Editor’s Note: This statement comes to us from the former WFTU General Secretary George Mavrikos
As the capitalist crisis deepens and Europe’s workers see their lives getting worse, workers’ class struggles are flaring up in a number of countries. After Britain and the mobilizations raised almost completely by the trade union bases in postal services, refineries, telecommunications, dockers, energy, healthcare services, airports, in Italy with the recent strike victories, in Spain, Greece, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, France takes the lead with the mass strike of refinery and petrochemical workers.
The workers – members of the WFTU and FNIC CGT- since September 27th have raised a big strike battle in their sector against the employers and the government, which in some cases even reaches 85% participation. These battles of our class are characterized by their size and determination. The bourgeois already feel that the times of social peace they have enjoyed are coming to an end.
That’s why they enlist their “firefighters”. Laurent Berger, president of the treacherous and anti-labor ETUC and a prominent leader of the reformist CFDT, rushed -like a true nurse of the system- to help employers, calling for the signing of a crumb agreement for the benefit of employers. The yellow unionists once again do not hide their role: the hound of the bosses who backstabs the struggling workers.
The European workers know them well, they have experienced their defeat line which has brought only losses for the working class in the last 30 years. The time has come for the workers of Europe to choose a side in the great battles ahead. Two worlds with completely different values and goals. Two paths with completely different results. The choice of class struggle is our own path.
