Resolution of the Coordinators Committee Of the Network of Trade Unionists in and close to the Party of the European Left for the ETUC-Congress and the Protest on September 29th 2010 in Brussels.

The Network of Trade Unionists supports the September 29th European mobilisation day, organised by ETUC and the national demonstrations and general strikes organised by their national members.

Responding to the economic crisis and the “markets” demands European Governments have approved measures which weaken working people's rights and labour conditions. Those measures are approved all over Europe with the support of the right wing parties and the so called socialist parties, with the same financial programs.

The economic crisis that we are facing in Europe is partially the result of the international economic crisis and financial speculation by large institutions, but it is also the neoliberal economics that had lead us to an unfair economic, labour and social model, with millions of people unemployed, precarious jobs, low salaries and pensions, and a welfare state being weakened day after day.   
This model uses public funds to rescue private banks and companies, the cause of a great part of the public deficit.

Now, the main beneficiaries of that economic model, are aiming at zero public deficit, instead of returning the billions in public money that they’ve received and which they are using to blackmail, and to profit from the sinking of some European economies (Greece, Spain, Portugal, Ireland... )

The consequences cannot be attributed, in the way social democratic and right wing parties do, to the regulation of labour conditions. During the boom years, these parties didn’t do anything to instigate a new production model with more technological investment, innovation and better public training for working people, in order to make the European economy more competitive.

Most European Governments have turned to anti-social economic politics: raising retirement ages, slashing public debt, reducing civil service wages, and freezing or reducing pensions.

All European labour policies are right wing policies these days. Most European states are deregulating labour relations in an unbalanced manner, but satisfying the needs of multinationals, which will prevent a fair exit from this crisis.

These policies are not going to create employment; on the contrary, they will enable cheaper and easier dismissals, in most cases financed by public money. And, consequently, will not bring a high quality employment, but precarious and temporary employment.

With the Treaty of Lisbon, multinational and financial institutions will be even more powerful, ruining working people's rights. Some countries (most recently Spain) are privatising employment services.

The European Left Party defends a new model of labour relations, linked to a new economic model that revalorises public labour institutions, based on collective bargaining and assigning a central role to trade unions, a new model that competes for job quality, learning systems and innovation. What we need is an employer’s reform, instead of further restrictions on workers' rights.  

The Network of Trade Unionists and the European Left Party appeal to all of society, because we cannot continue to suffer social and economical policies that damage the youth, women, and the unemployed, the retired and civil servants. It is compulsory to stop the continuous cuts to the rights of the majority of the European population, to enable a minority to further enrich themselves.

We are convinced that there are alternatives to the European Commission's policies. We propose a European strategy, based on:

•    A common EU tax policy, to increase the incomes of the countries with a lower tax system, with a fair tax reform, making those on higher incomes pay more, and with European policies to fight tax fraud.

•    With those supplementary income taxes, a real European welfare state, that guarantees equality, should be consolidated

•    Move towards a new productive model, based on quality and secure jobs.

•    We need a European, fair public pensions system, to live with dignity.

•    Top quality public services.

•    The economy at the service of European people, instead of sacrificing them in the name of economy.

For all those reasons, it’s necessary that European workers join this struggle. It’s time to fight together, to consolidate a European model based on peoples needs, instead of the speculators' needs.

Because of all of this, because we must put the economy at the service of European people, instead of sacrificing them in the name of economy, we need the political, social and trade unionist left to work together, all over Europe, to defend a Social Europe.

JOIN US ON SEPTEMBER 29TH EUROPEAN DAY OF MOBILISATION

Bent Gravesen, Gerald Kemski, Maria Syrakou, Nuria Lozano-Montoya