Working people today are working harder than ever. The bosses are squeezing every minute out of them while rent keeps climbing and prices keep rising. The news is full of another war, another bombing, another country getting torn apart while politicians just want to talk about “national security” and “economic interests.”
One might be asking: What does any of this have to do with me? The World Federation of Trade Unions’ answer came out of its recent Presidential Council meeting on May 13: Everything.
“The world today is going through one of the most critical periods in modern history,” WFTU General Secretary Pambis Kyritsis told the council. “Imperialism—seeking to impose geopolitical and economic interests—now reveals a dangerously aggressive and belligerent face.”
Indeed, every war the U.S. and its allies start is a war on working people’s living standards across the world. The system that profits mightily from war is the same one squeezing workers’ paychecks, busting unions, laying off workers en masse, and jacking up rents and housing prices.
The council ended its meeting by announcing the 19th World Trade Union Congress, set for May 13-15, 2027, in Sri Lanka.
A congress for the class struggle
The decision to hold the congress in Sri Lanka is no accident, the council said. Sri Lanka’s popular movement recently overthrew an authoritarian, anti-people regime and demonstrated what organized, working-class-led resistance can achieve.
The upcoming congress, Kyritsis said, “will bring together class-oriented trade unions from all corners of the globe and, through dialogue, exchange, and collective reflection, lead to decisions that provide guiding lines of action.”
Preparations begin this summer, with the next Presidential Council in December set to approve congress materials. Their goal is a mass, militant international trade union forum—the largest gathering of WFTU affiliates since the pandemic, they said.
Cuba and Venezuela solidarity
The council also issued an urgent call for solidarity with Cuba, where the Trump administration has escalated the U.S.’ 65-year economic war on the socialist nation. For instance, in January 2026, Trump declared a “national emergency” and imposed a sweeping fuel blockade and authorized tariffs on any country shipping oil to the island. The result has been crippling blackouts, food shortages, and a deliberate strangulation of Cuba’s health and transportation systems.
This week, the U.S. Dept. of Justice also released an indictment against former President Raúl Castro for the 1996 downing of two planes flying out of Miami (see People’s World analysis here).
In response, the council launched the global signature campaign “Cuba is not alone! – FIRMO POR CUBA,” calling on every affiliate union to organize petitions in their workplaces and neighborhoods to show solidarity between workers around the world and their Cuban siblings.
“Cuba needs, now more than ever, the active support of the international class-oriented trade union movement,” the council’s resolution on Cuba stated. The WFTU’s demands—like those of the rest of the international Cuba solidarity movement—are an immediate and unconditional lifting of the blockade, removal from the “State Sponsors of Terrorism” list, and an end to all interference in Cuba’s sovereign affairs.
On Jan. 3, 2026, U.S. military forces invaded Venezuela and abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. At least 100 people were killed, including 32 Cubans. The pretext for this illegal operation was alleged drug trafficking charges.
The real motive, the WFTU Presidential Council’s resolution on Venezuela stated, is “controlling the country’s mineral and energy wealth” and punishing a country that refused to bow to U.S. dictates.
The Presidential Council condemned the “blatant violation of international law” and demanded Maduro’s immediate release, an end to all military interventions, and the lifting of sanctions.
“This aggression is the continuation of a long-standing policy against Venezuela,” Kyritsis said, “forming part of a broader strategy of intimidation against peoples who resist imperialist domination.”
Palestine, Iran, Lebanon
The council devoted substantial attention to the U.S.-Israeli rampage across the Middle East. Since October 2023, the genocide in Gaza has killed tens of thousands, mostly women and children, with mass destruction and forced displacement. These criminal attacks have now spread to Lebanon and Iran, with Israeli bombs falling on civilian infrastructure across the entire region.
Regarding Palestine, the WFTU reaffirmed its longstanding demand for an independent Palestinian based state on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for all refugees.
The council also highlighted what workers are already doing in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
For example, People’s World has reported extensively on the international dockworkers’ movement. In February 2026, WFTU-affiliated longshore workers at 21 major European ports shut down operations under the slogan “Port Workers Do Not Work for War,” blocking arms shipments to Israel.
In Italy, the USB union blocked four cargo ships. In Greece, the labor federation PAME led strikes against the genocide, and in France, CGT workers refused to load weapons components destined for Israel.
Action plan building up to the congress
The WFTU’s 2026 Action Plan, adopted at the council meeting, puts anti-imperialist solidarity at the forefront. For example, annual campaigns are set for Sept. 1 (day of action for peace) and Oct. 3 (anniversary of the WFTU’s founding). These will be used to further coordinate worldwide trade union mobilizations and build the international labor movement, the federation said.
They will also keep fighting for a 35-hour workweek without wage cuts, the council said. They will place front and center workplace health and safety, migrant workers’ rights, collective bargaining, and the right to strike.
“We struggle in very difficult and many times hard conditions,” Kyritsis acknowledged, “against enemies who have unbelievable means.”
But, he said, “We have confidence in the judgment and orientation of the working class. When the working class becomes conscious of its position and role in the progress of society, when through its daily small and large struggles it realizes its own strength and understands its historic mission, it becomes an invincible force.
“With our united and organized struggles, the system that generates crisis and reproduces exploitation can be defeated. A world free of wars and imperialist interventions, free of exploitation and discrimination—a world where work will be permanent and stable, regulated and safe—is achievable.”
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