Date: Sun, 5 Apr 1998 07:53:47 -0400
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-G: New European Laws against workers


This is the final version of a report for Straight facts
radio on new European laws to use the military and cops
against striking workers. Taped on April 5, 1998.

Europe's ruling class is cracking down on working-class struggle!

European ministers are getting ready to vote on new Draconian
laws to use the armed fist of the capitalist state -- the cops and
military -- against striking workers!

Good Evening. This is Bob Malecki reporting for Straight Facts
somewhere in northern Scandinavia quite near the Polar Circle!

The "new" Swedish Social Democracy together with other
European leaders have got more repression on their agenda for
the working class in Europe!

Draconian new laws are being prepared to smash strikes with
cops and the military, which, according to news reports here, will
be up for a vote this week at the European trade ministers
meeting!

Evidently, the ruling class in Sweden and the rest of Europe are
still feeling the effects of the French truckers strike.

Not satisfied with dismantling the Swedish welfare state,
supporting and financing the rebuilding of the Baltic Nazi SS
troops in the "new" military of Latvia in the Baltics, and giving
Clinton unconditional support to bomb the Iraqi people back to
the Stone Age -- the Swedish Social Democratic government has
now gone into the breach in demanding and supporting the
Common Market countries and governments who have come up
with=A0 a new draconian pan-European law aimed at the working
class.

This law gives=A0 governments the=A0 right to immediately call in the
courts, cops, and=A0 army (if=A0 neccessary) to immediately stop any
farmer or transport strike action which blocks the=A0 transportation
of=A0 goods on any highways in the=A0 new "festung" Europe!

According to recent news reports in Sweden, European
governments will be taking up this new law THIS WEEK when
trade ministers meet!

Naturally every class-concious worker, trade unionist, socialist, or
communist must OPPOSE this attempt to once again turn cops
and the military forces onto striking workers on this continent.
We must say NO to any attempts to take us back to the days of
the Weimar Republic, the days of mainly social-democratic rule
in Germany in the 1920s, which successfully crushed working-
class struggle and paved the way for Hitler's Nazis!

<STRAIGHT FACTS>>

Bob, this seems a very sinister move by the ruling classes of the
European Union against the working class over there.=A0 But why
are they aiming this against strike actions on the highways?

<MALECKI>>

Leif Pagrovsky, Sweden's Social Democratic millionare minister
of trade and hand-picked to the post by the Social Democratic
prime minister, is demanding that the cops and army if
neccessary must be able to be brought in to break
any attempts by farmers or transport workers to block the
highways.

He does this knowing that Scandinavia as well as other parts of
capitalist/imperialist Europe were brought to a standstill when the
French truckers closed down the highways of France..

Like the "new" labor party of Tony Blair in Britain, and the trade
union bureacrats supporting him who did everything in their
power to smash the Liverpool dockworkers strike, the Swedish
Social Democracy now goes in the breach to provide these
reactionary, sweeping laws for Europe as a whole, with the
potential of smashing ANY strike that
could develop in the future!=A0 And their guns are pointed directly at
the FRENCH TRUCKERS and their trade unions ... just as they
are directed at all workers!

These class traitors will do anything to please their "own" ruling
classes up to and including opening the doors once again to cops
and the army smashing workers and their trade unions with the
armed fist of the capitalist state..

The only criticism that these traitors have of the Popular Front
government of Jospin's Socialist Party is that they were not
efficient enough in getting
the cops and military out on the road to stop the French strikers -
- thus the need for new severely repressive laws on a European
level which will give a free ticket to the ruling classes of Europe to
use cops and the military to smash any transport strikes.

<STRAIGHT FACTS>>

Bob, do you foresee any effort to crack down on the right to strike
in general, or is this just limited to stopping highway transport
strikes?

<MALECKI>>

Naturally it does not stop there.=A0 If these laws were to come into
effect, against blocking the roads, we are only step away from
the cops being called out to break strikes in the public sector or
anywhere else the workers movement decides to use one of its
most powerful and -- from the standpoint of the ruling class,

dangerous --=A0 weapons in its arsenal -- the strike!

In fact, the Swedish Social Democracy, just a couple of years
back, tried to impose restrictions on strike rights here in Sweden,
and were roundly defeated by a massive outburst of workers
protest which=A0 historically knows that the right to strike is a
weapon that was won by the blood of working people in great
battles in the 20ties and 30ties in this country.

In fact it was in =C5dalen in the 30s in the northern half of Sweden
where a united workers movement went up against the military
and cops trying to break their strike.=A0 Many workers were killed in
a peaceful demonstration, which led to a bloodbath started by the
armed fist of the capitalists here in Sweden.

This led to a general strike and almost a situation of dual power,
which the Swedish Social Democrats defused by taking political
power in the elections to the national parliment.

Indeed, the blood of the workers in =C5dalen gave the Social
Democrats power in nearly 40 years of=A0 uninterrupted power in
this country.

And now today it is the very same Social Democracy who want to
provide the ruling classes of Europe with the "legal" weapon to
inflict=A0 new "Adalens" and
bloodbaths on the workers of Europe.=A0 First on their list are the
French workers and farmers!

<STRAIGHT FACTS>>

Bob, this push to ban strikes across Europe is one of the most
sweeping crackdowns against the working class we've seen in
modern times, and it seems especially dangerous, coming from
the Social Democrats, who supposedly represent labor.=A0 But why
is this attack coming now?=A0 How do you account for this new,
extra aggressiveness by the Social Democrats?

<MALECKI>>

Since the demise of the Soviet Union, the Social Democracy has
shifted sharply to the right, much further into the camp of the
capitalist ruling class, or bourgeoisie, which historically they have
always defended since the classical betrayal in 1914 of voting for
siding with their *own* bourgeoisie in the first imperialist world
war.

However, historically they have done this as agents of the
bourgeoisie in the workers movement. Today, "new" social-
democratic parties along the lines of Tony Blair in=A0 Britain and the
Swedish Social Democracy base their politics on the status quo
of the middle class as they desert the historical base that gave
rise to them.

They do this more and more by becoming the forefront of anti-
working class, racist and reactionary laws directed at poor and
working class people which no longer even have a semblance of
reformism.

Instead, Social Democracy is providing a cutting edge to destroy
not only the strike right, but the mass organizations of the
proletariat, and many of the reforms that the unions paid for in
decades of bloody class warfare!

<STRAIGHT FACTS>>

Bob, what kind of alternatives do European workers have in the
face of this attack?

<MALECKI>>

Naturally workers can not just stand around and watch as these
Social Democratic traitors prepare new draconian laws directed
at their rights
and trade unions.=A0 Workers in Europe should give their answer to

these new laws coming up at the ministers meeting next week.

We must give a resounding No to social-democratic treason.

No to these draconian laws which mean cops and soldiers break
strikes!

Futhermore, a new class-struggle leadership must come forward
which will stop at nothing but all political power in the hands of
the working class..

<STRAIGHT FACTS>>

Thanks, Bob.=A0 That was our European correspondent, Bob
Malecki, reporting from Sweden.

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