Western European News Digest
Italian Weekly Covers LaRouche Charge That Bush Insane
The Italian weekly La Rinascita Oct. 12 reported the LaRouche PAC's expose of President George W. Bush's mental illness. The Oct. 8 issue of Rinascita, the official paper of the opposition party Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PdCI), published an article by Paolo Raimondi of Movimento Solidarietà on the first television debate between Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry, and the ongoing election campaign fight. The article underscores the leading role of Lyndon LaRouche in exposing the clinical insanity of President Bush, and his initiatives to get Kerry on an FDR economic strategy to mobilize the lower-income 80% of the American population.
EU in Crisis Over Candidate Rejections
That Maastricht Europe is in bad shape, in terms of institutional cohesion as well as otherwise, has been underlined once again in voting on members of the new EU Commission.
The European Parliament rejected Rocco Buttiglione (Italy) and Laszlo Kovacs (Hungary), who were designated for the post of Commissioners in charge of justice and energy, respectively. The nominal reasons for the rejection were Buttiglione's position that as a Catholic, he must oppose the legalization of homosexual marriages; in the case of Kovacs, his qualifications to deal with the energy issue were contested.
The two failed candidacies call the entire list of new commission members (most of whom are neo-cons, anyway) into question, which leaves the European Union without an operative Commission for the time being. In other words, the EU has been thrown into a grave institutional crisis, because the Commission is an essential body of Maastricht Europe.
German Auto Works Strike vs. Mass Layoffs
GM-OPEL workers in Bochum, Germany went out on a wildcat strike Oct. 15, to protest mass layoffs, and other General Motors sites in Europe are expected to join the protest on Oct. 19. Workers at the Bochum car plant stayed off the night shift Oct. 14, joined by the two day shifts today, and will continue into next week, probably at least until Oct. 19, which has been designated a day of action for the 66,000 workers at all General Motors sites in Europe.
The Bochum strike is accompanied by protests outside the plant, by family members and sympathetic citizens. Similar spontaneous mass protests occurred in the city of Ruesselsheim, Oct. 14. The issue, which is the number one news item on all the media, is certain to also play a prominent role in the Monday rallies Oct. 18.
The spontaneous outburst of labor protests is creating panic among politicians: both Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement and Northrhine-Westphalia State Governor Peer Steinbrueck urged workers to go back to work instantly. Steinbrueck is especially worried, since Bochum is an important industrial city in his state, which is facing elections next May, and his statement Oct. 14, that the workers were "wrong if they believe the state can create several thousand jobs," apparently was not appreciated at all. A combination of the labor mass strike ferment with the Monday rally movement (with the crucial LaRouche input) which has not died away, although the media and political elite has tried to declare it over, certainly is the last thing that leading politicians want.
German Wave of Layoffs Triggers Mass Labor Action
GM-OPEL layoffs are just the beginning of major layoffs expected in Germany over the coming months. These include the following prominent examples: Dresdner Bank, 4,700; Bayer Chemical, 4,000; Schering Pharmaceutics, 2,000; Deutsche Post, 1,600; and Bombardier (rail tech), 1,500; SAP (computers), 1,300; FAG Kugelfischer (ballbearings), 1,000; Spar (retail), 1,000. In addition, there's the retail chain Karstadt, which announced plans to fire 5,000 on Oct. 14.
Furthermore, the German operations of Philips plans to fire 2,000 workers, 1,300 of these in Hamburg. Especially for the producing sector, for every one job axed by the big firms, an additional three to five jobs in the supply sector are threatened.
Forecasts by industry and labor experts that the official (massaged) jobless figure will jump up by more than a half million to 5 million in February, seem to be right on the mark. Real (unmanipulated) joblessness will likely be at 9 million.
Monday Rallies Continue Unabated in Eastern Germany
One-hundred sixty-five Monday rallies were announced to take place Oct. 11. The schadenfreude displayed by certain politicians and media last week that "only" 110 Monday rallies took place on Oct. 4, was premature: for Oct. 11, there have been 165 rallies announced, which is an increase by more than 40% from the Monday before. This confirms the trend in numerous smaller cities in eastern Germany, which report slightly increasing turnouts at rallies. In many, if not most cities, the rally organizing committees are being restructured, replacing the ATTAC and other deserters, with people who are committed to continue. The BueSo, led by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the LaRouche Youth Movement are continuing to receive more invitations to speak or intervene, than they can logistically meet, presentlya problem that will soon be solved by the current surge of recruitment.
Despite Frustration, Populace Sustains Hartz IV Opposition
An opinion poll conducted by the Polis Institute for the German press agency (DPA), found that 75% of those who generally support the Monday rallies are frustrated that nothing has been achieved by the protests, so far. But desertion from the rallies does not at all mean that people are now for Hartz IV, nor have they capitulated, as the government and mainstream media claim. Only 20% of those polled, believe that the rallies have a decreasing turnout because protesters have begun to accept Hartz IV. Eighty percent, however, believe that opposition to Hartz IV is still strong, suggesting that the potential for new mass protests is there, but latent for the moment.
Low-Income Jobs, Deterioration of Health-Care Protection in Germany
Even without the Hartz IV measures, the economic situation of the German population is worsening. In a new series about low-income jobs in Germany, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung of Oct. 12 documents the wage-per-hour incomes of those job categories in which people regularly, by trade-union arrangements, earn only 4-10 euros per hour: e.g., haircutters (5.60 in eastern Germany, 7.70 western Germany), shop-sellers (8.20 Euro), bakers (7.70 Euro), etc. This means 1,000 euro per month for a haircutter (after-tax income).
Also, almost 200,000 people in Germany have no health insurance, which was impossible to conceive of only a few years ago. This is mainly due to the big "boom" in the "new economy" sector, where many people either started their own firm, or became outsourced in "new economy" firms. The number of uninsured people doubled from 1995, because most of these "new starters" could no longer pay their private insurance contributions, and were then dropped. Other private companies do not provide for them, and, since the German health-care system does not allow the change from a private insurance policy back into the state insurance system, these people now have no insurance at all. Worse, those people suspected to have a sufficiently high income while being unemployed, under Hartz IV, from January on, will not be automatically insured by the state any more. This applies to about 470,000 citizens. These people are expected to pay for private insurance, which they will not be able to do for a long time, leaving them uninsured.
All of this is being used by synarchist populists and others, to attack the "non-functioning" state social and health system, and call for sweeping changes, instead of changing the economic policies.
Transport and Labor unrest in Spain, France, Netherlands
Since the Dutch government has not come up with an acceptable concession on its planned variant of the German Hartz IV austerity program, after the mass rally of 250,000 citizens in Amsterdam, the labor movement made its next move: On Oct. 14 the transport workers staged a nationwide strike for 24 hours.
In Spain, the strike at the huge Izar shipyard, which actually goes against the insane decision of the European Commission to ban state support for the Spanish ship-building sector, is in great danger of turning against the Socialist government, if it does not act. Several thousand jobs are threatened, and as well as many firms which supply the sector.
In France, Finance/Economics Minister Nicolas Sarkozy had to call off his planned "industrial summit" meeting with Germany's Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement, because Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has ordered him to work out a plan by the end of this month, for how to guarantee economic growth and to defend French production against the oil price rise.
Sarkozy's offer to farmers to reduce the diesel tax by $.04, is viewed as no more than a "whim" by the farmers, who have called off their threatened blockades of oil refineries only on the condition that the government comes up with something more serious. Some of the truck transport enterprises have already begun select road blockades, and the fishermen have called off blockades of the ports for two weeks, only on condition that the government provides financial support.
Also of note, is that Germany's Baltic Coast shipbuilders, who have carried out warning strikes already, have also threatened a march of protest on Schwerin, the state capital of Mecklenburg, and on Berlin, the nation's capital, if shipyard managers' plans to cut wages to "compete" with South Korean shipyards, are not called off. The first protests in Berlin have also been staged by the German farmers organization, on the diesel price inflation issue.
German Defense Minister signals support for Kerry view on Iraq
Interviewed by the Financial Times Oct. 13, German Defense Minister Peter Struck welcomed Kerry's proposal that, if elected President, he would convene an international conference on Iraq.
"This is a very sensible proposal," Struck said, "The status in Iraq can only be cleared up, when all those involved sit together at one table. Germany has taken on responsibilities in Iraq, including financial ones; this would naturally justify our involvement in such a conference."
Struck reiterated that, for the time being, Germany would not consider sending troops to Iraq, but left it open whether that position could change, if the conditions in Iraq changed in a way that permitted it.
The FT commented that whereas the German government has so far refused to comment on the outcome of the U.S. elections, "Mr. Struck's comments provide support for Mr. Kerry's claim that he would be able to persuade countries that opposed the war, to work in Iraqa claim ridiculed by President George W. Bush."
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