surge of workers n been the re-emerge cocials in fors ma In January 120 ng delegates from federations met in. Brescia to organise the fightback.
lately followed up byassembl uncils in all the major cit rajions of in and Rome e federations hat apting fo divide the noveme fac pry councils have maintaine initiative.
Now it seems likely that the gove restrictions on the scale mobile defeated by a parliamenta of the Communists, who have f overnment's bill. litancy in Ita- • steelworkers have been ce of the fac- plant closutes industrial battles have IR- tor worke major the Liege Worke general strike of This was im- from September In Liege the M5 The struggle In With a consequen wages by up to 19 p Result of H sectot the target of most prolonged by public secHer workers women, was Raced with bankruptcy, and decided on swingeing * cuts in wages and jobs — the wage cuts involved reductions of between 3 and Ont. During the worst period o effect the city council imply sto ped paying wages to workers.
defeated, The some Attack tion against the missiles. The fight against the nuclear plans of NATO has produced a political crisis in country after country - the latest being that in Holland which might even default on its commitment to take Cruise.
Out of the struggles against austerity and nuclear weapons the outlines of a new Europe are emerging — not the Europe of Kohl, Thatcher and Mitterrand, but the Europe of the French steel workers, the Greenham Common the British miners and the Italian workers who have gone into action in their millions over the last monFor socialists the fight against the missiles and the fight against the worst of the capitalist crisis unemployment — must be at the centre of any programme for Europe.
problem that the socialists, like Gonzalez in Spain and Mitterrand in France, are the champions of austerity and militarism. Gonzalez is fighting for Spain to come into Mitterrand is virulent defender of the missiles and the French force de frappe. Gonzalez presides over police repression of the struggle of the Asturian miners, while Mitterrand lays off 20,000 steel workers. These people are not our allies in a fight for a socialist Europe, they are our bitter enemies.
At the centre of a socialist programme for the European elections should be the fight for a 35-hour week with no loss of pay, and the demand for nuclear weapons and American bases out of Europe. Mitterrand and Gonzalez will have nothing to do with these EuroMitterrand (top), Craxi (right)
demands.
The answer of the Euro-socialists to the strength of the US economy and US imperialism has been to build up the European economy and European impenalsin. for this project is the club of the European capitalists Market.
Press leaks about the manifesto which the Labour Party is about to sign willi KuroDean reveal that it is a very right wing document indeed, with no mention of opposition to the missiles, no mention of the 35 hour week or any other anticapitalist measures to solve unemployand Kinnock Their central organisation their own hands. the Common socialist parties The European elections are now not far off. The European workers have taken austerity and unemployment for more than ten years. For the whole of that time the leaders have tried to tell them that it is inevitable, or that nothing much can be done about it. Now they are taking the struggle into The only socialist response can be to welcome this wave of workers struggles Socialists should argue in the European elections for a socialist Europe. That means being against the missiles, the Common Market and the austerity. And it means being against government's of the 'left' which carry out the policies of the right.
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more notabi the fight of