Class and Gender Organisational Policy
This international congress, NOTING
1. That street vending is increasing all over the world as a result of job losses and lack of employment in the formal economy, and that this trend is irreversible;
2. That street vendors, market vendors and hawkers now represent a third of the urban informal workforce around the world;
3. That the majority of street vendors in most countries, especially the poorest, are women;
4. That vendors seek the right to vend without harassment and to have regular selling spaces in places that customers frequent, storage and child care facilities, and basic infrastructure such as water, shelter and toilets;
5. That vendors, like all urban informal workers, are concerned with social services (health, education and child-care), law and order (protection and the ability to work steadily without disruption), and the establishment of a negotiation framework and local appeals mechanism;
6. That there is a need for strong membership-based representative organizations of street and market vendors and hawkers, to struggle consistently for and secure these rights and facilities;
7. That there are, however, class differences and gender differences between vendors, which results in some being much more economically secure than others.
Hereby RESOLVES
1. That StreetNet International will take over the work started by the StreetNet Association to build strong organization;
2. That StreetNet will remain committed to focus primarily on the needs of the poorest street and market vendors and hawkers, including the particular needs of women vendors;
3. That StreetNet will remain committed to empowering women vendors and assisting them to overcome the marginalizing effects of gender discrimination;
4. That StreetNet will remain committed to building strong leadership among the poorest and most disadvantaged vendors, particularly women;
5. That StreetNet will continue to work in alliance with the international trade union movement and its affiliated national organisations, the international co-operative movement, credit organisations and other organizations which are promoting the collective self-empowerment of the poorest workers in the formal and informal economy through democratic accountable membership-controlled organizations.
PROPOSED: KATINIG, Philippines
SECONDED: Informal Business Forum, Johannesburg, South Africa