A turning point in Europe

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A turning point in Europe
26 February 2010

Wednesday’s general strike in Greece, involving 2 million workers in
the public and private sectors, marks a turning point in the political
situation throughout Europe. It represents the most significant
manifestation of a growing movement of resistance to the attempt by
Europe’s governments and corporations to make workers pay for the
economic crisis and the multi-billion-euro bailout of the banks.

At the very onset of this new movement of the working class, two
fundamental characteristics have emerged: the movement assumes a
cross-border and international character, and the workers immediately
come up against the bankruptcy of their old trade union and political
organizations—all of which are wedded to a nationalist program.

Indeed, austerity measures are being imposed by governments of the
official “left” no less than those of the “centre” and “right.”

This week saw a succession of strikes and protests throughout Europe:

On Monday, Lufthansa’s 4,500 pilots in Germany struck. In France, air
traffic controllers struck alongside workers at six French oil
refineries. British Airways cabin crew voted by over 80 percent to strike.

On Tuesday, protest rallies took place in Madrid, Barcelona and
Valencia against the austerity measures of the Spanish Socialist
Workers Party (PSOE) government of Jose Zapatero. Trade unions in the
Czech Republic announced that public transport would be halted next week.

A one-day general strike of the public sector is planned for March 4
in Portugal over the extension of a wage freeze as part of measures to
cut the deficit from 9.3 percent of gross domestic product to 3
percent by 2013. French pilots have also announced plans to strike
later this week.

These strikes and protests are only the initial response by Europe’s
workers to the offensive being waged against them. The broadest
mobilizations have been in those countries where the most savage cuts
have been announced.

Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain—the so-called “PIGS”—have been
targeted by the banks and financial speculators and ordered by the
European Union to drastically slash their budget deficits. This will
set a precedent for similar cuts across Europe. But the fact that
industrial unrest has spread to Germany, France and the UK indicates
the potential development of a truly pan-European movement.

The same underlying tendencies that have given rise to the reemergence
of the class struggle in Europe exist in North and South America, Asia
and Africa.

Many of the protests and demonstrations were relatively small—a factor
utilized by the financial press to demand that the respective
governments stand firm in imposing austerity measures. Nevertheless,
the more perceptive commentators were clear as to the broader
implications of these actions. Writing in the Independent, Sean
O’Grady stated that the strikes marked the onset of “Europe’s Winter
of Discontent.” They “promise to be just the start of the greatest
demonstration of public unrest seen on the continent since the
revolutionary fervour of 1968,” he continued.

Commenting on the political impact of austerity measures that will see
millions thrown into unemployment and social services gutted in
Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy, he noted, “The democratic strains
in nations that had been ruled, well within living memory, by fascist
leaders or the military are growing.”

The basis for a continent-wide social and political movement is rooted
in the common problems faced by workers in a globalised economy
dominated by huge international banks and corporations. These
organizations, and the financial oligarchy they represent, are
demanding unprecedented cuts in social programmes, wages and pensions
in order to pay for the trillions of dollars handed over by European
governments to the banks. They are speculating against any economy
that is seen as debt-heavy and unwilling to carry forward the
necessary attacks on the working class, thereby increasing the
financial pressure on the targeted governments.

As yet, the objectively international character of the movement
developing in Europe finds no political or organizational expression.
On the contrary, everywhere it meets with the determined opposition of
the trade unions, to the point of outright sabotage.

This week saw the betrayal of many of these initial attempts at
resistance by the working class. The German pilots union, Vereinigung
Cockpit, called off the strike at Lufthansa on its first day, and the
General Confederation of Labour (CGT) called off the strike against
the oil giant Total in France. In both cases, the unions capitulated
without having won any of the workers’ demands. For its part, the
Unite union announced yesterday that its members’ mandate for strike
action against British Airways would be put “on hold” while further
negotiations take place.

Those protests and strikes that have gone ahead are, from the
standpoint of the unions, designed to let off steam rather than
mobilize a political movement against the governments that are
imposing austerity measures. The unions portray their respective
governments as mere hostages to either the European Union or the
speculators, rather than the political representatives of the
capitalist class.

The most draconian cuts are being imposed by social democratic
governments that came to power as a result of popular hostility to
right-wing governments—PASOK in Greece, the PSOE in Spain, and the
Socialist Party in Portugal. In every instance, they were elected with
the support of the trade union bureaucracies, which have remained
their allies as promised reforms have given way to austerity budgets.

The aim of the unions is to regulate social tensions and ensure that
they do not pose a threat to big business and the state. A spokesman
for the Greek General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) made this
clear when he said that imposition of PASOK’s planned austerity
measures would be “tragic because it will provoke social unrest and
clashes.”

Ireland is cited by global financiers as the model to be emulated for
imposing cuts in wages and services of between 10 and 15 percent. The
ability of the Fianna Fail government to do so is entirely dependent
on the Irish unions, which called off strikes against the budget that
had involved hundreds of thousands of workers.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is limiting action against the
government to a public sector work-to-rule. Its leader, Jack O’Connor,
declared, “There will be those who will represent us as endeavouring
to reverse the budget and undermine the democratically elected
government. I want to state emphatically that agreement can be reached.”

Whatever the intentions of the trade union bureaucracy, anger over the
cuts being dictated by the banks and corporations will continue to
grow. Their efforts to police this opposition, to stifle and betray
it, will only lead to the development of a mass movement that must, of
necessity, take the form of a political rebellion against the trade
unions and the governments they defend.

There is no national solution to the crisis facing workers in Greece,
Spain, Portugal or anywhere else. They are being thrust into a common
struggle against globally-organised capital. The fundamental question
facing the entire European working class is the adoption of a
socialist and internationalist program as the basis for a new
political leadership and new mass organizations to wage the class
struggle in opposition to the nationalist and pro-capitalist
organisations of the official labour movement.

Chris Marsden

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/pers-f26.shtml

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