When this newsletter is sent out, Ireland will be the first country that exits a Troika program. Unfortunately, the difference for the people will not be that big, because austerity continues. The same counts for people in other countries like Spain or Portugal, who want to follow Ireland on this path. Any country that believes it can get out of the crisis by austerity, will have austerity forever.

The current situation is characterized by a Troika that still pushes for even more austerity and by governments that are doing window-dressing by claiming to see a positive development for the times ahead, which will never become reality if the current policy is continued. Neither in the Troika nor in the national governments, talks are about what should really be on stage: a significant debt relief in many countries – not only for the public, but also the private sector -, a restoration of public services and significant investment for facing some of the great challenges of our time, such as climate change and energy shortage.

By publishing this newsletter with reports from the countries affected by the Troika, we hope to be part of a growing movement that one day will be able to change this.

Greece

When the Troika left its review mission for Greece in November, there was a big dispute about the numbers in the foreseen budget for next year. The Troika estimates the deficit of the budget at least 1 billion euros higher than the government does. In the meantime, the Greek parliament voted for the budget without the consent of the Troika. Troika seems to intend to postpone all important decisions and pressure about the Greek Memorandum to avoid a political crisis in Greece in the next six months: the Greek government could lose its tight majority in the parliament and fall, provoking general elections. This risks indeed to disturb the EU Presidency agenda (Greece delivers an European president in January, for six months) at a politically sensitive moment (European elections). So, after a lot of noise and threatening to postpone further negotiations about the payment of the next bailout tranche to the beginning of next year, the Troika calmed down and returned to Athens on the 10th of December.

Further delays and additional deficits will worsen the debt situation, because those have to be financed with additional short term credits from the financial markets, for which Greece has to pay much higher interest rates than for Troika loans. Neither the additional cuts demanded by the Troika nor the window-dressing by the Greek government can lead the country out of the crisis.

Even without further cuts demanded by the Troika, next year will again be a disaster for many people in Greece. At the end of the year, a ban on home foreclosures runs out and there is a dispute with the Troika on if and how it should be renewed.

While the country still suffers from an official unemployment rate of 27 per cent, there are more layoffs planned. To fulfill the demands of the Troika, the Greek government agreed to fire an additional number of 14,000 employees in the public sector next year.

There are strikes in universities, the health care sector and ministries, where many of these dismissals could take place, and protests by teachers, who are affected by planned closings of schools. Besides that, mobilizations by trade unions and students took place during the visit of the Troika in November and before the voting of the budget in parliament.

With the Greek winter now starting, the high prices of energy again become a problem for many people. In northern Greece, the first schools had to shut down because of lack of money for heating. Many people try to heat their homes by burning wood, because they were cut off from the electricity net for not being able to pay the bills.

In the last weeks, at least three people died by breathing in the poisonous carbon monoxide, or got burnt to dead in house fires. The price of electricity has increased by 59 per cent since 2007, while the income of the poorest 10 per cent of Greeks was in 2012 less than half of what it was in 2009. In many cities, people form comittees of solidarity that organise the sharing of electricity, in an act of civil disobedience.

Ireland

In December, Ireland became the first country that agreed to exit from its Troika agreement, without any additional precautionary loan or guarantee – something that had widely been assumed necessary. The Irish government is that way boldly signaling its ability to continue without external aid. However, this may be rather a message than actual reality. Ireland will still be subject to surveillance of its ‘progress’ on implementing reforms by all three of the Troika bodies, on a six-monthly basis (under the Troika agreement it was every three months).

While the Troika and the government are doing their best to promote the return to the markets as a success story, the reality of the people in Ireland looks quite different. In its final report, the Troika criticizes the failure of the government to reach the target of planned cuts in the health sector – by 200 million euros instead of the promised 600 million euros. In the budget for 2014, the government plans to reduce the deficit by a further 2.5 billion euros; the health care sector is one of the biggest posts that are targeted. For example, the Irish medical card system (holders of this card get free medical treatment) will be reviewed: the government aims to reduce the number of people eligible for this program. Furthermore, while people now get sickness benefits after three days, this period should be increased to six days.

Since the outbreak of the crisis, the number of unemployed has nearly tripled from 107,000 to more than 296,000 people. Public debt raised from 91 per cent of GDP in 2010 to 121 per cent in 2013. Household debt raised to 200 per cent of GDP, while the value of assets for which the debt was created in the first place, has halved since the outbreak of the crisis.

Portugal

Similar to Ireland, Portugal intends to come back to the financial markets as well. To achieve this, the government is willing to pay a high price. At the beginning of December it made a debt swept, postponing the payment of debts due in 2014 and 2015 for three years. This will cost an additional 290 million euros in interest in the next two years.

In the 2014 budget, the government plans cuts that count up to 3.9 billion euros, which is equivalent to 2.3 per cent of the Portuguese GDP. Wages in the public sector should be cut between 2.5 per cent (wages from 675 euros per month) and 10 per cent (wages above 2.000 euros per month), while working time should be raised from 35 hours to 40 hours a week.

Next to that, the government intends to reduce all pensions above 600 euros a month by 10 per cent, but it is still in consultation with the constitutional court about approval, since this court already rejected a similar measure some time ago. In contrast to the cuts that ordinary people suffer from, companies are helped by the government as their tax rates will be decreased.

At the beginning of December, Portugal sold 70 per cent of its mail service, a profitable public company, to the stock markets. Further privatizations are planned for the water company and the national airline company TAP.

There are discussions between the Troika and the government about the minimum wage and wage bargaining. The Troika demands a lower minimum wage and further liberalization of the labor market, which is something that even Portuguese employers rejected as they fear a further drop in domestic demand. While the government claims to see light at the end of the tunnel, the latest statistical figures from September say that domestic demand in Portugal was down 1.5 per cent, investment 3.3 per cent and consumption 1.2 per cent compared to the same time last year.

When the parliament voted on the budget, a mass protest took place in front of the building, where people demanded the resignation of the government. One week before that, police officers protested against cuts and workers of the mail services started a strike against the privatization of their company.

Cyprus

In order to get the next tranche from the Troika, the Cypriot government had to prepare a plan for privatization of state enterprises by which it should earn 1.4 billion euros. According to this plan, the telecommunication company, the electricity company and ports should be privatized before the end of June 2016. Trade unions held protests against these plans. On the 14th of December, trade unions organised a mass rally.

Spain

Despite a warning under the new Two Pack legislation which requires countries’ budgets to be ‘approved’ by the European Commission, Spain claims to have completed all necessary reforms for its EC loan package and that its banking sector is ‘improving’ so much that it will not take up the remaining emergency funds that were made available. As with Ireland, the other celebrated ‘exit’, Spain will continue to have to submit to six-monthly monitoring of the progress of its required reforms, until 75 per cent of the emergency lending provided by the EU (41 billion euros of a 100 billion euros package) is repaid.

After a constitutional reform to prioritize debt repayment over people’s rights (promoted by the Troika and without any social consultation) the government started to implement privatizations in the public sector and cuts in essential public services such as education, health care and social services. Retirement age has been delayed, living conditions worsen, pensions have been frozen and labor rights cut.

Spain has seen many big mobilizations against austerity in the last years and civil society is organising and taking action. Examples are: citizen platforms succesfully preventing house evictions or auditing debt, workers struggling in the health care or education sectors and collectives fighting cuts and corruption through the courts. In response, the government is now planing a new anti-protest law to criminalize protests (with fines of up to €600.000).

Italy

Like Spain, Italy has come under pressure from the European Commission to re-assess its national budget under the new Two Pack-legislation, which gives the Commission the right to conduct surveillance and perform analysis of planned national budgets. EU commissioner Rehn stressed that Italy needs a debt structural adjustment equal to half a percentage point of its gross domestic product, while it is currently only at 0.1 per cent. The consequence from the point of view of the Commission is that the country does not qualify for the EU’s “investment clause” that would allow it to exclude some public funding from its budget deficit calculations, because the government’s spending plan will not cut Italy’s national debt fast enough.

On Monday the 9th of December, thousands of farmers, lorry drivers, pensioners and unemployed people took the streets in Italy as part of a series of protests against the government and the European Union. Demonstrators stopped train services by walking on the tracks while striking lorry drivers disrupted traffic by driving slowly and blocking roads. Further protests are planned.

Slovenia

Despite having big problems in the banking sector, Slovenia still hopes to escape the Troika. Recently a stress test in the banking sector took place, the results of which should already be published when this newsletter is send out. There are expectations that bad loans could count up to 7.9 billion euros (around 20 per cent of GDP). However the Slovenian central bank, which said that it would already know the results of the stress test, is optimistic that the government can recapitalize the banking system on its own. It is said that a sum of up to 4.7 billion euros could be necessary for this.

Who we are and why we write this newsletter

This is the first newsletter of Troika Watch. With this newsletter, we want to cover news about the Troika, the situation in the countries affected by it and the opposition and resistance against it. We hope that this can help connecting struggles and be a contribution to strengthen resistance against austerity policies.

We are a group of people that mostly know each other from meetings like the European Social forum, Firenze 10+10, the Altersummit, EU in crisis or Blockupy. Some of us work for progressive NGOs like the Bretton Woods Project, CEO, CADTM or TNI, others are activists in networks like Attac or ICAN.

We plan to publish this newsletter once or twice a month in English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. You can subscribe to this newsletter at www.troikawatch.net/lists and contact us by sending an email to info@troikawatch.net .

Greetings from Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt, Kopenhagen, Lisbon, London, Barcelona and Thessaloniki,
The TroikaWatch Team

Source: http://www.troikawatch.net/1st-newsletter-of-troika-watch/

Banners stretched out along the railings of hospitals proclaimed: “Against the dismantling of the state” and “Hard-won rights cannot be stolen”.

Uncollected rubbish bins overflowed, littering the pavements of the capital Lisbon.

School gates were closed.

“The Portuguese will not accept more salary cuts and sacrifices,” said Ana Avoila, coordinator of the public sector unions, which estimated turnout for the strike varied between 70 percent and 100 percent.

Portugal’s state secretary for public services, Helder Rosalino, said she could “understand the discouragement of public workers” but she did not expect turnout to exceed 20 percent.

The 24-hour strike was launched jointly by public worker federations linked to the country’s two main unions, the CGTP, which is close to the Communist Party, and the UGT, close to the Socialist Party.

Unions are protesting new austerity measures unveiled in mid-October for the 2014 budget.

The budget increases the public sector work week to 40 hours from 35, cuts retirement pensions by 10 percent and lowers the salaries of those earning more than 600 euros gross a month by between 2.5 percent and 12 percent.

“If public sector workers want to bother the government that’s fine, but not at the cost of the children,” said 44-year-old construction worker Manuel Paulo, who found the gates closed at his 10-year-old son’s primary school in northern Lisbon.

The public sector protest follows a series of strikes in the transport sector, including railway and city bus services, which will culminate in a demonstration on Saturday in the capital.

Workers at river ferry companies Soflusa and Transtejo, which link Lisbon and its southern district, were holding partial strikes Friday.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/85921/Business/Economy/Portugal-schools,-hospitals-strike-against-new-cut.aspx

Saturday’s demonstrations are a response to the government’s decision to extend austerity measures in the 2014 budget.

In Lisbon, hundreds of buses slowly crossed the April 25th bridge in a protest organised by Portugal’s main labor group, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers. In the northern city of Porto, thousands gathered in the main square shouting anti-austerity slogans.

Portugal, currently engaged in an international aid programme, is focusing next year’s fiscal efforts on spending cuts, reducing state pensions and cutting public workers’ wages.

Unemployed teacher Sofia took part in the protest to ask for government resignation.

“I’m here to fight for more work and better wages and against this government’s austerity measures, so I want them to leave together with the Troika,” Sofia said referring to the trio of European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank in charge of handling bailouts of distressed euro zone countries.

The budget includes wage cuts for public sector workers ranging from 2.5 percent to 12 percent on monthly salaries of over 600 euros. Pension cuts should bring savings of 728 million euros.

“I am a retired civil servant and I’m suffering from the cuts. I worked and studied to earn more than 2,500 euros without any government help and now they are cutting my pension,” pensioner Maria Barreto said.

The country’s 78-billion-euro bailout formally ends in mid-2014 when Portugal should return to financing itself normally in bond markets, which it stopped doing in 2011 when its debt crisis first hit.

Seeking a better future Ricardo Pereira travelled from Torres Novas to Lisbon: “I’m here to fight for a better future for me and for the next generation and against this government’s austerity measures.”

The budget aims to slash the budget deficit to 4 percent of GDP next year from 5.9 percent in 2013. It may still face challenges from the Constitutional Court that has previously rejected some government austerity measures.

Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/10/thousands-protest-austerity-cuts-portugal-2013101916551667232.html

At recent local elections on September 29, where abstentions stood at a record 47 percent, the CDU — an alliance between the PCP and the Greens, in which the Communists carry much more weight — was, along with the independent candidates, the only political group that gained ground. It earned over 10 percent of the vote (11.1 percent), winning the mayor’s office in 34 municipal governments, six more than four years ago. Ahead of it lie only the Portuguese Socialist Party (PS) with 148 mayoralties and the conservative PSD of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, with 86.

Portugal’s communist bastions lie in the rural Alentejo region and in Lisbon’s industrial belt, on the southern bank of the Tagus. Barreiro lies in the latter, a working-class area, born out of industry and with an above-average unemployment rate, which currently runs around 17 percent. Mayor Humberto de Carvalho says the PCP’s continuing success in the city of 80,000 comes down to a matter of trust: “Because we say what we do and we do what we say,” he says. “Here you don’t say one thing and do another. People like consistency.

He admits that, as in towns across Portugal, they have had to cut back in the last four years, including on garbage-collection services and local bus routes. But he says he has given local residents the chance to have their say on the new bus routes in assemblies. “It was difficult. One woman asked me why we were taking away the stop on her street if she was paying as much in taxes as her neighbor, who had one below her house that remained. I can’t force all the residents to understand. But I am obliged to explain it to everyone,” he says.

But if there have been cuts, what differentiates his management from that of the central government? “Well, we would never privatize anything. And we would never throw a public worker out on the street,” he replies, adding: “There will always be resources to open school cafeterias during the holidays so that children from families on lower incomes can eat.”

Experts say that the PCP has known how to attract the punishment vote of a population fed up with seeing their quality of life worsen on a daily basis. Political scientist António Costa Pinto says you have to look for the reasons behind the PCP’s rude political health in its establishment at the local level; in how it has been capable of capitalizing on a certain Euro-skepticism; in the inability of the Socialists — more to the center than their Spanish counterparts — to scrape together support for the left; and in its strong roots in labor unions. “Portuguese communism knew how to survive the Cold War well,” he explains. “Paradoxically, in the hands of its long-serving leader Álvaro Cunhal, it never modernized nor adhered to Eurocommunism. It stayed faithful to itself through the ideological storm that tore across the planet. And now, the other European communist parties have almost disappeared, while the old Portuguese Communist Party is still alive.”

Source: http://elpais.com/elpais/2013/10/07/inenglish/1381168014_804776.html

               Associated Press  German flags wave in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin.

FRANKFURT—Immigration to Germany hit a 17-year high last year as Southern Europeans flocked north to escape economic recession and search for jobs, fueling the debate over the consequences of immigration for the German economy.

In all, 1.08 million people moved to Germany last year, or 13% more than in 2011, Germany’s statistics office said Tuesday, indicating that the euro zone’s debt crisis is reshaping the fabric of European society as well as the economy. The biggest increases came from people moving from the stricken economies of Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy.

“Until recently, Germany was an emigration country, but now people are flocking to Germany in search of work, as their home countries are mired in recession,” said Wolfgang Nagl, a labor market expert at Germany’s Ifo institute.

The number of people moving to Germany from Spain jumped 45% in 2012 from a year earlier, excluding German expatriates, to 30,000. About 42,000 people moved to Germany from Italy, marking an increase of 40%, while the number of immigrants to Germany from Greece and Portugal rose 43% for each country in 2012, highlighting an acceleration of a trend that began in 2010 after the Greek crisis erupted.

While some German cities, such as Duisburg in North Rhine-Westphalia, are reportedly struggling to cope with the influx of poorer Roma families from Bulgaria and Romania who often don’t speak German and whose children need to be quickly integrated into schools and apprentice schemes, most economists believe that Germany is benefiting from the immigration boom.

They argue that the influx of foreign workers will help alleviate shortages of skilled labor in some sectors of the economy—such as engineering, information technology and health care—as unemployment in Germany remains near its lowest level since reunification in 1990.

“Germany certainly benefits from the recent rise in immigration,” Mr. Nagl said. “The Greeks, Spaniards and other people moving to Germany contribute to economic activity—they rent out flats, they go to the shops to purchase food and other things, they pay taxes and generally contribute to the social security system.”

According to the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration, or SVR, immigrants are on average 10 years younger than Germany’s native population and are also more likely to have a university degree.

“Germany is reaping the measurable rewards of free movement thanks to skilled immigrants from other EU countries. This has received too little attention to date,” said SVR Chairwoman Christine Langenfeld.

Like in previous years, most immigrants in 2012 came from neighboring Poland, the statistics office said. Immigration from Slovenia was up 62% as the transition period toward free labor movement ended in May 2011. The number of Hungarians moving to Germany rose 31%.

Costanza Biavaschi, an economist at the Bonn-based IZA Institute for the Study of Labor, also dismissed concern that Southern Europeans move to Germany to live off its social welfare system. “It’s not true that immigrants have higher welfare takeup rates,” she said, adding that they “are usually well educated, young and ambitious and I don’t see compelling evidence that they are benefit scroungers.”

The measures rejected by the court should deprive the country of at least 900 million euros ($1.17 billion) in net revenues and savings, according to preliminary estimates by economists.

The Diario Economico newspaper said the government put the impact of the court’s ruling at 1.3 billion euros. It did not cite its sources. Debt-ridden Portugal agreed to a €78 billion bailout in 2011 from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

The entire package of austerity measures introduced by the 2013 budget is worth about €5 billion and includes the largest tax hikes in living memory, which were mostly upheld.

“It’s a lesser evil. … Putting it into perspective, a good manager and leader should not have difficulty finding room in a budget to accommodate this cut,” said Joao Cantiga Esteves, economist at the Lisbon Technical University.

“We are talking about an impact of only 1.2 to 1.3 per cent of Portugal’s total spending,” he added.

University of Lisbon political analyst Antonio Costa Pinto said that while the impact of the rejected measures was significant, it should not lead to the kind of political crisis that would have been possible had the court thrown out the bulk of the measures.

“The government will have to look very hard for measures to compensate for that and they’ll have to talk to (lenders) about alternatives. But it’s very difficult to imagine them throwing in the towel or behaving radically because of that.”

The government has called a Cabinet meeting today, and would not provide any immediate comment. It has to cut the budget deficit to 5.5 per cent of GDP this year from 6.4 per cent in 2012, when it missed the goal but was still lauded by its EU and IMF lenders for its austerity efforts.

Analysts consider the outcome manageable and say the government should be able to cover the shortfall with additional spending cuts it has been working on at the request of lenders. Analysts say the lenders could also give Portugal more leeway in terms of budget targets.

Earlier in the day, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts wrote in a research note that even a negative ruling was likely to be “in line with our muddling through outlook,” expecting Lisbon to resume negotiations with its lenders as a result.

On Wednesday, the government easily defeated a motion of no confidence, but the move united all the opposition in parliament against it. Socialist opposition leader Antonio Seguro said yesterday the court’s ruling “reinforces our position in demanding the government’s resignation”.

Still, President Anibal Cavaco Silva, who has the power to dissolve parliament and fire the Cabinet, said on Friday the confidence vote clearly confirmed its legitimacy to govern. The centre-right coalition government has a comfortable majority in parliament.

The 13 constitutional court judges have been scrutinizing articles of the 2013 budget since January when opposition parties argued that cuts to pensions and welfare benefits undermined workers’ basic rights.

The court rejected cuts in pensioners’ and public servants’ holiday bonuses, as well as reductions to sickness leave and unemployment benefits. They upheld tougher measures such as a reduction in the number of tax brackets, which alone brings in an estimated revenue of more than €2 billion.

Last year, the court also dealt a blow to government plans for more public-sector wage cuts, forcing it to resort to tax hikes instead. The austerity has provoked mass protests, but rallies in Portugal have been much more peaceful than in countries such as Greece or Italy.

Reuters

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/portugal-court-rejects-some-government-austerity-measures-1.1351536

The song is a symbol of the Portuguese Revolution. People were singing at the same time in the 32 cities where protests were held. In fact, in the last weeks, every member of the government trying to make a speech in a public space has been interrupted by people singing this song.

The Portuguese press mentions more than 1 million people, or even 1,5 million:

The fastest growing and shrinking economies in 2013

MACAU will be the fastest growing economy this year, according to the latest estimates from our sister company, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Growth is expected to return to a faster pace as new casino projects are resumed and Chinese visitors (with rising wages) continue to raise gambling revenues. Mongolia, in second place, can also thank China for boosting its growth rate. China’s demand for minerals has driven investment in the Mongolia’s mining sector. This year Oyu Tolgoi, one of the world’s largest copper and gold mines will begin commercial production. China itself is set to grow by over 8% this year, and potentially more, depending on how the rest of the world fares. Meanwhile, Europe will still be ailing, with Greece leading the decline. Germany’s chancellor recently contended that the euro area crisis was “far from over.”

Daily chart by economist:

The European Trade Union Confederation has called a day of action and solidarity throughout Europe on 14 November to fight against the austerity policies being deployed throughout Europe. This day of action will mean a general strike in this country, which, for the first time in recent history, will also be simultaneously held in other European countries.

In Spain, the recession is taking an incredible toll on the population. We have an intolerably high unemployment rate (more than 25%), the welfare state has been rapidly dismantled and public services and labour relations are deteriorating.

With this strike we want to change European policies, which only pay attention to the voices of the powerful. We also want to fight against employment reforms and a policy of dogmatic deficit reduction, which has brought us close to having 6 million unemployed.

Unemployment benefits are being cut. The unemployment rate among young people in Spain is over 50%, condemning our youth to social exclusion or emigration. The education cuts pushed through by the government are depriving many of any possibility of accessing higher education and force a classist, sexist and conservative education on them. The cuts in the health budget and the introduction of prescription charges mean that the most disadvantaged could be left outside the national health system, and the lack of budget provision for thedependent care law leaves thousands of people without appropriate care. As a result, thousands of families are pushed towards social exclusion.

The government’s path is not the way to emerge from the crisis. The sacrifice is not being shared by the whole of society: the economic and financial elites are spared and some even benefit from it, protected by the government. Politicians are shamelessly defrauding the democratic process. This is why we will be striking.

• Fernando Lezcano is communications secretary and spokesman for the CCOO (Workers’ Commissions)

Portugal: Armando Farias: ‘We convey our solidarity’

Unemployment in Portugal already affects 1.4 million workers in a country of 10.5 million. We have some of the worst working conditions in Europe, and the cost of living is still going up while wages come down. Around 500,000 workers earn the national minimum salary (€432 a month after tax). More than 1 million pensioners survive on misery pensions (€200 to €300 per month). This general strike is occurring during a violent capitalist offensive, and for this reason it has very high political significance. Our aims are to stop recessionary policies, to demand the renegotiation of the debt, to defend national sovereignty, to defeat rightwing policies and to adopt a programme of development for our country.

Our strike motto is simple: “Against exploitation and impoverishment”. We are fighting the measures contained in Portugal’s 2013 draft state budget, and we are working against brutal tax increases that will mean cuts to income, both salaries and pensions. We also oppose the cuts in unemployment benefits, in sickness pay and other welfare benefits. As is the case elsewhere in Europe, we’re against the destruction of the welfare state and the overwhelming destruction of jobs in public administration, which brings with it the dismantling, degradation and higher cost of public services.

With this in mind, we convey our solidarity with all of the European workers who will participate in this day of action.

• Armando Farias is head of the commission executive of the CGTP-IN(General Confederation of Portuguese Workers)

France: Bernard Thibault: ’End this downward spiral’

Today in France, more than 100 protests will take place across the country, following the call of five French unions.

Every day in Europe, austerity policies show their devastating effects and prevent any chance of recovery. By choosing austerity against solidarity, European governments, under pressure from the troika, are dealing a serious blow to the social ideal that should animate Europe.

The shock treatments inflicted on workers – particularly in Greece, Spain and Portugal – demonstrate the political impasse leading to the destruction of social rights, which undermines democracy while maintaining despair. It is a crisis that is fuelling racism, xenophobia, and the temptation to move towards isolationism.

Europe, as the former director general of the International Labour Office (ILO) said in June, is following a path contrary to social progress: “European countries the most affected by the crisis are diverting from the core values of the ILO … We seek to reduce public debt, but the social debt accumulates, and it will also need to be paid.” The European Union is now an area of competition between employees and public services, which are under an increased financial strain. It is time we strongly showed our desire for another Europe, one of social progress and solidarity.

Throughout Europe, unions are opposing austerity measures that are sinking the continent. European workers are engaged in one common struggle: to pull Europe out of this downward spiral. Today’s events will allow workers across Europe to act together to express their opposition to austerity and social regression, to demand better working and living conditions, and to advocate for the effective co-ordination of economic and social policies to help those who are most in need. We are calling for a new social contract and stimulus measures at European level, supporting both employment and industry.

• Bernard Thibault is general secretary of the CGT (General Confederation of Labour)

Greece: Tania Karayiannis: ‘This is our only hope’

The constant deterioration of the economic crisis in Europe, especially in south Europe and Greece, has stirred a wave of reactions across the continent. The wisdom of the central political options laid out by the EU, and its persistence in implementing austerity policies that extend social disparities, are the most challenged issues. Governments are now confronted by their own citizens.

In this context, the policy pursued in Greece over the past few years, on the pretext of saving the country from the risk of huge public debt and bankruptcy, is socially unfair and has clear ideological features. It is expressed through the following policies: a continuous wage and pension cut, attacks on labour, social security and social rights, the heavy taxation on private property and the threat of further dramatic public services restrictions.

Such extreme neoliberal policies limit the rights of all workers and vulnerable social groups, in favour of bankers and lenders. They are leading our people to poverty and misery. It is obvious that the solution lies in implementing policies promoting social justice, which would overthrow the doctrine of “competitiveness”. There is no doubt that Europe needs a new orientation and implementation of policies that lead to stabilisation, development, progress and prosperity.

The common and co-ordinated struggle of the trade unions in all European countries is necessary today more than ever. This is our only hope for exiting the crisis.

• Tania Karayiannis is international officer and member of the executive committee of Adedy, the union of civil servant employees

UK: Ben Rocker: ’This isn’t a token action’

The Civil Service Rank and File Network called for action on 14 November to coincide with the European general strikes. But we also did it around very specific issues that workers here are getting angry about.

We’re about to lose any semblance of decent working conditions. The government has subjected low-paid civil servants to a two-year pay freeze while increasing workers’ pension contributions. Workers have less money and struggle to make ends meet. After losing on pensions through holding just three single days of strike action in almost two years of the dispute, the initial response from the Public and Commercial Services union was inadequate. As a result, a growing group from different offices started talking about pushing for action. I was inspired by what construction workers did last year: not only forcing Unite to call astrike over pay cuts and de-skilling, but also building up a momentum that beat seven big employers. It underlined that, if there was a possibility of winning this dispute, it would be thanks to us workers.

My hope is that 14 November is just the start. We’ve already been able to embarrass the union into calling protests on 30 November, now we need to rattle the Cabinet Office. This isn’t a token action. We’ve been pushed too far, and we’re fighting to win.

• Ben Rocker is a member of the Public and Commercial Services union and of the Civil Service Rank and File Network

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/14/why-we-striking-against-austerity-europe