Europe is experiencing a wave of repression of trade union struggles that is beginning to be really worrying and that is hitting trade union leaders and all those who practise class conflict and struggle very hard.
In the last few weeks alone, trade union leaders have been denounced in Greece, Italy and France.
The motives are the same for all of them: organising and taking part in strikes, demonstrations, occupations, roadblocks and union pickets, that is, carrying out their duties as class union vanguards.
In Italy, in particular, four leaders of the USB in the logistics sector have been charged not only with specific offences such as the occupation of warehouses, blockades of goods, strikes and occupations, but also with “conspiracy to commit a crime” in that they are trying to use these means of struggle to “blackmail” companies into increasing wages, improving working conditions and putting an end to precarious work and contracts. In short, the judiciary is identifying trade union action as a ‘crime in itself’.
The seriousness of this interpretation is clear to everyone and must be strongly opposed.
The attempt by the governments and the European Union to deprive the workers and the trade unions of essential tools in the struggle for the defence and emancipation of the workers is clear.
It is necessary to use every initiative and every useful tool to stop this reactionary and very dangerous drift, both at national and European and/or international level.
The right to strike, to organise and to negotiate must not be touched!
Stop the persecution of militant trade unionists!
Solidarity and complicity with the workers’ struggles all over Europe!
