Lutterbach meeting / Mulhouse, 17-18 February 2001

Delegations: Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland (about 50 participants).
The meeting was divided into two parts: a first meeting of the Euromarch network itself, and another one to prepare the next "Assembly of the Unemployed and Insecure Workers in the Struggle".

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: a delegation will take part in the actions in Stockholm
•	23 March: European Day of Action of the Euromarch network, in some big cities around Europe
•	7/8 April: 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

•	June 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 Liege /  13/15 December: Laeken-Brussels 

Assembly of the Unemployed and Insecure Workers in the struggle

On Saturday afternoon and evening and on Sunday morning, we spoke about the work of the Assembly of the Unemployed and Insecure Workers.

First full session: Nice evaluation 

The decisions taken during the EU summit  were briefly pointed out, as well as the ones which were not taken thanks to the pressure of the protests (the Charter, which was not acceptable because it did not mention the social rights, was not included in the Treaty).
We also evaluated the organization of the mobilizations (how we linked with the trade-unions, with other different groups). And we also defined what we have to improve for our next "barricades".

A very positive point is that The Charter of the Fundamental Rights has been proclaimed, but yet has not been integrated in the Treaty, and therefore is not binding. Nevertheless, its content is still extremely unsatisfactory and even dangerous for the rights of the European unemployed and insecure  workers.
•	A commission for the Charter of the Fundamental Rights began with the EU summit in Cologne; the Nice summit has instigated a commission for the European constitution of 2004. Do we have to get ready  for this date and work on building our proposals ?
•	The Euromarch visibility in Nice, as well as the one of some other organizations, has been considered as a real failure by many of us.
•	What measures can we take in order to appear more clearly ? What kind of means, what kind of actions ?
•	We've had to recognize that the mobilization of the unemployed and the insecure workers in Nice was much less important than in the other summits
•	The demonstration on the 6th was mainly trade-unionist, and the trade-unions' watch-words were quite ambiguous and contradictory.
•	The counter-summit has suffered from a big lack of organization
•	We have to find means to inform people in Europe of what is happening concerning the institutions and the economic and social politics 

Stéphane

Workshops

We divided into three workshops: the increase of job insecurity in the European countries; the struggle which has to be lead for the social rights and the guaranteed income; finances and communication.

Report: job insecurity and poverty 

You can report to the German, Italian and Dutch interventions at the Assembly in Créteil / Paris, which are available for consultation.
This workshop aimed at developing a method in order to gather in a synthetic table all the elements defining job insecurity and poverty in Europe. We want next time to have collected the surveys which have already been produced in the different countries, by the governments, the trade-unions, other organizations, research workers…

What is the material already existing at the EU level ? (directives concerning the abolishment of  the compulsion of fixed-term contracts jobs)

How will the information we are going to collect enable us to produce our own material ?
We have to classify our questions:

•	what is our definition of job insecurity ? what about its evolution since the 70s ? when have labour markets started to dissolute ?
•	who are the people concerned by  job insecurity and poverty ? what kind of experiences  ? We can think of different sectors of economy: food industry, building trade, shipping, media and advertising, computing, private services as well as public services. We can think of women, young people, immigrants also. We don't merely aim at looking at the statistics, the working conditions, and the possibilities of resistance, the forms of self-organisation. We also want to develop more links  with some other networks  (the Worldwide March of the Women and its European section; migrants networks, trade-unions networks, including students unions…) in order to develop a better understanding of their demands and bring our struggles together.
•	What kind of casual work ? What kind of contracts is it linked to ? Part-time work, fixed-term contracts, jobs for the young, volunteer work, "illegal" work, interim work, private employment companies… ? What about the wages ? Poor workers.
•	Forced labour programmes:  level of social benefits, wages of an insecure worker; the attempts to lower social benefits prepare the development of low wages. Work / Non-work: possible bridges ? Job insecurity, poverty: what are the borders ?
•	The role of State as a contractor, a legislator, a medium between the social actors (employment agreements)
•	Is it possible to organize ourselves collectively ? What about trade-unions rights ?

It does seem necessary that we produce our own material. How ? With whom ? What kind of actions can we think of  ?
The struggle against job insecurity and poverty is a trade-unionist struggle as well. What are the consequences ?

We must also discuss the question of employment: its content, its conditions, its distribution.  

Frank Slegers (Euromarch - Belgium) has offered to gather  written surveys and papers and  to synthesize them.

Angela

 Here is a message from Frank:

"As secretary of this commission, I will keep everybody informed about the written documents I receive, and I will try to systematise this materiel before April.

I think we should aim at producing for the assembly in Brussels a document of more or less 20 pages A4 (this is rather short) with four components:
- an opinion about the main tendencies in the European labour market, more precisely concerning the twins unemployment - insecure employment;
- a description of significant examples in different countries illustrating these tendencies;
- positions taken by social movements, unions, political parties, etc...
- a description of experiences of resistance and struggle;

This document should be available at the end of November in the different languages, to help participants to prepare the December assembly. This means we should finish the writing of this document in October.

The final document could and should be rather short, but to write a paper which matches reality, we will have to digest a lot of material, and take the time to discuss the meaning of figures and facts.
We should not take appearances for reality too quickly. I propose to have a lot of exchanges by mail.

I also suggest to ask research workers for their help, either to give us documents or to give us their opinion. I was thinking for example of Michel Husson.

Finally, I propose to establish a European Prize of the unemployed and insecure workers for the worst practice, which would be awarded every spring on the occasion of the European spring summit (Lisbon process). The Prize could be one kilo of rotten tomatoes, to be thrown at the government building where this worst practice has been conceived."

Frank
E-Mail: Frank.Slegers@riziv.fgov.be

It is very important to give Frank all the information and remarks you find about "bad practices" forced upon unemployed and insecure workers.

Report: struggle for social rights and a guaranteed income

The EU Charter of the Fundamental Rights has not been included in the treaty BUT nothing is planed to improve it, and it seems that it will become the preamble of the EU Constitution. This decision is to be taken at the summit of Laeken-Brussels.
We have then taken the decision to fight this infernal Machine; we have taken the decision to make our demand heard, and therefore have adopted the following resolution:

We ask that the Declaration of Laeken-Brussels states that the rights to benefits, written in the national legislation, have not been included in the Charter, and that it may lead to their juridical disappearance; that the EU cannot take this risk considering the new competitive context of the euro zone. Therefore a new process of integration of these rights must be defined, to prevent poverty from increasing.

We ask that the preamble of the Constitution starts with the statement of the "founding principle of harmonization of living standards and working conditions". This principle from the Treaty of Rome (art 117) was cancelled because of the necessity of competitiveness instigated by the Single European Act and the treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam… and Nice.

The clear and complete assertion of  this principle would allow the recognition of  our European demand of a guaranteed income, defined by the coordinations fighting against unemployment, job insecurity and exclusion; these coordinations have defined , according to the wealth of the countries, the levels of income under which it is unacceptable to fall. These levels represent 50 % of the GDP/PPD per head (Gross Domestic Product and Purchasing Power Standard) 

Today, we have to decide how we will carry on with our struggle.

We also have to bring together our demands concerning the Charter and our demand of the right to a guaranteed income. The tables we saw during the meeting show the differences of minimum incomes and GDP between the EU countries. It varies from 32 6OO euros in Luxemburg to 9600 euros in Portugal; if you look to some candidate countries, you even go down to 6220 euros in Estonia.  

The first date on our schedule is the summit of Stockholm, which will take place in March. One year after Lisbon, the discussions will regard the standards of full employment and the implement of the social agenda. As Europe wants to play the game of transparency, we will take the opportunity on the 23 March to reassert our demands and to ask for a public and national debate concerning the Charter and the guaranteed income, in all the countries and all the cities we are in.

The German group of the European Marches against unemployment, job insecurity and exclusions has decided of a day of action for the social rights and for a decent basic income on the 23rd March, during the EU summit of Stockholm, where the Heads of State and Government have to take initiatives about the "Active Social State".
The proposal is to organize on this day a European action with all the components of the Assembly of the Unemployed and Insecure Workers.

The 23 of March appears to be the right day to start a campaign to inform people, and to reassert our demand of a guaranteed income (50% GDP). As mobilization is quite a difficult matter at the moment, we will have to be symbolic. Therefore we could gather in front of a symbolic place, in as many places as possible. Our objective would be to show everywhere the same image, so that it would clearly appear that all our demands converge to claim a level of income under which it must be impossible to fall. We think of being the actors of some sort of "living pictures", giving the amount, in EURO, of the social minima (when they exist!) in all the different EU countries. We have to find a slogan (what is your own misery, in Euros ?) -any other suggestion is welcome!!- and we also have to spread our common demand, according to the wealth of every country.

Second full session: preparation of the Assembly of the Unemployed and Insecure Workers in the struggle

The next assembly will take place on the 12th-13th December in Brussels and aims at gathering about 400 participants. The European networks and social organizations will be invited. The assembly could be held in Saint-Gilles (Brussels) where the "comité des sans-emploi" organizes on the 27th and 28th April a big party of the "Sans" (people without rights).

Two other meetings have been planed for the preparation: a "restricted" commission on the 2nd March in Brussels and a wider coordination on the 21st-22nd April (the exact place has not been chosen yet). During the summits in Gand/Liege some other European initiatives to prepare this assembly will take place, specially because the dates (18th/19th October 2001) match the International day of struggle against poverty (17th October).

Third full session: the introduction of the Euro

In less than a year now, the EU will enter the Euro. Are the unemployed and insecure workers concerned ? Marie-Paule had written a document of reflection, introducing as well some practical questions which the poorest in Europe will have to deal with. When you live with minimum resources, any mistake with the change can become dramatic!

We have concluded that, despite the fact that we certainly won't stop the Euro, we still have to use this drastic change to denounce the neo-liberal strategy that lies under the European construction decided in the treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice. We think that we have to follow closely this question and the preparation of the EU Constitution, before it is too late for the unemployed, the insecure workers, the persons excluded and all the others. 
With the Euro, millions of people will realise what the neo-liberal Europe, build since 50 years by the governments and the employers, really is. We have to prove, in Laeken-Brussels at the end of the year specially, that an other Europe remains possible.

Report: media and finances

We are looking for subsidies to organize the Assembly of Brussels (trips, lodging, rooms, translations). If we do not obtain any, each country will have to pay for its participation, as usual. The question of the creation of an organization, with a legal European status has been suggested.
A team dealing with the media, both locally, nationally and at the European level, has been created around Gitti Goetz (webmaster@euromarches.org) and Hugo Braun (braun.d@t-online.de) . The first event will be the European day of action on the 23 March. 

( Translation : Chrystelle Blanc-lanaute )

Many thanks to our friends in Alsace, who received us so well, and helped to the organization of the meeting  (AC! - VETO - Lutterbach council). Thanks to our translators, Barbara, Frank, Manfred.

This report is not absolutely complete; it was written in copy/paste by Stéphane Beuvain, Marie-Paule Connan, Laurent Delavigne, Jean-Louis Dupuis, Angela Klein, Michel Rousseau, Frank Slegers.