International

The SP says no to this EU

The SP was today present at the European trade union demonstration against the European Union’s austerity policies. Some 2,000 of the demonstrators came from the Netherlands, including large numbers of the cleaners who recently won a national strike. The demonstration attracted as many as 50,000 people from across Europe.

Hundreds of cleaners went on the demonstration

Although the SP supports many of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) demands, such as equal pay for equal work and close monitoring for exploitation and false constructions such as bogus ‘self-employment’, the party is also critical of the body, as De Jong explains. ‘The European investment agenda which the trade unions are demanding is for the most part simply more pumping around of money. I would rather have seen the unions turning against economic governance per se, and in particular against budgetary fetishism. Much of the European trade union movement is, as things stand, too easily fobbed off.’

Below is a photo-report of the demonstration:

SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong and Peter Mertens (centre), leader of the Belgian PVDA (Labour Party) address the demonstrators from a podium halfway along the route

Hundreds of cleaners went on the demonstration

Numerous activists from the main Dutch trade union federation the FNV were present amongst the various unions