WESTERN EUROPEAN NEWS DIGEST
German Public Sector Begins Warning Strikes, Protests
Following several days of smaller warning strikes (each involving several hundred protesters) by urban transport, sanitation, and hospital workers in Germany, a national protest rally of 50,000 public-sector workers was held in Bremen Dec. 5. Nominally, they are demanding a 3% wage increase as the center of their demonstrations, but the protests are also taking aim at the austerity-driven budget-cutting taking place at the national, state and municipal levels.
On Dec. 6, 40,000 people, altogether, took part in walkouts and protest rallies lasting for several hours, mostly in the biggest German state, North Rhine-Westphalia, where 30,000 took part.
The participation of policemen and firemen is becoming more and more prominent in these protests and mini-strikes. Several thousand policemen were involved in the Dec. 6 activities, and 2,000 took part in the Bremen rally. In Sindelfingen, in southwestern Germany, 4,000 policemen protested in front of the convention center where the Baden-Wuerttemberg Christian Democrats were holding a state party congress.
Corporate Defaults in Germany at Highest Level in 53 Years
The backdrop to the social unrest in Germany is, of course, the deteriorating economy there, and the levels of austerity now being contemplated by newly reelected Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (two months after his narrow September reelection victory, polls are said to show his Social Democratic Party 14 percentage points behind the Christian Democrats).
As for the economic deterioration, a report presented by Creditreform in Berlin fully corroborates forecasts that this past calendar year would be the worst in postwar German history, in terms of corporate defaults. More than 38,000 firms went under in 2002, leaving 38.4 billion euros in bad loans unpaid, eliminating 590,000 jobs. That represents an increase by 20% from 2001. For the coming year, Creditreform forecasts more than 40,000 defaults, and the elimination of 680,000 jobs, if the trend prevailsif it turns worse, however, far more than 42,000 defaults have to be expected.
Proposals for State Intervention into Fiat Back on the Table
On the eve of the official date indicated by the Italian automaker Fiat for planned layoffs of 8,000 workers, the Italian government and trade unions are meeting with the Fiat management to find a last-minute alternative solution.
Asked by journalists whether the state could become shareholder of Fiat, Industry Minister Antonio Marzano said that this option is not being currently considered, but if the crisis is not solved, in the future "nothing can be excluded." Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni (of the Lega Nord) said he is in favor of regional governments becoming Fiat shareholders.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in a provocation which has irritated the Fiat management, said that if he were not Prime Minister, he would happily take the job of Fiat manager, and put everything under Ferrari. In the meantime, Fiat workers are continuing their protest against the layoffs. Termini Imerese workers blocked the Melfi factory in Basilicata, while nine of their colleagues climbed a tower and are threatening suicide if the layoffs are not cancelled. In Turin, a few thousand workers struck in solidarity, blocking the highway for a few hours.
Is British Establishment Slamming the Brakes on War-Hungry Tony Blair?
It may be that the British Establishment has found a way to slam the political brakes on a war-hungry Prime Minister Tony Blair, by exploiting his worst personal family in five and one-half years in office. The scandal centers on wife Cherie; the "Cherie Affair" has become the lead item in the British dailies. Although this may appear to be gossip, it involves probably illegal behavior by the Prime Minister's wife, and certainly shows an "above the rules" contempt for the British public and institutions.
It involves the following:
Last Sunday, the Mail on Sunday tabloid reported that Cherie Blair had used the services of a convicted fraudster, an Australian named Peter Foster, to buy two Blair family apartments in Bristol, England, at a reduced price. When the story came out, Cherie denied it, and the 10 Downing Street Press Office, run by Blair Press Secretary Alastair Campbell, issued disclaimers, denouncing the tabloid.
The Mail retaliated by publishing private e-mails detailing the communications between Foster and Cherie over the Bristol property. In response, Cherie was forced to release a statement, admitting that it was true; and a second statement, exculpating Campbell's team and indicating she alone had been responsible for lying.
The Guardian revealed that Peter Foster is the boyfriend of one Carole Caplin, who is Cherie's special "lifestyle"/New Age guru. Caplin is a former topless model who, in the 1980s, was a member of a weird new age/sex cult called Exegesis, that was denounced in the British Parliament as "dangerous, puerile, and profoundly wrong."
As a result of all this, Tony Blair is in no position to bring Britain into a war on Iraq, because he is getting into serious political trouble at home, a very well-informed European strategist commented.
The source was reviewing the Iraq war dynamics, and said, "The oddity for the United States is that it has, through Wolfowitz in particular, now called for greater participation of the NATO countries in Iraq military preparations, precisely at the moment where there is no enthusiasm in any of the NATO countries that militarily matter, for this war."
He went on: "Take the case of the main ally, Britain. The reality is simple. Tony Blair is in real trouble. There is open opposition between him and [Chancellor of the Exchequer] Gordon Brown, which has become a new feature of the situation. Now, there is this matter of his wife Cherie. I can assure you, this is not a piece of gossip. For a lady of her caliber as a trained lawyer, to do what she did in this case, is truly astonishing.
"What it all means, is that they are after him." Asked what he meant by "they," the source replied, "There are many 'theys,' and the fact is, it is become a bit too much for Mr. Blair. I've seen his face during Parliament debates. He's getting tense. He considers himself under pressure. Under such conditions, I simply can't see Tony Blair leading Britain into war, with the U.S., against Iraq."
U.S. Will Train 2,000 Iraqi Oppositionists in Hungary
Hungarian Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz revealed at a Budapest press conference Dec. 4 that the Pentagon will train 2,000 Iraqis in Hungary, to assist American troops during any possible invasion of Iraq. The Americans plan to carry out these training programs in the region around Taszar, in southern Hungary. Juhasz has already informed nine municipalities of the U.S. plans. The project, which will include the arrival of up to 800 U.S. military instructors, is to begin in January.
The 2,000 Iraqi oppositionists will be trained for tasks like forward-based target reconnaissance for the artillery, or as military policemen and translators. Their familiarity with the Iraqi geography especially is what the Pentagon wants to benefit from, according to Hungarian media reports.
86 French Parliamentarians Denounce a War on Iraq
Eighty-six French Parliamentarians (69 Deputies, 13 Senators, and four members of the European Parliament) from every party in France have signed a petition against a new American war in Iraq, attacking the "aggressive behavior of the U.S. towards Iraq."
While saying that "the war on terrorism should be waged without weakness," the Parliamentarians assert that the war on terrorism "should not aim at other goals." Instead of following principles of international law, they charge, the U.S. is using "medieval practices based on unilateral and preventive use of force," and they express concern about "the subordination of law to [the American] lone conception of morality."
They emphasize that only the UN Resolutions should be taken into account, asserting that any other goal, like overthrowing the Iraqi government is "irrelevant to the UN Security Council Resolutions." If the U.S. doesn't comply, "the UN Security Council should ... officially condemn any military action which would be waged without UN mandate."
While admitting that many countries in the Middle East have weapons of mass destruction, the Parliamentarians say they believe that the U.S. is motivated by other considerations, mainly economic ones.
Pope Asks That Christians Be 'Men of Dialogue'
According to the Vatican-affiliated news agency Zenit, Pope John Paul II, speaking at the pontifical Urban University at the beginning of December, asked that "Christians be men of dialogue and work against that Clash of Civilizations that at times seems inevitable." John Paul II urged students to have "an open sensitivity to the values of various cultures in relation to the evangelical message."
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, emphasizing these remarks in a front-page banner headline, editorialized, "This is perhaps the most concrete challenge that humanity must confront in the century that has just begun."
The Pope called on the students to make their school a "gymnasium of universality, in which one must be able to breathe that sense of profound communion that characterized the early community." He said the Urban University should be distinguished "among the other universities in Rome precisely for its special attention to peoples' cultures and to the great world religions, beginning with Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism."
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