Version imprimableWe all know the consequences of the European Stability Pact that they want to impose once again: more austerity affecting workers throughout Europe, increasing job insecurity and depriving public services (already under pressure) of essential resources. At a time when soaring bills for housing, food, mobility and energy have already plunged millions of people into poverty, we need billions in investment to deal with these problems and to ensure the essential ecological transition. Yet the European institutions, locked into their neo-liberal capitalist ideological straitjacket, have decided to continue their policy of protecting and increasing (super)profits, to the detriment of workers (with or without jobs) and the environment. As a result, the far right is reaping the rewards of this policy, with successes across the continent.
In Belgium alone, the return of the “stability” pact would mean between 24 and 27 billion in additional savings. That’s why trade unions in several European countries, from France to Lithuania, via Italy, Belgium and Spain, have mobilized to oppose this prospect and to call for solidarity: within the working class, throughout Europe, but also outside, and in particular with our Ukrainian and Palestinian comrades. Against precariousness, for better wages and working conditions, for access for all to decent public services, and for a socially and ecologically just transition.
As the Gauche Anticapitaliste, we were present to support this message of international solidarity. It is clear that today’s European project is contrary to the interests of the working class, whether in Europe or elsewhere in the world: racist and repressive migration policies, support for oppressive and murderous regimes, economic policies with a generally disastrous social and ecological record... To confront this, however, we need much more than one-off action. We need an action plan with broad mobilizations and offensive demands
These include
– Massive investment in essential public services and in a real ecological transition (including the phase-out of fossil fuels and nuclear power);
– Financed by progressive taxation and a drastic tax on big money;
– Socialization of key sectors of the economy, such as energy, transport (people and goods) and banking;
– Collective reduction in working hours, with no loss of pay and compensatory recruitment;
– Open borders, no to Fortress Europe!
In the face of capital increasingly concentrated on an international scale, austerity policies imposed on us everywhere, a global ecological crisis and the rise of the far right, mobilization and international class solidarity are the only responses that keep open the hope of a better future and a habitable planet for all!
12 December 2023
Translated by International Viewpoint from Gauche Anticapitaliste.
