Workers in Europe begin fightback against capitalist onslaught

By John Catalinotto

Jul 8, 2010

Workers across Europe — specifically in Greece, Portugal, France, Spain and Italy in the West and Romania in the East — have begun to resist the capitalists’ relentless assault on their wages, benefits, social services and secure existence.

On June 28, Greek sailors blocked Piraeus harbor's gates during 24-hour strike against EU and IMF-imposed pension cuts.

As in the United States, this bosses’ attack has accelerated during the capitalist economic crisis that erupted when the U.S. housing market collapsed in the third quarter of 2008. The ruling class has exploited high joblessness and worker insecurity to force governments to “reform” labor laws — removing worker protections — and to cut social service benefits that workers had won in the period from the end of World War II to the disappearance of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Workers’ responses in Europe have divided along two lines.

In some countries the entrenched union and political leaderships — as in the U.S. — have accepted the capitalist argument that “joint sacrifices must be made by everyone” to restore the capitalist economy. Under this leadership, the workers have already lost. Indeed, all the sacrifices are being dumped on the workers’ backs.

In others — Greece is the primary example — the main union leadership or at least part of the union leadership has made the main slogan: “It’s the bosses’ crisis, and they should pay for it, not the workers!” While this attitude does not guarantee victory, it refuses to concede the struggle without a battle.

Where the union leadership has accepted the responsibility to make concessions, the big question is whether the workers can find and establish a new leadership that is willing and able to lead struggles. In the end, no lasting victory can be won without challenging capitalism itself, but big struggles will be needed even to defend the workers’ daily life.

Inspiration from Greece

Greek workers with leadership from the PAME union confederation — close to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) — have led the way this year with a series of six day-long general strikes and other mass actions. These actions continue. On June 29, public and private sector workers paralyzed the country. The week earlier, PAME called strike actions that led to demonstrations in 60 cities. When attacked for being “illegal,” the unions responded with the slogan: “Workers’ rights are the law!”

Aleka Papariga, KKE general secretary, said at a demonstration of thousands in Athens, “We only have two options: either a fatalistic submission to poverty and misery, which will increase in magnitude, or to counter with courage and persistence and fight for social prosperity for the people.” It is easy to see why communists and union militants all over Europe are looking to Greece for inspiration.

In Portugal, the Communist Party is still strong in the union federation CGTP. These unions held a strong general strike and demonstrations on May 29 and are now planning a similar day of action for July 8. The issues are similar, too. The Portuguese government, like Greece’s led by a nominally Socialist Party, has led the attacks on workers’ rights. Like Greece, Portugal is also one of the smaller and poorer countries of Western Europe, both with populations of about 10 million.

Unemployment is around 10 percent in Portugal, and under pressure from the big European and U.S. banks, the government is cutting the budget for education, health care and other social benefits. The class struggle continues to intensify.

In Spain, the union response has been more sporadic, with the intensity depending on the region. The strongest responses have been in the Basque Country, where there was a general strike on June 29 that mobilized most of the working class against the “reform” program of Socialist Party Premier José Zapatero — “reforms” that cut public workers’ salaries by 5 percent and cut everyone’s pensions.

A limited strike called by the national unions — the CCOO and the UGT — on June 8 had support in Catalonia and some other regions, less so nationwide and in Madrid. These union leaderships are close to Zapatero’s party and have shown reluctance to challenge the government and fear that the more right-wing Popular Party will replace it. It was significant that the rank-and-file Cobas unions, which are pushing for more militant actions, held a larger demonstration in Madrid than did the official unions that day.

French strike June 24

In France, the center-right government wants to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. French workers disagreed. Nearly a million took part in a general strike in May when the government formally announced its plan. Then, two million struck for a day on June 24 when the government took another step in approving this plan. A coalition of all the French union confederations has announced there will be another general strike when the French Parliament is scheduled to vote on the bill.

On June 24, during 24-hour strike, French workers blow vuvuzelas as they march in Marseille protesting attacks on pensions.

Participation was not only large but extremely broad. There were more than 200 marches all over France; only a small rural department in the Pyrenees Mountains abstained. A surprising number of nonunionized workers in the private sector took part.

The action expressed a real sense of solidarity between older and younger workers. Younger workers saw a decent retirement as hopefully part of their future, but something older workers needed right now. Older workers pointed out that if they retired, jobs and careers would open up for unemployed youths.

In Italy, where Silvio Berlusconi leads the center-right regime, one million workers demonstrated on June 25 against a similar anti-worker program. The largest demonstration took place in Bologna, with more than 100,000 people, followed by Milan, Naples and Rome, with 70,000 people, and 25,000 in Palermo in Sicily.

G. Dunkel contributed to this article.