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European Marches against Unemployment - News and Archives
Absender : aguiton@sud.unions.eu.org (Christophe) Org.-Empf. : marches97-info.eng@ras.eu.org Weiterleiter marches97-info.eng-request@ras.eu.org Betreff : The Netherlands after Luxemburg Datum : So 30.11.97, 15:17 (erhalten: 30.11.97) Groesse : 3756 Bytes
The Netherlands after Luxemburg: Starting the discussion in the unions
The Dutch so-called "poldermodel" is being presented as a model for the rest of Europe. The positive reactions in Holland on the job- summit of november 20/21 are not very suprising. Especialy because the Dutch unions were not in Luxemburg. They were even explicite against the demonstration and not critical at all about the outcome. Still, some things are changing in Holland. More people are critical about the "poldermodel". Trade-Unionists want to have more discussions about which Europe we need.
>From 1982 on the Trade-Unions have a policy of tempering the wages. The TU leadership co-thinks with the bosses about restructuring companies en economy. Bigger profits will lead to new investments and more jobs, that's their policy. TU-leadership is proud on the low unemployment figures wich they see as a result of this policy. The official number is 5.3%. But even "de Volkskrant" mouthpeace of the social democratic PvdA, admits that this number is wrong. Lots of groups are being left out in this number. According to the OECD is the real unemployment number in Holland around 20%. Most jobs that have been created are part-time jobs. Holland is after Spain, the champion of temporary work. Work that will dissapear very quickly with a new recession.
The problems with poverty and social exclusion are for more people becoming clear. Around one million people are living under the poverty-line. Education and Healthcare are becoming less and less accesible. There's more than one initiative with petitions en declaration against these developments. There's also well-known people in Holland that speak out against the poverty. This is very important. Not only for Holland. But also for a international critical movement against the European project of the bosses. The Dutch fake-succes will more and more be used as an example in other countries for wage-tempering, collaboration, flexibilisation etc. NRC Handelsblad, mouthpiece of bourgeois Holland, wrote about the jobs-summit: "there is already a policy that works, the Dutch "poldermodel". All the other countries should follow this". Tony Blair and Nicole Notat are well-known people that want to follow the Dutch model.
Although the line of the Trade-Union leadership is terrible, some thing are changing. De ABVA/KABO (civil-servants union) was in favour of the Luxemburg demonstration. As was the leadership of the food-industry union. Beside this there is also a small but important group of TU-activists that want to build a Euro-critical platform inside the unions. The Dutch European march network supports these initiatives. We took an initiative for a broad coalition against poverty in Holland. Inside this coalition we will link the poverty-problems with the fight against European unification. We'll go on trying to build a movement against EMU, so that with a next European demonstration, the Dutch delegation will be much stronger.
John Cohzijn (saprebel@dds.nl)
Contact:
"Marches europeennes contre le chomage, la precarite et les
exclusions"
104, rue des Couronnes
F-75020 Paris France
Tel : +33 1 44 62 63 44
Fax : +33 1 44 62 63 45
E-mail : marches97@ras.eu.org
URL: http://www.mygale.org/02/ras/marches/
Contact: "AC!", France, Voice/Fax: +33-1-43495037, e-mail:
aguiton@sud.unions.eu.org.
Last Modified: January 5, 1998