Antony Vallyon talk 12 November 2016
The World Employment Conference 1976: 40 Years On – A historical view
Our speaker came highly qualified and experienced. Antony joined UNA in 1994 and subsequently became President of UNA – New Zealand. He has been involved in academic UN research in Tokyo and New York and is now a member of LASER.
The background to The World Employment Conference is interesting. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) was set up in 1919, obviously existing a long time before the UN was created, although nowadays the ILO is part of the UN. The ILO decided in 1969 to focus on the World Employment Program, and the Conference was in 1976. In 1969 and soon after there were many debates about economic growth versus poverty reduction and reports from US institutions like Yale, Harvard and MIT promoted economic growth and development as priorities for poorer countries.
One controversial goal which came the way of the World Employment Program and subsequent Conference was the matter of Employment. The UN and many countries promoted 100% employment as an important goal. (‘the devil makes work for idle hands’). This is no longer such a priority for most countries and matters of job fulfilment, nature of work and job security are as important.
The Conference had 4 major themes:
1. Basic Needs
For some, as above, this was simply a priority of economic growth, to be able to afford such things. But the Conference decided that such basic needs should not be decided by some ‘fly in and out’ World Bank executives and that the important prioritization of needs such as water, sanitation, health, education, employment, even human rights should be decided by that country.
2. Technology
The initial priority here was transfer of technology to poorer countries, not just computers but also in matters of agricultural and infrastructure. But there was concern that new technologies would replace workers. Also it was apparent that large multi nationals would bring in technologies with far lower labour requirements. The bottom line here was that countries were encouraged to take control of available technologies based upon their individual requirements, including standing up to large multi nationals.
3. Multi National Corporations
In those days this referred to Japan as much as anywhere else. Aside from the matters raised above there was the friction created due to Japanese large corporations selling reverse-engineered technology (transistor radios, cars) to countries which did not involve creating many extra jobs, whilst their own country would only buy Japanese manufactured goods. More latterly Kofi Annan has built upon the impact of business on life, jobs and the environment, enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals.
4. Immigration
And interestingly this term was seen as synonymous with ‘workforce’, in response to the rapid growth in immigrations and their need in the labour market. However there was recognition that with rapid growth in immigration came pressure on housing, education, social services plus racial discrimination. Perhaps times have not changed.
You may have noticed a theme here: Countries to decide their own priorities when it comes to basic needs, countries to decide themselves how best to implement technologies from elsewhere, countries to decide how best to stand up and make use of multi-national offerings, plus how best to interpret the pressure for immigration. This latter issue obviously being a ‘hot potato’ for the UK right now. The message from the Conference all those years ago was obviously one of each country needing to decide for itself on all these issues. Thank you Antony and it is really interesting to see how much has changed and how much hasn’t since 1975.
Dennis Wilmot
UNA Twickenham & Richmond