International

Some five hundred angry railworkers were in Brussels today to protest against European Union plans to impose further deregulation in rail. Both SP Euro-MP Dennis de Jong and party colleague Farshad Bashir, a member of the Dutch national parliament, supported the demonstrators in their criticism of the disastrous plans. ‘We have seen in the last few years that deregulation of Dutch rail has certainly not led to improvements in quality,’ says Bashir. ‘Both passengers and staff will be the victims if these neoliberal plans are not rejected.’

The Netherlands must not send any more money to Greece as long as there is no prospect of the country paying off its debts. ‘If you talk to someone who works for a debt advice agency they’ll tell you – nobody has ever got out of debt by being given a new credit card. Stop treating people like fools and get to grips with this,’ SP leader Emile Roemer told Prime Minister Mark Rutte today. The SP wants to see the restructuring of Greek debt begin immediately in order to avoid still more taxpayers’ money being flushed down the grid.