Uniting Europe against cuts

Tonight at 5pm there will be demonstrations across Britain in solidarity with trade unions all over Europe holding a day of action against austerity.

In London we'll be outside 32 Smith Square - appropriately the former Tory central office, where Thatcher issued her blood-curdling election victory speeches outlining which vulnerable group she was going to attack next.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been doing the rounds of Europe to decide whether each country in receipt of EU bailout cash is performing "properly."

Two weeks ago she was in Athens to urge the Greek government to impose yet another round of austerity measures.

Outside the Greek parliament tens of thousands of protesters expressed their fury at rising joblessness. Not much further away in the poorer streets of the city Golden Dawn offered the fascist answer - blame immigrants. But MPs did as Merkel wished.

On Monday she was in Lisbon. Portugal is in the deepest economic slump for 40 years and unemployment - particularly youth unemployment - is rising.

The magic solution from the European Central Bank? Sack more public-sector workers and bring in more austerity.

The people's response was the biggest demonstration for many years.

Back in Britain the Labour Representation Committee conference in Conway Hall last Saturday had a unique opportunity to hear from some of Europe's most prominent left organisations - France's Front de Gauche, Germany's Die Linke and Greece's Syriza coalition. The three are putting forward a coherent set of demands.

Raquel Garrido from France, Florian Wilde from Germany and Stathis Kouvelakis from Greece explained their campaigns against the cuts and how trade unions and community organisations are uniting in resistance.

The issues are different but linked in each country.

In Greece the recession grows ever deeper. In France, working conditions are under attack.

In Germany workers are building bridges of solidarity with their fellows across the continent.

Tomorrows's protest is called by the European Trades Union Conference, which has set out a nine-point statement calling for unity across the continent rather than a programme for selective punishment.

The declaration argues that the recession is being used to destroy the European social model.

It calls for the EU to abide by its own Charter of Fundamental Rights.

It also points out that the EU's drive for free movement of capital has led to competition to lower tax on businesses and to reduce labour costs, often by attacking working conditions.

In simple terms the whole EU programme has encouraged a race to the bottom.

The ETUC proposes to replace this with dialogue around collective bargaining, sustainable growth and employment and, crucially, tax and social justice.

Many of us who opposed the Maastricht Treaty that was rammed through Parliament by the supposedly Eurosceptic Tories in the early '90s did so because it ordained that Europe's future should be based on market power. A currency run from an independent - ie unaccountable - Central Bank implied an attack on living standards and working conditions.

Thatcher and Major were determined to destroy trade union power in Britain - no wonder they wanted the same across Europe.

The fruits of that treaty are now being felt and there has never been a more urgent need for international unity and solidarity.

Greece stands out as the worst affected country as a savage economic experiment is rammed down its throat. The so-called troika - the EU, European Central Bank and IMF - that's calling the shots is not concerned about balancing books.

Its aim is to rebalance society - by privatising at will, selling off state assets and destroying hard-won working conditions, public services and rights.

Other countries are not so far behind. But the huge protests and strikes in Spain show just how angry people are.

The rules of the political game are changing. The formerly powerful Socialist Parties of both Spain and Greece are being marginalised for carrying out the bankers' demands.

There's a big lesson in that for Labour. We were right to bring the banks into a form of public ownership in 2008-9, though we didn't go far enough.

We were wrong to plan cuts and privatisation.

It's correct to criticise the Tories and their Lib Dem co-conspirators. But we need to articulate an alternative based on equality and protecting the welfare state.

That means public investment, ending tax evasion, shutting down the tax havens, directing industrial planning.

It also means challenging the EU - by fighting the European Commission's bid to crush "state subsidies," for example.

Socialist policies have never been more relevant than they are today. And support for the big TUC-inspired demonstrations shows that people are on our side.

They have good reason. Shelter reports that 57,000 children will be homeless this Christmas in London alone, driven into poverty by benefit cuts and the greed of private landlords.

Underfunded councils are unable to buy or build the homes we need.

Their situation is no different from that of the poorest and most vulnerable all across the continent.

Austerity, recession and unemployment are blighting the hopes of a whole generation and destroying the advances made by labour movements across Europe over 60 years.

Today we're seeing co-ordinated actions against these policies.

But we need to do much, much more.

• WALTER WOLFGANG'S family suffered under the nazis. They lost their property and their income.

Frightened for the future, a young Walter was sent to school in Britain and after a visit home in 1938 he was barred from returning by the Gestapo.

His parents came to Britain a year later - his father via the concentration camp at Buchenwald.

Both he and Walter were interned by Britain during the paranoia following the outbreak of war.

Walter became more political and later joined the Labour Party.

He became and remains religious and describes himself as committed to "progressive Judaism."

Later Walter worked with the Victory for Socialism group in Labour and became a good friend to many, including Konni Zilliacus MP who was expelled for voting against joining Nato.

As the cold war raged in the 1950s Britain developed its so-called independent nuclear bomb.

When the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was formed Walter was there, marching to Aldermaston and campaigning for a nuke-free Britain.

Tony Benn and I worked with him in the 1980s, when we founded the Campaign for Non-alignment to oppose Nato membership and work for peace.

CND and the Labour left have been the constants in Walter's life. Never afraid to speak out, he quite rightly shouted "nonsense" in 2005 when Jack Straw was trying to convince a confused Labour conference that we were in Iraq for democratic and peaceful purposes.

Walter was dragged from the hall and questioned under anti-terror laws for his trouble.

When he was let back in the following day then defence secretary John Reid was forced to apologise.

Walter had the last laugh when, a year later, he was elected to Labour's national executive.

Carol Turner has written a warm, affectionate and apposite portrait of this remarkable life.

Published by Labour CND, it shows us the staying power of a decent, wonderful man who has always stood up for the downtrodden and fought for his vision of a world at peace.

• Speaking Truth to Power: Walter Wolfgang, a political life is available from CND, 162 Holloway Road, N7 8DQ, at just £2.