Alternative Summit of the European Movements
Athens, 7 and 8 June 2013
A spectre is haunting Europe: the self-organization and the resistance of the people against the dictatorship of the “free markets”, the multinationals, the Troika and the governments. The tens of general and sectoral strikes all over Europe, the squares and the “occupy” movements, the popular and labour uprisings in Romania and Bulgaria, the massive movements in the European South for the common goods, the Arab spring, the major struggles in Greece, from the Steel Industry ("Hellenic Halyvourgia") and “BIOME” to the mobilisations of the people of Halkidiki against the gold mines, prove, together with much more, that the neoliberal totalitarianism is far from being an one-way street.
At the initiative of trade unions, social organisations and movement collectives from all over Europe, the Alter Summit of Athens is being prepared for the 7th and 8th of June. Its goal is the analysis of the systemic crisis and of the neoliberal attack and, mostly, the coordination of the struggles of the working people and the peoples of Europe. The place has been chosen precisely because Greece, apart form being the guinea pig of the anti-social plans of the IMF, the ECB and the EU, is also the laboratory of resistance to austerity, unemployment and the looting of the common goods. Tens of trade unions, NGOs, social, ecological, feminist and antiracist organisations from all over Greece participate in the Organising Committee of the Alter Summit. They all share the belief that, although the neoliberal attack is taking place at a different rhythm in each country, it is coordinated at an international level and only the common struggle of the European people, and especially of those that suffer mostly from the crisis, can bring concrete results.
Overthrowing the antidemocratic and antisocial policy of the European Union
• We are fighting against the dictatorship of the “free markets” and the financial capital, the terrorism of the debt, the irresponsible behaviour of the banks, the dismantling of the welfare state, the imposition of the harshest austerity since the Second World War. We are fighting to freeze the debt and to stop the usury against entire countries which destroys their economy, to abolish the Memoranda and the tax-heavens, to stop the continuing funding of the banks and to nationalise and put under social control those banks that are unable to finance themselves or that are involved in socially destructive activities.
We are fighting in order to raise the salaries, the unemployment benefits and the pensions, to reduce the retirement age, to stop the disgrace of precarious labour and the multiple discriminations against women, to guarantee the collective work agreements and the free access to health and education for all, to reinforce the social economy based on solidarity and the public investments that will provide decent jobs that promote social interest.
• We are fighting against the fake democracy, where the Parliaments just validate the decisions of the economic and political elites, where the orders of the European Commission and of the Troika, that lack any social legitimacy, humiliate any notion of people’s sovereignty. The fake democracy in Europe, where the lawless practices of the markets and the state repression are spreading whereas social and democratic rights are shrinking, where state racism, along with strengthening over-exploitation and the exclusion of immigrants, also promotes fascist terrorism and where state repression against all those that are struggling against neoliberal barbarism becomes one of the main components of the ruling policies.. We are fighting for the safeguarding of democratic rights and political liberties, regardless of class position, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, religion, skin colour or ethnic origin, for equal rights for men and women immigrants and political asylum to refugees, for the abolition of “special” legislation against practices of disobedience and resistance to the new capitalist totalitarianism, we are fighting for a social, direct and participative democracy.
• We are fighting in order to stop the looting of the natural resources and environmental destruction (ex. gold mining), to stop the strangulation of the countries of the global South through the grabbing of their resources and the imposition of “patents”, to stop the imperialist interventions, and especially the wars under the guidance of the USA, which cause the desertification of huge expanses of land and create millions of refugees. We are fighting to stop the privatisation of the common goods and to give back to the public sector all the enterprises and the services of public interest, to abolish the anti-environmental laws, to end the scandal of the “market in pollution rights” which supposedly deals with climate change, to withdraw the European troops present in various regions of the planet and to abolish the refugees’ detention centers and the European border police (FRONTEX).
Coordination of our struggle with the struggles of the peoples of Europe and the rest of the world.
• Because, just as we have every reason to intensify our struggle in order to reverse the three-parties government which imposes the memoranda and the impoverishment of large parts of the greek society, we also have every reason to make it a common with that of the peoples that are facing or will face the policies of austerity and poverty, with or without memoranda (Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, Italy or, earlier, Turkey, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria etc.) but also with the people whose ruling classes and governments are imposing the memoranda (mainly Germany). Obviously, each country is under different types of pressure and different rhythms, so it is naive to think that mobilisations of same intensity will develop everywhere simultaneously, it is however of the greatest importance that the different movements intercommunicate, that they shape common demands and goals, that they express their solidarity to those who are under the most severe attack or who give the toughest fight.
• Finally, the opponent has a common policy (using the crisis in order to increase the profits of capital and its ability to manage society without any social or political negotiation) therefore, the division of “those below” under either nationalist stereotypes (ex. “lazy Greeks”, “fascist Germans”) or with corporatist or racist stereotypes (ex. public sector employees versus those of the private sector, local workers versus immigrants etc.) only serves the ruling classes.
Therefore, we call on all colleagues and comrades from Greece as well as from other European countries, all together, from Lisbon to the Urals and from Finland to Cyprus, to support and to participate in the Alternative Summit of the European Movements, to discuss and to demonstrate together, to build bonds of class and internationalist solidarity.
To see the organizations that participate or observe, visit the site.
Athens, 22-4-2013
