MT is one of a number Ror ational unions in
Britain sending a delegation to participate in the European Social Forum (ESF), co.uk in the city of Florence from 7th to 10th November.
The city was a seat of the Italian renaissance, and the former heartland of post-war Italian communism. RMT's delegation of over 20 members nominated from local Branch and Regional Council organisations, will be joined by General Secretary Bob Crow, Assistant General Secretary Pat Sikorski, along with representatives of the National Executive Committee.
The ESF programme has been developed over the past year, through an organisational compromise between the European far left and the remnants of a European social democracy, disoriented by the rapacious advance of globalised capital and the triumphalism of so-called third way' politics. It represents a daring experiment bringing together extremely diverse social forces.
Representatives of the trade union movement (ranging from officials of the European TUC and some of its largest affiliates -from the German IG Metall and Italian FIOM engineering unions, to radical, 'autonomous' unions such as COBAS, SinCOBAS, CUB and ORSA in Italy and the Solidarity Group of 10 ('GIO Solidaire') in France), social RMT's Bob Crow on Sept 28 movements opposed to myriad symptoms of the new world order and important academic, research and campaigning bodies such as ATTAC in France and the World Development Movement in Britain are bringing their concerns and demands together in discussion and debate for the first time. .......•.... debates taking place in seminars transnational corporations and the multilateral organisations which represent their interests -such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation.
"Globalisation serves only to extend deregulated markets and undermine core labour standards, thus enabling transnational corporations to exploit at will, playing off the workers and governments of one country against those of another in order to resist this process, it is imperative that this union and the TUC builds extensive links, both internationally and in this country to raise the level of understanding of trade unionists on this vital issue."
RMT has deliberately sought to intervene in some of the key and workshops in Florence. In particular, RMT General Secretary, Bob Crow has been invited to speak at one of the
plenary conferences; 'Movements and trade unions' struggle' with Jean Lapeyre from the European TUC Secretariat, Annick Coupé (GIO-Solidaire, SUD-PTT, Piero Bernocchi (Cobas, Italy) and Jose María Fidalgo (CC.OO, Spain) -an intriguing line-up.
But RMT members will also be speaking on various seminar platforms on subjects ranging from Transport, the Environment and Safety', to Workers' and Social Rights under Globalisation' and 'Anti neo-Liberal Trade Unionism'.
The second general strike in Italy this year on 18th October follows a year of marked increasYes in days lost to strike action and industrial militancy in Spain, Greece, Germany and signs of a revolt against Chirac's privatisation programme in France. The publication of EU Directives on the privatisation of rail and air transport, the WTO's drive for an early agreement by March 2003 for extension of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and problems caused by the "Euro' Stability and Growth Pact at a time of plunging stock markets and looming war in Iraq will make the next 12 months a make or break year for European working class organisation. In Britain, the embryonic 'antiglobalisation' movement seems to have faltered in the last year which has seen an increasing popular mood against privatisation and PFI, including some notable victories in defence of Council Housing and massive demonstrations to Stop the War in Iraq. Yet, despite the success of the left in mobilising behind such single issue demands, it has failed to develop a mass movement which puts globalisation at the centre of its analysis. The absence of a mass party of the left in British politics, means that the role of trade unions in Britain in understanding why Blair and Brown are driving remorselessly forward with their neo-liberal agenda and what methods can be successful in resisting it, is extremely important. The ESF is an instrument to allow us to do that. and agreed to follow up with a series of regional events including a European Social Forum in Italy in November.
The WSF defines the forum project as 'an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences and interlinking for effective action, by groups and movements of civil society that are opposed to neoliberalism and to domination of the world by capital and any form of imperialism, and are committed to building a planetary society directed towards fruitful relationships among Mankind and between it and the