In those one hundred years the equality of genders has been recognized as a fundamental human right. The UN International Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women CEDAW constituted a strong international base.

A good European and international legislation has been created as a result of long and hard struggles of women and feminist movement. Of course, there was always the gap between de jure equality and de facto equality.

Although, the neoliberal model that caused economic, social and cultural crisis, now threatens to eliminate not only the achievements of women, but also the principles on which they are founded.

The work of women have became enslaved by paltry wages, without insurance, with a treatment which is characterized by violence, threats, sexual harassment, discrimination through firing of pregnant women and working conditions that cost them even their own lives.

The welfare state is disintegrated through privatization even of those fields that are a basis for substantive equality. That is the whole complex: health, education, social security, care and concern for children and the elderly. The obligations of the welfare state were loaded on the shoulders of women.

The retirement age is equated upwards and all positive measures for women are eliminated.

The violence against women was intensified and often reaches up to murder.  The right to abortion either is in dispute or is invalidated. The family law changes in a conservative direction. The politics remains male dominated.

The attack of the neoliberals on social and political rights of women has its own expression also in the ideological sphere. There is a systematic propaganda to enforce the part-time work, above all women, as the only kind of work.

Conservative political circles and the Church attack against the women's rights. The sexuality of women, the self-regulation of their reproductive function and sexual orientation receive systematic attacks.

We, the women of the European Left, cannot accept that the people must pay the consequences of the crisis of capitalism.

We adamantly defend our acquired rights, and we demand to overcome the crisis not at the expense of the people but at the expense of monopolies, companies and banks.

We want gender equality in the Labour market, equal pay for equal work and the same opportunities for women and men at work.

We want the possibility of combining work and family life through the reduction of working hours and the establishment of public services for the care of children, sick and the elderly.

We want equal participation and representation of women in politics and in all decision making institutions, including 50% of all seats.

We demand that the sexual and reproductive rights of women are guaranteed.

We are in favor of a European law that will legalize abortion.
We demand a European law against gender-based violence.

We demand the same rights and the same opportunities for the migrant and refugee women.

We shall not become “working poor" women.

The feminist movement allied with the workers movement and the equal rights movement is fighting against the monopolies, companies and banks.

Our slogan is “NO PASSARAN” by DOLORES IBARURI

Bent Gravesen    (Socialist Peroples Party – Denmark), Gerald Kemski ( The Left. – Germany), Maria Syrakou  (Synaspismos – Greece), Nuria Lozano-Montoya (United Left Alternative – Catalonia), Antonio Chora (Bloco de Esquerda – Portugal)

March 6. 2010 Helsinki, Finland

Please find the declaration in other languages here: DE

We do not accept the claim that the stability of the euro requires hard austerity measures proposed by the governments of the Eurozone member-states, the European Union and international organizations, like the IMF and the World Bank. All these policies promote capitalist interests and increase unemployment and poverty throughout the EU, while at the same time private banks are bailed out by national governments and the European Central Bank with billions of euro. There is no crisis exit strategy without reinforcing real economy and employment, without more justice in the redistribution of wealth, without democratizing power and property, as a condition for mobilizing public funds.

The governments of Greece and other countries, mainly in Southern Europe, are asked to submit stability programs, which increase VAT and taxes, cut wages and welfare benefits and privatize pensions, while banks and large corporations are being treated much more favorably than in the past. At the same time, the profit margins of European private banks have greatly increased due to the difference between the interest rates of their loans from the ECB (around 1%) and the prices of the government bonds that they buy (6% to 7% in the case of Greece).

We fight against these neoliberal stability programs, under which all member states are being blackmailed and we demand a serious and deep refoundation of the EU and its economic and social policies. The struggle for economic democracy, the promotion of solidarity and the protection of its citizens should be a priority for all political Left and social actors.

In this context, we propose four immediate demands that should be part of our common strategy:

The EL condemns AKP government for forcing workers to work 10 months and take unpaid leave for 2 months, to work for a wage that is one third of the wage they have been paid hitherto, and to give up their employee rights and bonuses accumulated so far. “Tekel workers have right to decent, full-time work in the public sector, and a wage enough to live off”.

The EL regrets that Turkish government is ignoring the union's calls for negotiations and sees no reason for this intolerant behavior.

Having lost their jobs due to factory closures in the wake of the monopoly’s privatization, the employees started a protest in Ankara on Dec. 15, demanding that the government find positions for them with other state institutions or enterprises. On the 35th day of the dispute, protestors from across the country started a hunger strike in front of the Ankara headquarters of the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions (Türk-İş).

The EL states extreme concern with government's decision to close the former TEKEL warehouses, a decision that involves the dismissal of some 12,000 workers.

Meanwhile, European Parliament and EL member Jürgen Klute and German Food Workers Union member Selahattin Yıldırım met yesterday with Mustafa Türkel, the president of the Union of Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverage, Food and Related Industry Workers (TekGıda-İş), in Ankara. They visited the workers and supported the Tekel workers’ dispute for their rights.

Tekel was sold to British American Tobacco, on February 2008, with a tender, which lasted only 17 minutes, at a price that is equal to the amount of the profits the enterprise could make only in 4 years. The British American Tobacco did not buy TEKEL to produce cigarettes. It shut down these factories so as to take over the market of TEKEL in a cheap way. Thereby, it has become a monopoly.

The EL urges for dialogue between public and private workers’ unions and the government until a solution is found. These workers must see their labor rights accomplished and be transferred to other institutions with their full employee benefits in accordance with the law.

The EL finds incomprehensible that this protest is regarded as an illegal demonstration, not taking in consideration that Tekel workers’ are just defending their constitutional rights.

Lothar Bisky, President of the Party of European Left

For the past 50 years Haiti had been devastated by military dictatorships, mistreatment by multi-national corporations, CIA-backed military coups, political murders, extreme poverty and US military occupations. The latest earthquake will conduct Haiti into even deeper desperation. 

The EL invites you to join recovery efforts mobilizing around the world to assist earthquake victims. Your donations will help disaster victims and can be done trough UN funding links Donate: Help the UN help Haiti.

On January 8 and 9, 2010 both Party of the European Left Executive Board and EL Council of Chairpersons held their first meeting in 2010. Main points of the joint discussion were the political agenda of 2010 and the preparation of the 3rd EL congress, the current political situation in Europe and new challenges for Left forces after EU Lisbon treaty's coming into force.  

The Board Members exchanged views on the current situation of the political Left within and outside Europe, successes as well defeats of left policies. It was stressed that the global financial crisis hit the real economy in Europe the last few months in particular, as the situation in Eastern Europe, Greece and Ireland clearly show.

The consequences of the crisis reduce dramatically chances and possible solutions in the world-wide struggle against hunger, poverty, the collapse of the climate and the alarming gaining ground of extreme right- wing forces throughout Europe.

In view of this development 2010 a main line of action of the EL will be the mobilizations against extreme right wing forces in Europe, namely in Central and Eastern Europe. To commemorate the 65th Anniversary of the liberation of Hitler fascism the EL is planning a joint demonstration and conference in Kärnten (Austria).

The Lisbon treaty now in place, the Executive Board evaluated possible action frames in order to struggle for a more social and just Europe and reaffirms its opposition to the Treaty.The European Left demands concrete measures in favour of employment and social protection, such as increasing wages, social benefits and pensions for the workers in Europe. A re-regulation of the markets, taxes on financial transaction, the democratic control of the European Central Bank, and the replacement of the stability pact by a new pact in favour of growth, full employment and ecological protection are essential steps.

The EL sharply criticises the rearmament provision of the Lisbon Treaty, not only because of the lethal and ecologically destructive weapons, but also because it detracts funds from economic, social and ecological development.

In view of the upcoming international Conference on Afghanistan in London the Executive Board stressed again its position that the troops must be withdrawn from Afghanistan. The international community as well as the EU must support Afghanistan’s population in finding a political solution through non military ways on the basis of the respect of international law and human rights.

The Executive Board also discussed military conflicts world wide and the situation in the Middle East. On the occasion of the forthcoming 8th Nuclear weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York May 2010 EL will underline its demands to UN and European Union and other European countries to take up their responsibility to give the issue of disarmament a top priority on the political agenda.

Summarizing the UN-Copenhagen conference on Climate change the EL with its 34 Member and Observer parties criticise the lack of engagement of Head of States and governmental representatives for consequent change in their ecological policy and reaffirms its position that in order to take up the climate challenge and initiate a real ecological alternative it remains necessary to remove from capitalist reproduction cycle, at least, common goods of mankind.

The EL will not only observe the further preparatory process towards the promised Mexico follow up meeting, but initiate own activities both in political and theoretical fields. Therefore an important next occasion for this challenging engagement will be the support of the initiative of the “People’s world conference on climate change and mother earth’s rights” 20-22 April in Bolivia

In view of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion the EL highlights its demand for a redistribution of social wealth from the top to the bottom of society. Since its founding Congress the European Left demands taxes on financial transaction, as a tool to finance this redistribution which came by now also on the agenda of other political forces.

In the year 2010 the European Left wants also to continue and to strengthen its contacts with social movements. Like in previous years the European Left is preparing its participation in the European Social Forum, which is gathering in Istanbul in July 2010 for already the 7th time. The Executive Board welcomed Francois Houtart, president of the World Forum of Alternatives and Member of the International Council of the World Social Forum for an exchange of views about the current crisis and therefore tasks of deepening the joint political and academic analysis and description of social intervention.

The EL will also stick to its traditional participation in the bi-continental meeting of alternative Forces in the “Enlanzando Altermativas” taking place in parallel to the  EU - Latin-American summit this May in Madrid,. The EL stresses its will of deepening its cooperation with the Sao Paulo Forum and hopes to welcome later the year many guests from Latin America, Africa, Asia and other regions of the world for the 3rd EL congress in Paris.

Before the Congress other important meetings will beheld: the traditional EL Summer University (July in Chisinau/Moldova) and the 5th ParlaCon (June in Athens/Greece) as occasions for joint debates and decision-making on various fields of the political intervention of the European political Left for examples in education, health policies etc. becoming a matter of great defence struggles of social and cultural achievements.

In the view of the recent ban of the DTP in Turkey, the EL welcomed Sebahat Tuncel from the newly formed Kurdish party BDP in Berlin to report about the current situation in that country. The EL fully supports the newly formed party in their struggle for a peaceful and democratic solution of the Kurdish question and declares its solidarity for their political campaigning.  
On January 10 the EL representatives and a lot of militants attended as every year together with over 40.000 people the commemoration of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht at the historical-cemetery in the district of Berlin-Friedrichsfelde.

Please find here the adopted motion: Afghanistan Needs A Peace Strategy, Not A New War Strategy

The risk is important that the summit ends with an ordinary political declaration which will be a list of good intentions and not an ambitious and binding text.

For the delegations of the European Left present in Copenhagen, a good agreement should include all countries, be quantified and legally binding. We recall that our demand is 40% reduction in CO2 emissions (compared to 1990) by 2020 in developed countries and that we are fighting the carbon emissions trade principle. We are in favor of a financial and technological support to developing countries that could be managed by the UN. To finance these transformation measures we propose to reduce military budgets and to introduce taxation on the financial transactions.

We are committed to two fundamental principles: that of common but differentiated responsibility, which emphasizes the historical responsibility of industrialized nations and the right of poor countries to develop while taking into account the current climate urgency, and the right to clean energy for all (with the framework of sustainable development and solidarity).

Therefore, particularly at European level, we are promoting a strong energy public sector, development of public transportations and of public rail freight transport, as well as a massive plan for thermal insulation of buildings. These transformations cannot be achieved without public pressure on European institutions and the questioning of a series of rules imposed by the Lisbon Treaty.

To take up the climate challenge and initiate a real ecological alternative, we must remove from capitalism, at least, the common goods of humanity.  

The 13th of December 2009
Delegations of the European Left present in Copenhagen

Download in other languages: FR

We are fully convinced that the most important precondition for stable peace in the Middle East is the recognition and implementation of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to have their own independent state which will enjoy the same rights as Israel and develop peaceful relations with all its neighbors.

The solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be reached through an international conference under the UN auspices, involving all the parties concerned, for the implementation of all relevant UN resolutions- including resolution 194 for the right to return- and the creation of a sovereign, independent and democratic Palestinian state in the occupied territories of 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The road to peace requires the immediate suspension and dismantling of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the lifting of the inhuman blockade of Gaza, the demolition of the apartheid wall, and the release of all the Palestinian prisoners – which include Palestinian national leaders and members of Parliament.

It is time for the international community to assume its responsibilities and ensure the statements are followed by deeds on the Palestinian issue.
We ask especially the European Union to take concrete measures such as the immediate suspension of the association agreement between the EU and Israel, as well as the termination of military cooperation agreements between member states and Israel. We also demand from the UN to decide an embargo on the arms supplies to Israel.

We commit our selves to contribute farther to the development of the international movement of solidarity with the Palestinian people as well as with the peace forces in Israel. We also appeal for a national reconciliation of the Palestinians, which is the only way for a united free Palestine and for the successful outcome of the political process.

Download this file in English and in Greek

We have to react: Both in times of peace and times of war patriarchal societies oppress women with unbearable violence. The victims of today’s wars are 70-80 % civilians, most of them women. They are raped, tortured and humiliated in prisons and refugee camps, but also outside them. We have to make the struggle against violence on women also and in particular a matter of peace!

Violence is frequently invisible since it can happen not only publicly but as well as behind closed doors. Violence is a weapon for subordinating women. Violence against women is a matter of power. It is to be handled as a matter of equality and as a matter of emancipation. As long as the present system of domination is maintained and juridical and social inequality continues, both countries and individual men will feel legitimated to pursue violence against women. That is the level where we have to start resp. to continue the activities against any act of violence - in particular in the EU and in All other European countries too.

The violence must stop. The silence should stop.

The European Left is a political and a cultural movement that wants to help to give voice to all these women. We not only want to abolish the economic relations of oppression but also all relations of oppression irrespective of whether they are based on ethnicity, religion or gender.

We want a different society based on humanism, human rights and respect also through, gender education programs for young men and women, including language and content.

The Party of the European Left requires secularism as a basic principle of all states. It is defending women’s right to self-determination, contraception and free abortion. We demand the outlawing and punishment of sexual mutilation and forced marriages.

The Party of the European Left and all its member parties are repeating: The EU and all  European countries have to improve laws to end gender violence of any kind. These laws must focus on prevention and detection, along with an adequate budget to help victims of gender violence. These laws must guarantee migrant women full rights without reference to their administrative status in Europe.

On 25th November, the International Day against Violence towards Women, the right to self-determination by common and coordinated actions should prevail. Sexist violence originated from machismo and patriarchal domination should be fought.

The Party of the European Left, as a movement of liberation by and for women and men, demand social security, equal medical treatment for men and women, equal wages, equal access to education and income, an independent livelihood for all human beings as well as parity in politics and in every field of social and economic life.

The restoration and protection of ecosystems should be designated as one of the top priori-ties in decisions of production and investment. The EL considers that Global climate prob-lems must be solved globally.

The EL underlines that the goals set forward by the EU until 2020 are not sufficient and that they are based on market principles (carbon trade markets). Furthermore, the EL enhances the fact that even the meager goals defined by Kyoto Protocol were systematically delayed and denounces the amount of "exception" situations.

The EL considers that despite the formal assumption of sustainable development as a prior-ity over the last years, the answers to the problems raised by climate change have been an-chored to weak solutions and even worse implementation plans.

The EL points out that the dominant conception of sustainable development lays down in two prominent lies:

1. Not taking into account the externalities generated by economic and technological devel-opments. These are causing globalized threats, which can not be confined to the time and the space in which they are produced.

2. Setting specifically the responsibility of going back to sustainable patterns on every citizen, each of us being designated as the only responsible for the preservation of biodiversity and maintenance of natural resources. This is the conception of the environmentally responsible citizen that is put forward to excess by the supporters of “green capitalism”. Models of pro-duction and the highly unsustainable consumption of the capitalist societies are not ques-tioned.

For lots of governments and international organizations, environmental problems are out of the society (in the air, in the land, in the water...) and are seen as technical and not political problems.

On the contrary, EL considers that the decision making process on environmental solutions is not only a question of technical alternatives but of political choices. A sustainable society would pass through the reinforcement of democratic procedures, by the redefinition of the role of the governments and States and Regions of the world, and through the fight for social justice.

The Copenhagen Summit, in December 2009, will most probably be the last time when the United Nations Committee on Climate Change meets at governmental level before the end of Kyoto Protocol, which runs out in 2012. We should not miss this opportunity!

    
The EL believes that we can not speak in sustainability of resources and of environment without taking into consideration the different social forms of appropriation of those re-sources. Environmental problems do not affect everyone in the same way. In fact the poor-est, the workers, the peasants, the women, the indigenous people and in general the most vulnerable populations are the utmost affected.

The EL considers environmental problems are, thus, mainly distribution/redistribution prob-lems.

Tackling environmental problems as social problems implies assuming social justice and re-distributive justice as integrated parts. The generation and maintenance of environmental and health inequalities are mainly the result of social dynamics of unequal distribution of re-sources and unequal power relations.

As a consequence, EL proposes to strive in parallel for:

-    40% reduction of CO2 emission by 2020 in developed countries (compared to the level of 1990);

-    fighting the carbon emissions trade and other fake solutions like Clean Development Mechanisms;

-    adequate financial and technological support for developing countries, which should and must be managed by the UN;

-    the right of every citizen to have access to clean energy.


The EL also strives for a public intervention oriented towards the effective definition of the territorialized resources and of new energetic patterns. We stand for a strong public energy sector.

Finally, the EL considers that cutting down military expenses could provide a major contribu-tion to the financing of climate change mitigating and adaptation. EU leaders have said that the developing world will need 100 billion euros a year by 2020 to help developing nations combat global warming. Direct costs of the Iraq war alone to USA have been more that 500 billion euros by the end of year 2008.

Download pdf in EN, GR, FR, DE

To give the necessary space for these collective arrangements, we ask the European Parliament to postpone the implementation of the postal directive.  We urge for employment protection, working conditions, and the quality of full time jobs in order to promote the universal quality of postal services and sustainable development

Hans Kurt Hill, EL energy&climate working group

Instead we plead for the construction and democratisation of the European educational system as well on behalf of us in the European Parliament as on the behalf of the parliamentarians of our member parties in their national parliaments. We turn against every form of exclusion and discrimination based on social background, gender or nationality.

High quality education has to be accessible and free of charge for everyone.That is why our solidarity lies with all protesting und striking students in the whole Austria as well as with everyone supporting them.

Lothar Bisky
Chairman of the European Left

Please find adopted documents here:

Global crisis and upheavals in the geopolitical equilibrium

Republic of Moldova follows an undemocratic path

Resolution on the Cyprus Problem

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