In Britain, union influence on government may be waning as the economic and political crisis seems to deepen on a daily basis, but overseas its making new friends and forging a reputation for helping people in some of the most divided and war torn countries in the world.

The Trades Union Congress (TUC), the umbrella organisation for the majority of Britain's unions with fifty-eight affiliated members, could be described as one of the UK's biggest charity organisations and while its individual unions are free to support their own causes the TUC directs all it's charity work overseas through it's charitable arm TUC Aid.

TUC Aid which is virtually unheard of outside of the union movement, has three main aims, to contribute to long term development programmes, provide substantial humanitarian relief in emergencies and assist social and economic development through education and the growth of independent trade unions.

Until recently, the idea of union values conjured up little more than a picture of a stereotypical Dave Spart character, the humourless left-winger of Private Eye fame, but throughout the world the British union movement has been thrust into the unfamiliar position of exemplar by providing social capital to help projects in strife ridden countries.

In the past year, while many charities scaled back their foreign-aid commitments, the TUC charm offensive has progressed on many fronts. They recently launched an appeal to assist the troubled countries of Palestine, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, while in May, hundreds of timber workers in Ghana attended the first Voluntary Counseling and Testing clinic under, a workplace initiative on HIV/AIDS funded by the former Transport and General Workers union leader Bill Morris' Testimonial Fund for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

In Swaziland, with help from TUC Aid, unions are leading the struggle to defend workers rights and promote democracy, under a feudal regime which has imposed the longest lasting state of emergency in Africa. The newly-formed, union-run International Research Academy for Labour and Education (IRALE) will build up the capacity of the country’s trade unions to organise and represent their members.

With chronic unemployment and the world’s highest inflation, maintaining a strong trade union movement in Zimbabwe would be diffiult even without the violent repression of the Robert Mugabe regime and the TUC is helping the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) in its struggle for democracy and for reconstruction.

"Some unions have formed strong links with their opposite numbers in Iraq and Kurdistan, like firefighters who were so appalled at the poor equipment supplied to their colleagues that they drove several fire tenders loaded with equipment all the way across Europe, as a donation," says TUC Aid secretary Owen Tudor.

"Our teachers union provided a group of Iraqi teachers with a week of respite at their training centre in the Midlands, where they developed recruitment materials in between trips to see Shakespeare in Arabic at Stratford, and enjoying the dubious delights of watching a Kidderminster Harriers football match.

"Sometimes we have contributed to sadder occasions. When my opposite number in Baghdad – Hadi Saleh – was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by former Ba’athists, TUC Aid paid for the memorial his union and his family wanted to erect, and published a book about his struggles and those of the whole Iraqi trade union movement.

"The trade union movement in Iraq is similar to many other union movements in countries emerging from dictatorship and conflict - although its long and powerful history means it has more in common with those in developed economies. It gives working people a voice in decisions being made about their livelihoods and holds government to account. Being involved in a workplace union involves people in practical activities that involve compromise, negotiation and accountability."

Tudor adds that especially in divided societies, unions have to represent diversity. "There is an inherent tendency towards a belief in equality and non-sectarianism. That doesn’t mean it’s easy for unions to avoid all of the tensions that occur in the societies they belong to – trade unions in developed countries also find it a challenge to involve women in positions of leadership, for example – but it means that they are willing to try, and TUC Aid is helping them to do so."

In targeting money overseas the TUC is hoping to create a legacy that will be sustainable and also develop a momentum of its own.