Arbeitslosenselbsthilfe O l d e n b u r g
Kaiserstr. 19
D-26122 Oldenburg (Oldenburg)
e-mail: also@also-zentrum.de
MANIFESTIO : discussion document
1. General background.
The first text was adopted in Florence, June 1996. (Florence Appeal)
At the Paris meeting, September 1996, the desire for a new text was expressed. It was decided to use the Florence Appeal text as a basis, but to make the content more dynamic and more political as well as giving greater prominence to demands. The term manifesto was used and it is this manifesto which will be adopted at the Assises in Brussels, 22nd and 23rd February 1997.
At the Bruxelles meeting, December 1996, it was decided that the text should be of reasonable length (4 pages...). A call for contributions was made, and the European secretariat was given responsibility for the drafting of the manifesto project, which was then presented at the Brussels meeting, the 1st and 2nd February 1997. You will find the draft manfesto enclosed. This is a discussion document for your group in preparaton for the Assises in Brussels on the 22nd andd 23rd February.
2. Presentation of the Manifesto
We suggest the following three approaches :
The manifesto "Against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Exclusion, we are marching on Amsterdam." This is a document for motivating the marchers, written in a vigorous style so as to express the marchers' revolt, especially against unemployment. This document completes and extends the Florence Appeal, without nullifying it. (all signatories in the first text, the Florence Appeal, remain valide).
The last part of this document is reclamatory. It can be used separately, as a petition or as a Charter to be signed and to be supported by all participating countries.
It is impossible to include every organisation in this document. Therefore we suggest that each organisation, union or association, state their own position on Europe, unemployment and their struggles with their propositions on one page only. After the Brussels meeting, the 22nd and 23rd February 1997, we will publish the final version of the adopted manifesto with all received contributions. In this way no position will be have been ignored.
PROJECT
THE FIGHT AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT, JOB INSECURITY AND EXCLUSION, WE ARE MARCHING TO AMSTERDAM.
This proposed text has been drafted by Claude Villiers and Patrice Spadoni and is the result of numerous meetings held by French associations. This text has been discussed at the International Coordination Technical committee on the 1st February 1997, in Brussels and amended. It will be presented to the International Meeting of the 22nd and 23rd February for amendment and adoption by participants.
1. We the unemployed and employed workers from all over Europe have decided to come TOGETHER to march on Amsterdam. Amsterdam., because in June 1997, the representatives of European governments are meeting for the next InterGovernmental Conference. Together, because we know that unity is strength and greater than all our differences.
2. TOGETHER, we are marhing to express our anger : The whole of Europe has the economic drive of a global power. And yet unemployment and despair are growing alongside. This winter, thousands of men and women died from despair. Officially, the number of unemployed registered in the European Union has more than 20 million people officially unemployed. 50 million people live below the poverty line. 5 million people have no homes. Each and every one of us could become victim to this system, which is pulling wages, social rights andwelfare down to a level below human dignity. Businesses throughout Europe are making more intense demands on the worker-force, while the more vunerable are being pushed out of the market place. This repression and regression of collective rights gained over the past century, coupled with the submissive acceptance of flexible work hours and job insecurity, is increasingly the daily lot of millions of workers. Women are especially targeted : part-time jobs, lower wages, and jobs with no prospects of gaining qualifications are often the only employment offered. They are the also first victims of any social cut-backs. Men are now having to accept these same conditions because they have no alternative. Thousands of small holders are dragged down by bankruptcy every year, and are forced to leave their land in favour of larger groups farming massives areas with total disregard for the fine ecological balance of the countryside. Immigrants are heavily exploited and hunted down like criminals. Unable to satisfy the draconian immigration laws andbecome legal citizens, they are forced into a clandestine existence where they work in deplorable conditions and live in unsupportable circumstances. Families hit by unemployment and job insecurity find themselves evicted from their homes and split up and forced into the streets, while at the same time there are hundreds of thousands of square feet remain unoccupied in Europe's large towns and cities. Young people have no chance of dignified employment, are left without a decent income, and deprived of any means of existence. Even before they experience working for a living, they have be shown the door. Insecurity in all sectors of life is growing. The people in Europe are increasingly fearful about the future because of the lack of realistic proposals and they are becoming increasingly insular. The social climate is encourages the seeds of nationalism, fundamentalism, racism and xenophobia .
3. TOGETHER we are marching to express our anger, because this social crisis can be avioded. Even though unemployment is rising the money supplied has not dried up. It has simply become more concentrated in the hands of the few, who are forcing their ideas on all countries : cynical ideals of larger profit; the supremacy of high finance and speculation; a concentration of production means, coupled with repression of rights; competition setting workers of one country against workers of another; the relentless domination of market forces in every walk of life; all public services under attack and beingsqueezed throughout Europe -education, health, social security, the arts, transport and communication, energy, etc. At the turn of this century, the push towards capitalism (re-named the free market or neo-liberalism), is forcing a division between the countries of Europe and those of the East and South.This push has an objective -greater profits; a weapon -unemployment; a European and global result -a terrible social, human and ecological disaster.
4. TOGETHER, we are marching because we are against the way Europe is being built -without us and against us. We are uniting beause we refuse to live in a Europe where the economic drive makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. We want the economy, society and politics to serve the well-being of men and women. Decisions taken while Europe has been coming together does not follow this line -they are quite oppposed to it. We condemn this decision-making procedure as being profoundly antidemocratic decision making process. This procedure is often takes place in secret without any real public debate, or any effective consultation process. This procedure is an illustration of our main grievane concerning the future of Europe which we totally reject : institutions acting unaccountabley and against the wishes of the people, with a society virtually dominated by multi-national groups of financiers.. Statements about prioritizing employment often hide directives which are aimed at reducing the rights of employed and unemployed workers. The economic convergence criteria contained in the Maastricht Treaty are being used by governments to justify anti-social measures which widen the inequality gap. We are marching against these criteria which are squeezing the unemployed and workers across the whole of Europe.
5 TOGETHER the unemployed and employed workers from across Europe, are marching because we want a DIFFERENT Europe. The Free market Europe prescribed by the convergence criteria in the Maastricht Treaty, does not appeal to us. We want another Europe. We want a Europe of solidarity, open and welcoming. We want a Europe of citizenship, of freedom, of democracy; incompatible with despair and massive unemployment. We want a Europe which is for the people , open to people from the world over, with equal relations with the East and the South. We call for exclusion to be out-lawed. We say that everything which causes millions of us to be confined to a life of despair, unemployment and social exclusion should be out-lawed. We declare illegal redundancies and dismissals; we declare illegal all evictions, all refusal of civic and social rights. The InterGovernmental Conference of Amsterdam will not set in place any effective action against unemployment and exclusion. It is our uderstanding that measures making employment a priority, will further increase the insecurity of both unemployed and salaried workers. We are calling for a Europe-wide solution against unemployment, providing a radical and determined approach. And we know that major changes take a massive mobilisation of forces, highlighting the struggle by everyone hit or threatened in Europe by unemployment and exclusion, workers, and the unemployed, the young, the old and small holders. For years, individually, in each and every European country, groups of unemployed and employed workers, voluntary organisations and unions have re-acted. Demonstrations, actions by unemployed groups, job requisitions, squats of empty buildings, actions by those people without residency permits, strikes and demonstrations for social rights or for the reduction of the working week, and the struggle for women's rights. The international Marches in April May and June are an opportunity to show that Europeans can act TOGETHER WITHOUT FRONTIERS. Our actions will multiply throughout Europe -taking over empty dwellings, joint demonstrations and actions by unemployed groups and workers in their place of employment, rallies where the population are invited to have their say.
6. Against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion in Europe and throughout the world we are proposing :
6.1 The right to work for everyone who wants one with a decent wage. This will result in the end of imposed part-time and insecure contracts.
6.2 The right to an income for all those not working, enabling them to live in a dignified manner. This includes the young.
6.3 A massive and concerted drive to cut the working week throughout Europe. Without a drop in income, or an increase in individual output and coupled with the necessary job creation. The argument of "International competitiveness" put forward against this proposal in each country, would disappear when we unite and fight together.
6.4 The additional creation of cultural, ecological and social jobs.
6.5 A halt to the Free Market politics destroying social rights throughout Europe, and the convergence of social advantages towards those offering the highest amount. The right to education; the right to full health care; social protection extended to all; equal access to a full range of quality public services; the right to a decent retirement income.
6.6 The right to a dwelling for all throughout Europe. A decent and permanent home. An end to evictions for tenants hit by economic problems. The end to bad housing and homelessness.
6.7 A Europe where men and women are equal. Equality of income, rights and treatment. The refusal to accept false solutions to unemployment, which aims to force women to stay in the home or only take part-time jobs.
6.8 A Europe, open and free, without racism or xenophobia. Unemployment is not caused by immigrant populations but by the chase for profit. We reject any notion of a "National" or "European" preference. We want a Europe with open frontiers where people are not lvictims of any form of discrimination, and where people have full citizenship. A Europe where asylum seekers and immigrants can get papers. Where the Freedom of Movement is not limited to capital and goods. The right to move freely and to freely set up home, regardless of nationality.
7 An end to unemployment and soial exclusion can only happen through a fundamental redistribution of wealth and a relentless struggle against all forms of speculation. We call for economic solutions which represent the well-being of the greatest number of people preserving the human and ecological balances.
8 These propositions are not set in tablets of stone. We know that many of them will provoke discussion, and that is our aim. We are marching so a debate reaching the heart of our society, on the nature and practices of work, throughout Europe, across the world, are not held and resolved in secret. We are marching to acclaim to the people of Europe that now is the time, TOGETHER, to look after their own affairs. We are marching on Amsterdam, on the InterGovernmental Conference to make our voices heard and to put forward the demands of those "without a voice", the unemployed, the homeless, the young and the workers. We are marching ... and we invite you to join us. You can help us in our struggle. Make your voice heard, participate, publicise our initiative, help us financially. From every corner of Europe, come with us to Amstedam on June 14th 1997 : join in the demonstration to the very last day of the International March against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion. We are moving, united and TOGETHER, to re-invent the future!
Summary :
1 - This draft manifesto is for wide distributed in your organization before the Brussels meeting of the 22nd and 23rd February 1997.
2 - This draft manifesto is included in the proposed agenda for the Brussels meeting, to be discussed as follows :
-Saturday afternoon during the workshops
-20 : 00, Saturday - A special workshop on the manifesto where all amendments should be handed in.
-15 : 00, Sunday - Presentation of the amended text by the manifesto workshop in plenary session.
3 - All decisions at Brussels should be by "consensus"... as we have little time. It will therefore be necessary to take all our differences into consideration and to maintain an open mind and not to seek to put EVERYTHING into a document that is drafted under such circumstances.
4 - If you have any amendment propositions, please present them at Brussels, in a written and succinct format (taking into account the general balance of the text). Please provide the proposals in English and French, if possible.
5 - All Associations and Trade Unions are invited to present a text putting forward their own analyses and propositions on a maximum of two sides of one page (A4).
e-mail: aguiton@sud.unions.eu.org.
Last Modified: Thursday, February 6, 1997 at 10:19 AM