EUROPE
Workers opening fight against bosses’ austerity offensive
By
John Catalinotto
Published Jun 7, 2010 10:00 PM
Inspired by the courageous example workers are setting in Greece, workers
throughout Europe are beginning to respond with strikes and street
demonstrations to the capitalist offensive that is minimizing their wages,
eliminating vital social benefits and contracting the job market.
On May 29, 300,000 workers marched in Lisbon. In English
the banner says: ‘Rights won are not to be stolen; we urgently need different policies.’
Photo: Jorge Figeiredo
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In a period of a few weeks, workers in Portugal, France, Italy, Spain and
Romania have been or will be in the streets and on strike protesting austerity
programs. The ruling-class governments disguise these programs as so-called
common sacrifice to reduce government debt and prevent collapse. In reality,
the programs squeeze workers while subsidizing banks and businesses.
The Greek workers’ exemplary actions — nine major work actions
since February and another planned for June — stem from the refusal of
the PAME union confederation leadership to hold workers responsible for solving
the capitalist crisis. In other countries, where union heads talk about
defending the solvency of “their” country, they can only wind up
sacrificing workers’ wages and benefits and weakening their unions’
ability to fight.
The Communist Party of Greece also raised the banner of a united European
workers’ struggle to confront the capitalist offensive. Hanging from the
ruins of Athens’ Parthenon the banner read, “Peoples of Europe,
rise up.” Nothing would be better to confront the financial giants based
in the most powerful imperialist countries in Europe — Germany, France,
Britain especially, as well as the U.S. — who have whipped all European
governments into line to impose drastic cuts on the workers.
The capitalists are first targeting the workers in the economically weaker
countries — Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy. These are also
countries — along with more affluent France — where bosses fear the
militancy of the working class and want to crush the workers’ movements
lest that militancy spread. There is no doubt, however, that austerity programs
are also planned to squeeze workers in Germany, France, Britain and the rest of
northern Europe.
300,000 in Lisbon
During the last week in May the major workers’ demonstration was in
Portugal, which like Greece is one of the poorer countries still integrated in
the imperialist world. Of Portugal’s 10 million people, 300,000 workers
— as estimated by the action’s organizers in the CGTP union central
— marched down Lisbon’s big boulevards to reject the regime’s
austerity. All observers agree it was the largest workers’ protest since
the 1974 revolution ousted a fascist regime, already weakened by the liberation
struggles in Portugal’s African colonies, which then won
independence.
A member of the CGTP national leadership committee told Reuters May 29 that the
demonstration was only the first step in protesting an austerity plan that
includes tax increases and a freeze on civil servants’ pay.
“It’s a stage of a continuous struggle that will intensify,”
said Armenio Carlos. “We’re leaving all options open, including
calling a national general strike.”
In France a few days earlier tens of thousands of workers marched in the
pouring rain to defend the retirement age, which the government wants to raise
eventually to age 70, and pensions, which the regime wants to cut.
Italy’s CGIL union confederation, 6-million strong, announced a
nationwide one-day strike on June 25, with protest rallies around the country
two weeks earlier to build up to that action. The Italian government plans to
reduce civil service jobs, cut salaries, raise retirement age and cut the
health care system in an attempt to cut the budget by 24 billion euros (As of
May, 1 euro equals about $1.25).
Unions in Spain, where unemployment hovers at 20 percent, still haven’t
announced a national general strike, although there have been strong strikes in
the Basque country over the past few months. The government announced a program
to cut 80 billion euros from the budget by cutting 13,000 public service jobs,
reducing salaries of state workers by 5 percent and freezing pensions.
France and Italy have center-right regimes in office. Greece, Portugal and
Spain have center-left regimes led by nominally socialist or social-democratic
parties. These Western European “left” parties may have presided
over workers’ gains in the past, but now they hardly distinguish
themselves from the rightists, much like the Democratic Party in the U.S. In
most cases the rightists and the others have joined in parliaments to impose
austerity plans on the workers.
Romania is one of the first of the Eastern European countries, victims of the
1989 counterrevolutionary wave that turned them into virtual colonies of
Western capital, where workers are holding general strikes against austerity
cuts. There, the current salaries are already quite austere by West European
standards.
On May 17 there was a massive protest in Bucharest, Romania’s capital,
where retired workers nearly stormed parliament. On May 31 tens of thousands of
public sector workers walked off the job protesting cuts imposed by the
International Monetary Fund in return for a 20 billion euro loan. The IMF
ordered Romania to slash public-sector wages by a quarter and cut pensions by
15 percent and wants it to cut government spending on goods and services by a
fifth. Teachers, government workers, customs officers, pensioners and medical
staff all joined the strike.
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