Intern@tional
Newsletter
Number 29
June 2, 2003
Weekly information
dossier published by the
International Liaison Committee -ILC,
Please contact : International Liaison Committee -ILC,
c/o Parti des travailleurs - 87, rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, 7510 Paris
France
phone : (33 1) 48 01 88 28 fax : (33 1) 48 01 88 36
e-mail - eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr
*******************
Contents:
- Introduction
- Algeria: As soon as we heard about the toll taken by the
earthquake that hit Algeria on May 22nd 2003, the International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples organized solidarity with the Algerian
General Trade Union Federation (UGTA). Documents
- International Conference in defense of ILO conventions: a
letter from Baghdad.
- France: strikes and demonstrations have been going on for
several weeks.
- Peru: An end to the state of emergency!
- Subscription Information
*******************
Introduction
As soon as we heard about the toll taken by the earthquake that hit
Algeria on May 22nd 2003, the International Liaison Committee of Workers
and Peoples sent a solidarity message to the UGTA, the Algerian trade
union federation.
In this message, the ILC explained that the preparation of the June 15th
Geneva Conference in Defense of the ILO norms and conventions would
afford an opportunity to extend concrete measures of solidarity; it also
explained that it was ready to respond to any request by the UGTA for
anything that could contribute to the welfare of Algerian workers and
the Algerian nation.
The UGTA then responded to the ILC that it appealed to the international
working class and trade unions for immediate needs: tents, blankets,
medicines.
True to its principles, the ILC, immediately reacted; it appealed to all
the working class and trade unions across the globe, to the
organisations, groups and individual activists of the ILC, asking them
to organise material help for the Algerian workers and population as
requested by the UGTA;
All Those documents are published in this issue.
We have no doubt that UGTA appeal will be given a prompt and wide
response.
P send donated commodities to the following address: UGTA, Maison du
peuple, Place du 1er Mai, Alger (Algeria), or send money donations,
making you cheques payable to CMO (please mention on the reverse side of
the cheque "Solidarité Algérie") and send them to the
Entente Internationale, 87 rue du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris.
********************
Algeria
As soon as the terrible consequences of the May 22nd earthquake
in Algeria were known, the International Liaison Committee organized the
solidarity with the Algerian workers federation UGTA.
Herewith are some exchanges and news about this solidarity effort
May 22nd, Daniel Gluckstein, coordinator of the ILC writes to the
UGTA
Paris May 22nd 2003
To Abdemajid Sidi Saïd
General Secretary of the UGTA
Dear friend, dear comrade,
We were astonished and grieved when we heard of the awful earthquake
that hit Algiers and the surrounding region. We know that when such an
event strikes, it is workers and their families who pay the heaviest
toll.
The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples fights on the
international level to defend trade unions as representing the interests
of workers; that is why, as you represent millions of Algerian workers
we wish to assure you of our most heat-felt solidarity.
On June 15th, in Geneva the ILC is organizing its tenth Encounter of
Labor militants, in defense of ILO norms and Conventions, while the ILO
holds its 91st yearly session; this will afford the opportunity to bring
you material solidarity.
Meanwhile, do not hesitate to appeal to the ILC for whatever you
consider necessary to meet the needs of Algerian workers and the
Algerian nation.
Dear friend, dear comrade, rest assured of our fraternal support.
Daniel Gluckstein
National secretary of the Workers' Party
Coordinator of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples.
-----
On May 25th the UGTA answered with the following message:
Union Générale des Travailleurs Algériens
Secrétariat Général
Réf. Nº IOI/SG/UGTA/03
To the International Liaison Committee
Of Workers and Peoples
Algiers, May 25th 2003
Dear friends,
We have received your solidarity letter as well as the visit of your
representatives. We are grateful for your solidarity, and we launch a
call to the union and labour movement for international solidarity with
stricken workers and people, who are millions. Our needs:
- tents
- blankets
- medicines.
We thank you in advance, because we are sure we can count upon the
solidarity of the international union and labor movement."
-----
The ILC answered immediately, organizing international solidarity,
addressing to the unions the world over
INTERNATIONAL LIAISON COMMITTEE OF WORKERS AND PEOPLES
To the UGTA (General Union of Algerian Workers)
Paris, May 25th 2003,
Dear comrades,
We have just received your letter and call for solidarity asking us to
make it known internationally to the labor and union movement.
Be sure that the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
will do everything it can to pass on this call and to organize the
largest movement of active solidarity.
We can already inform you that the International Labor Relief Fund (Fonds
d'Aide Ouvrier International, FAOI) set up in France to aid workers and
labor militants -- to which we communicated your call-- has informed
that it released immediately 15,000 euros to buy the material you asked
for.
Herewith you will find the letter we have at once sent to trade union
confederations across the world, as well as the letter we are sending to
the organizations, groups and activists members of the ILC.
Dear comrades, let us here renew our most fraternal solidarity with the
suffering Algerian people and workers.
On behalf of International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
Daniel Gluckstein
ILC Coordinator
-----
ILC addresses immediately to trade union confederations across the
world
INTERNATIONAL LIAISON COMMITTEE OF WORKERS AND PEOPLES
To all trade union confederations around the world
Paris, May 25th 2003,
Dear comrades,
The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples has just
received the following letter from the UGTA (General Union of Algerian
Workers), the Algerian trade union confederation:
"Dear friends,
We have received your solidarity letter as well as the visit of your
representatives. We are grateful for your solidarity, and we launch a
call to the union and labor movement for international solidarity with
stricken workers and people, who are millions. Our needs:
- tents
- blankets
- medicines
We thank you in advance, because we are sure we can count upon the
solidarity of the international union and labor movement."
The dreadful earthquake that has shaken Algeria has resulted in
thousands of victims, hundreds of thousands of people wounded as well as
families without shelter. The figures are constantly increasing, so we
fear a still higher number of casualties.
There are huge urgent needs.
We are sure you will answer this call from our Algerian brothers and
sisters. The leadership of UGTA insists on aid be sent exclusively in
the material form they have asked: tents, blankets, medicines. You can
send it to its address : UGTA : Maison du Peuple - Place du 1er Mai -
Alger - Algeria.
Of course, the International Liaison Committee is ready to help you
organise the sending of solidarity material.
On behalf of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples,
Daniel Gluckstein
ILC Coordinator
-----
News release of the Workers Party of Algeria
"Convened in a special session on this Thursday May 29th
2003, the Central Committee of the Workers Party shares the Algerian
people's grief, salutes the memory of the victims of this national
disaster. Š
The Central Committee salutes the outstanding and exemplary solidarity
of all the citizens, men and women of all the country's willayas, the
international material solidarity, the dedication and courage of all the
civil servants who spared no effort to save human lives. Š
Because the trauma has hit and hurt the whole nation, because the nation
has already suffered over much, because, in any circumstance, the
Workers party is always attempting to find solutions, the Workers' Party
parliamentary group has officially lodged an appeal to the Popular
Assembly Office and the parliamentary groups on Monday May 26th; a
proposal was made to convene an emergency session of the ANP (Algerian
Parliament) to discuss freely and come up with political and material
solutions most fit to meet the immediate and vital needs of tens of
thousands of homeless Algerian families sorely hurt by this enormous
tragedy (.)
Regretfully observing that this claim has up to date not been considered,
the Workers' Party deputies will intervene in the discussion over the
government's programme, it will make concrete and feasible proposals
focusing on the necessity to find ways and means to address the human
and material disaster that plunges our country into grief and which,
failing to be adequately addressed, would open the way to new
uncontrollable regrettable evolution."
********************
International Conference in Defense of the Conventions of the ILO
LETTER FROM BAGHDAD
An Iraqi friend just sent us a letter from Baghdad that we have
published below. It tells of the dreadful conditions of survival to
which the Iraqi people have been condemned after the war waged by the
"coalition" forces.
Dear friends; Dear brothers and sisters,
In the current situation in which we are trying so desperately to
survive, we hope this news reaches you.
Since the end of the war, Baghdad has lived under the black terror of
armed thugs. These thugs dictate the law in the city. Thieves and gangs
participate in the looting, but so do armed militias that belong to
several political groups.
There are 48,000 North American soldiers, and the military authorities
want to bring in another 130,000, but insecurity reigns everywhere.
There are reports of 150 wounded and a dozen dead every day since the
beginning of the bombing. Iraq today is a country without law; there is
no government, no justice, no police and no army!
All of the public establishments that were bombed have been sacked and
burned. And this just continues. Some buildings seemed to have been
saved. But on May 9th and 10th, thieves went to the National Ministry of
Education, and while they filled their vans, the U.S. tanks passed by
giving signals of encouragement to the bandits. The same scene was
repeated at the city's radio and television broadcasting building.
The capital was completely emptied. Fifty-nine of the 70 agencies of the
Iraqi central bank were looted. The sacking lasted several days.
The thieves used jack-hammers and very sophisticated tools to loot the
safes. It is said that they were looking for foreign currency in
particular. The U.S. troops that were in the immediate area didn't lift
a finger. It is said that US$250 million have disappeared.
Not a single government agency is working. Unemployment is generalized.
I myself am without work, and none of my neighbors are working.
There are many people who don't want to work with North Americans for
political reasons. But the main reason people don't go to work is fear
they will be killed or fear of leaving their families without protection.
There has been no return to school, as few families have been able to
accompany their children. The teachers are even scarcer than the
students. And the few parents able to accompany their children were
summoned by the heads of the schools to ask them to pay a fee so they
could contract the services of armed militias to protect the children in
the schools, as long as the parents could pay the cost. What parents
could send their children to school in these conditions? In addition,
since the schools were looted, there are no tables, chairs or
educational materials.
There are Imams (Shiite religious leaders) that say that the men must
let their beards grow or that the women must wear veils if they want to
work. Upon seeing this, some doctors and teachers have decided to stay
home. One Imam declared a prohibition on the sale of alcohol. In Iraq
the sale of alcohol is in the hands of the Christian community. Because
of this, several Christians have been murdered. The alcohol distilleries
of Baghdad have been looted. Those who sold alcohol won't open their
stores anymore. The militia members of the Aldawa Party have prohibited
the projection of films they consider "indecent."
There is no normal life. Starting at sunset, people shut themselves in
their houses and the confrontations and settling of scores begins. Shots
can be heard throughout the night.
These are the conditions that prevail here. The people are convinced
that the U.S. troops are involved in the organization of this chaos.
There is a story circulating in which thieves are gathered at the doors
of a commercial center to loot it. They go up to an American tank to ask
the soldiers to break down the door, and the North Americans ask for
$1,000 dollars to open it up for them.
All of these cases seem to be geared toward terrorizing us. And indeed,
we are afraid. We want the North Americans to go but at the same time
they tell us that if the U.S. troops leave, the country runs the risk of
falling into civil war. People are boarding themselves in their homes. I
have the impression they want to pressure the Iraqi people and the
international community to legitimize the war and the mandate given to
the United States and Great Britain to colonize us.
People must have adequate living conditions, a source of income, health
care and security. These conditions are not present today. The hope of
the population is that order is restored, but the occupying authority
declares that there is no immediate possibility of establishing an Iraqi
authority; instead the United States will govern the country.
Hunger threatens, the health problems are enormous and we are in need of
all types of comforts, because we no longer have electricity and it is
more than 40 degrees Celsius in the shade. There are no fans, air
conditioners or refrigerators. Thousands of the poorest people may die
of hunger. And famine threatens hundreds of thousands of children. The
occupying authorities themselves say the lack of security impedes the
distribution operations.
With respect to political, democratic and union life, in spite of all of
the speeches, nothing has been done. Quite the contrary. There are
political groups that arrived in the U.S. convoys. Between 75 and 80
political formations have opened headquarters in the city and local
offices in all of the neighborhoods. They publish newspapers and
bulletins. They have millions of dollars, and they distribute the money
to recruit followers.
But the autonomous, independent forces that have arisen from Iraqi
society have nothing. This must be known. To all those who say they are
moved by the desire to encourage a democratic spirit in Iraq, we say:
organize urgent support for those who are dedicating themselves to
creating independent unions and political movements inspired by
democracy. These forces have no support from the occupying authority (nor
do they ask it). They are the ones in need of everything because the
workers and the citizens to whom they direct their efforts are without
work.
Baghdad,
May 12, 2003
----------
In Geneva, at the initiative of USLAW and the ILC, a "campaign
for labour rights in Iraq" will be proposed
After the tragedy that the war against the people and nation of
Iraq has represented, the Iraqi workers, now subjected to the occupation,
must be able to enjoy their rights.
A resolution from the International Labor Office of the ILO on the
reconstruction of Iraq deals with this question. We will discuss it in
Geneva, in particular with union representatives from the Arab countries
that are present. A report will be presented on the situation of workers
in Baghdad.
In Washington, a meeting was held with representatives of US Labor
Against War and the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples. The following proposal arose from the discussion: to organize a
"campaign for labour rights in Iraq" and for the preparation
of an international union delegation to Iraq.
The international meeting for the defence of ILO conventions and in
defence of the labour organizations independence will be held on Sunday
June 15th, in Geneva (Switzerland), in the post office center of
Montbrillant, conference hall Ellenberger, 40, rue de Montbrillant (near
Cornavin railways station).
For further information, contact:
ILC,
87, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, 75010 Paris (France).
Tél. : 01 48 01 88 20.
Fax : 01 48 01 88 36.
E-mail : eit-ilc@wanadoo.fr
Hosting committee :
P.a. Luc Deley,
Ch. J.-E. Gottret,
1255 Veyrier (Suisse) -
Tél./Fax : (41) 22 784 24 21.
E-mail : deley@infomaniak.ch
Financial contributions to Geneva meeting and to international
"campaign for workers' rights in Iraq":
Send to ILC address cheques payable to "CMO"
********************
France
Strikes and massive demonstrations have been organized for the past
several weeks.
Many brothers and sisters from all of the continents have asked us
to give them information on what is going on in France.
In effect, they consider that the international press provides some
information about the situation but doesn't give them a very clear idea
of what is at stake in the events. In order to clarify for them the
meaning of this great movement that has already lasted several weeks,
with a mobilization of millions of workers in defense of their
retirement system, we are publishing information from the weekly paper Informations
Ouvrieres, the newspaper of the Workers Party (PT). We are willing
to send samples of this paper to those who request them.
We thank our correspondents for the numerous messages of solidarity with
the strike that they have sent to the ILC.
-----
On May 25, throughout the country, one million workers took to the
streets
Analysis: What political solution?
The mobilization of millions of workers that is currently developing
in this country for the withdrawal of the Raffarin-Fillon plan; for
maintaining the 37.5 years of payment into the system to qualify for
retirement (as the basis to recieve a full pension) for all, in the
public sector as well as in the private sector, and against the
decentralization of all public services and institutions, is confronting
the policies of the European Union head on.
Indeed, in Barcelona, in March 2002, the heads of state and of
government (at the time, Chirac and Jospin represented France) signed on
to statements that it was necessary to "speed up the reform of the
retirement system" in order to "progressively increase by five
years the average effective age in which professional activity ends in
the European Union."
[Translator's Note: In France, Prime Minister Raffarin and Minister
Fillon are proposing to increase the number of years a worker must work
before retirement, and hence before benefiting from a retirement pension,
from the current 37.5 years to 42.5 years. This has provoked months of
mass strikes and mobilizations of millions in the streets across France
- reminiscent of 1995-96, when then Minister Juppé sought to "reform"
the national healthcare/social security system.]
The heads of the parliamentary opposition, who just yesterday were in
the government, gravely evaluate the situation: "We are facing an
unpredictable political and social situation," declared François
Hollande, the first secretary of the Socialist Party, on May 24th.
"We should be an alternative," he added, to give "a
solution Š that brings out a fundamental debate between the two
conceptions of society."
If these words have any meaning, that "alternative" can have
only one content: to break the antisocial pact signed jointly in
Barcelona by Chirac and Jospin on behalf of the Socialist Party, and as
such for a break with the European Union. Is this the intention of the
leaders of the ex "plural left"? In light of their proposals
on pensions, which are prisoners of the framework set by the Maastricht
treaty, there is room to doubt it.
And Minister Fillon, does he really think he can oppose the
demonstrators with the supposed legitimacy of a parliament that supports
his plans? Has he forgotten, he and all those who sit on the National
Assembly, the 15 million abstentions; the profound rejection that
reached all of the institutional parties in last year's presidential
elections?
In holding general assemblies, electing mandated delegates, and in
positions in their unions, aren't the workers seeking the democracy that
they have not found at the ballot box? Indeed, the movement based within
the working class, in France and in many other countries, raises the
most fundamental problems of democracy. The trade union organizations
belong to the affiliates, not to the wrongly named "European Trade
Union Confederation," which has the intention of being a "co-regulator"
of the European Union's plans for destruction. It is up to the workers
and the people to decide, with full sovereignty, what is good for them,
and not for the supranational institutions, headquartered in Brussels or
Washington, which are dedicated to the defense of finance capital!
Yes, a movement based on the re-conquest of democracy has begun, one
that sooner or later will place on the order of the day a call for a
Sovereign Constituent Assembly, the only thing capable of opening up a
solution, of freeing society from the destructive dictatorship of
capital and of safeguarding the rights and guarantees that are
threatened today.
The affiliates of the Workers Party invite you to discuss these vital
questions by attending the meetings being organized in towns and in the
factories and workplaces, so that together we can find the ways and the
means to help the working class overcome the obstacles in their path,
including the indispensable construction of an independent labor party.
And, to begin with, achieving the withdrawal of the Fillon-Raffarin plan
for the so-called reform of the retirement system!
Yan Legoff
-----
The answer from the Minister to the million demonstrators
On the night of May 25th, when hundreds of thousands of workers
had just demonstrated in unity to demand the withdrawal of the
Raffarin-Fillon plan against retirement, in defense of the 37.5 years of
contributions for everyone, in the public sector as well as in the
private, Minister Fillon declared, "Renegotiate? No!" Anyway,
"The parliament will settle." And he announced that they're
going for it all: "After pensions, we have illness insurance with a
growing deficit. Decentralization is just the reform of the State and a
little more breathing room in the system."
Editorial
Are we in a democracy?
This May 27th, daily papers and radios spread the surprising
information: Worried by a possible victory of the "no's," the
Government is considering postponing the referendum set for July 6th in
Corsica.
In and of itself, the referendum technique is very far from democratic,
as it has as its function - and history has attested to this many times
- to plebiscite governments and their policies. But at least until now
the government had to give the appearance of organizing a "real
debate." Now, this is no longer the case: there will only be a
referendum, in Sarkozy's words, if a yes vote is previously guaranteed!
Are we still in a democracy?
Millions of workers in the public and the private sector are on strike
or have been protesting for weeks with their union organizations,
against those to whom the mandate had been entrusted, calling for them
to heed their demands. Fillon responded, the same night of the imposing
sea of humanity of May 25th: "Negotiate? Under no circumstances!"
At the same time, the government presented its project for an organic
bill to the Assembly, establishing "the experimentation of the
territorial collectives," that is to say, precisely, the breakup of
the Republic, now baptized "decentralization." This proposal
has provoked the strike for almost two months of the workers in National
Education, in Development and many other sectorsŠ
At the same time, the President of the public railroad company SNCF,
Gallois, intending to disband the united call to strike from the
railroad federations for June 3rd, declared (La Tribune, May 26,
2003), that "there is no intent to open negotiations on
retirement pensions with the railroad workers," but that "this
doesn't mean that no retirement system of the SNCF will be touched."
Are we still in a democracy?
The immense majority of the population supports the strikes and
demonstrations that demand the complete maintenance of the retirement
regimes and of the 37.5 years of contributions for all. And nonetheless,
this May 21st the European Commission scolded France like a "bad
student" for not having sufficiently reduced "the costs linked
to age in the reform of the retirement and health systems."
And meanwhile each day that passes new factories close, thousands of
positions are eliminated, regions that were previously industrial are
transformed into authentic deserts and entire industrial branches are
erased from the map, like textile. And if the peasants demonstrate in
mass it is because the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, at the
time of the "broadening of Europe," is planning their
short-term destruction.
So then, can we say that we are in a democracy?
No. We are not in a democracy.
A government that is respectful of democracy should at least prohibit
these waves of layoffs, to guarantee the interventions necessary for
small agriculture to survive, to respect the unity of the Republic and
the equality of the citizens before it, to satisfy the majority demands
for the return to the 37.5 years of payments for all and the rejection
of decentralization.
In order to do this, a government respectful of democracy should not
hesitate in seeking financing where it exists.
For our part, as the Workers Party, we are of the opinion that democracy
demands a break with the dictates of the European Union, the rejection
of a "Regional Europe" and the call for a sovereign
Constituent Assembly in which the delegates, mandated and controlled by
the sovereign people, define the shape and the content of the democracy.
Whether or not one shares this opinion, readers will have to admit that
we will not take one step in the direction of democracy without the
immediate and unconditional opening of the negotiations between the
government and the union organizations, on the basis of the mandate of
the 13th, 19th, and 25th of May: 37.5 years for all, in the public
sector as well as in the private, the withdrawal of the Raffarin-Fillon
plan and the decentralization measures!
And if the government refuses? Then what means are left to the workers
but to call, as the general assemblies have done, for a general strike
across trades, with the unity of the workers, the federations and
confederations, for the satisfaction of the legitimate demands? Isn't
this democracy?
Daniel Gluckstein
Informations Ouvrieres, number 591
May 28 to June 3
-----
Editorial
The voice from the people: "Why not right now?"
Monday May 19th: in the evening after massive demonstrations that
again saw nearly a million workers taking to the streets, Bernard
Thibault, general secretary of the CGT made a statement: "Should
the political method be changed, should true negotiations be accepted,
the reform might be passed within three or four months; I wish to say
without ambiguity that the CGT might endorse it, if this reform meets
our needs and our expectations. Š We, in the CGT, are not culturally
opposed to signing agreements as a matter of principles". ("France-Soir"
May 20th )
A matter of culture? What on earth is culture doing in that spiel?
If a trade union takes a stand in favour of negotiations and endorsing
agreements, if the negotiations meet the demands, that is what it is
made for. But there remains a hitch, what is being agreed on? What is
the mandate?
The response to this is voiced in thousands of workers' assemblies, in
primary and secondary staff rooms, in postal sorting centres, in
hospitals, in railway depots, in workshops and factories of the private
sector, in tax-collector offices, in the RATP [Paris transport system]:
it comes in a single slogan: withdraw the Fillon-Raffarin plan, 37.5
years for all, private, public sector, total, united general strike
called by all the unions and trade unions to impose it.
That is the mandate beyond any dispute.
Thibault, however, brushes it aside while he contemplates endorsing an
agreement within three or four months.
Isn't that the core of what the huge tide of class struggle has been
battering against for several weeks?
May 20th: Jean-Christophe Le Duigou, CGT's deputy chairman, was the main
speaker at a rally organised in Montreuil by the MP-Mayor (Communist
Party spin-off) with all the trends of the plural left. The MP-Mayor
expressed his determination to come up with "amendments" to
the Raffarin-Fillon counter-reform when it is presented in Parliament; a
striking CGT union activist tersely retorted: "You must be
joking! The draft cannot be amended, it cannot be negotiated, it must be
withdrawn. This raises the question of generalising the strike. The
linch-pin is 37.5 years for private and public sector".
Jean-Christophe Le Digou answered: "It is not the trade union
leaders who call the general strike. First, struggles must accumulate.
If the government pursues, we shall side with workers. On the issue of
withdrawing the draft: as a trade union activist I am not concerned,
what I am interested in is a good reform, scrapping a bit of paper is
not what I want".
"First an accumulation of struggles"? Is it not what is
taking place? "If the government pursues"? Well it does,
ruthlessly. As for a "good reform" who can believe it can come
through if before, the Raffarin-Fillon plan is not withdrawn and if the
guarantee that all workers can retire after 37.5 years with full
entitlement is not wrenched?
Isn't she right this other public sector worker, CGT activist who
answered to Le Digou: "If millions take to the streets, they can
have the draft withdrawn. Pressure must be applied on the government.
The confederation cannot just press a button? That is true but it must
give the impetus. Today the CGT has a crucial role to play. The CFDT
endorsed the agreement to bring the movement to a halt, but it has
failed. Together, united we can win on the withdrawal of the draft, but
it has to be clear that the demand is full entitlement after 37.5 years
for all."
We have one single "cultural" guideline: the mandate, abiding
by the mandate.
("Informations Ouvrières" N° 590 May 21st to 27th)
-----
Two articles published in "Informations Ouvrières" N° 591
May 28th - June 3rd
Arguments
The following figures, though quite official, cannot be read
anywhere except in "Informations Ouvrières". We rely on you
our readers to publicise them far and wide, especially by selling this
newspaper to your colleagues, to your neighbours. Why are these figures
kept hidden? Just because they might cause a commotion as they reduce
all the blabla on "the necessary efforts" to retain our
retirement pensions system to nil.
"The contributions paid by employers amount to 43% of the finances
(of the Sécurité Sociale). Their share used to amount to 54% in
1989." Who published those figures? The very official Social
Security Account Committee, in its latest May 2003 report (p. 38) (1).
Your eyes do not cheat you: within those fourteen years of alternate
"left-wing" and "right-wing" governments, the share
of "employers'" contribution to the Social Security dropped,
by a fifth, which is enormous.
Further on in the report: "As new resources developed, among which
the CSG (General Social Contribution [a tax mostly paid by wage earners,
primarily devised to bail out the Social Security but which has been
made permanent - TN], but also as employers were increasingly exempted
from paying their contribution, all these explain this important
decrease."
Who pays the CSG, which was imposed by the Mitterrand-Rocard government
in 1991? For 89,9%, the burden rests on the shoulders of wage-earners,
unemployed people and retired workers, totalling 56.1 billion -- in
2002, according to the same report (p. 47)
Meanwhile, employers' contributions exemption "increased six fold
between 1993 and 2002, rising from about 3 billion -- to nearly 19.5
billion for the general fund", according to the report (page 82).
That was one of the results of the measures taken in 1996 (Juppé Prime
Minister), in 1998 and 2000 (Aubry laws). Further on: "In 2002,
Social Security exemption for employers amount to around 20% of the bulk
of employers' contributions whereas in 1993, the percentage was only
4%"
The government knows that. It is the government that chairs the Social
Security Account Committee. Just as the government knows that reverting
to 37.5 years of contribution for the private sector would amount only
to 4.5 billion a year, which barely equal a fourth of the yearly
exemption of contribution enjoyed by the bosses. The government knows
and is just telling purple lies aided by all those who took a hand in
the plunder.
Cancellation! Let the bosses pay back the 19.5 billion of social
contribution exemption they enjoy every year!
Cancel the CSG!
37.5 for all, private-public sector workers!
(1) www.social.gouv.fr/htm/dossiers/ccss/a-03/ccss0305/financement.pdf
-----
The lies of Minister Fillon
In the major newspaper, everyone was able to read the adverts (see
below) that Fillon treated himself to in order to publicise his
counter-reform. By the way, it goes without saying that the money to pay
for those adverts was taken from the taxpayers' pockets.
When people read the minister's prose, they were indignant; workers in
offices, in companies, in schools, in staff meetings.
We received letters from readers. They started reckoning. Do the same.
Write to us.
Let us pick up two of the government's statements.
First question: "Will I be able to retire even if I do
not have 40 years of contributions?" asks the advert. The
answer goes: "Yes you will, whether you work in the private or
the public sector, provided you leave at the legal age. The amount of
your retirement pension will then be calculated according to the number
of years of contribution and to your age."
Lie N° 1. With the ARPE scheme [special agreement passed with bosses
enabling them to shed their older, thus experienced and consequently,
higher-paid workers and lure them to early retirement - TN] that used to
be applied in the private sector and was ended on December 31st 2002, a
beneficiary that totalled 168 quarters of insurance could enjoy 65% of
his or her gross pay corresponding to the last twelve months of work
when he or she left at:
56 if he/she had started working before the age of 15
57 if he/she had started working before 16
58 irrespective of the beginning of activity.
And 65% of the gross pay corresponding to the last twelve months of work
is higher than the general retirement pension added to complementary
pension!
To sum it up, five months ago, the Raffarin-Fillon government shattered
a scheme that afforded a higher degree of protection and now, it
attempts to pass off the new scheme as an improvement. It is a barefaced
lie.
Second question: "Am I going to have to work longer for a
lower pension?" The answer is: "No, you will retain the
same level of pension provided you work just a little longer."
Second lie! During his televised show on France 2, Minister Fillon
set a median retirement pension objective for every French worker set at
two thirds of their pay when active, i.e. 66%. Well, the current median
level of pensions amounts to around 83% of the pay when active (after
the Balladur decrees have been applied for ten years) [the Balladur
decrees lengthened the working years from 37.5 to 40 years for private
sector workers - TN]
If Fillon carries his schemes through, it will be necessary to work much
longer to get the required length of contributions to be able to retire
and this, to get a stunted retirement pension. As the saying goes: the
bigger the lie, the easier it is lumped through.
Well, better not bet on it. Millions of private as well as public sector
workers have mobilised; they are able to reckon what 37.5 for all with
full retirement pension entitlement mean. Millions of private sector
workers have experienced the cost of what the Balladur "reform"
set into motion back in 1993.
*******************
South America News: Peru
International Liaison Committee demands immediate lifting of emergency
state in Peru,
Reestablishment of democratic freedoms,
Judgment and punishment for all those guilty of crimes committed against
the workers
Paris, May 30, 2003
Dear brothers and sisters,
We received your letter announcing your "National Conference for a
Workers Party based in the CGTP" on May 31st.
Firstly, we would like to send our greetings through you to the Peruvian
workers and peoples and to guarantee you our full solidarity in the face
of the repression and state of emergency decreed by the Toledo
government. Once again, to impose the dictates of the IMF, the looting
of a nation, to trample the rights of the workers and Peruvian people,
they are unleashing repression. The people and the youth are being
massacred, with complete contempt for democratic liberties. Two young
people were murdered, hundreds were injured and hundreds detained and
arrested.
In these dramatic circumstances for the people and nation of Peru, the
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples wants to give its
support to the demands of the millions and millions that are struggling
with their union organizations, with the SUTEP and the CGTP and with all
of the labor and democratic organizations for the:
… Immediate lifting of the state of emergency,
…
… Reestablishment of democratic freedoms,
…
… Judgment and punishment for all those guilty of crimes committed
against the workers, the youth and the people.
…
The workers of Peru and the Peruvian people want to stop the looting of
their country, which is subjected to "letters of intention"
from the IMF and the dictates of imperialism in general and North
American imperialism in particular.
The FTAA, which Bush and North American imperialism want to impose
throughout the entire continent, has no other objective than that of
breaking down the framework of the nations States, of all of the rights
and guarantees inscribed in the existing national frameworks. All of the
peoples and workers from the South to the North of the continent are
seeing their rights, their job positions, their labor and democratic
rights that were won at so high a price, now threatened. They all now
have the same terrible fate imposed on the people of the Iraqi nation
with arms. And they all see in the events in Iraq a vision of the fate
that imperialism intends to impose on all of the nations and peoples.
The general strike of the educational workers and the uprising of the
Peruvian peasants expresses their will to break the monstrous chains of
submission that tie them to all of the imperialist governments and which
lead the continent and each country into chaos. The same will has been
expressed in Argentina, in Paraguay, in Uruguay, in Venezuela, and it is
also that same will that was expressed in Brazil when the masses voted
for Lula and the Workers Party.
"The country is not for sale!" This magnificent slogan,
chanted by the Mexican electrical workers in their fight against
privatizations, is that of all of the working people who are determined
to fight for a free and sovereign nation, determined to be the masters
of their own destiny. The labor rights, the democratic rights, the
sovereignty of the people, the peace, land and liberty: it was on the
basis of this struggle that the ILC was formed, forging fraternal bonds
throughout the world. And it is with this same spirit that we send these
greetings to your conference.
It would be an honor and a joy to receive your delegation on June 15th
in Geneva to the International Conference that the ILC has organized for
ten consecutive years on the occasion of the annual session of the
International Labor Organization, in defense of the conventions of the
ILO and the independence of labor organizations. In particular we will
discuss an international initiative to support Iraqi workers who also
are struggling for their rights and for the freedom to form independent
unions.
We send our greetings to your national conference.
Long live the fight for an independent labor party!
Long live the workers and people of Peru!
Long live the struggle for the independent workers international!
On behalf of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples,
Daniel Gluckstein,
National Secretary of the Workers Party (France),
Coordinator of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples
********************
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