Brussels: two demos and more than 100,000 march against the bossesâ Europe
Workers Power Global, London

On Thursday 13 December 120,000 workers descended on Brussels - the capital of the European Union. Called by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Belgian trade union confederation around the limp slogan "Europe is US" they marched in huge union contingents the short distance from the place Bockstael to the Heysell stadium.

The numbers were around the same as the ETUC demonstration last December in Nice. There was an impressive mass turnout by the French union federations the CFDT and, even more, the CGT - as well as the smaller federation SUD.

The big battalions came from Belgium and France (Paris, the Nord-Pas de Calais region, Toulouse, Limoges). Germany sent sizeable groups, dominated by IG Metal. Portugal too sent a considerable and there were smaller but lively contingents from as far away as Italy, Greece, Poland (both Solidarnosc and NPZZ).

However the British official labour movement disgraced itself once again. The "once mighty" British TUC were represented by a couple of dozen bureaucrats!

The honour of the British labour movement was rescued from total eclipse only by a few workplace banners, some firefighters and UNISON, brought by workers going to the anti-capitalist demo the next day.

Of course, the most lively and militant contingents were those who had recently been or were in struggle. The Belgian Sabena airline workers were at the front of the march and were present next day too after the vast majority of the other trade unionists had been bussed home by their leaders.

There were detachments from the railworkers of the CGT-Cheminots and SUDrail burning their signal-flares. There were workers from Moulinex, Danone, Air France, and other groups who have fought closures, mass redundancies or privatisation.

But the speeches of the ETUC leaders were empty of any concrete call to action for Europeâs workers despite the fact that they were faced with massive job cuts and in a deepening recession. When whole industries face massive lay-offs or shutdown, when airline workers in Sabena and Swissair face the chop there is plainly a need for a Europe-wide co-ordinated strike action in their support.

Again as in Nice the demo was called one day before the EU leaders turned up. The Belgian union leaders gave as their reason that they did not want the workers to mix with the "throwers of cobblestones". Their aim was to bus (or train) their members in for a nice short demo and then quickly get them away again.

As in Nice, a year ago, they largely succeeded in this. But the organisers of the anti-capitalist demo on D14 were in error too in not mobilising en masse for the ETUC demo, taking the anti-capitalist message directly to tens of thousands of workers and trying to win them to join a militant demo the next day when the EU leaders arrived.

Reports of the death of the anti-capitalist movement are not merely exaggerated as the joke goes but outright lies. At least 25,000 people packed the streets of Brussels on 14 December in the bright sun, but in sub-zero temperatures to prove this. This was five times the number in Nice year ago on the anti-capitalist demo on 7 December.

Not that this will make any difference to the media belonging to the billionaires or their states - which has refused to report the mass lively but peaceful demo on the streets in Brussels.

In fact D14 saw much the same colourful parade as we have seen in Prague and Genoa. Near the front was a huge mobile globe, in the centre a long red Chinese dragon, and seas of red flags everywhere.

From the assembly point at the Petit Palais it wound its through the streets of Brussels drumming and chanting to the vicinity of the Royal Palace in Laeken, where the 15 leaders of the European Union were meeting.

Members of the League for a Revolutionary International and REVOLUTION from Austria, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden made up a lively contingent, chanting anti-capitalist, anti-war slogans all they way. We were joined by comrades of the Fraccion Trotskyista from France who immediately got many of the demonstrators chanting: "Contre le UNO en Afghanistan, pour couvrir le noveau Taliban" (No to the UN in Afghanistan, they are just cover for the New Taliban).

The demonstration was called under the vacuous ATTAC-USFI style slogan "Another Europe For Another World" But the slogans of most of the demonstrators were much more militantly anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist.

They condemned capitalist globalisation, and the racist scapegoating of immigrants in "Fortress Europe", they condemned the "war against terrorism", they proclaimed their solidarity with the Palestinians against Sharon and his backer Bush.

Also slogans like "one solution - revolution!" were taken up by several contingents, in several languages, on the march.

The demonstration was led by a large bloc from ATTAC, from the more radical NGOs like the Belgian Oxfam. There were contingents from ecologists and students organisations.

The Stalinist Belgian Workers Party (PTB) had a large contingent with many workers and youth. The PTB, according to their own account, sold 1500 plastic tabards with the famous 1960s icon-photo of Che Guevara and the slogan "ChŽnge the world". They had political rappers on back of lorries, fire-eaters and made a good impression. Obviously the penny has dropped that Joe Stalin doesnât go down a bomb with anti-capitalist youth!

There were also Turkish and Kurdish Stalinists organisations. From the anarchists there were both "silver-pink" (less than 100), and "Black Block" contingents of several hundred. There was also a "red-black" block of anarcho-syndicalists from Spain and also militants from the Italian COBAS and Rifondazione comunista.

A curious sight was several dozen "Christians for Socialism" carrying large wooden crosses representing various groups of the oppressed and exploited mostly elderly and dressed in sack cloth!

From the "Trotskyist" Left there was a sizeable blocks from the CWI (300), the IST (500) and a smaller USFI (POS and LCR contingent of 200).

It must be said that the Black Bloc on the march at least was very self-disciplined. Only a few "symbols of property" were trashed - one or two bank windows and an empty police garage. No local shops, passers-by or other demonstrators suffered attack or harassment.

True a short confrontation occurred with the riot police after the march had got back to the convergence centre - some people were arrested and then released. But compared to Genoa and Gothenburg it was all very peaceful. This was clearly a triumph for ATTAC, which had organised teams of "peace keepers" along the route of the march.

However it must be observed that there was a price to be paid for this. The march did not attempt to approach the palace - this had been explicitly ruled out by the police. The result was one which Black Blockers will obviously point out.

The two huge, peaceful demonstrations of D13 and D14 got the usual reward - a complete self-censorship by the media. More than 150,000 demonstrators donât merit any coverage compared with fifteen leaders in a royal palace agreeing to initiate "a Europe-wide discussion on the future of Europe amongst its citizens"! Clearly only the silent majority need apply to take part.

Nevertheless, the march was a real success. It showed that the ACM has not faded away - indeed it has become more anti-imperialist in its objectives, thanks to the anti-war mobilisations.

But there is a real danger of incorporation into the old routine of passive parades if the reformists of ATTAC and NGOs are allowed to head the movement as they clearly do, to the serious detriment of the movement in the Francophone countries.

Perhaps this too is why the anti-war movement in France has been unable to raise more than a 5,000 strong demonstrations whereas in Italy, Britain and Germany mobilisations have hit or surpassed the 100,000 mark.

Given the influence of the USFI/LCR in ATTAC they must share some responsibility for this poor result - especially given the militancy of the French working class and the not exactly pro-American traditions of the CGT and the PCF. It stretches all credibility that this is the best that the French movement could do.

Ya Basta! and the tute bianche was noticeable by their absence - the first time since the European ACM mobilisations began. Admittedly it is a very long journey. But have they suffered a severe crisis since Genoa, as rumours suggest?

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