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The CP Advisory bringing together workers in housing and tenants activists recently met in Abu Dhabi.
CP School
In July the CP is co sponsoring a Festival of 21st Century Marxism.
Call for Support
Communists in Balham are asking for support for local leafletting 6pm tube station on 21st.
12 February 2012
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'The labour movement in Britain cannot afford any confusion about the character of the European Union and the role of its powerful, unelected institutions', John Foster declared.
'The Lisbon Programme adopted in 2000 set the framework for a raft of Europe-wide neoliberal policies, supported by the Blair government and now being implemented by the Con-Dem coalition', Mr Foster pointed out.
The Communist Party's international secretary explained how raising the state pension retirement age, promoting private sector provision and restricting welfare benefits flowed from the Lisbon Action Plan and EU Directives.
Mr Foster also traced the link between today's eurozone crisis and EU Stability and Growth Pact, which compelled the Athens government and local banks to rely on German, French and British banks for credit.
'Now the major capitalist powers in the EU, through the European Central Bank and the IMF, are demanding that those European banks are bailed out primarily by the Greek people - but also by workers and their families across the EU, including Britain', he remarked, 'while the new Eurozone Plus pact hands control of member state budgets to the European Commission'.
Institute of Employment Rights director Carolyn Jones recounted EU Court of Justice rulings undermining trade union and employment rights.
'The free movement of labour across Europe is being used by transnational corporations to undermine pay, conditions, collective agreements and progressive national legislation', Ms Jones pointed out. As a consequence, both the super-exploited migrant workers and local workers are paying the price for company super-profits.
Ms Jones also explained how the lack of a statutory right to strike in Britain left trade unions here especially vulnerable to EU court judgements, citing a test case in 2008 when the British Airline Pilots Association was prevented from taking strike action against British Airways establishing a French subsidiary to employ staff in Britain at lower rates.
Communist Party trade unionists declared their intention to press the case for British withdrawal from the EU, which they characterised as a 'bankers' and big business club, put beyond reform by its fundamental treaties and the unelected, unaccountable nature of its leading institutions'.
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