France: stop the Nice Eurosummit on D6/7

After the Prague S26 demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank the next date in the anti-capitalist calendar in Europe is D6-7.

The intergovernmental conference (IGC) of the European Union will – activists permitting – take place in Nice between 7-9 December. It is set to be bigger than Prague, possibly 50,000 or more, and more anti-capitalist and international than Millau this summer.

If we let them, the bureaucrats in Nice hope to address four tasks.

First they aim to adopt a Charter of Fundamental Rights for the European Union (EU). This was commissioned by the 1999 Cologne summit.

It is due to be “solemnly proclaimed” at a special ceremony in Nice. However, like so much of the legal and political verbiage of the EU this declaration will be of little or no use to Europe’s exploited workers, to the racially, nationally or sexually oppressed. The reason is simple. No plans exist for its incorporation into the EU treaties – it will not have the force of Law.

A proposed draft Charter was approved by the Convention of the European Union on 2 October 2000. This secretive body consists of 62 representatives of the member states’ governments, the European

Parliament, the national parliaments and the European Commission.
The Charter embodies "existing rights only" and does not increase the rights of EU citizens. Some of the rights already established in the weak European Social chapter have not been included in the EU Charter because this has not yet been ratified by a number of member states.

So even the feeble call in the Social chapter for "fair remuneration" is not included. There is no right to a minimum income. Even those included such as the “right to collective bargaining and industrial action” or the “right to information and consultation” are rendered useless by the clause that will have effect only "in accordance with Community law and national laws and practices" .

Britain’s anti-union laws are therefore safe against challenge in European courts and British bosses will continue to trample on rights established in countries like Germany

Secondly, the conference wants to put in place qualified majority voting on social questions. There is a proposal on the table from the French presidency of the EU which would make the European Commission responsible for setting the levels and terms of unemployment benefits for all member states.

Thirdly, the summit will prepare the next stage of the enlargement of the EU. Between now and 2004 six East European states want to join. The aim is clear for the existing members: profit from the new markets while denying the applicant countries the same social rights as the existing ones.
• Finally, the conference will discuss the revision of article 133 of the Amsterdam Treaty, as proposed by European Commissioner, Pascal Lamy. If agreed, no member state will be able to avoid the implications of treaties signed by the EU on their behalf, with for example the WTO. At a stroke all EU countries could find them at the mercy of the multinationals as they seek to privatise health and education services.

There will be tens of thousands in Nice to protest at these plans and many will try to stop them in their tracks. The European Trade Union Confederation has called for a demonstration on D6 to press its demands for the Charter to be included in the EU treaties and to press for other workers' rights to be included in it.

At the same time ATTAC and the European Marches Network – the main representatives in France of the anti-global capitalist movement which organised the huge Millau mobilisation - has called a three day summit during 6-8 December which will also involve a demo on 7 December.

Nice therefore presents the opportunity for a successful step towards the objective which the LRCI expressed in its Prague declaration: that of “turning the anti-capitalist movement towards the working class and making the workers' movement anti-capitalist once again”.

But in addition to the issues of globalisation Nice poses the whole class nature of the EU, its character as a Europe of the multinational and transnational corporations, as a racist fortress against immigrants, asylum seekers and the sans papiers (those within the EU without citizenship rights). It raises the issue of Europe as the exploiter not only of its own workers but of those in the "Third world” and Eastern Europe.

It means that workers mobilised by the official union movement for D6 can and should be persuaded or pressurised to stay for the anti-capitalist demo on D7 .

D7 is a more militant demo. Indeed, some leaders of ATTAC in the light of Prague, called for the mobilisation to blockade the conference. These calls should be supported. And at Nice we should agitate for a global shutdown on May 1 2001, to counterpose the Socialist United States of Europe to the EU of the monopolies.

But there is another issue that the LRCI will be raising at Nice: the need to transform the new internationalism of the global anti-capitalist movement towards the task of building a New Revolutionary International.

• To help build support for the Nice demonstrations there is an appeal, already signed by a wide range of socialist organisations and trade union and community activists. Copies are available from Workers Power. For this and information on transport contact us on ++ 44 020 7793 1468 or Destroy IMF on ++ 44 0773 0-22 0960

For a socialist united states of Europe!

Nice gives us the opportunity to put forward an alternative on a whole series of issues facing European workers and the question of workers' rights and conditions in those central and East European countries (plus Turkey) seeking admission to the EU.

• For a sliding scale of wages and for a legally enforceable minimum wage. For a system of universal benefits (sickness, unemployment and retirement pensions) starting from the best examples already gained by workers across Europe.
  
  
• For workers’ control of the welfare funds—which are only a deferred portion of wages created by their own labour—as well as a legal guarantee that none fall below the minimum wage. Solidarity with all workers struggling against attacks on their existing social gains.
  
  
• A campaign, organised by the trade unions, to fight unemployment and cheap labour schemes. Workers with jobs can start by fighting for a drastic reduction of the working week to a legally enforceable 35 hours throughout the EU and in each plant and combine fight to impose workers’ control over hiring and firing and the hours worked.
  
  
• The threat of dismissal must be met with the demand for a sliding scale of hours to divide out the work available. The majority of new jobs being created in Europe are on short-term contracts, are often only part-time and where the employers restrict or deny union rights. The necessity for 100% trade unionism goes alongside the fight to show that unions can win permanent contracts and full-time status wherever this is wanted by the workforce. End short term contracts. For a legally enforceable right to security of employment.
  
  
• For militant occupations, following the examples in France this year, whenever a company threatens to close its plants and move them to take advantage of cheaper labour elsewhere.
  
  
• Down with anti-trade union laws designed to shackle resistance to convergence measures; for rank and file links in all industries. For the unconditional right to strike: no compulsory state organised ballots, no cooling-off periods or legal delays
  
  
• For the free movement of all workers within and into Europe—open the borders! For the right to political asylum. Down with all immigration controls! Down with the TREVI and Schengen treaties! For full citizenship rights to all immigrants and refugees.
  
  
• Not a penny for a European police force or a European army—down with Nato and the Western European Union!
  
  
• All Nato and UN troops out of Bosnia, Kosova and Montenegro. For unconditional aid to Serbia without strings to help in economic reconstruction.
  
  
• Down with the unelected European Commission and Council of Ministers.
  
  
• For the election of a sovereign European Constituent Assembly from all countries of the EU and for all those seeking to join it—convened and protected by the fighting organisations of the working class.
  
  
• No to the bosses’ Europe. Yes to a Europe of the workers—open to all the workers of the world. Only workers’ revolution and workers’ council states can unify Europe on a progressive basis.
  
  
• For a Socialist United States of Europe—a federation of revolutionary workers’ states open to all peoples who wish to join it.
  

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