BELGIUM Belgian workers celebrate May Day for a month! ON MAY 31 in Brussels a massive demonstration of 150,000 people was the most recent in a series of strikes and mobilizations against the austerity measures proposed by the government. Three general strikes have been held since the beginning of May despite reluctance on the part of some of the national union leaderships to really lead the resistance or to build united national action between the Socialist and Christian trade unions. HILARY ELEANOR
The Belgian government, led by Prime Minister Wilfried Martens, is proposing an austerity plan aimed at saving 200,000 million Belgian francs (4,444 million US dollars) which would result in thousands of job losses. The working-class response to these proposals has been remarkable, not least because mobilizations against the austerity plan began before any official announcements had been made. Workers began to fight back when newspapers started to leak the outlines of the proposals.
At the beginning of April, 18,000 miners in Limbourg, Flanders, began to take action against the threat to 3,000 jobs. On April 21 they began all-out strike action to secure an agreement for no pit closures or job losses (see the report in International Viewpoint, No. 98, May 5, 1986). Public-sector workers also moved into action quickly when they realized that the austerity proposals would seriously threaten their jobs. •May 1: The Socialist federation of public sector unions (CGSP) showered demonstrations with leaflets calling for a strike. This was only one of many actions nationally which prepared the 24-hour general strike on May 6. •May 6: The strike was successful, with no trains, trams or buses running. Post, telecommunications, radio and television were also paralysed. The most important event was the estain Brussels was essentially in character - in spite of cent unemployment rate demolishing of several proletarian the 13 per and the traditional working-class bastions. It shows that the Belgian working class and the workers' movement are keeping intact their potential for struggle against the attacks of capital.
This demonstration delivered a stinging refutation to all those who think that we are witnessing a permanent decline in "working-class culture." Such a forest of unfurled red flags has never been seen before. The "International" resounded innumerable times, taken up especially by thousands of young people who were mobilized for the first time.
The new feminist, ecologist and pacifist currents were in evidence and all to the good! But they were caught up by the powerful force generated by such a demonstration of proletarian strength.
The demonstration was utterly unified. It followed a two-week strike in the public sector, conducted in a disorganized fashion. With a sure instinct, the working class seized upon the call of its biggest mass organization, the trade-union federation FGTB, to show its willingness to act "all together," and it unified both public and private sectors on a broad interprofessional base. It avoided anything that would have set Catholic against anticleric, Fleming against Walloon.
The demonstration was more militant than had been anticipated. The two dosans for which the Socialist two slogans for which the Socialist Workers Party (Belgian section of the Fourth International) and other far-left tendencies had fought for two weeks - "Down with the Martens-Gol Government" and "General Strike" -prevailed. Many contingents carried anticapitalist slogans. This demonstration confirmed that in several capitalist European countries we are seeing the old apparatus retain a predominant influence over the working class, while at the same time their direct grip on the masses is* significantly weakening.
To this immense, combative, fervent, intelligent throng, demanding the continuation of the struggle, the current leaders gave no battle cries, offered no perspectives. Their freedom of action is severely limited by their desire to enter the government themselves in order to try their hands at managing the crisis.
Ernest Mandel
International Viewpoint 16 June 1986
blishment of a common front between the CGSP and the two Christian union organizations — the media and communication union (SCCC) which includes railway workers, and the federation of public sector unions (CCSP) which includes government employees. A real determination to fight
But united action had yet to be realized in the state education sector. Here, the CGSP left it up to the regions to decide whether or not to strike, with the result that only the teachers in the Antwerp region joined the May 6 strike. Other regions held information meetings and demonstrations, neither of which were followed up.
Among the rank and file there was a real determination to fight. Railworkers at Charleroi organized a cross-sectoral meeting of the Socialist-led Belgian general workers federation (FGTB) which declared: "we won't wait for the end of the month to act". A national demonstration against the austerity measures was planned for May 31. Under pressure, the GTB leadership decided to call a 48-hour strike in the week preceding May 31. • May 7: A demonstration of teachers in the private sector rallied 15,000 people in Brussels. This was a major blow to the polities of austerity, given that traditionally this sector supports the government. Better still, the demonstration was supported by the CGSP.
• May 12: After the bank holiday weekend, a 24-hour strike was called for May 16. This time, the CGSP teachers built for the strike across the whole movement. Even though the Christian CCSP were still reluctant to build united actions, the strike was more successful than on May 6. • May 23: The 48-hour strike was sustained on May 23 and 24. In Wallonia (the French speaking part of Belgium) there was a total strike in the public sector, but support in the private sector was weak. In Flanders (Flemish-speaking Belgium) a minority joined the strike but they were very militant. Massive pickets were held to stop members of the Christian unions from working, resulting in the police intervening in a number of cases. • May 24: The government finally made its austerity plans public. They have been careful not to adopt any measures likely to rub the Christian unions up the wrong way and push them towards united action with the
Socialist unions. That said, the austerity plan is very severe, and proposes abolishing 28,000 jobs. The cuts will affect mainly education, the civil service and social security and will be accompanied by reductions in pension, health and unemployment benefits. In the area of social security, more people will be expected to pay the patients' contribution, which is extended to include treatments such as X-rays and dental care that have been reimbursed in the past. Women in particular will be hit by the proposal to severely reduce -or even in some cases abolish -benefits for unemployed people who are cohabiting. The attacks on benefits also affect workers in the private sector, but these are less evident.
Following the publication of the austerity plan, the Christian unions, as foreseen by Martens, backed down. On the railways, the SCCC withdrew their strike call and announced that it would no longer pay strike benefits. Consequently the dynamic of the struggle of the railworkers - who constituted the most advanced section of the mass movement - dried up. Only the railworkers in the Henault province, where the Socialists lead the union, continued to strike. • May 31: The national demonstration in Brussels had been planned for two months by the FGTB and the Socialist parties. Even though the national leaderships left it up to the regions and federations to mobilize, over 150,000 people turned out to show their opposition to the austerity plans.
A national union official was reported as saying on May 31 that the demonstration would mark the end of the month of strikes and mobilizations as far as the Socialist unions are concerned. But the fightback has led to a radicalization in the Socialist parties in Flanders and Wollonia, and in the FGTB, and local strikes and stoppages will continue. On June 2, the Socialist FGTB made a call for further national protests.
There are two major problems now facing the mass movement against the austerity drive. One is the reluctance of the Christian unions to participate in united action, although they are now also demanding negotiations with the government on the budget reductions. The second problem has been the difficulties in mobilizing workers in the private sector. So far there have been very few strikes in the private sector - at Cockerill Sambre, ACEC and
Caterpillar.
e
C
The Belgian section of the Fourth
International, the Socialist Workers
Party (POS/SAP) predicts that unless there is a cross-sectoral call for action, the private sector won't be mobilized.
S
Even so, the dynamic of the mass n movement in Belgium against the austerity proposals is such that it
S will be very difficult for national union leaderships or the Socialist t.
parties to just turn off the tap when it suits their own interests. In the b context of a European situation where ta there are few major fightbacks against the austerity drive of the ruling classes, the development of the struggle in
Belgium will be an important one to watch.
The Limbourg miners at the forefront of the fight against redundancies (DR)
SC b al h
-
BEERS
St
LOVE is
101 b tc afte m
1B9.
E0 00z
International Viewpoint 16 June 1986