expresses its solidarity with the Greek people fighting against austerity, for democracy, social

change and an other Europe.

The Assembly is convinced that the Greek as well as the European social movements have a key

role to play and that they have to take action in the comming weeks to oppose firmly the blackmail

organized by the European Institutions on the Greek government and on the Greek people.

Responding to the Declaration of the German trade unionists “Greece after the Elections — not a

Threat but an opportunity for Europe” (see: http://wp.europa-neu-begruenden.de/griechenland-
chance-fuer-europa/greece-after-the-election-not-a-threat-but-an-opportunity-for-europe/) and the

Declaration of the General Assembly of the Altersummit « Give Greece a chance » (

http://www.altersummit.eu/accueil/article/give-greece-a-chance) which is supported by numerous

European networks this WSF Assembly proposes to all social, trade union and political

organizations:

 to express on 1st of May its solidarity with the Greek people everywhere in Europe and a to

call for international delegations to take part in the May demonstration in Athens ;

 to meet on 2 May to discuss and to decide common actions of solidarity

 to actively participate in the festival of « Solidarity for all » in mid of June in order to make

it a great mobilisation of the grass root movements throughout Europe expressing their

support for the Greek people.

 To use the Peoples Summit 8 – 9 June in Brussels to inform broadly about the struggle of the

Greek people.

 to mobilize for a European week of decentralised action in June against austerity and in

solidarity with the Greek people (date to be confirmed depending on the scheduled

negotiations between Greece and the European Institutions) ;

 a European citizen assembly on the dept in a major European city (outside Greece) in

autumn

 a major social and political event in autumn in Athens.

The future of the Peoples of Europe is linked with the future of the Greek people. Together, we will

build another Europe ! The time to act is now !

The convergency assembly call also the International Council of the WSF to actively involve in the

solidarity with the people, the movements and the government of Greece – by using its

communication tools to spread information, helping in this way the global mobilization.

In this context we support the proposal to hold in the first semester 2016 a strategic seminar

between WSF International Council members, European networks and global social actors and

movements in Athens.

Tunis, 28th of March 2015

Global Call to Action to Defeat Free Trade and Investment Treaties

We, civil society organizations, trade unions, farmers, youth, women, indigenous movements and grassroots activists from across the world, are calling for a Global Day of Action on 18 April 2015 to stop free trade and investment deals and promote an economy that works for people and the planet.

For the last decades, secret trade and investment agreements have been pushed by corporations and governments, damaging our rights and the environment.

For the last decades, we have been fighting for food sovereignty, for the commons, to defend our jobs, our lands, internet freedom and to reclaim democracy. Along the way, we have grown as a movement, we have made our voices heard and we had victories.

Together, we can stop the agreements that are being negotiated and reverse the negative impacts of past agreements. We can drive forward our alternatives based on human rights over corporate privileges.

We call on organizations, individuals and alliances to participate by organizing decentralized actions across the five continents. We welcome a diversity of tactics and solidarity actions from across the world that will help raise awareness, engage and mobilize people locally towards a new trade and economic model that works for people and the planet.

Join the Global Day of Action’ automated list
and be part of the strategic discussions !
Send an email to 18a-subscribe@lists.riseup.net to register !

* Groups are welcome to translate, adapt and change the call for their own mobilization.

** Groups are also welcome to choose a different day of the week if more appropriate for their local campaign.

Weds, 4th Feb

Plans to create more compatible rules between the EU and the US on chemicals, food, public services, workplace health and safety, and financial regulation as part of EU-US trade talks (TTIP) are a threat to democracy and an attempt to put the interests of big business before the protection of citizens, workers, and the environment, according to over 165 civil society groups.

In a statement released today the groups, including trade unions, social movements and non-government organisations from 24 European countries, warn about the dangers of the ‘regulatory cooperation’ chapter of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – the latest round of talks about the deal is taking place in Brussels this week.

The organisations have joined a call spearheaded by campaign groups Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe and Lobbycontrol for the European Commission to cut the chapter out of the negotiations, saying the EU side had capitulated to demands from business lobby groups to “essentially co-write regulation”.

Today’s call comes after fresh leaks from the European Commission(link is external) revealed proposals that would lead to the weakening of standards deemed detrimental to trade and investment before democratically elected bodies would have a say over them.

Lora Verheecke from CEO said: “This TTIP chapter would constrain democratic decision-making by strengthening the influence of big business over regulation and giving US and EU businesses an even greater say on laws in Brussels, EU capitals, Washington DC, and in US states.”

Paul de Clerck from Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The proposal on Regulatory Cooperation can only result in weakening or stopping public interest standards as they will have to be ‘trade and investment’ proof. It provides business with the ultimate tool to stop new policies or regulations that affects their profits. It gives enormous power to a group of unelected official and side-lines democratically elected parliaments’.

Max Bank from LobbyControl said: “It is not acceptable that Trade Commissioner Malmström continues to ignore civil society’s critical voices on TTIP. Like Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), regulatory cooperation strengthens big businesses power and threatens democracy on both sides of the Atlantic.”

More information:

Short video explainer on regulatory cooperation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&v=eAeiQn3oJZI&x-yt-ts=1422579428(link is external)

Analysis of the recent Commission leak: http://corporateeurope.org/international-trade/2015/01/ttip-regulations-handcuffed

Contacts:

Lora Verheecke, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), email: lora@corporateeurope.org(link sends e-mail) tel: +32 486 31 00 34 (English, French and Spanish)

Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth Europe, email: paul.declerck@foeeurope.org(link sends e-mail) tel: +32 49 43 80 959 (English and Dutch)

Max Bank, LobbyControl, email: m.bank@(link sends e-mail)lobbycontrol.de(link sends e-mail) tel: +49 16 34 56 87 41 (English and German)

FOR A SOCIAL, ECOLOGICAL AND DEMOCRATIC EUROPE

Stop TTIP, CETA, TISA…

Everyone to the streets of Brussels during the European Council Summit,

Our national and European leaders continue to subject the people to the will of

shareholders and multinationals while austerity becomes increasingly brutal. Most

national austerity programmes are implementing EU recommendations according to

the Stability and Growth Pact that our states have already signed-off. The measures

are sending us into a recessionary spiral, imposing social regression at magnitude.

The secret free trade negotiations also reflect their desire to uphold the interests of

multinationals and their profit logic at the expense of a social, ecological and democratic

We call on all organisations and individuals to make December 19, 2014 a day of action

and convergence of struggles. Take to the streets to remind our leaders that the public

interest is not that of multinationals and lobbyists, and that democracy does not work

without us. Only a truly social and democratic Europe will meet the basic social needs of

the population and ensure a prosperous future for everyone within the limits of nature.

It is high time to stop these butchers’ summits!

Occupy the streets of Brussels on Friday, December 19. The D19-20 Alliance will be

there. We call on all movements, organisations, platforms and groups to do the same, in

order to build as large an action as possible!

Their profits are the appropriation of our labour! We are the real Europe;

Against austerity at every level

Friday 19 December 2014!

For an education, a job, food, public services,

a decent environment; stop the TTIP!

Against the budget cuts; we refuse to pay for their banking crisis!

Call signed by Alliance D19-20 (BE), Trade Union Solidaires (FR). …

• http://corporateeurope.org/fr/trade/2013/11/une-d-claration-transatlantique-des-droits-des-entreprises
• http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/attachments/fr-ttip-isds-fracking-briefingfr.pdf
• http://corporateeurope.org/fr/trade/2014/01/pour-en-finir-avec-les-mythes-de-transparence-autour-des-n-gociations-commerciales-ue
• http://corporateeurope.org/fr/trade/2013/10/la-commission-europ-enne-se-pr-pare-pour-les-n-gociations-de-libre-change-ue-us-119-r

…and many more on CEO’s website.

Starting point: Place Poelart 8am, Thursday, May 15!

SURROUND THE EUROPEAN BUSINESS SUMMIT

WE WILL NOT LET BIG BUSINESS DICTATE EUROPEAN POLITICS !

NO TO AUSTERITY*!

NO THE GREAT TRANSATLANTIC MARKET (TTIP**) !

DEMOCRACY FROM BELOW !

D19 -20 The D19-20 Alliance brings together farmers, citizens, workers, unemployed, artists, trade unions, NGOs, not-for-profits, activists etc. struggling against austerity policies* and the ‘Great Transatlantic Market’ (the EU-US free trade deal, or ‘TTIP’**) pushed by Karel de Gucht, EU Commissioner for Trade. As active members of Belgian civil society, we are determined to build and maintain a counterbalance against the attacks by the European Union on all parts of the population. 15 May 2014: Democracy in Danger! This May 15, Europe’s biggest businesses have invited our political leaders (Karel de Gucht, Didier Reynders, Guy Verhofstadt, Kris Peeters etc.) to the Egmont palace for the ‘European Business Summit’. The organisers of this great lobbying jamboree have stated their goal: to influence European leaders a few days before the elections. The ‘Transatlantic Partnership’ (TTIP**) will be at the heart of the debate. Negotiated away from democratic scrutiny, refusing to meet those who oppose it, Karel de Gucht’s ears are open exclusively to big business, who see this treaty as an unmissable opportunity to increase their power within the EU. We won’t let them! This May 15, from 8am, Surround the Egmont Palace! * Austerity: A policy which aims to make workers, employed and unemployed pay for the economic crisis, while the real perpetrators – banks and big business – are not only exempt from all liability but directly benefit from the policies.  **TTIP: Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the US (formally called the ‘Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’, or TTIP), which, if passed, will privatise public services, increase competition between workers, crush small producers (agricultural and other), lower existing social protection, health and environmental standards, allow the use of chemical products and production methods currently banned in Europe, prevent new regulations in the financial sector, overprotect privately-held intellectual property, compel countries in the global South to accept commercial deals that harm their sovereignty, entitle investors to sue states in secret courts which citizens are made to pay for and which seriously limit our legislative capacity.

Facebook D19-20  Twitter D19-20 Contact Tel: 0479 43 21 11 (Luc Hollands) E-Mail: info@D19-20.be  

Pascoe Sabido from Corporate Europe Observatory reports back from mobilisations against austerity and big business around the EU elections
June 2014

http://europe.redpepper.org.uk/beyond-the-european-elections-another-left-wing-force-is-growing-in-europe/

Solidarity beyond Borders – Building Democracy from Below was the motto for a May of Solidarity and Action Days just before the European elections. Launched by the transnational European coordination of and for Blockupy it was a powerful moment of Europe-wide mobilization and solidarity. Thousands of people throughout the continent – in Germany, Poland, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Greece and Portugal – took to the streets and demonstrated against austerity policies pushed by the Troika and the EU, against ongoing attempts to privatize commons and public services, against institutional racism fostered by border regimes and immigration laws, against the resurge of nationalism and right wing populism as well as against exploitation, poor working conditions and further neoliberal trade agreements such as TTIP furthering global capitalism.

Not by coincidence, May of Solidarity called for action in a time of high European awareness. The aftermath of the European Parliament elections show, with the wide-spread defeat of governments who have overseen the crisis regime for the past five years, a widespread rejection of austerity policies. But there is a stark difference between the success of Left forces (as in Greece and, in part, in Spain) which intend to change Europe, and the advance of nationalist and reactionary forces, proposing racist policies of exclusion and the closing of borders. This is another reason why we have chosen the battleground of social movements fighting for a radical transformation, and why the May of Solidarity stands for building democracy from below, a democracy which can be realized only through struggles beyond borders, for the commons, in and for solidarity.

We took to the streets and squares in a multitude of actions, building on regions’ existing mobilizations and combining these with genuine shared transnational threads: from blocking the European Business Summit in Brussels to supporting the successful fight of the Greek janitors; from the asambleas and marches of the 15M movement in Spain to the cross border “march 4 freedom” by the refugees; from the mass mobilization in Rome for social rights against austerity and privatizations to the widespread actions across the continent against Monsanto and the introduction of GMOs in Europe; from the marches and actions in different cities to the Tribunal against the Troika in Brussels and to the Transnational Care Meeting in Vienna – May of solidarity has been able to become an umbrella for diverse movements, mobilizations and causes. Europe is a field of struggle and a truly political space we are beginning anew to occupy, struggle for, reconstruct – not unifying under a central banner and logic, but inviting all the multifarious approaches, sites and constituencies to come together to start defining a common framework and acting for and through it.

As part of the days of solidarity we value common initiatives and the realization of common threads of actions, such as those addressing the global exploitation chains with coordinated initiatives targeting Apple and Foxconn in different cities, those targeting the border regime highlighting the link between institutional racism, the exploitation of migrant labor and the austerity programs of precaritization. These actions represent an attempt to organize transantionally and in global solidarity, in order to grasp the volatile and transnational nature of global capital that criss-crosses the European space.

The richness of the movements and different actions during these ten days testify the potentiality of a transnational movement we have been establishing in past years by acts of solidarity, transantional meetings and common street practice – as in Blockupy Frankfurt. Therefore, we call on everyone anew to join the upcoming discussions and joint practical efforts towards the summer (in Turin 11th July against the EU Summit on “Youth unemployment”) and autumn (in Frankfurt with the new ECB Tower opening), of struggles and beyond.

See you on the streets and squares in the upcoming months!

Blockupy Europe coordinating group

Tens of thousands in several countries participated in the frst part of the European days of action “solidarity beyond borders – building democracy from below”. Eleonora Cappuccilli from Bologna gives a frst résumé for Blockupy international: “Many initiatives joined the action days from outside the existing networks. Relations are built struggling for a Europe from below and a real democracy. The European movement is strengthened and broadened. These are great conditions for the coming struggles for solidarity, commons and radical democracy. The days of actions will continue until the day of the European elections on 25th of May. On 11th of July the Movement for a Europe from below will mobilize to Turin, to protest against the EU-summit on youth unemployment. In autumn we will get together in Frankfurt to turn the opening of the new ECB-towers into our party of a rising new Europe.”

The days of action started in Brussels on May 15th with a protest against the European Business meeting and the TTIP negotiations. The police arrested over a third of the protestors – from Belgium, Italy, France, the Netherlands – shows their nervousness! Protests however went on all over Europe the next days. Local authorities in Brussels have to explain themselves and an assembly on 19th of May will continue legitime resistance against EU-policies and TTIP. Furthermore, a People’s Tribunal evaluated the horrible results of the EU Economic Governance and the Troika. On the 16th and 17th of May in Poznan, Warsaw, Bologna, Rome, Frankfurt, Milan, Düsseldorf hundreds of protesters “tackled Apple” and Foxconn within the framework of the European Days of Action. Street theater, surprise visits with banners, quiz and shows at the Apple Stores pointed out the issue of organizing and connecting men and women who work along the global chains of exploitation in order to subvert them. The transnational and not just European dimension of the initiative was made clear both by the coordination of the different cities and the support statement of Hong Kong based SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate misbehaviour).
On 17th of May there were demonstrations, civil disobedient actions, and assemblies – among others – in Madrid, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Düsseldorf. Thousands of people took the streets all around Europe to reclaim a different management of commons, the end of austerity and privatisation, for freedom of mouvements in Europe, for the right to the city and against gentrifcation process. In Thessaloniki a popular referendum took place on 18 May against the privatization of water, organised by thousands of volunteers against the will of the central authority.
On the 18th of May a Migrants demonstration in Bologna protested against the re-opening of the detention center in the city and for the closure of all those existing inside and outside Europe. More than 1.000 migrants, workers, students, precarious and movements, associations and unions demonstrated to denounce that the border regime of Schengen, the patrols managed by Frontex, deportations and the Dublin II agreement on asylum, all produce death on the external borders of Europe, and exploitation and precarity for all inside Europe. At the same time, refugees crossed the Germano-french border from Kehl to Strasbourg during the “March for Freedom”, while the day before in Düsseldorf Blockupy local group blocked the airport against deportations. These actions and demonstrations linked the struggles against austerity politics and precarization with those of migrants against the hierarchies produced by institutional racism, European immigration policy and border-regime. Anti-Nationalist protesters in Frankfurt interrupted a rally of right-wing populist “Alternative for Germany”.
397 of the 595 janitors protesting with a camp in front of the Ministery of Finance in Athens won a legal case and have to be re-employed by the Greek government. The camp stays untill the desicion will be implemented. This vindication of their rights, gave courage also to the rest of the cleaners and also to other employees of the public sector that fght against their “suspension status”.
http://blockupy.org/en/
mayofsolidarity.org
#europe4the99

When:  15 May: 14 – 17 hrs

16 May: 10 – 17 hrs

Where: Rue Pletinckx 19, Brussels

After six years of crisis and four years of new EU economic governance measures and Troika policies, it is high time to assess their devastating results. Since the economic crisis broke out in Europe, the narrative behind the policies imposed by the EU institutions has been based on fiscal consolidation and competitiveness, which in practice has meant dismantling of public services and destruction of social and labour rights.

Transnational Institute (TNI), Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Transform!, with the support of several European networks and organisations*, are organising a People’s Tribunal on EU Economic Governance and the Troika on 15 and 16 May in Brussels.

The Tribunal aims to analyse and expose the EU policy measures taken in response to the crisis, by presenting the social consequences of these measures in countries all over Europe; it will mark a milestone in the resistance against the EU economic governance regime developed throughout the European crisis, which is increasingly regarded as unjust, undemocratic and a failure in terms of crisis management.

The Tribunal will bring together a dozen witnesses from different European countries in the South, West and East of Europe. They will share their stories through testimonies, in which they set out the social consequences of the EU’s crisis policies related to an issue specific to their own country: for example, Spanish anti-evictions campaign PAH, Greek neighbourhood solidarity initiatives, Portuguese dockworkers, German centre against child poverty due to precarious labour and Attac Hungary on the rise of neo-fascism.

The testimonies of the witnesses will be complemented by analyses of the broader European context in relation to the EU’s crisis policies. Jan Willem Goudriaan (EPSU) will cover the impact of EU policies on public services, Fintan Farrell (European Anti Poverty Network) will talk about the effects on poverty rates and Ronald Janssen (ETUC) will discuss the consequences for labour rights. Furthermore, the European context related to debt, democratic principles and austerity policies will be part of the debate.

A conclusion will be provided in the form of a verdict presented as a synthesis of what has been said in the presentations by the witnesses and the rapporteurs. This will be done by a judges panel which includes economists Miren Etxezarreta and John Grahl and Walter Baier from the Transform! network.

Marco Buti, Director-General of DG ECFIN at the European Commission, has also been invited to provide a defense (presence tbc).

This People’s Tribunal will be a unique event, providing for the first time a  Europe-wide assessment of the realities of the EU austerity policies from the ground, across a broad cross section of witnesses and analysts from different countries and sectors. Live streaming will be arranged to move the discussions beyond the room in Brussels.

You are warmly invited to participate in the People’s Tribunal on EU Economic Governance and the Troika that takes place on 15 May from 14 to 17 hrs and on 16 May from 10 to 17 hrs. Please inform us whether you are coming via soltrumbovila@tni.org or leonie@corporateeurope.org.

*the European Attac Network and several of its national chapters, Stichting Weerbaarheid en Solidariteit, CADTM, Globalproject, European Anti Poverty Network (EAPN), Alter Summit

Program:

Thursday 15 May

Doors open from 13.30 hrs

14.00 – 14.30: welcome and introduction of witnesses, rapporteurs, judges

14.30 – 15.30: testimonies of witnesses

•             Italy                                                            Guiseppe Caccia, Globalproject
•             Slovenia                                                     Kira Cerjak, Democratic Socialism
•             France                                                        Nicolas Galepides, SUD PTT
•             Discussion/questions

15.30 – 15.50: coffee break15.50 – 16.30: interventions of rapporteurs

•             Democracy                                               Kenneth Haar, CEO
•             Debt                                                          Chiara Filoni, CADTM
•             Discussion/questions

16.30 – 17.00: conclusion / ending

Friday 16 May

Doors open from 9.30 hrs

10.00 – 10.30: welcome, round up of day before and introduction of witnesses, rapporteurs, judges

10.30 – 11.30: testimonies of witnesses

•             Romania                                                  Petru Sorin Dandea, Cartel ALFA
•             Ireland                                                     Vicky Donnelly, Debt Justice
•             Hungary                                                   Matyas Benyik, Attac Hungary
•             Discussion/questions

11.30 – 12.30: testimonies of witnesses

•             Greece                                                   Athina Teskou, SOSte to NERO
•             Germany                                                Georg Rammer, Kinder- und Jugendhilfe Karlsruhe
•             Spain                                                      Ana Maria Jimenez, PAH
•             Discussion/questions

12.30 – 13.15: lunch break

13.15 – 14.15: testimonies of witnesses

•             Greece                         Christos Giovanopoulos, Solidarity4all
•             Portugal                        Antonio Mariano, Sindicato dos Estivadores, Trabalhadores do Tráfego e Conferentes
  Marítimos do Centro e Sul de Portugal
•             Belgium                                                  tbc
•             Discussion/questions

14.15 – 15.30: interventions of rapporteurs

•             Public services                                        Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU
•             Labour rights                                          Ronald Janssen, ETUC
•             Poverty                                                   Fintan Farrell, European Anti Poverty Network
•             Feminist perspective                              Gabriele Michalitsch, Vienna University
•             Discussion/questions

15.30 – 15.50: coffee break

15.50 – 16.30: interventions of judges panel

•          Miren Extezarreta, professor emerita Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
•          Walter Baier, transform!
•          John Grahl, Middlesex University, EuroMemo Group

16.30 -17.00: verdict

The programs of austerity and privatizations imposed by the Troika decide on the lives of millions of people in Europe. Together with people in Europe and the whole world we resist the rehabilitation of capitalism on the backs of employees as well as unemployed, retirees, migrants and the youth. Together with them we say: “We don’t owe, we won’t pay!”

While the European Union crisis regime builds more and more borders in order to divide, exploit and oppress us, new transnational movements are arising. We are social movement activists, altermondialists, migrants, precarious and industry workers, party members and unionists and many more, who want to connect our struggles and powers beyond nation-state lines. During the week before the elections for the European Parliament we call for the spirit of the multitude of these social movements to build real democracy from below.

We call for an international week of decentralised actions from May 15-25, 2014. Be part of it!

Starting on the symbolic date of the 15M movement in Spain, we aim for strong, united, internationally visible actions from May 15-18.

Beyond these days there will be actions in many cities in many countries linked to one another by the broader perspective of a transnational movement for democracy, solidarity and commons.

Then, in autumn, we will bundle our strength again – this time to prevent the new tower of the European Central Bank from opening in Frankfurt. We invite you to join the action days! Be creative and participate with your own initiative!

Build #Democracy

In times of crisis, we are told, there is no alternative to austerity.

But people pay, suffer, and die, while banks have been bailed out with billions of euros. Debt and exploitation, wealth and precarisation, are two sides of the same coin. The authoritarian crisis regime does’t represent us. Its true mission – to serve capital – is masked by the supposedly ideology-free benchmarks of finance. The crisis cannot be solved by more neoliberal adjustments. It destroys our social rights, cuts social spendings, and fixes economic redistribution in favor of capital, setting locations in competition with one another.

Capitalism is the crisis. Poverty is not only the result of unemployment and of unjust decisions enacted by governments, but is also the effect of a longer transformation, accelerated by the political management of crisis. Global capitalism divides rich and poor, migrants and citizens, even citizens and citizens, and exploits our creative and productive forces for profit. Is it freedom to choose between precarity or unemployment? Let us fight for social and economic equality in order to build real democracy from below!

Take the #Commons

It’s time to take the commons! The wealth we create through our own social cooperation is being expropriated. The extraction of the wealth of our planet is destroying our very livelihood. We all face the consequences of climate change, loss of biodiversity, hazardous waste, pollution and biocide. Our basis for social reproduction, including healthcare and housing, are objects of speculation. Internal borders are intensified by privatisation and economic and social exclusion. Increasing rents upwards of 15% in German cities are forcing people into homelessness or to move. Hundreds of thousands evictions in Spain are one result of a 26% unemployment rate. While  the infant mortality rate increased by 51% in three years and 1.5 million people have no access to healthcare in Greece, hospitals are being shut down and patient fees demanded.

Private and state ownership can be overcome by commoning management and access. Examples are housing projects, social initiatives that resist increasing rents and evistions, occupied factories, and social solidarity clinics. Instead of closing hospitals, kicking people out of their homes and social initiatives out of their spaces, it’s time to organize and take back what is ours!

Struggle in #Solidarity

Europe is transnational since it is crisscrossed by millions women and men who migrate or flee from their homes looking for better lives, thus practicing their freedom of movement. The EU militarises and strengthens racist borders, where thousands die and are beaten and raped. The consequences of colonialism and imperialism force migrants into social subordination, illegality, detention, and deportation – in order to capitalize their workforce. The extraction of wealth is built upon institutional racism, the externalization of borders and the exploitation of the European peripheries by the centres.

State institutions and governments use prejudices and create fear to obtain privileges. Racism and fascism are fueled by the economic crisis. In the streets, migrants, Sinti and Romanies, and homosexuals are attacked. Dangerous alliances are being built. Right-wing parties are expected to make large gains in the coming European elections. Racism, sexism, and chauvinism are exploited to divide and weaken us. Our lifes and struggles are connected. Active solidartity means struggerling for everybodies rights – everywhere. It’s time to overcome bordering in solidarity!

Participate in the week of decentral actions May 15-25, 2014!

ARD Monitor

The European Water Movement regrets that the European Commission decided not to take real actions, ignoring 1,9 million citizens

Brussels – The European Commission (EC) made public today the communication on the European Citizen’s Initiative on the Right to Water^[1]. The communication fails to respond to 1,9 million citizens asking for a legislative provision excluding water and sanitation from “internal market rules” and liberalization. The EC’s reaction is lacking in real legislative proposals, and it boils down to a compilation of already ongoing actions plus the announcement of a public consultation on the drinking water directive whose outcomes will not be binding.

While the Communication acknowledges the importance of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation and it confirms water as a public good, the EC fails to propose legislation that recognizes this right. The Commission also commits to promote universal access to water and sanitation in its development policies, including the promotion of public-public partnerships.

Water and sanitation services were excluded from the concession directive thanks to public pressure, but the Commission has not committed in its Communication to explicitly exclude these services from the trade negotiations (such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – TTIP).

The answer of the European Commission to the first European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) to achieve the required support will not reassure European citizens who question the democratic legitimacy of the European institutions. The European Water Movement considers that overall the Communication does not address the actual demands to guarantee the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, and implies a bad precedent for the future of the ECI mechanism.

Water privatization remains a very concrete menace in the EU. In countries like Greece and Portugal, the Troika is pushing for water privatization^[2], and more and more citizens are being deprived of water access in municipalities where water supply is managed by private companies^[3]. In line with the signatures collected for the Initiative, citizens are fighting against water privatization across the EU, with many examples of massive mobilizations in Italy with the 2011 binding referendum^[4], the local consultations in Madrid and Berlin, more recent mobilizations in El Puerto de Santa María (Spain)^[5] and upcoming local public consultations in Thesaloniki (Greece)^[6] or Alcazar de San Juan (Spain)^[7].

Water should be a commons, not a commodity. The European Citizen’s Initiative^[8], that collected nearly 1,9 million signatures, expected the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the Human Right to Water and Sanitation as recognized by the United Nations, and to promote the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all. The European Water Movement will continue to support local struggles in places such as Thesaloniki or Alcazar de San Juan to ensure that water is declared a common good. And it will remind candidates in the elections for the European Parliament of the importance of recognizing that water is a human right, to concretely act towards its implementation and to avoid liberalization and commodification of water and sanitation services.

For more information:

David Sanchez, dsanchez(at)fweurope.org, +32 485842604
Caterina Amicucci, camicucci(at)recommon.org, +39 3498520789

The European Water Movement is an open, inclusive and pluralistic network of movements, social organizations, local committees and unions whose goal is to reinforce the recognition of water as a commons and as a fundamental universal right, an essential element for all living beings. We are part of the global water justice movement. We are united to fight against privatisation and commodification of this vital good, and to construct a public and communal management of water, founded on the democratic participation of citizens and of workers.

[1] http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-277_en.htm

[2] http://www.tni.org/article/ec-stop-imposing-privatisation-water

[3] For example, more than 200 families were deprived from water supply in Jerez (Spain) after the water management was assumed by Aqualia http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2014/01/24/andalucia/1390591317_911564.html

[4] More information www.acquabenecomune.org

[5] More information http://apemsanosevende.blogspot.com.es/

[6] More information http://aguasnosevende.blogspot.be/. Background information in English bit.ly/1eRQC6A French bit.ly/1l3D5jO and Italian bit.ly/1cZFR6G

[7] More information http://sostetonero.blogspot.be/

[8] Website of the European Citizen’s Initiative on the Right to Water http://www.right2water.eu/

March 10-14th saw the latest round of the highly controversial EU-US free trade negotiations take place in Brussels. But while the industry’s 50 leading CEO’s, known collectively as the European Roundtable of Industrialists, have proclaimed it their “job to ensure things go through with as little noise as possible,” citizens from both sides of the Atlantic had other, rather noisy (and sometimes milky) ideas for the Belgian capital.

Transatlantic corporate stitch-up

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, has been billed as the greatest, most far-reaching trade deal the world has ever seen, and according to the European Commissioner for Trade, Belgian Karel De Gucht, it is supposed to deliver jobs and growth and pull the EU out of the ongoing economic crisis. However, even his own department’s research has shown this is not the case (watch the awkward silence as De Gucht is confronted with the evidence).

Groups on both sides of the Atlantic have come out against the free-trade deal, not just because it will weaken social, environmental and economic safeguards but also because it’s being negotiated in secret between governments and corporations. Negotiating documents, stakeholder contributions, agendas and minutes of meetings with industry – none of these are public. Citizens are being left in the dark, relying on leaks for information.

Breakfast protests

That’s why, on the morning of Thursday 13th March, hundreds of people gathered outside De Gucht’s office – DG Trade in Brussels – with a clear message: STOP TTIP! Called by the D19-20 Alliance – alongside Alter Summit, Seattle to Brussels, the European ATTAC Network and Blockupy – the protest rally had speakers including US trade union Teamsters, President of Belgian trade union MOC, and farmers from both sides of the Atlantic, including Luc Holland from the Belgian Milk Producers Association (MIG). The story is the same in the US as Europe: TTIP will make farmers compete against each other in a race to the bottom in terms of environmental, health and animal welfare standards. While the EU currently bans chlorine-rinsed chickens, hormone-filled beef or genetically modified organisms, the US wants TTIP to ‘harmonise’ standards downwards allowing them in. Likewise, the increased competition and low standards drive out small farmers who want to grow healthy food. This is why, at the end of the action, DG Trade found itself covered in milk provided by farmers within D19-20, highlighting the attack on their ability to make a decent living by producing good quality produce. Despite trying to originally ban the protest from happening due to ‘orders from above’ (rumour has it a call from the Commission), the police remained calm.

Commission feeling the heat – and reacting

Those gathered were not only heard in the metaphorical sense, but also literally – following demands of the citizens gathered outside the Trade Commissioner’s office,  De Gucht’s head of cabinet came down and met protestors on his behalf. Another meeting will follow, but it shows that the pressure on the Commission is working and they are being forced to face the public. Noise around the TTIP talks is definitely growing – not just from protests like these, but from all angles. The same week saw a series of conferences and media events on the topic, as well as the two biggest Belgian trade unions, CSC and FGTB, categorically rejecting the treaty. Meanwhile in Germany, the metal workers’ trade union has taken a similar stance and the national government has come out against the ‘investor-to-state dispute settlement‘ (ISDS) system – secret arbitration panels where corporations can sue national governments if they feel their future profits are affected by public-interest policy making, such as a national ban on fracking.

However, while citizens were calling for an end to TTIP and the close relationship between corporations and our policy makers, the EU lead negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero and members of his team were enjoying lunch with the Transatlantic Business Council (TABC – made up of the biggest corporate names in Brussels). The night before, Bercero was also the key speaker at a cocktail party organised by the American Chamber of Commerce. Both groups are also keen advocates of austerity policies and increased privatisation across Europe, seeing TTIP as another tool to increase the power of big business while lowering social and environmental standards. Yet policy makers acting on our behalf engage with them in secret meetings and are taken out to lunch and dinner? In whose interest do they act?

The fight against TTIP – like the fight against austerity – will keep growing in force, as it is resisted on all fronts. D19-20 will be taking the fight directly to Karel De Gucht, the European Commission and our national leaders, as will other movements here in Belgium like the Acteurs des Temps Présents and Alter Summit (Belgium).

Next citizens action to reclaim democracy

The next big fight back in Brussels against corporate-driven free-trade and austerity will be on May 15th as part of a European Week of Action. The European Business Summit – “where Business and Politics Shape the Future” – will be surrounded from 7am, with thousands of us making the message to Karel De Gucht and his cohorts clear: our world is not for sale, no to austerity, no to TTIP. Big business lobbies may want to buy and sell democracy as quietly as possible but the volume is being turned up and it’s not going down until we win.

First call from the European Blockupy coordination: build #democracy, take the #commons, struggle in #solidarity

7 / 3 / 2014

Solidarity beyond borders – Building democracy from below

The programs of austerity and privatizations imposed by the Troika decide on the lives of millions of people in Europe. Together with people in Europe and the whole world we resist the rehabilitation of capitalism on the backs of employees as well as unemployed, retirees, migrants and the youth. Together with them we say: “We don’t owe, we won’t pay!”

While the European Union crisis regime builds more and more borders in order to divide, exploit and oppress us, new transnational movements are arising. We are social movement activists, altermondialists, migrants, precarious and industry workers, party members and unionists and many more, who want to connect our struggles and powers beyond nation-state lines. During the week before the elections for the European Parliament we call for the spirit of the multitude of these social movements to build real democracy from below.

We call for an international week of decentralised actions from May 15-25, 2014. Be part of it!

Starting on the symbolic date of the 15M movement in Spain, we aim for strong, united, internationally visible actions from May 15-18.

Beyond these days there will be actions in many cities in many countries linked to one another by the broader perspective of a transnational movement for democracy, solidarity and commons.

Then, in autumn, we will bundle our strength again – this time to prevent the new tower of the European Central Bank from opening in Frankfurt. We invite you to join the action days! Be creative and participate with your own initiative!

Build #Democracy

In times of crisis, we are told, there is no alternative to austerity.

But people pay, suffer, and die, while banks have been bailed out with billions of euros. Debt and exploitation, wealth and precarisation, are two sides of the same coin. The authoritarian crisis regime does’t represent us. Its true mission – to serve capital – is masked by the supposedly ideology-free benchmarks of finance. The crisis cannot be solved by more neoliberal adjustments. It destroys our social rights, cuts social spendings, and fixes economic redistribution in favor of capital, setting locations in competition with one another.

Capitalism is the crisis. Poverty is not only the result of unemployment and of unjust decisions enacted by governments, but is also the effect of a longer transformation, accelerated by the political management of crisis. Global capitalism divides rich and poor, migrants and citizens, even citizens and citizens, and exploits our creative and productive forces for profit. Is it freedom to choose between precarity or unemployment? Let us fight for social and economic equality in order to build real democracy from below!

Take the #Commons

It’s time to take the commons! The wealth we create through our own social cooperation is being expropriated. The extraction of the wealth of our planet is destroying our very livelihood. We all face the consequences of climate change, loss of biodiversity, hazardous waste, pollution and biocide. Our basis for social reproduction, including healthcare and housing, are objects of speculation. Internal borders are intensified by privatisation and economic and social exclusion. Increasing rents upwards of 15% in German cities are forcing people into homelessness or to move. Hundreds of thousands evictions in Spain are one result of a 26% unemployment rate. While  the infant mortality rate increased by 51% in three years and 1.5 million people have no access to healthcare in Greece, hospitals are being shut down and patient fees demanded.

Private and state ownership can be overcome by commoning management and access. Examples are housing projects, social initiatives that resist increasing rents and evistions, occupied factories, and social solidarity clinics. Instead of closing hospitals, kicking people out of their homes and social initiatives out of their spaces, it’s time to organize and take back what is ours!

Struggle in #Solidarity

Europe is transnational since it is crisscrossed by millions women and men who migrate or flee from their homes looking for better lives, thus practicing their freedom of movement. The EU militarises and strengthens racist borders, where thousands die and are beaten and raped. The consequences of colonialism and imperialism force migrants into social subordination, illegality, detention, and deportation – in order to capitalize their workforce. The extraction of wealth is built upon institutional racism, the externalization of borders and the exploitation of the European peripheries by the centres.

State institutions and governments use prejudices and create fear to obtain privileges. Racism and fascism are fueled by the economic crisis. In the streets, migrants, Sinti and Romanies, and homosexuals are attacked. Dangerous alliances are being built. Right-wing parties are expected to make large gains in the coming European elections. Racism, sexism, and chauvinism are exploited to divide and weaken us. Our lifes and struggles are connected. Active solidartity means struggerling for everybodies rights – everywhere. It’s time to overcome bordering in solidarity!

Participate in the week of decentral actions May 15-25, 2014!

Then join us for the guided tour to expose the corporate lobby behind the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)

Meeting point: in front of the Charlemagne building. DG Trade. Rue de la Loi, 170. Brussels