Decision of the European Trade Union Meeting

Athens, Greece September 17-18, 2010

All of us, who, after being invited by PAME met and participated in the European Trade Union Meeting in Athens, express our militant solidarity with the working class and the Greek people for the great class- oriented struggles they made and continue to make against the antipopular measures imposed by the government of PASOK, with the IMF, the European Union and the ECT.

We greet the leading role of PAME in these struggles, which, due to its strategy and tactics, highlights the essence of the crisis and the exit from it in favour of the workers.

We greet and express our Solidarity with the struggles of all the workers in all Europe, who fight so that the workers will not pay for the crisis.

For all of us, the crisis that strikes Europe all over and the capitalist world in general is a result of the overproduction crisis of the capital, it is the result of the competition for profitability.

The crisis is present in all European countries and governments, either neoconservative, or socialdemocratic follow and apply the same strategy. Striking the achievements and rights of workers, poor farmers and self-employed people. They privatize all areas of public property and remove the essence of all social conquests.

Facing critical and complex conditions and this general attack on workers, the role of the class-oriented trade union movement is even more important. And in the period of crisis, the existence of two different lines in the trade union movement is apparent.

On the one hand there is the line of consensus, compromise, submission under the flag of competitiveness, namely the profitability of the monopolies in each country. This line agrees with the plutocracy, the big capital.
This line, directly or indirectly supports the measures of EU and the governments for the monopolies not to lose a single penny of their profits. This is the line that agrees billions of euros to be given to employers, in the name of the crisis, supposedly for people not to lose their jobs. It is the line which agrees with zero increases in wages and signs wage reductions. It is the line that states that it is ok for some employees to be fired in order to save others. It is the line that accepts flexible forms of employment, arrangements of the working time in the name of keeping unemployment down, the active and inactive working hours etc. This is the line of defeat for the workers. This line is expressed in Europe, by the reformist trade unions which cooperate with the European Commission, EU´s organs, the employers´ trade unions, the governmental and employers´ trade unionism, the trade unions which are in favour of social dialogue, compromise, submission.

 On the other side, there is the line that follows the path of class-oriented struggle, disobedience, counterattack and organization of the struggle against the antipopular policies, against the EU. It is the line which struggles for the social emancipation of the working class, which wants to overturn the exploitation of man by man. It is the line which fights against the monopolies, against multinational companies, in order for the workers and the popular strata not to be loaded with the burden of the crisis. It is the line that says no to redundancies, it is the one saying yes to the assertion of the contemporary needs of the working class. It is the line that says yes to salary increases, to permanent, stable and full employment, to the 7 hour working day, the 35-hour working week, the 5-day working week, it says yes to the reduction of the retirement age-limits, to exclusively public, free education and health. It is the line that says no to privatizations, it is the line which voices massively and strongly disobedience and insubordination against the European Union´s options and can do justice to the negations of the people of Ireland and France, which were expressed with the referendums in these countries. It is the line that fights to terminate imperialistic wars.

We have a serious duty to contribute to this line of struggle for massive class- oriented struggles all over Europe to be developed and coordinated. In this direction we must organize the struggle for everyday problems, to reveal their causes.

 Based on all that we decide:

1. To continue and to thicken our contacts and meetings, with the aim to coordinate better and more actively the militant forces in Europe.

2. To organize a joint demonstration- protest at the headquarters of the ECB, in Frankfurt Germany and the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium in 2010.

3. To organize three sectoral meetings in the food sector, the transport sector and the communications sector with the main subject: “developments in the sector and the privatization policies” within 2011.

4. To cooperate and participate in the initiatives of the World Federation of Trade Unions, to promote the principles of class- oriented struggle and to act jointly with the European Regional Office of WFTU.