EuroMarches against unemployment
Preliminary march routes and European timetable saw the start of an important shift in the location of radical young layers of workers away from Labour and into single issue campaigns and social movements, a trend that has quickened in the years since.
The election of John Smith as Labour leader in 1992 was a culmination of the rightward shift that had been going on since 1987. mour Party membership had fallen dramatically and many socialists and trade unionists had been expelled or had lett of their own accord. In the leadership elections, large parts of the remaining Left backed John Prescott for leader rather than • Ken Livingstone, the more radical candidate. Under Smith, and, after his sudden death, current leader Tony Blair, Labour's shift to the right has become much more visible. Collective (in)action
But it is not just about Blair. There was a rightward shift in the working class in the years leading up to 1992. This was represented in a continual reduction in trade union membership and in industrial action over that time - a decline caused by the many defeats suffered during the early and mid 1980s, and the Tory's prolonged offensive against the trade unions.
The reduced influence of the trade union bureaucracy within the Labour Party has occurred alongside the adoption of aggressively pro-capitalist policies which are now fully supportive of the free market. The New Labour leadership has completely abandoned Keynesian economics.
In economic policy, Labour is more committed than the Tories to trying to meet the criteria for European Monetary Union (EMU). Labour has already stated it will not exceed the Tories' public spending limits for at least the first two years of government, and there are clear indications that it could cut public spending further in areas such as pensions and unemployment benefit (workfare schemes are planned). Labour's aim is to create "smaller government.' The five "early pledges' from Labour, which appear to be its only definite pledges for government, involve no increases in public expenditure whatsoever?
Labour is now committed to carrying out the austerity programme of the European bourgeoisie. The Blair leadership team is borrowing heavily from the ideology of Bill Clinton's Democrats in the U.S. Despite all this, for many workers in Britain, the Labour Party still represents a class vote against the bosses' party, the Tories.* Notes 1. The Poll Tax was a regressive, flat rate personal tax for local government services. It's introduction would have reduced civil liberties, by justifying much tighter monitoring of identity and residence. It was abolished after massive civil disobedience, and several riots. 2. Labour's Five Early Pledges: are i. Cutting class sizes in schools to 30 for 5-7 year olds using monev saved from assisted laces scheme ii. Fast-track punishment for persistent voung offenders. ili. Cut National Health Service waiting lists by treating an extra 100,000 patients using money saved from the NHS internal market. iv. Putting 250,000 under-25s who are on unemployment benefit onto a workfare training scheme, using money from windfall tax on privatised utilities. v. Tough rules on public spending, low inflation, low interest rates.
There will be fourteen main European marches, writes Mark Johnson.
Iberian peninsula
• West Spain, leaving from Tangier April
14th, to Bayonne, May 1st, then going up to Paris for the 1st of May, Lille the
24th of May, Brussels May 28th
• East Spain, leaving April 14 from
Almeria, via Barcelona, to Perpignan,
May 1st, then Paris
• Portugal march: to be confirmed
Great Britain
• Scottish march, leaving Scotland May
10th, crossing London 6th June
• English march, leaving Preston May
17, crossing London 6th June
• Welsh march, date of departure to be decided, crossing London June 6th.
Irish march
• leaving Belfast 1st June, via Dublin.
Scandinavian march
• leaving Finland on April 14th. Via
Sweden, Denmark, Germany
German march
• leaving Frankfurt on-Oder on May 1st, crossing Berlin May 4th, then Hanover, then the Ruhr
Balkan march
• leaving Sarajevo April 14th. Though
Vienna, then Germany
Italian march
• leaving Crotone from the south of Italy on April 14th, crossing Switzerland
(Basel May 10th) then across Germany following the Rhine valley.
French marches
• starting at Grenoble on April 14th crossing Switzerland, and joining the
Italian march
• "Maastricht" march leaving from
Strasbourg, crossing Maastricht
• Breton march: point of departure: Brest
• Local marches will be organised from
Tarascon, in the Pyrenees, from
Toulouse and from Marseilles
Greece
• to be confirmed
The fifteenth march
There should also be a "cybermarch"
which will allow those with access to the
Internet to follow the marches.
Actions:
April 14: The official start date. [some marches will in fact begin on April 12th.]
April 22nd: Demonstration on the problems of globalisation, in Geneva, site of the World Trade Organisation and the International Labour Office.
and the International Labour Unice.
8
International Viewpoint
1st May 97: Marches will be pass through several important European cities, becoming a focus for solidarity for the countries of the East and the South, solidarity with immigrant workers, and for a Europe of free movement among people. Five of the fourteen major marches will be crossing frontiers on this day.
May 24: Demonstration at Lille on youth concerns. An opportunity for intercommunication on a European scale between the youth of different countries. of Trade union 18 May 28: The European Confederation of Trade Unions is organising its own demonstration in Brussels. EuroMarchers will stress the link between employed and unemployed workers.
Other initiatives will be organised around the themes of unemployment, precarity, exclusion, and homelessness. Amsterdam
During the first half of June the marches will be within 100 to 150 km of Amsterdam. Camping sites will be set up along the way. These camps should have the capacity to welcome several hundred marchers from different European countries. Participants should expect to walk about 15 km every day.
June: The Inter-Governmental Conference will be held in Amsterdam on June 16-17. Our aim is to gather more than 30,000 participants from different European countries. The French Delegation has set itself the objective of bringing five thousand demonstrators.
All marches should be in the outskirts of Amsterdam by the evening of June 13th. They will enter Amsterdam from different directions on the morning of the 14th and gather at either Dam Square or Museum Square (to be confirmed) from 12.30 to 13.00. The marchers, and all those coming by bus, should be at Museum Square by 14.00. From here, we will march through Amsterdam, via the Dutch National Bank. We will return to Museum Square, where the demonstration will end at about 18.00. Afterwards, we plan to hold a festival at Museum Square.
A petition will be proposed for signature during the marches. These petitions will laid out in Amsterdam in some significant public square (to be decided). The unified petition should cover about 100 square meters, reflecting the extent of the movement in the most vivid fashion possible.
You should plan your homeward journey for the early hours of Sunday. Source: reports from preliminary meetings of 22/23 February 1997, in Brussels. The next meeting of delegates from all the European countries, will be held in Amsterdam on Saturday the 10th of May. For up-to-date information on local activities, contact your International Viewpoint distributor.