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HOAC LOC WEBCA Burgos COMMUNIQUÉ

Burgos, 19th February 2013. The executive team of the LOC/MTC (Liga Operária Católica - Movimento de Trabalhadores Cristãos**) and the permanent commission of the HOAC (Hermanda Obrera de Acción Católica***) held their annual coordination meeting from 17th to 19th February in Burgos to share and to analyze together the life and efforts of the activists – male and female – of both movements and the current state of the working environment and the Church in both countries.

As a starting point, we affirmed the similarity of both countries with respect to:

- the high rate of existing unemployment, which has increased this last year and the worrying prospect that this increase will continue steadily.

- the latest labor reforms have not avoided job losses, but have further deteriorated working conditions and job instability and set back collective negotiation.

- indecent wages, often a pittance, are leading to the creation of a sector of poor workers, in spite of their jobs

- smear campaigns directed at the workers' organizations

- this situation has reduced the workers' purchasing power and has conditioned their lives, forcing them to renounce minimally decent standards of living.

- insecurity has increased, fear and uncertainty about the future have increased.

- thousands of qualified young people from both countries must leave their homes and families to find a future in other countries

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The European Sunday Alliance supports the protection of health and safety of workers and their right to a limit on maximum working hours and of a weekly rest period, including, in principle Sunday.

The Declaration

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Fortunately, I got the message quite quickly. My Latin teacher especially, was keeping an eye on me and warned me right at the start that if I wanted to finish my final year without problems, I should change my strategy. I shouldn’t draw attention to myself in class too much and only if I was convinced the answer was correct, should I attempt to be the first to answer the question. This strategy paid off and I finished secondary school right on track.

Twenty years later I notice that our politicians also know how to use this strategy when attending their European “class”. They have difficulty in reporting back the imposed economies because they haven’t achieved them and they fear coming under the scrutiny of angry commissioners. Those who don’t perform, for example Greece, go to the bottom of the class and get punished. The countries who want money, have to achieve a social massacre in order to get it. There remains no choice for those who don’t comply but to be expelled from the class.

Out of fear, not one Belgian minister will make firm statements or a well-argued and forceful speech. Those who get in the limelight or dare to hold opposing views, are watched with special attention. That’s why European technocrats can do what they like without being challenged.

The European parliament took the initiative to handle the problem by putting countries under supervision which is legal and probably completely democratic. However, where Belgium is concerned, where is it written that the social protection of the most vulnerable groups of our society (unemployed, sick people, retired) must be reduced? In which (European) party programme does it state that our wages cannot increase with the cost of living? The views of Olli Rehn and the ratings agencies don’t take democracy into account.

Are there any political parties who dare to raise their hands and who can show working people where all this is written in order to prove to us that we have actually chosen this programme? But we keep silent and watch how at first in Greece thousands and thousands of workers end up in poverty. And after Greece other countries will follow and become bottom of the class.
We are far away from a social Europe. Moreover, courage and vision are seldom rewarded.

From: ‚Raak‘ March 2012, Member Magazine KWB (Belgium)
Koenraad Coppens, President KWB

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Video-Statement of Sven Giegold, MEP, about the statute for a European Cooperative Society wth the regard for the involvement of employees, Strasbourg March 13th 2012

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Prague Resolution

Prague, 13 July 2012.The European Commissions‘ 2020 strategy was one of the highlights of the "Europe on the way to the social collapse? Financial markets - poverty - participation" Summer Academy held in Prague from 8th - 14th July 2012.

Delegates discussed and examined the EU recommendations in great detail before concluding the Europe 2020 strategy did indeed contain positive responses to some of the issues which have emerged from the current economic crisis in Europe.

However delegates were concerned that the positive aspects of Europe 2020 cannot be realised in a neoliberal climate where objectives and the means to achieve those objectives contradict each other.

Politics cannot remain the economic and financial markets dogsbody any longer but rather the economy must begin to align with the values of Christian social ethics in order to better serve citizens. People and employment are more important than capital. This applies to all. In particular a free education must be the basis for providing a livelihood for young people.

Sommerakademie Prag EBCA KAB

We oppose the privatisation of the welfare state; It is one of the reasons why the social divide between rich and poor is growing

Our political demands:

Regulating of the financial markets
Tax reforms (transaction tax, wealth tax, business income tax, harmonisation of taxes)
Preserve and enlarge the welfare state
Fair wage and good working conditions
Public commodities in the hands of citizens

To enforce these requirements, there is a need for national and international networking in order to overcome the helplessness of the current situation as imposed by the decision makers and the powerful.

The current functioning of the European Commission suggests to us that our democratic values are under severe risk. The fiscal pact is a clear indication of this.

We stand for a different Europe, for social justice, democracy and participation

Prague Resolution

The European Commissions‘ 2020 strategy was one of the highlights of the "Europe on the way to the social collapse? Financial markets - poverty - participation" Summer Academy held in Prague from 8th - 14th July 2012
Delegates discussed and examined the EU recommendations in great detail before concluding the Europe 2020 strategy did indeed contain positive responses to some of the issues which have emerged from the current economic crisis in Europe.

Prague Resolution

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The World Movement of Christian Workers (WMCW) celebrates May 1st as one of the most important events for workers and reasserts its solidarity and communion with all men and women who are suffering from serious injustice at work.

Declaration

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During the Conference "Europe 2020: Fighting with Poverty and Social Exclusion of Workers" organized by the Polish Trade Union Solidarnosz and EZA on April 20-22nd in Warsaw, KAB-Online interrogated Radoslaw Mleczko, the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy of Poland. Subjects of the interview are Poverty and Social Exclusion and the measures the Polish Government is supposed to do against them.

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"Let us open the future for world of solidarity" was the slogan of the last General Assembly of the WMCW. To achieve this we need to analyze the reality around us. On this 8th March, International Women's Day, we want to focus specifically on the reality of rural women in Nicaragua.

Declaration WMCW

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With its 4-year plan adopted in Nantes in October 2009 and worked out in continental seminars, the WMCW wants to open up to new prospects for and with the migrants. While some are building physical or internal walls, it is proposing to build bridges. It announces the possibility of living together and its members are given the means to build up a real fraternity.

Declaration WMCW