Internationalism against austerity: 100,000 demonstrate in Belgium

100,000 demonstrate in Brussels against European governments’ savage cuts, part of a European-wide day of action, called by the European Trade Union Confederation on 29 September 2010, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge)

HUNDREDS OF activists from across the British trade union movement travelled to Brussels to march against the Europe-wide cuts agenda.

Nicholas Parker

Altogether, over 100,000 workers joined the march from nearly every European country. Firecrackers, smoke flares and lots and lots of noise greeted us as the UK delegation got off the Eurostar at Brussels station, where the march began.

Bob Crow joins 100,000 demonstrating in Brussels against European governments’ savage cuts, part of a European-wide day of action, called by the European Trade Union Confederation on 29 September 2010, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge)

Our delegation consisted of members of every major UK trade union. The banners held high represented groups of workers from across Europe: police officers from Romania, metal workers from Germany and pensioners from Britain.

The impact of the austerity agenda driven by the capitalists has clearly not hit every country at the same pace. The same can be said about the response - workers in countries like Greece have been quicker to take up the fight against cuts.

However, that raw anger exists in every country - anger at the prospect of working people being forced to pay for a crisis triggered by the spivs and speculators at the top of the capitalist financial system.

Martin Powell Davis, NUT NEC (left) on the demo, photo Paul Mattsson   (Click to enlarge)

The scale of the crisis means that internationalism is the order of the day. Many are still unsure about the way forward, but hopes exist that this show of strength could be a step towards a genuine Europe-wide campaign to defeat the austerity measures driven by capitalism.

On the journey back more discussions were held between trade unionists on the Eurostar about how we can defeat these attacks and how we can build a socialist society. Paraphrasing the words of Karl Marx, the day ended with the message - workers of Europe, unite!

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