In June representatives of the Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations of Europe met in Madrid: the Communist Party of Spain (M-L), Communist Party of the Workers of France (PCOF), Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey (TDKP), Communist Platform (Italy) and the Revolutionary Organisation of Norway, to deal with questions of the work of communists in the trade union movement.
In the first place the meeting analysed the present political and economic context, characterised by a deepening of the aggressive policies of imperialism. The term ‘neo-liberalism’ refers to the policies of imperialism today, at the exclusive service of the oligarchy, directed at guaranteeing maximum profit to the monopolies at the expense of the workers and their rights, and against the peoples. This policy could be summarised in the following terms: ‘Less State to defend and more State to attack the workers and the peoples.’
Faced with the illusions that social-democrats and reformists preach, a so-called ‘protective’ capitalism is not possible. This is the true face of imperialism whose attacks are being aggravated as a result of the growing crisis and the growing inter-imperialist contradictions in their fights for markets and areas of influence.
The consequences of this policy in Europe are: attacks on the social and labour gains, degradation and privatisation of public utilities, an increase in police measures and militarism and armed aggression against the peoples. The European Union is trying to reinforce its role as an imperialist power in the international context of the politics of aggression of the United States. In this new conjuncture, a revival of the workers movement is taking place, the social mobilisation is growing and the trade union struggle is acquiring a greater importance. For that reason the discussion centred particularly on the question of the work of the communists in the trade union movement. The trade union movement should propose its demands on the offensive, in accordance with the concrete situation and to develop the struggle for the trade union unity of class.
We communists believe in the need to work within the large mass trade unions that group the organised sectors of the proletariat and to politicise the trade union struggles to orient them in a revolutionary sense. We M-L Parties and Organisations call for the defence of the rights of workers and particularly of immigrants to unionise; to advance in the coordination of the struggles on a European level, for support and solidarity with the concrete struggles and the reinforcement of unitary actions, and the calls for coordination meetings among the class struggle trade unions.
Solidarity with the Workers of the Automobile Industry and of SEAT. The Parties participating in the European Meeting of M-L Parties and Organisations show their support and solidarity with the mobilisations taking place against the Employment Regulation Procedure [which allows a company to solicit the labo ur authority to cancel a contract providing workers with their labour rights – translator’s note] proposed by the bosses of SEAT, which affects 8,800 workers at the plant, and other enterprises of the automobile sector in Spain, with the excuse of the recent strike of transport workers.
The present crisis of capitalism is striking with particularly intensity at the workers sectors (fisher folk, peasants, transport workers, etc.), at the working class in general, on whose backs it wants to place its consequences and on the popular sectors that are suffering from the scarcity of basic products, the housing crisis and the attacks on their social rights. Given the aggressiveness of the bosses and the connivance of the Governments there can be no other response than unity and struggle.
Madrid, June of 2008
Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations of Europe (June 2008)
We greet with great joy the victory of the NO vote in Ireland. It is a victory for the Irish people and for all the peoples of the EU who have been massively opposed to a text that essentially reproduces the content of the objectives set in the European Constitutional Treaty.
We salute the forces that have carried out a campaign to give the NO vote a progressive content and that have played a decisive role in this victory. The peasants, workers, in short the people, have defeated the vast coalition of political and social forces, of the bosses and the media that mobilized for the YES. They tried to blame the Irish people and have threatened them with ‘reprisal.’ Merkel, Sarkozy, Barroso and company multiplied the pressures and intimidations. For them it is also a serious political failure.
As the French and Dutch peoples did in 2005, the Irish people have thrown sand in the gears of the monstrous neo-liberal machine, synonymous with social dumping, of the competition of all against all, of the priority of the magnates of the agriculture in detriment to the small peasantry. The Irish people have said NO to the militarised Europe that NATO is creating.
Despite this new popular slap, the EU and its spokespersons of the anti-democratic governments, the European Commission… have stated that they will ‘continue.’ For them, the vote is only democratic if goes in favour of its decisions! This is the image of the process of European construction, a process that is being carried out against the peoples, on its backs, and that does not accept objections. A process that is being constructed against the peoples of Europe and Africa, to establish the EU as a great imperialist power that will rival the other powers by its markets and control of raw materials. A European Union that has just legalised 65 work hours per week and replaced collective negotiations by the face to face relation between the boss and the wage worker, and to put an end to the social gains and the right to work. An EU that hunts undocumented immigrant workers, puts them in concentration camps, expels them, and at the same time, tries to ‘select’ the brains and hands it needs. A European Union that promotes the reactionary ‘values’ of the Church and tries to prohibit abortion.
Faced with the anti-social and reactionary attacks of the EU, mobilisations of workers are developing everywhere. This political victory for the peoples encourages us to develop even further the ties of struggle and of solidarity to jointly fight against policies at the exclusive service of the monopolies and the financial oligarchy.
We must demand respect for the vote of the Irish people and stop the process of ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon.
Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations of Europe
Since April 15, 2008, hundreds of undocumented workers, immigrants without legal residency, have been on strike in the Paris region. They are responding to the call of the CGT [General Federation of Labor] and the associations to obtain legal residency. Those workers have been employed for years in sectors such as hotels, construction, cleaning, etc. The majority of them are on the payroll, they pay social security and many also pay taxes.
Because they do not have papers they are real modern-day slaves in the hands of bosses who, generally, know their situation. After two months of the strike, the French government has been forced to begin a process of regularisation for four hundred of them. A great movement of solidarity with the strikers is developing; the retreat of the government is a breach that must be expanded much more.
We support this valiant struggle for the
regularisation of all undocumented workers. We make our own the slogan
that has been resounding in the demonstrations: ‘We work here, we live
here, we will stay here!’
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