| Written by IWL-FI – European Center |
| Friday, 09 November 2012 03:05 |
 Down with cuts in social plans in EU! No more looting on the toiling masses! Out with the Troika and its governments! This is not our Debt! For the first time in History, on November 14th, workers in Portugal, Greece, Italy and the State of Spain will stand together in a general strike engulfing several European countries. United struggle and joint demands of European workers have become a pressing need. Since the EU and each one of the administration acts in accordance with identical measures and an international plan responding to the needs of their banks, the international unity in the struggle and the demands of European workers becomes increasingly imperious if they are to be defeated. In all the countries, the plans of adjustment leave a clear balance: the public debt has increased, the deficit does not recede, unemployment has rocketed sky high and the crisis grows deeper and deeper. And yet the policy of the administrations remains the same: make the workers pay for the crisis through cuts in the budget and more cuts in wages. This strike will take place when the Parliaments of Portugal, Spain and Greece pass the budgets for the year 2013 and so barefacedly deepen the demands of the European Commission (EC), Central European Bank (CEB) and the IMF- known as Troika: more cuts for healthcare, education, investments etc. In Greece, apart from the new and brutal 13000 million-euro cut in the Budget, the Troika demands, Troika demands a new labour reform to diminish the costs of layoffs. In Italy, the cuts in the budget come together with recoiling of historic achievements of the working class.  All the governments announce more of the same! The deepening of the social and economic catastrophe stemming out of a policy in the service of the bankers and the continuity of the looting on our countries to fill the pockets of the banks and German, French and American investment funds. The Movement of Socialist Alternative in Portugal, the Red Trend in Spainand theParty of Communist Alternative in Italy – sections of the International Workers’ League (IWL) will be in the first line of the preparation of the strike, arm-in-arm with the activists of the trade unions and the youth. While we do warn the activists that we must prepare the strike starting from the grassroots and get the precise objectives of our struggle as well as the continuity of the international mobilisation to be voted in assemblies and bodies. The massive 15S demonstrations in Portugal against the measures undertaken by the Passos Coelho administration took place in spite of the CGTP. In Spain, the multitudinous 19J demonstrations, the general strike in Basque Country on 26 September, the 25S the hedged the Congress in and the countless mobilisations and strikes that keep on demanding this summons. Only the refusal by the trade union bureaucracy of the CES – Euroepan Trade Union Central – could postpone this imperious need, while in the case of Italy there was a summons to a strike of only 4 hours. The unity of the working class in struggle is the weapon we need to defeat the policy of the EU and their governments and bankers but if this is our goal, on 14N, the international day of strikes and demonstrations cannot stop there. The vote of the Troika budgets in Greece, Portugal and Spain demands the continuity of the struggle to prevent cuts in the budgets.  We need clear targets for the General Strike and a programme. The strike must be the first step as a part of a plan of continuous struggles until the plans of austerity of the Troika are defeated. The mass demonstrations during last September gave a unison “Enough!” and for the first time, forced a government – that of Portugal – to recoil from transferring money from social security directly to banks and corporations; it was an important victory of the mobilisation against a government in the service of the bankers. That is why that at assemblies, demonstrations and co-ordinations of struggle we must stand for going on strike that will not be a mere protest. It must be much more than that.: a powerful weapon in the hands of workers and peoples. From workplaces and places of study and neighbourhoods, we must organise a strong general strike for the 14N. At the same time as we demand that the unity of Portuguese, Greek, Italian and Spanish workers should be preserved even after 14N, it is necessary to have an international gathering to define the following steps to take to sweep away all the future attacks on the raids of workers. From the grassroots, at assemblies and mobilisations we must demand a minimum set of guidelines of demands: · Put an end to the cuts and derogation of labour and pension reforms. · Against the payment of the Debt to bankers and public audits of the Debt. Cuts yes… to austerity! We need a plan to rescue workers! Thriving on the blood and sweat of millions of workers, bankers make their fortunes accrue at the cost of wages and public budget. And if all workers know that they have been governed by veritable criminals, they should also know that the debt that nourishes the profits of the bankrupt banks is also criminal for which millions of workers are being dismissed. The struggle against this debt that is not ours and for the derogation of all the laws that destroyed historic achievements of workers are among the fundamental measures tending to the rescue of the toiling masses. That is why this why this “It’s enough” that is echoing in the streets should now be extended to the governments of the bankers and of the Troika! Out with the governments that rescue bankers! A tiny handful of capitalists and bankers, less than 1% of the population are governing against the majority, exploiting the toiling masses and causing catastrophic impoverishment for the sake of their astronomic profits. In order to apply a rescue plan, we need the unity of all workers and nations of Europe stating No to the European Union of the Capital; in defence of a Socialist Europe of workers and peoples. It is high time we built organisationsto defend us staunchly posing that the crisis is to be paid by the capitalists and the European workers should get together in the struggle against the Europe of the capital. This is the project that we, the sections of the IWL, are determined to carry out: Long live the International struggle of the workers! November 2012 Movimento Alternativa Socialista(MAS, Portugal) Partito di Alternativa Comunista (PdAC, Italy) Corriente Roja(Spain) Liga Internacional de los Trabajadores |