Euromarch meeting
On the Saturday morning, Euromarch organised a meeting, open to anyone, to evaluate the evolution of the economical situation in Europe, its consequences on the unemployed and their organizations, the development of job insecurity and the different European employment policies. After every delegation spoke about the situation in their own country, it appeared that the employment policies happened to be the same everywhere, and that the increase of casual work together with the question of the income (an income enabling people not only to survive but to really live) were the major preoccupations in each country. The problem of the crisis of the unemployed movements as well as the turn in the insecure workers' struggles were also pointed out.
We also have to take the convergence of initiatives into consideration. Five years ago, the Euromarch network was born and initiated the marches to Amsterdam, at a time where nothing was said about the question of unemployment and job insecurity in Europe. Since then, thanks to our initiatives and the development of anti-liberal struggles after Seattle, the trade-unions and the other organizations have moved on, as the actions which occurred during the Nice summit prove it.
All this shows the reinforcement of the forces of opposition and the problem of our function and our visibility in a different context. The permanency of unemployment and job insecurity proves that we have to keep on building the Euromarch network. Meanwhile we must work on strengthening all the possible links with the trade-unions and the other organizations at a European level: old links like the one with ENU, or with the networks fighting against poverty; and new links like the ones with ATTAC, the Worldwide March of Women, the European network for the right to housing, the "sans" (people without rights) network, the movements against the fortress Europe, against militarization etc. We'll try to develop these links during the different EU summits (in Stockholm in March, in Gothenburg in June, in Grand-Liege in October, during some of the actions against militarization which will occur in Belgium in October and finally in Brussels-Laeken in December) but also in Naples in March or Genoa in July, when some other networks have planned different actions.
These dynamics of mobilisation, created by the different summits schedule (European, G8, ODCE, WB, IMF, WTO summits in which the policies we fight are decided), challenge our own struggles and our identity, and we must be careful not to be too scattered around. Our newly born but deep experience of the coordination of struggles at the European level can help some other networks to organize themselves, to act and converge on this level. Therefore we have to develop our reflection on the »relevance« of this European level and more generally of the »European questions«: the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the enlargement of Europe, the EU Constitution etc... »for a different Europe in a different world«.
On Sunday morning, we decided to adopt the following agenda:
17 March 2001 | Euromarch will send a delegation to Naples (OEDC and WB summit) |
20/23 March 2001 | a delegation will take part in the actions in Stockholm |
23 March 2001 | European Day of Action of the Euromarch network, in some big cities around Europe |
7/8 April 2001 | a delegation will take part in the preparation of the »Genoa mobilizations« during the G8 meeting on the 21st July 2001 |
21/22 April | coordination for the preparation of the Assembly of the Unemployed and Insecure Workers |
Juny 2001 | Euromarch have signed the call for Gothenburg (GBG2001) and will take part in the counter-summit and in the demonstration on Saturday 16th June 2001 |
17/18/19 October 2001 | Gand and Liège |
13/15 December 2001 | Laeken-Bruxelles |
