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A dossier of weekly information published by the September 18, 2007 Issue 253 Price 0.50 Euros ----- Introduction France: We are publishing a declaration of the Workers Party. "The government's plans are brutal: they immediately undermine the special pensions funds; they establish by the end of October medical franchises in the financing laws for Social Security; they undermine the Labor Code and permanent contracts, to be replaced by CPE contracts; and, in the same period, the government has passed a new 'simplified' treaty at the European Summit."
Germany: After two years of "grand coalition" between the SPD and the CDU, 2.7 million children and teens survive on soup kitchens. A Social-Democratic leader condemns the policies of Schroeder-Merkel. Great Britain: Two months after the floods, hundreds of schools and thousands of homes are still damaged. In this situation, a wave of strikes has spread through the public sector. We are publishing an article written on the eve of the TUC congress, which just took place. We will return to this theme next week. Romania: We are publishing an interview with an editor of Social Tribune, the newspaper of the Association for the Emancipation of Workers: "Here is the price Romania pays for having joined the European Union!" Pakistan: Activists from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India have launched a joint appeal for a "Conference for Peace, National Sovereignty, and the Independence of the Workers Movement Faced with 'World Governance.'" Our correspondent has sent us a contribution from the Union of Peasants of Punjab (AMP), which has decided to prepare for the conference. Haiti: A delegation composed of activists from Brazil, the United States, and Guadeloupe, with the support of the ILC, met with the U.N. on September 4 in New York. You will find here the communiqué of this delegation: "Solidarity with the people of Haiti! Immediate removal of the U.N. occupation troops from Haiti!" To support the ILC and to support the ILC International Newsletter, subscribe! **************************** Table of Contents p.1: Introduction ----- Contact: Informations internationales
Declaration of the Workers Party, September 15, 2007 Don't touch our pensions! Unity to fight for the return of 37.5 years of contributions, whether public or private! The government's plans are brutal: immediately undermine the special pensions funds; establish by the end of October medical franchises in the financing laws for Social Security; undermine the Labor Code and permanent contracts, to be replaced by CPE contracts; and, in the same period, have the government pass a new "simplified" treaty at the European Summit. They talk to us about equality and justice to justify the undermining of the pensions of the workers at EDF-GDF, RATP, and SNCF. These are lies. Equality? 15 years ago, everybody in the private and public sectors could retire after 37.5 years of payments. It was Balladur, in 1993, who undermined this equality, by pushing the private sector workers to have to pay for 40 years. It was Chirac and Jospin who, at the Barcelona Summit in 2002, participated in the elaboration of document that set objective of pushing the retirement age back five years throughout Europe. Then it was Fillon, in 2003, who, "to correct the inequality between the public and private," aligned the workers in the public sector to a retirement of 40 years. In 1995 and in 2003, by the millions and in unity, we mobilized to say: "37.5 years for all, public and private! Keep the special pensions funds, the Civilian and Military Pension Code, and the CNRACL! Abrogate the Balladur, Veil, and Fillon laws!" Nevertheless, today, the government is again going on the offensive. Once again, "in the name of fairness," this is supposed to be the fate of the special pensions funds, to then push everybody's retirement to 41, 42, or 43 years of work. The whole system of pensions is threatened with full dismantling. All the collective gains codified into the statutes and the collective conventions are threatened. They do not even try to hide this. The president of the Fund of Old Age Insurance, Daniele, Karniewicz, declares calmly: "It is out of the question to ask for new sacrifices from the wage earners in the private sector concerning length of payments, a rise in payments, or the amount of pensions if we do not first make efforts concerning the special pensions funds." In short, she says, first we have to dismantle the special pensions in order to then take on all the pensions funds. And, as if it were necessary to dot the "i"s, the Public Sector Secretary of State, André Santini, announced in the La Croix journal: "The public sector pensions is still a sort of special fund. The question of the making the public fund closer to the private is posed for 2008. It is part of our work axis." In short, after having imposed a rise in the years of payment, it is now necessary to get rid of any reference to the final wage received and the calculation of the pensions should be based on the average wage of the best 25 years of work. The difference? A teacher who retires at 55 years of age with 152 paid trimesters today would receive a pension of 1,580 Euros; with this new method of calculation, he would receive 1,055 Euros. This is a monthly loss of 525 Euros, that is, one third of his pension. They speak to us of the deficits in the pensions funds because of the rise in the number of pensioners and the drop in the number of contributors. But who decided on the massive job cuts at the SNCF, EDF-GDF, and RATP and the privatization of whole sectors of the public enterprises? There is no more real deficit in the special pensions funds than in the general pensions where the deficit was generated by the 220 billion in exemptions for the bosses given since 1991; in 2006 alone, 23 billion were given. Compare the meager 6 billion in Euros that the state is supposed to provide to guarantee the statutes of the personnel to the 13 billion in gifts to the bosses through the "fiscal packet" voted on this year and the 300 billion Euros offered by the European Central Bank to the banks to save the speculators. And they dare to speak to us of the privileges of the special pensions funds! The special funds are based on the specificity of the statutes that they guarantee, of which they are an integral part. Their creation was a point of leverage for the construction of the general pension fund. We pose the question: Who demands the privatization/destruction of all the public services and the dismantling of the special funds? Who demands the liquidation of the funds of the public sector workers, in the name of the reduction of state expenses? Who pushes for pushing back the number of years before you can retire, with the goal of opening pensions to capitalization? Who pushes for the dismantling of Social Security to open it up to speculation? Who, if not the capitalist class, using all the tools of the Maastricht treaty, its stability pact, and the European directives? And this takes place at a moment where the French government is getting ready to ratify a new "simplified" treaty, a worsening of the draft of the European Constitution rejected by the majority of the French people on May 29, 2005. This is a treaty giving the European president the powers (which have already been strengthened) to fully destroy, against the will of the people, all the social conquests of the workers won in France and throughout Europe since 1945. How is it not possible to see the connections between all these questions? How is it possible to say, in the words of the SP MP Manuel Valls: "We collectively lacked courage in 2003. A new attempt is scheduled for 2008. It is necessary to tell the French the truth: The lengthening of life expectancy makes it necessary to raise the number of years of pensions contributions and special pension funds should be aligned to the general funds." How is it possible to call yourself a "socialist" and say, in the words of Benoit Hamon: "We express our worry about the method of the government. A reform is necessary, it should be negotiated and built with social partners." How is it possible to say, as has the Communist Party, that "there is a real deficit situation for all the pensions funds," when the so-called deficit serves as the pretext of the government to go on an offensive against the whole system? How is it possible to watch them all, in the name of the method of negotiation, accept the framework set by the government at the orders of Brussels? Unity for the return to 37.5 years of contributions for all, public
and private! Is there any solution other than this path toward unity? All divisions would only benefit the government. We pose the question: Shouldn't these simple demands be the basis of action for any party that raises the banner of the working class, the defense of its conquests, and democracy? Isn't this what the 10,000 workers who this summer signed the appeal of the Provisional Committee for an Independent Workers Party, which states: "No to medical franchises! Return to the Social Security of 1945!" Hasn't the moment come to build the independent workers party which is missing today, to lead the struggle for the unity of the workers and their organizations around the fight for all the vital needs of the workers and their families? *************************
The draft of the new European Treaty brings back all that was rejected on May 29, 2005 Following the mandate given at the European summit at the end of June, the Portuguese president of the European Union presented on July 23 a draft treaty and, since then, an inter-governmental conference worked on it, with the goal having the summit of heads of state on October 18 and 19 adopt it and formally sign it at the next summit in December. The ratification process by the member states would begin in 2008 and go until June 2009, the moment of the European elections (1). The July 23 "draft treaty" is presented as 296 amendments to the current treaties, 12 protocols and 51 annexed declarations, which have the same legal value as the draft treaty. In all, it is 277 pages long and is anything but a "simplified treaty." With a few exceptions, all the all amendments of this draft treaty correspond to the very text of the European Constitution rejected on May 29, 2005. We will continue to write here about this and we will submit the analysis for the discussion of the organizing committee. ----- Endnotes (1) For France, the calendar threatens to be very rapid. Sarkozy announced he wants to ratify the draft before France takes the presidency of the EU on July 1, 2008. However, it seems that Parliament will be called in January to adopt the constitutional modifications, just before the interruption of the parliamentary session due to the municipals. The mostly likely thing, therefore, is that Sarkozy will aim to have the new treaty ratified at this same time at the end of January. ----- A contribution submitted to the Provisional committee for a Working Class Party We are publishing this week, and in the next two weeks, a contribution on the draft "new European treaty." This contribution was written for the meeting of the organizing committee for a workers party, which will take place on September 30, 2007. We draw the attention of the readers to the vast political operation in course aimed at confusing the workers and citizens of France. This document analyses the major attacks against the social conquests that have been codified for centuries into the framework of the French republic. These are attacks maintained and aggravated by this new draft, which aims to end all facets of national sovereignty. The current president of the Republic, who is touring Europe to prepare with his colleagues the ratification of the new treaty, has for a few days taken a "critical stance" in relation to the European Central Bank (ECB). Everybody known that this is a sham. The new draft that Sarkozy wants to sell to the heads of state not only maintains the role of the ECB, but it strengthens it. Working people and the exploited, who massively rejected, on May 29, 2005, the draft constitution, are not duped. Once again, the key question is the complete and total break with the institutions of the European Union. ----- 1. The European Constitution put forward all the destructive aspects of the current treaties. The draft of the "new European treaty" maintains these or deepens them. Let us specifically note: - The stability pact and excessive public deficits. Article 104 of the current treaty indicates that, "the member states avoid excessive public deficits," and goes on to specify all the procedures in which a state can be condemned if its public deficits are excessive. The new draft treaty completely maintains this article but, it goes further; in its Amendment 87, it gives supplementary powers to the European Commission, such as addressing directly a notice to the concerned member state, while, up to the present, the European Commission had to pass through the European Council of Ministers. It is in the name of this article that, for years, all the plans of massive job cuts in the public sector, in teaching, etc. have been pushed through. All the measures against Social Security and pensions come from this article. - The role of the European Central Bank (ECB) is maintained and strengthened. Its independence from the government and even other European institutions is reaffirmed. And we know how the ECB - the instrument of the financial markets and, thus, the American Federal Reserve - fights against wage workers and, with a strong Euro, de-industrializes Europe. - The major role of the European Commission and the European Justice Court is maintained. - The prohibition of state subsidies (currently Article 87) is maintained. It is in the name of this article that the privatizations take place, through the prohibition of all subsidies and the dismantling of industry (Alston, EADS, etc.) - Article 14 of the current treaties concerning the establishment of the interior market (in the name of which all the privatizations are decided on) is fully maintained. - Article 49 on free services, which is at the origin of the ex-Bolkenstein directives, and in the name of which the European Commission dismantles the national legislations, is maintained. - The current articles defining the employment policies, in the name of which the European Commission currently is going on an offensive, are maintained. All the policies, rejected on May 29, pushed for years by the European Union against all the Labor Codes through "flexicurity" are also fully maintained and thus fully repeated in the draft of the new European treaty. But there is more. 2. Everything that the draft of the European Constitution added to the current treaties is maintained in the new "European treaty" Let us show the main examples: a) The Strengthening of the Supranational Institutions - The President of the European Union. Up until the present, the presidency of the European Union changed every six months. The new draft treaty maintains one of the important innovations of the draft Constitution, Amendment 16, which created a 9B article that specified in its Subparagraph 5: "The European Council will elect its president through qualified majority for a length of two and a half years, which can be renewed once." And Subparagraph 6 of this same amendment specifies: "The president of the European Council cannot exercise a national mandate." However, up to the present, the president of the European Union was the head of state of the country that took the presidency (thus, currently, it is Portuguese Prime Minister Socrates who heads the European Union). But, from now on, the head of the European Union will no longer be accountable at all to his or her state and can head the European Union for five straight years. - The high representative of foreign affairs. The draft of the European Constitution proposed the creation of a "minister of foreign affairs" of the European Union. The phrase, at the request of Great Britain, was not maintained, but the content of the mission of this high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs is fully recognized by this draft of the European Constitution. The supranational character of this function is affirmed, first of all, in Amendment 27, where it is written: "The responsibility of the Union concerning foreign policy and common security covers all the domains of foreign policy." And, later, it is written that the member states, "respect the action of the Union in this domain." It is clear that if this treaty had been implemented at the time, that the European Union would have unanimously given support to the war in Iraq. And the high representative of the European Union has the mandate to lead this supranational policy. **************************
After two years of "grand coalition" of SPD-CDU, 2.7 million children and teens survive off of soup kitchens: A leader of the SPD denounces the "grave-diggers of reformism" The German model of "reforms" - which is the shining example for all the partisans of the European stability pact - has led today to a rise in protests in Germany. The people reject these policies. Ever since the scandal of the number of children in poverty erupted a few weeks ago, particularly in the Landers of the East, the implementation of the Hartz laws, the policies of Schroeder and continued by the "grand coalition" government presided by Angela Merkel (CDU) have returned to the popular discussion. There are 2.7 million children under the poverty line and 2.5 others who are right above it. There are popular soup kitchens for children and their mothers in Berlin. How can we have reached this stage? Tension Rises In the discussion of the federal budget in the Bundestag, Angela Merkel provocatively flaunted her continuity with the policies begun by Schroeder to implement the demands of the European and known as the 2010 Agenda. Virtually at the same moment, at the summit of the SPD six months before the congress, three leaders, Steinmeyer, SPD minister of foreign affairs, Steinbruck, SPD minister of finances, and Platzeck, former SPD president, took the initiative to publish a text supporting, against the mass of workers and their party, the totality of the 2010 Agenda and calling on SPD to fully submit to this agenda. The tension is hitting its peak. It was in these conditions that Offmar Schreiner, president of the workers commission in Berlin (Afa) and member of the leadership of the SPD took the initiative to write a column in the Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung (Monday, September 10) which echoed the spirit of the vast majority of activists and unionists in the SPD. Offmar Schreiner is a Social Democrat. Close to Oskar Lafontaine for years, he refused follow him and quit the SPD to found Die Linke. He places his hope in the perspective that the SPD will change its brutal course. He doesn't question "the market," which he accuses of being "blind," and calls, in conformity with the Social Democratic tradition for a "social state" to act as a "regulator." He is the partisan of a social Europe where "co-management" a la Germany would play a determining role. It seems important to us to publish large excerpts of his column, which correctly formulates the demand for the SPD to break with the heritage of Schroeder - policies which are the exact transposition of the policies dictated by the Stability Pact of the European Union. ----- Document The column of Ottmar Schreiner published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "The leadership of the party broke in the Schroeder years with the original reformism of Social Democracy and, with the 2010 Agenda and the Hartz-IV law, definitively said goodbye to a policy of emancipatory, progressive social democracy. A small clique at the summit of the party would like to get rid of the reformist tradition of the SPD, a popular party of the left. It is time to resolutely reject this false path. It is necessary to end this de-social democratization and this uprooting of the party concerning its program and its members. The SPD has paid dearly for this turn: It has lost the government in numerous Landers and the parliamentary elections in 2005. The policies of the agenda caused the loss of 200,00 members and contributed to the birth of "the left." The SPD has not only lost the support of its electors. More than two-thirds of its current remaining members are opposed to major projects of the "grand coalition," such as pensions at 67 years old, the reform of health, the reform of the imposition of enterprises, the privatization of the railway and the intervention in Afghanistan. The policies of social dismantling lead to the dismantling of the oldest party in Germany. The attempts of the leadership of the SPD to win back its traditional electors without rejecting the continuity of the policies of Schroeder are a total failure. Š. The gap between the rich and poor is getting wider. Wealth inequality has reached its highest level since reunification. According to the DIW (an economic institute), the richest 10% of the richest citizens posses more than 42% of the national revenue. Almost 20% of people who work full-time make less than 1,630 Euros a month. More than 2.7 million children live in poverty and 2.5 others hover right above the poverty line. A third of jobs are atypical. Š What have we social democrats done in these difficult times to preserve the cohesion of society? Hartz-IV transformed unemployment insurance. Work is now obligatory. (1) The reforms of the labor market have very much weakened the trade unions. The real and social pressure of regulation of their acceptable work limits their capacity for mobilization. Š That's not all: It was a social-democratic chancellor who threatened the unions with imposing legislation on agreements of enterprises if the workers' representatives did not accept a flexible implementation of the collective conventions. And there's the privatization of the post office, telecommunications, and energy - and soon the railways - which has led to the degradation of wages and working conditions in these sectors. The fact that collective conventions resemble Swiss cheese is the result of policies of social-democrats. The government policies of the Social-Democracy has weakened the unions through Hartz-IV, with the liberalization of the temporary contracts, the encouragement of precarious employment, and the destruction of protections against lay-offs. It is necessary to end all this. Social democracy is at a crossroads. It is close to midnight. The base is dissolving, the functionaries (of the party) have no concern other than their own posts, and the party is threatened with implosion if we do not reverse directions and return to a fundamentally social-democratic policy. We, the social democrats in the SPD, have the duty to oppose the grave-diggers of reformism in our own party. The heritage of August Bebel, Kurt Schumacher, and Willie Brandt is at stake."
Endnotes 1) Forced work is prohibited by German law. The Hartz laws are resented, for being a violation of this law. ***************************
IncompatibleŠ. In Great Britain. Classes are back in session. But not for all - because following the torrential downpours in July, which ravaged most regions, hundreds of children do not have school buildings, while thousands of others will be schooled in make-shift buildings. How have we reached this point? In the Midlands, 24 schools were wiped off the map. 121 schools in Yorkshire and 91 in the town of Hull were seriously damaged, just to give a few examples. There are 856 schools, with 359,907 students, that are affected. There are thousands of non-rebuilt houses, 17,000 homeless people in Hull, 1,000 in Sheffield, non-repaired roads, and broken railway lines. It is a desolated scene, a country victimized and not rebuilt. It is true that the rains were particularly intense last July, but they were not worse than previous weather disturbances. The previous rains had not led to such consequences for the population. The response to the question lies elsewhere. Implementing the demands of the European stability pact, which year after year forces Great Britain to reduce its public budget, Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister, implemented, when he was the Minister of Finances of Tony Blair, a policy of systematic reduction of the public budget for infrastructure. The estimated cost to rebuild the devastated regions is 4 billion pounds, which is incompatible with the policy of privatization and budget cuts and the stability pact imposed by the European Union and its European Central Bank. After the incapacity to contain the fires in Portugal two years ago and the same in Greece this summer, is there any conclusion to be drawn other than the need to break with the European Union? Two months after the floods, hundreds of schools and thousands of houses
are still damaged. Roughly 63% of flood defense infrastructure are no longer maintained
and 63% of anti-flood walls are no longer maintained. The union of the
workers of this sector (the PCS) announced that the government intends
to cut 450 jobs in the Ministry of Environment and Rural Affairs. This
is the balance-sheet of the Brown-European Union budget dictated by
the stability pact. It is also necessary to add that, to fuel the housing boom and raise the prices of land, hundreds of flooded lands were reclassified as constructible land. An estimated 5.5 million people nationally (nearly 10 percent of the entire population) live in houses built on flood plains. It is the youth and all the people, particularly the working class, that is hit. Over 45,000 homes have been completely lost and are at the mercy of the insurance companies. The Association of British Insurers is turning against the policy holders, declaring that the insurance companies operate in the framework of a market guided by competition, "the payments should be proportional to the risks," and announced high, inaccessible quotas for workers. ----- The stakes of the next TUC union congress Say no to the united market and the privatization of public services scheduled in the new European treaty! This article was written on the eve of the TUC congress, which just took place. We will return to this theme next week. The effects of the policies pushed in the name of the respect of the
stability pact are fully at the origin of the numerous strikes shaking
Great Britain. In the post offices, strikes continue for better wages and against the closure of 4,000 local post offices. In the hospital, the midwives continue to envision what would be their first strike against the government, which is announcing closures of hospital maternity services in places such as Manchester. There is a strike of the prison guards, who are not ceding on their wage demands. And 1,2000 dockworkers have also just gone on strike. All the demands pose the question of the policies of the European Union. It is in this situation that the TUC congress is beginning. Almost all the unions are demanding a referendum, while Gordon Brown, the replacement for Tony Blair, rejects this. In a resolution that it is submitting for vote to the congress delegates, the RMT railway union - which is organizing a strike of the Metro agents- is demanding that the congress note that, "the proposals in the new EU Reform Treaty are substantially the same as the EU constitution rejected by the French and Dutch electorates in 2005," that, "the French architect of the Constitution, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, stated the new EU Treaty would be 'very, very near the original'", and that the new treaty "consolidates the single market and the drive to privatize public services." The RMT clearly calls for the TUC congress to call on the "the government to hold an urgent referendum on the EU reform Treaty," and the TUC General Council to "campaign for a NO vote in line with the Congress policy decided in 2005" and to "campaign for this position within the ETUC." This is a position "in defense of the interests and demands of the working class," in the words written to us by a delegate of the Bakers Union, which will ally with the RMT around this resolution. This question of democracy - because of the mandate adopted in 2005 at the TUC congress - and the electoral promises of the Labor Party has led to a deep crisis in the state and the Labor Party, to which, we recall, the British trade unions are affiliated. In the Sun daily (August 29), a Labor MP, a former Blair minister, David Blunkett, declares that the Brown government needs to give a decisive answer "to accusations that the treaty is not really any different to the EU Constitution that was rejected by the voters of France and Holland. Before Parliament, the government should provide evidence of the differences between the current reform." This appeal is even more pressing because 122 Labor MPs, including a former Minister of the European Affairs and the current Minister of Foreign Affairs took a position in favor of a referendum, against the position of Brown, who continues to affirm that he will not organize one. And David Blunkett gives expression to the worry seizing leading circles, "What horrifies me is the growing demand from trade unions for a nationwide ballotŠ" What "horrifies" them is the combination of the political and institutional crisis, which is fed by the question of the referendum, with the class struggle, which poses the question of breaking with the stability pact and the European Central Bank and which is thus relinked to the referendumŠ The question of a referendum on the new draft of the constitution will be a major question at the TUC congress. The RMT motion is the expression of the resistance of the British working class against the destruction of all public services and conquests. **********************
Interview with Constantin Niculaie, member of the editorial board of "The Social Tribune," the organ of the Association for the Emancipation of Workers "This is the price paid by Romania for joining the European Union" Romania joined the European Union eight months ago. What have been the consequences for the people? First of all, there has been a brutal rise in prices. Since January 2007, for example, home prices have risen by almost 20%! And today it is more expensive to have a room in Bucharest than in a suburb of Vienna! But it is particularly the price of fruits and vegetables that has risen, because Romanian products are disappearing. Thus, the production of potatoes has gone bankrupt and it is necessary to import. Daily life is thus harder and harder. We are seeing the acceleration of privatizations. The Savings Bank was the last state bank; it is now being privatized. In the energy sectors, they are using a particular method. Because the mines, as natural resources of national interest, cannot be privatized (as stipulated by the Constitution) they are being associated into a holding with the thermocentrals and thus become "local." Then, they get sold off. The privatization of the oil sector has already been accomplished. The state company was sold to the Austrian OMV and the second oil company, which was already privatized, was just sold to the state company of Kazakhstan, which is directly controlled by the Americans, in exchange for their support for the dictator Nazarbaiev, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan before 1991. They broke the national control of electricity and they are privatizing this step by step. Only the region in the south still depends on the state. Nevertheless, the workers and even the trade unions are resisting. The situation is catastrophic in the health sector: the privatization of hospitals continues. Their tool is decentralization; they give the responsibility of the administration of hospitals to the local communities and, as they have no money or means, it is necessary for them to search in the private sector. The material situation of hospitals is lamentable: in one case, cited by the press, there was only one shower for 75 patients and beds without mattresses or mattresses filled with straw. One million people are affected by Hepatitis C, a sickness of misery and under-development. The situation in education is a disaster. According to the Secretary of State, Svetlana Preoteasa, 13% of schools did not have potable water. In Bucharest, the "European capital," 100 schools have not been able to open on the first day of school because of sanitary conditions. Romania has fulfilled its obligations to join the European Union, but at what a price! ----- Interview with Constantin Niculaie ILC: How is the organizing going for Conference of Labor Activists of the ex-USSR, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, which will take place in Caçak (Serbia) on October 27 and 28, 2007 ? CN : The preparation of this conference must allow for setting up an axis of resistance in all the countries of the Balkans. This is a resistance against the American occupation, as in the case of Kosovo, but also against the destruction of the social gains. In these countries, one thing is fundamental: powerful conquests have been preserved, at least partially, such as the health care system and social property. These gains must be defended. From this point of view, the appeal of the unions of Serbia, in November
2006, for all the unions of the country and the region to demand that
the European Union put a moratorium on privatizations is a point of
leverage. This immigration is barbarism... ILC: A medical delegation was authorized to visit the imprisoned mineworkers. Do you have information about the current situation? CN: The medical report was submitted to the government and we are waiting for a response. Our union comrade and mineworker Ionel Ciontu died in prison on January 11, 2007, due to lack of care. Several of his comrades, still imprisoned, are threatened with the same fate, because they cannot be currently cared for. The international campaign is very important, particularly the financial aid for the families through the instrument of the funds for workers' solidarity. As I explained earlier, the shameful rise in prices of basic goods hits all working families severely. It hits even more violently the families of the imprisoned mineworkers, because the mineworkers are often the only ones who work in the family. Thus, while they are in prison, the families have no revenues. The international aide is thus a question of life and death for them. We will continue the campaign for their freedom. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has sent a message to the government recommending their liberation. I am convinced that the trade unions throughout Europe will continue to respond to this campaign. This is a first that, in a country of the European Union, trade unionists are thrown into prison and sentenced because they implemented their union mandate (as the ILO recognized). By defending them, we are defending trade union rights for all in Europe. The Workers' Solidarity Fund for the Imprisoned Romanian Mineworker Unionists appeals to all trade unions: By contributing, you will allow for the families of the unionists to survive and to continue their struggle. You can send your checks (made out as CMO) to: Fonds de solidarité (Roumanie), c/o Entente internationale, 87, rue du Faubourg Saint Denis, 75010 Paris. ***********************
International Workers Delegation, September 4, New York: For the removal of the U.N. occupation troops! Immediate removal of the U.N. occupation troops from Haiti - this was the mandate presented by the international delegation (made up of activists from Brazil, the U.S., and Guadeloupe, with the support of the ILC) which met with the U.N. on September 4 in New York at the U.N. headquarters. ----- SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF HAITI - No more violence, pillage and massacres! We came to the United Nations on Tuesday, September 4, 2007, to meet with the Secretary-General of the UN, as per our mandate, with the aim of presenting him with the dramatic situation facing the overwhelming majority of the Haitian people three years after deployment to Haiti of the MINUSTAH forces, for which he is responsible. Our Haitian sisters and brothers who participated with us in the Caribbean Conference in Santo Domingo this past May informed us that the Haitian people are suffering intensely from the misery, violence, occupation and permanent interference into their lives and affairs by the international institutions and foreign governments. They told us that the Haitian people want to determine their own destiny, in a fully sovereign manner, and that the first condition for doing this is to ensure the immediate withdrawal of the MINUSTAH troops. After insisting that we should be received by a representative from the United Nations, we were kept in the entrance lobby of the UN, where we met "informally" for a few minutes with a UN functionary who told us she had no official mandate to discuss with us. Her only mission was to deliver to us a letter dated August 31, 2007, in response to our letter of July 4, 2007, in which we requested to meet with the Secretary-General, or a representative from his office. (We had been informed earlier in writing that our letter was filed by the UN on July 20, 2007 and assigned Dossier No. 2709142. The date we requested for this meeting was September 4th.) The official UN response, signed by Mr. David Harland, Acting Director, European and Latin American Division, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, informed us that the Secretary-General was not available to receive us and went on to "encourage the Haitian chapter of the 'Association des Travailleurs et des Peuples de la Caraïbe' to contact the office of the special representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti regarding a meeting with the relevant MINUSTAH staff." In the course of the brief "informal" exchange in the UN lobby, Mr. Harland's assistant told us that the UN is an institution for peace, and that the MINUSTAH forces were therefore present in Haiti to preserve the peace. We, the undersigned, in our own names and in the name of those who mandated us to represent them on this delegation to the United Nations, raise our voices in protest over the refusal by the UN to receive our delegation, as well as the refusal by the UN to accept its responsibility in the dramatic situation facing the Haitian people. We do not -- and we will not -- accept this situation. And we reaffirm that now, more than ever, the Haitian people must be able to determine their own fate, in a sovereign manner, and that the pre-condition for this is the immediate withdrawal of the MINUSTAH forces. We, the undersigned, issue this worldwide appeal to continue and deepen the mobilizations in solidarity with the Haitian people. We call for press conferences, rallies, mobilizations and delegations to all governments that have troops stationed in Haiti. For our part, we who are delegates from Brazil, Guadeloupe and the United States, pledge to organize protests and to take these demands to our own governments. Mobilizations and Solidarity with the Haitian people! Delegation Participants: - Milton BARBOSA, Director of International Relations, Unified Black Movement (MNU), Sao Paulo (Brazil) - Jose CANDIDO, Deputy of the State of Sao Paulo, Workers Party (Brazil) - Mark DURBAK, The Organizer Newspaper (United States) - Robert FABERT, Convener, Caribbean Workers and Peoples Association, ATPC (Guadeloupe) - Jocelyn LAPITRE, Travayè é Péyizan (Guadeloupe) - Charly LENDO, General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe, UGTG (Guadeloupe) - Rafael PINTO, Convener of the Confederation of Black Organizations of Brazil, CONEN (Brazil) - Dan STILLMAN, The Organizer Newspaper (United States) -- New York, September 4, 2007 ----- The situation in Haiti - More than 80% of the 8 million Haitians live under the poverty line
and make less than 2 dollars a day, which is the minimum daily wage. Each week gets worse, with more kidnappings by gangs and assassinations. These are the results obtained by each successive government of Haiti implementing the structural adjustment plans of the World Bank and the IMF. ***********************
A demonstration of peasants: Fifth anniversary of the death of Suleman Petras Activists from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India have launched a joint appeal for a "Conference for Peace, National Sovereignty, and the Independence of the Workers Movement Faced with 'World Governance.'" Our correspondent has sent us a contribution from the Union of Peasants of Punjab (AMP), which has decided to prepare for the conference. ----- Procession of Peasants on Fifth death anniversary of Suleman Petras (Peasant Activist) On Friday August 24, Anjuman Mazareen (Punjab Peasant Union) commemorated
the fifth death anniversary of Suleiman Petras'. Some 800 people gathered
in a tent in Chak 10 / 4 L in Okara district to salute Suleiman Petras
and others who have given their lives for the peasant struggle. Suleiman
was only 23 years old when he was killed by the Rangers Paramilitary
forces. At the time the Rangers forces were waging a campaign of terror
against the tenant farmers in Okara district (Punjab). Suleiman was
killed when he bravely tried to reach a neighboring village for help
when it was under attack by the As Salim Bhandara, a tenant leader Shafiq Puno, Muhammad Tufail, Nadeem Abbass (tenant leader) speak on the occasion they condemned the murder of Suleman Petras and described that Sulamen Petras was very brave, they said that we should follow his struggle. They told the audience that struggle is not over because in many areas of farmers have recently clash with authorities to reclaim the lands that were taken away from them in 1984. They said that many year of hardship peasant decided to re take their land and took fight with military administration, as a result, the peasant come under attack by the ranger forces resulting the death of dozens farmers. They further said that several time the tenants leadership was in the jail, but because of the support which they got from APTUF and others they free. They promised the audience that the struggle of the peasant would continue till the achievement of the lands, which we have cultivated for last many years. Zahera Zaidi, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party, Akeela Naz Anjuman Mazareen (Peasant Union) Finance Secretary, echoed Mr. Tufail's point by describing the dire conditions in Bhelganj where the tenant farmers live in abject poverty. She noted that while the Army Welfare Trust reaps huge profits from these farms while the tenants, farmers who work on these lands continue to face such grave problems as inadequate access to drinking water, they further pointed out that AMP has never bowed down to pressure because each tenant farmer has taken a firm stand behind the cause, they gave a recent example from Khanewal city where the tenant farmers have countered the intimidation tactics of a new DPO (District Police Officer who tried to cut of electricity and file new charges against the AMP leadership in Khanewal Seed Farms. They described some recent protests and actions taken by the women's wing of AMP Khanewal that stopped the DPO from taking any further actions. These protests were widely covered by national media. Akeela thanks to All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, CMKP to always support our struggle. Rubina Jamil, Chairperson, All Pakistan Trade Union Federation paid a tribute to the Suleman Petras who scarified his life and especially praised the women in the movement who have set a great example for women's struggle in Pakistan. She also paid tribute to all those who sacrificed for the success of this movement. She stated that her federation will always support tenants movement throughout Pakistan, she suggested that social movements will only be successful when they are not just isolated to the cities or the villages but they spread throughout the country. She code the peasant struggle in Brazil, which is inspiring, workers and peasants elected LULA as a president of Brazil, but LULA did not meet their demands and the struggle and resistance for the existence of their demands is still going on, she also said that in West Bengal-India, the Communist party ruling from years, the CPI and CPI-M invited multinationals to build factories where the peasant have their lands but the peasants resist and fight, during resistance several peasants lost their lives, but they will succeeded, so it is an urgent need of the time to be unite and struggle. She appreciate the struggle of Pakistani Lawyers, workers and peoples for the reinstatement of Chief Justice, but she further said that the people of Pakistan want an end to the military intervention in civilian affairs and aspired for a real change in the country with power returning to the people, army go back to the barracks. She said that workers/peasants and people struggle would definitely bring real change in Pakistan. Taimur Rahman, President CMKP Punjab, emphasized that the tenant's movement should not believe any promises by desperate politicians or the Army. Instead, the AMP movement should continue its struggle and take full part in the current political scenario like the ongoing lawyers movement. He suggested that the AMP should take its case to the newly activist Supreme Court which is acting independently for the first in Pakistan's history. The AMP meeting also passed a resolution which stated that "we
will work unitedly and appeal to the all segment of the society to support
their struggle."
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Open World Conference of Workers