ILC International Newsletter No. 130
A dossier of weekly information published by the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
May 3, 2005
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
87, rue du Faubourg - Saint Denis
75010 Paris, France
Presentation:
"Only a few weeks away from the referendum in France (29th of
May) and in the Netherlands (June), Belgians are left without the right
to vote, but they can still do something about a threat which concerns
them as much as it concerns all the progressive-minded people in Europe.
... The parliaments of Belgium and Germany will also take a stance on
the ratification of the 'treaty establishing a constitution for
Europe'."
It is with these few sentences that begins the international appeal
adopted by the international meeting held on April 30 in Liege, Belgium.
We publish this appeal and the record of the meeting sent to us by one
of our correspondents.
Eva Gürster, a member of the health commissions' executive of the
Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Rhineland, took part in this
international meeting. We publish an interview in which she outlines
what is at stake in the regional parliamentary elections of
North-Rhine-Westphalia which are scheduled for the coming 22nd of May:
"We have to vote for the SPD and at the same time get rid of Schröder".
A unionist from Czechoslovakia who took part in the world conference of
the International Liaison Committee says that "joining the European
Union entails unemployment, repealing the right to health, to education
and pensions".
Ecuador: a week of massive mobilization of the people forced Lucio
Rodriguez to resign; a week of mobilization against the submission
policy to the IMF and the Bush government. The Revolutionary Socialist
Workers' Organization (OSRT) declares: "the fight for the
sovereignty of the people continues".
In Mexico, as well, more than one million people gathered in Mexico on
the 24th of April; you will read the declaration that has been
distributed by the Movement for a Democratic and Independent Workers'
Party.
Last we also publish a correspondence by one of rail union leaders in
Japan on the reasons of labor accidents that happened in the last days.
Send us correspondences, contributions, remarks. Support the ILC.
Subscribe to International information, disseminate it around you.
-----
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
p. 1: - presentation
p. 2: -: Czechoslovakia interview with Yveta Cumpelikova, leftist club
of Ostrava, on the subject of Czechoslovakia joining the EU.
p. 3: - Germany: At the eve of crucial elections, interview with Eva Gürster,
activist of the SPD.
p. 4-5: Belgium: - Record and appeal from the international meeting in
Liege on the 30th of April 2005.
p. 6: - Ecuador: the massive mobilization forces the president of the
Republic to retreat from his functions
p. 7: - Mexico: declaration from the movement for a democratic and
independent workers' party
p. 8: - Japan: after the railroad accident declaration from the railroad
trade union
- Subscriptions
*********************
CZECH REPUBLIC
"To join the European Union is to welcome unemployment, and the
destruction of the right to health care, education and pensions."
Interview with Yveta Cumpelikova, Left Club of Ostrava (Czech Republic)
and vice president of the trade union at her company.
The interview was published in La Tribune des Travailleurs, the
journal of the Workers' Defense Movement (MDT) in Belgium, No. 120,
April 2, 2005.
Q: What are the consequences of the entry of your country into the
European Union?
YC: First, it's unemployment. The EU offers subsidies to close
companies. They do not offer new employment. Foreign investors buy the
companies and this translates into layoffs. They had told us that once
we joined the EU, we could travel freely throughout Europe. One of their
great promises! But who has the means to do it? A plane ticket to Madrid
cost me 400 euros. That is my monthly salary.
Q. Does your salary represent the average wage?
YC: No, I earn a little more than the average wage. But there are so
many unemployed or working in the informal sector that the notion of an
average wage is meaningless. There is less and less money for education
and health.
Q: Is this situation tied to the entry of the Czech Republic into the
European Union?
YC: With increasing unemployment, there is less and less money for
the state's coffers. Therefore, yes, it is tied to it.
Q: Ten years ago I helped a delegation of Belgian miners visit
Ostrava to meet their colleagues. What is the present situation of the
miners?
YC: The Ostrava mines were restructured (OKD). In 1990 there were
90,000 miners. This year, there are only 20,.000. When miners were laid
off, they used to receive compensation. That's all over. It was the
government that received the EU subsidy to restructure the mines.
Therefore it should be up to them to pay, but they say it is up to the
new owner to do so.
Ostrava has lost many inhabitants who have gone to Prague or abroad. The
only thing they have built in Ostrava is supermarkets. The women who
work there are on precarious contracts. They cannot form a trade union.
Q: I would like to talk about the relocations. In Belgium, they say
that when a factory is closed here in order to transfer production to
Eastern Europe, at least there are workers there who find employment.
According to this view there are winners and there are losers. What say
you?
YC: Officially they say there is economic progress, but ordinary
people do not see this in their daily lives. The government is
constantly complaining that there isn't enough money, that we need
reforms and the contents or these reforms are negative.
In the health area, treatment was free. Nowadays, one must pay for
medication and all non-medical costs in a hospital. For pensioners,
there is a reform project, and the government says there are too many
elderly people to maintain the old system. They have introduced the
savings pension. It is presently on a voluntary basis, but eventually
will apply to everybody. In fact, the prime minister used the pension
funds for finance economic reforms, which resulted in a scandal. The
health minister has proposed a separate budget for pensions, but we
don't know if this will proceed.
Q: Have you discussed the draft of the European Constitution? Back
home, there is talk that the charter of fundamental rights that forms
part of the draft will open new rights. What do you think?
YC: We have studied the draft of the Constitution in our
organization. It gives rights to owners but not to workers. We are
against this project. We studied the charter of fundamental rights. On
paper, you can write anything, but that doesn't mean that it will happen
in real life. The charter states there should be equality between men
and women. In theory this is fine, but if that means working at night as
well, that's not good. The charter talks about the right of workers to
health care. But the evolution that we see in this country contradicts
this statement.
Q: How will the ratification of the European Constitution fare in the
Czech Republic?
YC: There is talk of a referendum. The parties of the right want to
ratify it. The social-democrats want to tie the referendum to the
elections at the beginning of next year. The media support the draft of
the constitution. The Communist Party of Bohemia-Moravia, to which I
belong, is divided on the subject.
(Interview conducted by Philippe Larsimont on March 20, at the World
Conference in Madrid)
********************
GERMANY
On the even of decisive elections in Germany
Next March 22, eight days after the French referendum, there will be
regional parliamentary elections in North Rhine-Westphalia. What is at
stake there?
We questioned Eva Gürster, SPD activist, and member of the trade union
in the hospital section in Koln.
You were one of the initiators of the appeal launched by members of the
SPD and trade unionists from Koln last August. This appeal caused an
upheaval throughout Germany. It called for a fight to impose the holding
of an extraordinary congress of the SPD in order to get rid of Schröder.
Can you explain your position on the eve of this important election?
EV: First, let me make this clear: we called to vote for the SPD!
After months and months, we were exhausted and we didn't stop warning:
"Schröder and his policy are driving the workers, the SPD and the
country towards disaster," and we called for a fight to get rid of
Schröder. We persisted, and if we called to vote for the SPD, it's
because the party does not belong to Schröder, we don't want him to use
it and to be its spokesman. What is happening is too serious.
What is really at stake in this election?
For the first time in forty years, the CDU is likely to win a
majority in North Rhine-Westphalia. This is how it happened: In 1966 the
SPD had won the majority in this Land (or Department), which is the most
populated and industrialized in Germany. The 1966 victory opened the
door for the SPD to its first conquest of federal power after the war.
It marked a milestone in our history. This victory was backed by a broad
mobilization of workers and their trade unions. It is from this time
that public services were extended, overseen by the communities, that
colleges and universities were opened to the children of workers, and
innumerable kindergartens and hospitals were built.
Today, under pressure from the Schröder policy, dictated by Brussels,
and actively supported by the SPD president of the Land, Schartau, there
are hardly any large municipal hospitals, since most have been
privatized. Thousands of hospital beds and hundreds of homes for the
aged have been abolished.
The government of the Land, through a new education law, has reduced the
number of years to obtain a degree (bac) to 12, for the first time since
1938. This same law also attacks teachers' status as employees (1), that
is the basis of public education.
Schröder's fiscal policy, a continuation of Kohl's, dries up public
budgets, and those of the communities are over-extended and many of them
are under the control of "economic commissioners". And we have
just passed the one million unemployed mark in the Land of North
Rhine-Westphalia!
What do you suggest three weeks before the election?
It is urgent to halt the spiral of destruction, which is carrying us
away. Therefore we must get together to impose the abrogation of the
Hartz-IV law, which throws the unemployed into despair and condemns them
to jobs "at one euro". We must halt the privatization of
hospitals and the return of recently privatized hospitals to public; and
the abrogation of all attacks against collective bargaining in the
public service.
We know it will not be the CDU who will reestablish the rights and
conquests gained by the workers with the support of their organizations,
their trade unions and the SPD. We know it is up to the SPD to realize
this program. That is why we must vote for the SPD and organize
ourselves to demand the holding of an extraordinary party congress to
get rid of Schröder.
We the German workers know the importance of organizing millions in our
trade unions and around the historic party of the German working class.
We know that there are great struggles to come, and we are not prepared
to let our organizations be upset either by Schröder or by all those
who want us to abandon this fight.
(!) In Germany, the status of federal, regional and community
employees was covered by collective bargaining up to the present (BAT).
********************
BELGIUM
Liege, April 30, 2005
International meeting to combat social regression, the Bolkenstein
Directive and the draft of the European Constitution
We publish the report on the international meeting held in Liege on
April 30, sent to us by one of our correspondents. After the meeting, an
international appeal was made public. (See below, page 5).
The hall was filled to capacity, mostly with workers and trade
unionists. There were 200 participants from Liege and other regions.
There were delegates from France and Luxemburg. It was a highly
representative podium of the Belgian and European labor movement.
Willy Demeyer, the deputy-burgomaster of Liege gave the opening
speech and welcome to his village, which has always <?color><?param
00FF,0000,0000>been a center of resistance.<?/color> He was in
agreement with the position of the liegeoise federation of the Socialist
Parth (PS), which considers that the draft of the European Constitution
does not correspond with the socialists' aspirations.
The president of the CGSP, Guy Biamont, recalled all the
evolution of his trade union: the fight against the AGCS, the
Bolkenstein Directive that led to the recent federal congress of this
trade union. This was a congress which in the unity of Flemish, Waloons
and Brusselites, took the stand to say NO to the Constitution, YES to a
social Europe and public services. "Must we say in a Constitution
which is the economic regime?" he said, thus emphasizing that the
draft of the Constitution clashes with democracy.
The regional deputy Ecolo, Bernard Westphael, explained why he
said NO to the Constitution (since his party is for it). The
Constitution he said, is "the end of the European social
model."
Philippe Larsimont, coordinator of the MDT, recalls: "Liege
is living a high social drama this week with the closure of the Large
Smelting Furnace 6 of Seraing. Arcelor's justification is known.
Increased competition. If we can be more competitive elsewhere, we will
go elsewhere. That's the European Constitution." Referring to the
ILC World Conference in Madrid, he demonstrated that the Constitution is
the tool in Europe of the worldwide offensive in the name of lowering
the cost of labor. In detailing how the Constitution imposed
restructuring on the Czech steel industry those present were astonished.
Marc Goblet, president of the FGTB Liege-Huy_Waremme, declared
that he will repeat what he said on May 1: "The fact of opposing
the Bolkenstein Directive is indispensable to counter the liberalization
of services and the inter-communal competition that undermine the notion
of country of origin. I call on the socialist leaders to carefully
measure that the constitutional draft picks up the same principle of
liberalization of services and everything in the market." He
recalled that the FGTB in Liege refused to support the draft of The
European Constitution.
Eva Gürster, member of the regional executive of Rhenanie health
commissions of the SPD (Germany), detailed the ravages of the policy
of the European Union that the Schröder government is applying in
Germany, especially the Hartz IV plan against the unemployed. She ended
with a vibrant appeal to get rid of Schröder that is leading the SPD
into ruin and the German working class to disaster.
Henri-Jean Ruttiens, staff member of the SETCa-Industry union in
Brussels-Hal-Vilvorde, recalls that it was after an in-depth debate
that the executive committee of his trade union took the stand for the
rejection of the European Constitution. He spoke ironically of the
position taken by the president of the PS, Emilio Di Rupo, who launched
the formula of a "fighting yes" to the European Constitution.
It is in reaction to this slogan that the meeting in Liege was called
"for a NO to fight the European Constitution."
Marc Dolez, first secretary of the Northern Federation of the French
Socialist Party, who had spoken the night before at Clermont Ferrand
had to make a strenuous effort to come to Liege by plane and car. A crew
from TV FR 3 filmed his speech.
"The text of the draft of the Constitution establishes in its third
section, an economic system, namely capitalism. Whatever choices the
voters of the countries of the Union have, their governments will be
obliged to apply policies in conformity with the demands of this
Constitution. It is the liquidation of universal suffrage!"
"This text is not a Constitution. It is a collection of rules on
economic policy. Imagine if in Germany, as Eva Gurster pointed out, you
can insert in the Constitution of the country an assault on the rights
to compensation of the unemployed and the obligation to accept work at
one euro an hour? Imagine if the policies of social destruction and
counter reforms carried by the governments were inscribed in the
constitutions of these countries?
After Marc Dolez speech, an activist of the Belgian committee for the
NO to the European Constitution read the draft appeal launched
jointly by the committee, Marc Dolez and Eva Gürster. Philippe
Larsimont explained the proposals for action. As in Belgium, all the
federal and federated parliaments (with the exception of the senate who
did it several days before) must ratify the Constitution, so there is
time to organize delegations to the parliaments and gatherings or
demonstrations before the various parliaments. He insisted that
everything should be done to ensure that trade union organizations are
involved in these actions.
It was Jean-Maurice Dehousse, former burgomaster of Liege and former
vice president of the socialist group of the European parliament who
closed the meeting. He made the audience laugh when he explained "a
favorable wind bore me an official document of the French Socialist
Party addressed to the French comrades in Belgium for the referendum on
May 29. It informs us that the Belgian minister of Foreign Affairs must
communicate the names of the French delegates and advisers who will
officiate at the polling booths in Anvers, Brussels and Liege. Two
conditions were expressly mentioned: be a member of the PS and intend to
vote YES! Reality surpasses fiction. To see Jean Jaures party arrive
there is depressing."
He added: "The draft of the European Constitution is the
destruction of the social policy, the destruction of the European social
model. I remember a declaration by Jacques Delors, during the debates on
the Treaty of Maastricht. He said: "Give us the Maastricht Treaty
and we will give you social Europe." We see what has come of this
today. We are no longer the dupes of liars. I also remember the
discussions on the single currency (the euro), and what Ernest Glinne,
said: "Do not unleash the single currency without the social
Europe." The reply was: Social Europe will come through the single
currency. We see what has come of this today."
Jean.Maurice noted then that the legislature, on a federal level, has
refused to organize a referendum in Belgium. He then launched the
proposal to insist that the regional parliaments of Flanders, Brussels
and Walloon- which will make a statement in regard to the Constitution -
should organize a referendum in each of the regions concerned. This
proposal was accepted at the meeting.
It was an enthusiastic crowd that closed this international meeting with
applause. We will measure the consequences as of tomorrow since at the
May 1 meeting in Namur, Guy Biamont, the president of the CGSP will
attack the European Constitution.
Correspondent
-----
International appeal to vote NO and support the NO to the European
Constitution
Several weeks before the referendums in France (May 29), the Netherlands
(June) and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, the Belgians are without the
right to vote, but they can act against a threat that concerns them as
it concerns all progressives in Europe. The governments of Belgium and
Germany will be making declarations on the ratification of the
"draft of a treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe."
Here as elsewhere, the labor world is currently facing as never
before an assault on its most fundamental social conquests. The French
workers are fighting against a series of legislative texts, one more
harmful than another on the subject of pensions, health, education, etc.
Nicolas Sarkozy, great defender of "a Constitution," today
openly supported by employers' organizations, has publicly denounced the
existence of a labor contract of indefinite length and wants to break
careers in order to suppress the annuals and bi-annuals and condemns
everyone to a world of uncertainty with a series of contracts of finite
length (without suppressing precarious contracts.)
If this occurs in France, will the threat remain only in theory and not
in practice here? In Germany, the government and the parliament adopted
the HartzIV plan, cut out social advantages and imposed on the
unemployed to accept jobs at ONE EURO AN HOUR.
Everywhere (and the draft of the Constitution makes it a ruling of the
rest) they are imposing a flexibility on workers in one direction only
(always for the benefit of the employer), the length of the working
week, they suppress holidays that have existed for centuries (for
example Monday of Pentecost in France), and they increase the rates.
To accept the draft of the Constitution is to encourage and support
the demands that the employers are formulating every day in their
workshops and their offices. This treaty is a social coffin.
They tell us "the treaty contains social advances." This
is false and Georges Debunne, former secretary of the FGTB and former
president of the European Confederation of Trade Unions, is carrying on
a courageous fight against the project, stating loud and clear: I don't
want to return to 19th century society. They tell us, "the treaty
gives a legal base to public services." This is false. Public
services, which constitute the major pillars of all democracies, are
recognized as "a community value" even by the treaty of Nice,
presently in force. This disposition is abrogated by the new project,
that has purged the very expression of 'public services' from its texts.
They tell us, "competition has been recognized in all European
treaties." This is false. On the contrary it was closely framed in
the coal-steel treaty of 1951 and it wasn't the only policy of the first
treaty of Rome. In this new draft, it becomes the primary value, above
all others.
We want a Europe that finances great works, that organizes economic
recovery, that fights against unemployment, that establishes in all the
member states the same social security for all from above. The draft of
the Constitution prohibits loans, talks of growth yet limits the states'
budgets, does not propose a single measure against unemployment that
affects 12.8 million workers in the euro zone, over 20 million
throughout the Union, and especially through the draft of the
Bolkenstein directive, that is still alive and kicking despite the
glowing speeches of governments - threatens to suppress thousands of
public service jobs everywhere by organizing the leveling of social
security, that is to say the destruction of the best systems of
protection.
All this in a judicial ensemble that gathers all the existing European
treaties, which gives it an unprecedented weight, while placing national
rights-even constitutional ones-under the control of European right and
in particular of the judges of the Court of Justice in Luxemburg
(contrary to present French and German jurisprudence).
We are delighted with what the regional FGTB in Liege-Huy-Waremme
declared that it could not support such a treaty, that the SETCa of
Brussels-Hal-Vilvorder was at the base of the opposition to Brussels and
that the Public Services General Central in its entirety, in Flanders as
in Wallonie and Brussels, have declared themselves against the draft of
the Constitution.
We are delighted that the Liege federation of the PS voted in a crushing
majority that the draft did not correspond at all to socialist
aspirations.
We are delighted that a growing number of organizations, of citizens, of
youth, have decided to join our struggle.
This treaty is the coffin of our hopes.
Against those who dare to affirm that saying NO to the European
Constitution is to "destroy peace in Europe", we are reminded
that the social conquests constitute the basis of peace in Europe and
that quite to the contrary, misery has never been the bearer of peace.
We want to keep the social security systems and collective bargaining.
We want our worker rights to be protected (wages, working hours,
security at work), and social benefits (for unemployment, the sick and
pensioners). We want to keep our public services as our democratic
rights. We want quality education and a future for our youth.
We are aware that these elementary social aspirations cannot be
satisfied if the draft of the European Constitution is ratified. We
declare: to place all countries in excessive competition, obliged to
dismantle their social model in the name of "high competition"
(henceforth declared a constitutional value of the European Union), is
actually the veritable threat against peace and understanding among the
peoples of Europe.
That is why we firmly support the true French left that calls for a
NO vote on the referendum next May 29.
That is why we call on the peoples in the states where they will not
have the right to express their opinion, that all progressive
governments vote against the ratification of the draft of the
constitutional treaty.
It is the reason why we say to each citizen: it is not too late, but it
is now time: write to your friends and ask them to join the struggle
against social regression and to sign the present appeal.
This appeal was launched jointly by the Committee for the NO to the
Constitution in Belgium: signed [titles in original French, English
titles are in text above] / Marc DOLEZ, Député, premier secrétaire
de la Fédération du Nord du PS (France) et Eva GÜRSTER, membre
de l'Exécutif régional de Rhénanie des commissions santé du SPD (Allemagne).
Members of the Belgian committee are: Jean-Maurice DEHOUSSE,
ancien vice-président du groupe socialiste du Parlement européen;
Roberto GIARROCO syndicaliste, ex représentant des JS au bureau du
PS ; Philippe LARSIMONT, coordinateur du MDT ; Olivier PALMANS, délégué
principal CGSP Télécom-aviation Liège ; Antoine RUGGIERI,
ancien permanent FGTB Cockerill-Sambre.
This appeal was made public on the occasion of the international meeting
in Liege on April 30, 2005. The speakers were [titles in French] :
Guy BIAMONT, président de la CGSP, Jean-Maurice DEHOUSSE,
ancien vice-président du groupe socialiste du Parlement européen,
Willy DEMEYER, député-bourgmestre PS de Liège, Marc DOLEZ,
Député, premier secrétaire de la Fédération du Nord du PS (France)
Marc GOBLET, président de la FGTB Liège-Huy-Waremme, Eva GÜRSTER,
membre de l'Exécutif régional de Rhénanie des commissions santé du
SPD (Allemagne), Philippe LARSIMONT, coordinateur du MDT (Mouvement
de Défense des Travailleurs), Henri-Jean RUTTIENS, permanent .SETCa
(industrie) de Bruxelles-Hal-Vilvorde et Bernard WESPHAEL, député
Ecolo.
Soutien, Signature, à renvoyer à Antoine Ruggieri, 3 rue du Ruisseau ,
4621 Fléron (éditeur responsable) ou Paul Wattiez, avenue Rogier, 285,
1030 Bruxelles.
********************
ECUADOR
A week of massive mobilization of workers and young people forces the
president of the republic, Lucio Gutierrez, to resign "Oust him!
Oust them all!"
Hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorian citizens, workers and young
people, have just chased away the Ecuadoran president, Lucio Gutierrez.
They are now turning to the Congress of representatives and are taking
up the slogan of the demonstrations which took place in Argentina three
years ago: "Oust them all!"
Faced with such a surge of the masses, President Gutierrez fled by
helicopter in the same way the Bolivian president fled a year ago when
he was chased by a popular uprising.
What now? The deep crisis the country is going through requires a
solution. A solution that would give the Ecuadorian people a voice.
Many are now speaking out for the dissolution of the National Assembly.
The Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Organization, which had sent one
delegate at the Madrid conference along with a delegation of nine other
union activists with different political and union affiliations,
recently released a statement (see excerpts below). It supports a
Sovereign Constituent Assembly that would take over all powers and would
take immediate measures to get the nation out of the abysmal crisis into
which the IMF "therapies" followed by successive governments
have thrown the country in the last six years: calling off the debt,
stopping the "dollarization", breaking the IMF agreement,
distributing the land, stopping privatizations, re-nationalizing all
formerly privatized companies. ...
It is the fifth time since 1996 that the Ecuadoran people haVE chased
away the government and the highest representative of the Republic by
taking to the streetS. For the fifth time the people have stood up to
put an end to chaos, to the corruption that plagues the highest level of
the state, to the social disaster that not only affects the mass of
workers, young people or farmers, but also the middle-class which has
been ruined by the dollarization of the economy the previous government
decreed in September 2000 on the advice of Washington, allegedly to put
an end to inflation. This measure had already led to a popular uprising
and contributed to the toppling of the then-president Jamil Mahuad.
Gutierrez did not, despite his promises, question this measure.
The country is depleted because of the "dollarization" and the
"shock therapy" that has been imposed by the IMF, which
includes the privatization of all the public companies of the country
(electricity, oilŠ)
"Que se vayan todos!" ("oust them all!") and first
of all the IMF! So says the cry coming up from the insurrected
Ecuadorian masses.
For the past years, no political representation has gained the trust of
the Ecuadoran people: whether it be workers, university students,
high-school students, peasants or indigenous peoples. The latter account
for most of the population of the country, their lands have been taken
away from them. Doomed to the utmost misery, they are regularly
manipulated by some political arties and corrupted police.
"During the first hours of the morning, groups of demonstrators
took to the main avenues of the capital. The slogan "oust them
all!" that came up during the institutional and social Argentinean
crisis in 2001, has been taken up in Ecuador, where the population feels
betrayed by political leaders. This is exemplified by the fact that at
this point no opposition leader has even attempted to take the head of
these massive popular demonstrations, the Spanish daily newspaper El
Pais (21st April) explains. "
"No political movement controls the protests, no political leader
can even get close to them: "it fully is a spontaneous
movement", Oscar Camargo a doctor - explains during the
demonstration on the Square of the Independence. But during the election
of Lucio Gutierrez in November 2002, an ex-officer supported by the
lowest classes (and more specifically by Indians) who had tried two
years earlier to overthrow the government his predecessor hated so much,
Jamil Mahuad, "appeared as the voice of the native population as
victim of discrimination", as the Figaro points out (France,
10th of April). Elected a couple of months before Lula in Brazil and
Nestor Kirchner in Argentina, he embodied a political project which
seemed more sensitive to social issues and corruption.
The illusion has vanished. At the beginning of 2003 Gutierrez sided with
the IMF and imposed drastic cutbacks in public spending. Shortly after,
he labeled the United States "best ally" to Ecuador and
supported the war in Iraq."
"We are done with the president, let's now go to Congress!"
chanted tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered Wednesday evening on
the Square of the Independence in Quito. And when they were told that
the vice-president of the Republic was taking up the presidential
function, the chants gathered momentum : "Oust them all! oust them
all!"
The crisis that is shaking Ecuador is part of what Le Figaro
calls "the chronic political mayhem of the region": nearby
Bolivia is on the brink of explosion, and the Peruvian President,
Alejandro Toledo, has the lowest popularity ratings in history. This is
an uprising against the submission policy before the diktats of the IMF
and of North American imperialism. This uprising may be linked with what
is happening in nearby Peru and with recent events in Bolivia as well as
in Mexico today. This insurrection raises the same questions everywhere
which policy, which path should be chosen for the sovereignty of peoples
and nations?
An American journalist asked the following question about the PRD
candidate to the Mexican presidential election: "Will he be a
Chavez or a Lula?". That question is not only relevant in Mexico.
- Correspondent
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Excerpts from the declaration by the Socialist Revolutionary
Organization of the Workers (OSRT)
"We call upon the people of Quito, the workers and the
youth, men and women, people of Ecuador, to have the will of the people
respected: disbandment of the national Congress, immediate set-up of a
national constituent assembly with all powers to the people!
A constituent sovereign assembly in order to rebuild the country!
Constituent Assembly of the people! The sovereignty belongs to the
people standing up in the street, the people's sovereignty must be
respected. The people must seize the power, the people are the ones to
decide on the anticipation of elections.
Constituent assembly to solve the nation's problems. The people want
sovereignty, and sovereignty means independence from the treaty of free
trade, from the payment of the external debt and from all the IMF and WB
plans, from all war plans against our brothers from Colombia Š
The institutions belong to the people and the people are to control
them. It is the road forward opened up by the people gathered and united
on the Square of Independence, and constituting itself into a popular
assembly in all the provinces. Popular assemblies in neighborhoods,
enterprises and communities for a national popular assembly, so
that the people decide on their future.
Future means immediate change. We must not allow that our triumph be
manipulated and taken from us. No to the presidential succession.
Constituent Assembly now! ...
Justice! This means: the new court of justice should not again fall back
in the hands of bigwigs. The people have said enough! By rejecting al
political leaders from traditional parties, the people have raised the
necessity of their own independent political representation Š"
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MEXICO
The country is not for sale, it must be defended!
We publish the "Declaration of the Movement for an Independent and
Democratic Workers' Party" that was distributed during the
demonstration of more than one million people in Mexico City on Sunday
April 24
More than a million demonstrators flocked to Reforma Avenue, in
Mexico on Sunday 24th of April. It is the most powerful demonstration of
the last years; its aim is protesting against the attempt by the present
power, with Washington's support to invalidate the candidacy of the
actual mayor of Mexico, Lopez Obrador, member of the opposition party
PRD.
The reason for this invalidation: the refusal of the mayor to abide by
the injunction to stop the construction of a road linking a hospital to
the city. The injunction came from the federal administration, which
considered the construction of this road as being not in conformity with
the requirement to reduce the public expenses/funding.
Hundreds of thousands of workers, youth, peasants demonstrated and said:
Enough with the submission policy to the requirements of the IMF, enough
with privatizations, enough with plundering through the debt, with the
dismantling of public services, with threatening social securityŠ and
defense of the sovereignty of the Mexican nation.
The fight for political democracy, for social rights and for national
sovereignty forms an inseparable unity!
- No to the ineligibility of Lopez Obrador!
- Political democracy for all!
- Stop the structural reforms by Fox! (defense of ISSSTE, IMSS [social
security system], of public education, of labor rights, nationalization
of electricity).
"The country is not for sale, we have to defend it!"
On the 7th of April the deputies of the PAN as well as the majority of
the deputies of the PRI (party of the majority) have registered, against
the will of the majority, the foreclosure of Lopez Obrador in such a way
that the head of the DF government might be brought to trial for an
alleged breach of the law, at the judiciary's behest.
As is well known, it is all about refusing him the right to run for
candidate during the presidential elections of 2006!
The PRI and the PAN seek to maintain themselves in power to apply the
structural counter reforms required by American imperialism. Applying
those counter-reforms entails that they reorganize the corporatist
regime, the one party regime, which today is realized in practice by the
PRI-PAN alliance.
National sovereignty, political democracy and social rights are
intimately linked.
The majority of the population was deeply staggered to see how the
judiciary and legislative administration serve the executive in order to
liquidate the political rights. Similarly a couple of months ago the
deputies and the senators from the PAN and from the PRI changed articles
277-D and 286-K of the Social Security system against the will of the
workers from the institute and their union. The government assumes the
right to decide how much money it will allot to the pensions of this
enterprise sector.
Now Abascal's counter-reform of labor which should be submitted to the
chambers of deputies and senators at some point in the coming weeks is
intended to abolish the 8-hour work day, the right to a contractual
salary and the right to strike. These measures would deal a deadly blow
to unionization as a mean to defend the workers' rights.
The tremendous demonstration of the 7th of April at the Zocalo in Mexico
city, as well as the hundreds of mobilizations that have taken place
over the last two years, show that the working people seek democracy,
which means the right to decide which candidate to vote for as well as
the right to have a decent salary and job.
The union leaders as well as the leaders of social and political
organizations who speak out in defense of national sovereignty, bear the
responsibility to give a political and organized form to the aspiration
of the majority that expressed itself through the slogans "the
country is not for sale, we have to defend it!" The leaders of the
UNT, of the FSM and the CNTES, talked about the necessity of a national
strike to to avert Fox' structural counter-reforms.
We raise the following question: Has the time not come to go beyond
words and to actually organize a national strike? In the same way we
ask: is not the means to impose political rights for the population, the
right to decide which candidate to vote for, is it not political action
organized throughout the nation, within the workers of the city and of
the countryside, is it not the organization of a national strike?
Did not farmers, electricians, insurance workers, elementary school
teachers, academicians, the people in general, show that they are ready
to take up the fight?
As members of the Movement for a Democratic and Independent Workers'
Party, we participate in the unity committees for a national strike and
we endorse the open letter addressed to the union leaders (UNT, SME,
CNTES) and to the political leaders who like Lopez Obrador and Cuauhtémoc
Cardenas have spoken out for the defense of national sovereignty and for
democracy. This open letter raises the necessity to prepare a national
strike. To make a step in this direction, we call for building unity
committees for the national strike.
Movement for a Democratic and Independent Workers' Party
*****************
JAPAN
Train derailment "The Railway Company is responsible,"
declares the Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions
Monday 25th of April 2005, a regional train derails and 2 of its
railcars smash into a multistory apartment building, alongside the
track.
"JR West", the company owning the rail network where the
accident occurred, immediately accused the train driver of being
responsible for this disaster which killed 106 people. The train driver
cannot take up his own defence: he is among those killed.
Osamu Yomono, vice president of the Japan Confederation of Railway
Workers Unions, declared that "the accident results from JR. West's
methods, giving priority to traffic operation and profits rather than
safety and terrorising their employees so that they end up blindly
obeying orders".
The drivers, in particular, undergo constant pressure to avoid the
trains being late. Being just one minute late can mean they will be
inflicted with one -- or several -- periods of "day-shift
education". In addition to having to pay fines, the workers are
forced, during these periods of "day-shift education", to
write reports in which they must emphasise their own responsibility.
A main cause of the accident was supposedly the fact that the train was
being driven far too fast. But it should be pointed out that the driver,
Ryujiro Takami, a young man aged 23, who had only been driving for 11
months and had already undergone a period of "day-shift
education", was already behind schedule that morning. Osamu Yomono
points out: "We are almost certain that the young driver was
undergoing very heavy pressure to make up for the lost time, at all
cost. Fear of disciplinary action was affecting his better judgement...
Safety is at stake when the workers undergo that sort of pressure and
treatment".
The lawyer Masako Shimano, a specialist of workers' rights, sees things
in a similar manner: "Globalisation and hasty privatisation,
combined with a system in which human rights are not a priority, lead to
the rapid destruction of safety standards and to a terrifying situation
for workers".
(Note based on information received from the Japan Confederation
Railway Workers Unions).
*********************
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