Guimarães International Meeting of Communist and other Left Forces from Europe

“Against Casual Labour and Flexicurity, right to work, work with rights.

For a Europe of the workers and the peoples”

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY

Guimarães International Meeting of Communist and other Left Forces from Europe

“Against Casual Labour and Flexicurity, right to work, work with rights.
For a Europe of the workers and the peoples”

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE PORTUGUESE COMMUNIST PARTY

 
At the invitation of the Portuguese Communist Party, on July 5th. and
6th., an international meeting took place in Guimarães, under the theme
“Against Casual Labour and Flexicurity, right to work, work with
rights. For a Europe of the workers and the peoples” with the
participation of 13 communist and other left parties from Europe.

The meeting enabled a useful exchange of information and opinions on
the current situation in Europe, on matters of the European Union, and
on the importance of strengthening the cooperation among communist
parties and other left forces. The participants saluted the Portuguese
workers and labour movement for the dimension and objectives of the
rally for “employment with rights – a social Europe”, promoted by
CGTP/IN, in which they also took part.

Taking into account the existing diversity of situations, the
participants denounced the particularly severe social situation in
Europe, product of the present neo-liberal offensive, with an increase
of social inequalities, the spread of poverty and social exclusion,
mass unemployment – particularly affecting the youth and women – and
the generalization and vulgarization of precarious, temporary and
part-time labour.

The participants expressed their rejection of the precariousness of
labour relations set down in the proposals of the Green Paper on labour
legislation – the “modernization of labour legislation” and the plan to
change the directive on the organization of the working time. Also
condemned and rejected was the current EU agenda to impose the
so-called “flexicurity”, to liberalize unfair dismissals without, to
target collective bargaining and restrict the organization of the
workers and their capacity to fight. The participants repudiated the
attack on public services, their privatization, and the liberalization
of these services through the Bolkestein directive and the pressures to
transpose it rapidly into the national legislations of the EU
countries.

Simultaneously, the participants expressed great concern and worry with
the increasing infringement of  fundamental rights, freedoms and
guarantees of citizens taking place in several countries, as witnessed
by the policy of increased control of immigrants and the adoption of
increasingly repressive and “securitary” measures.

The meeting stressed that, in spite of the changes introduced in order
to soften the ambitions of a “European Constitution” rejected by the
popular will, the decisions of the European Council, on the 21st and
22nd of June take part in a process that has as examples the
Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice treaties and the Lisbon Strategy
represent a new qualitative leap forward in capitalist integration and
the configuration of Europe as an economic, political and military
block contrary to the interests of the workers and the peoples. Special
concern was voiced regarding the attempt to subordinate the Portuguese
Presidency of the EU, just initiated, to the imposition of a “new”
Treaty negotiated among the heads of state that encompasses the
recovery of essential aspects of the previous treaty proposal and
simultaneously seeks to avoid the necessary information, debate and
popular participation. On this aspect, the participants stressed,
depending in the national specificities of each State,  their demand
for a guarantee that peoples will be consulted through referenda to be
held in each of the EU member states.

Participants underlined the urgency to halt the current neo-liberal
offensive and the need for a real break away from its political
guidelines, ensuring priority is given to the value of work and
workers. They defended that there is a need for a policy to fight
poverty, economic and social inequalities – namely with the adoption of
ways to fight the extraordinary worsening of the produced wealth
distribution -  a policy of promotion of employment with rights and of
vocational training, of public services, guaranteeing the social
functions of the State in health, education and social security, as
well as ensuring a policy of development at the service of society, a
policy of social progress and development, which demands the defence of
a strong, dynamic and efficient public sector and the support to
production, in accordance with the specificities of each country. Also
stressed were the necessity of a break away from market liberalization
policies and the adoption of measures that counter and put a stop to
the industrial restructuring and de-localisations that, while
exclusively seeking a rise in profit rates, promote social dumping.

Valued and greeted were the important and courageous struggles of the
workers against the current policies and in defence of the labour
rights achieved through decades of hard struggles, and reiterated the
denunciation and combat against the militarist policies that accompany
anti-social guidelines – namely the plans to militarize the EU –
against the well-known will of the majority of the populations directly
at stake -  a new enlargement of NATO, the installation of new military
bases and the US plans of installing in Europe components of its
“anti-missile shield” strategic offensive program.

Conscious of the importance, for the future of the workers and the
peoples of Europe, of the battles that lie ahead, the participants
underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation, made several
suggestions for common or converging lines of intervention and
initiatives, and noted the importance of the articulating their
intervention in the international bodies in which they are represented,
namely in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and in
the European Parliament. In this regard, the participants considered
the need for common or convergent actions of explanation, exposure and
struggle against the principles of liberalization and deregulation of
labour relations implicated in the attempt to impose the flexicurity
model.

The participants voiced a strong appeal for the mobilization of the
workers and the populations of the different countries all over Europe
against capitalist policies, the domination of the monopolies and in
favour of a Europe of peace, friendship and cooperation, respecting the
dignity of those who work, a Europe engaged in the progress of the
peoples.

Guimarães, 6th of July 2007