate; I believe in consensus building, but that sometimes means having the capacity to get people on to the street. A healthy respect for your counterparts' capabilities is a good foundation for stable agreements.

That is why the right to organize is such a fundamental human right. It is a right we all have as citizens.

Organization is the motor. But you well know that it must be given direction by values: decency, fairness, justice, solidarity. It also needs leadership and vision. Organization must bear results in terms of better legislation and changes in behaviour and consciousness. You also need courage. It can be dangerous to be an organizer. In some countries you risk your life.

Put that all together and we can all make a difference. I saw from this morning's debate that the AFL-CIO is doing just that and I salute your achievements.

There was a sense of modernity and energy running down these halls - of efforts to move the American labour movement creatively into the 21^st century. There is a lot of experience here today. Don't keep it to yourself. Share it with others. I invite you to use ILO's tripartite structure to help others organize, negotiate and reach agreements.

This afternoon, I want firstly to tell you why I think the organization I lead is important to what you are doing. Secondly, I'll refer to some of the ground rules the ILO is developing to meet the challenge of globalization. And, lastly I will set out the basics of a global system that can take us forward into a new millennium with new hope.

The International Labour Organization is the only place where trade unions sit down with governments and with employers at the world level and on an equal footing. It is your seat at the table of global governance.

Its mandate is to promote social justice by making the world of work better:

• Defending worker rights. Because everyone at work has rights.
• Helping create the enterprises and decent jobs without which those rights cannot take hold.
• Making workplaces safe.
• Extending social protection.
• And cementing the partnerships between unions, employers and governments that can make all this happen sooner. At ILO, we call it Social Dialogue.

When I took office as Director-General in March, I set about the task of renewing the ILO. At our annual Conference in June, which culminated in the historic visit of President Clinton, the organization united around a new agenda of decent work for all. Everywhere I go around the world what people tell me is that after respect for basic human rights, they want a decent job on which to raise a family, educate the kids and have a pension.

I believe that the ILO is capable of rising to the challenge of the age. Articulating the divergent interests of its membership into common goals.

Can you imagine the influence of this organization if we prove capable of mobilizing governments, employers and trade unions behind a set of shared objectives worldwide? It is our major challenge, and the right to organize must be one of the main goals.

Globalization is the defining characteristic of our times. We will not stop it but we must shape it and give it governance.

The benefits of the economic forces it has unleashed are not reaching enough people. For many it has meant backsliding. It is driven by decisions over which the vast majority of people feel they have no control, as exemplified by the global financial casino that led to the Asian crisis. Many business people also feel uncertain for their own and their companies' future.

But you, above all, see and feel the impact in your American workplaces, homes and communities.

As we have heard, for too many, globalization has meant a reality of insecurity, hardship and inequality.

As head of a global organization, I invite you to cast your eyes beyond your frontiers.

To take in the fact that one billion, three hundred million people survive on less than one dollar a day. We cannot forget them.

And to absorb the astounding fact that the combined wealth of the world's richest two hundred people is greater than the annual income of the poorest two and a half billion of our fellow human beings.

Somewhere on the road the global economy has lost its moral compass.

We need to act. To actually put that human face on the global economy. We need to make markets work for everybody.

President Sweeney, I want to welcome the AFL-CIO's agenda of new internationalism set out in the resolution before the Convention.

It shows that you are ready to go out to meet the challenge of globalization not retreat from it.

It shows recognition that the future of American workers is inextricably linked to those of your brothers and sisters everywhere across the globe.

Because, as the ILO stated in its historic Philadelphia Declaration, approved here in the United States already in 1944, "poverty anywhere constitutes a threat to prosperity everywhere".

But you want fair rules and you are right.

At the ILO we are already putting in place the social ground rules of the global economy.

Last year, employers, governments and trade unions at the ILO adopted a Declaration on the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. For the first time, this Declaration commits all countries to respect workers' fundamental rights.

Those rights concern organization and collective bargaining, forced labour, child labour and discrimination. By promoting those rights, by assisting countries to realise and be accountable for their commitments, the ILO will be helping to level the playing field. Tripping up at the starting post those who would run the race to the bottom.

This Declaration is no miracle solution. No vaccination against the ills afflicting the world of work. But it is an additional tool in your hands and those who share your goals. It backs and supports your activism, without which, I repeat we can expect little.

Following up on the declaration, the ILO Conference this year adopted by absolute and unprecedented unanimity the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention.

Its aim is immediate action to end the abhorrent exploitation of children in work that places them in physical, psychological and moral danger. I do not need to labour the point - we have seen the videos, we have heard the testimonies presented here.

The eradication of the worst forms of child labour is a global cause in which we can and must all join. I invite you to do just that as I have also done with the United States Government and the American business community represented at the ILO.

President Sweeney, delegates, the ILO's agenda for decent work is a critical part of what must be done to make the global market work for everybody. It has to be there - but alone, it will not be enough. Every day that passes brings additional evidence of the need for improved international action in the governance of the global economy.

I have said, and I say again that in this respect the system of international organizations is under-performing.

The problem is that each of these organizations is working separately. Happily pursuing its own policies, in its own often bureaucratic way, with insufficient regard to what the others are doing.

The WTO is busy preparing a new millennium round. It must be a truly development round that will bring concrete benefits to developing countries and working families worldwide.

The IMF is designing the new financial architecture.

The World Bank is constructing a comprehensive development framework.

We in the ILO are going ahead with decent work.

The United Nations development group is active in many fields.

At worst, these efforts can be contradictory and work at cross-purposes. At best they may lack coherence and thus effectiveness.

We need to make these organizations work together, within each of their own fields of competence. Let me be clear about what I mean: we need a shared project of governance for the global economy. A shared project that puts the needs of people, their families and communities at the heart of decision-making. We have reached the limits of piecemeal solutions.

I have made it clear that the ILO is ready to champion the common cause of integrating a social dimension into the globalization process. We have the knowledge, expertise and commitment. Each organization has something to offer but it will add up to a great deal more if we act together with a common purpose.

Some areas of action to respond to people's needs are evident:

· We need to promote sustainable growth, poverty reduction, enterprise development, investment and decent work as worldwide priorities.
· We need responses to the particular and differentiated needs of developing countries and their people.
· We need to empower women and men to take advantage of new opportunities and to defend their rights.
· We need to bring the reality of international cooperation to the life of families, the workplace, and local communities.
· The international organizations urgently need to look for solutions through the eyes of people to reduce the present level of uncertainty and insecurity.
· We need to stop the growth of inequality.

That was the message I took to the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund last month, and I'll be repeating it on every occasion I get. The speeches of the heads of the World Bank and the IMF orienting these institutions towards poverty reduction are important contributions to this process of convergence.

President, colleagues,

I started by talking about organization. Let me finish up with it.

The AFL-CIO is moving ahead, securing the future of your movement. With your union summers. By winning representation for groups like home care workers here in California in a tough battle that you won. By reaching out to ethnic diversity. To new and growing economic sectors. To women. To youth. To other community organisations. And to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable.

As I have said, I invite all of you to share your personal experiences and knowledge through the ILO's programmes to support workers organizing in the many different social contexts around the world. Join the ILO to help other workers help themselves!

Everything I have said, and everything the ILO stands for makes it obvious that promoting the capacity and the right of working people to organize is a top priority for the organization.

I want to see more workers in stronger unions everywhere. It is a source of balanced interests and greater social stability. And if, by the time I leave office, the ILO helped to make that happen, I will feel that I have done a big part of my job.

I also want you to know that I believe I have a particular responsibility to raise my voice or act behind the scenes to protect the security of trade union organizers throughout the world. I have done it and I will continue to do it.

President Sweeney, you have said that it is an exciting time to be a trade unionist in the United States, and so it is. I can tell you that it is also a pretty exciting time to be at the International Labour Organisation.

Let's join hands and move ahead together.

Thank you.