2000 challenge EU austerity
Cardiff Euro-protest breaks the silence
Over two thousand people marched through Cardiff on June 13 in a spirited and noisy protest to mark the holding of the European Summit in the capital of Wales.
Our placards, in both Welsh and English, declared – Unite across Europe for jobs and democracy! This was the largest number of protesters in the city since the anti-poll tax movement.
It was particularly pleasing to welcome demonstrators from across the European Union: from France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Ireland and the Spanish State.
The largest delegations were from the AC! unemployed movement in Belgium and France and special thanks are due to them for their efforts. For a few hours at least, the flavour of recent French protests was brought to the streets of Cardiff!
The Cardiff demonstration did receive excellent press coverage in the Welsh media. Several radio and television interviews were conducted by march organisers in the week prior to the demonstration, and many reports appeared in local papers too.
The Counter-summit organised by "Reclaim Europe" was also positive, involving a layer of mainly young people in a series of useful debates about the nature of the bosses’ project of European integration and the various strands of an alternative.
Unemployed activists from across England and Wales mounted a further protest on Monday June 15 when they occupied the offices of the Welsh Labour Party in opposition to the Job Seekers Allowance, the New Deal and the pathetically low minimum wage.
Organisers had hoped that perhaps more people would have participated, particularly after the major success of last year’s protest in Amsterdam. Mobilising was not helped by the fact that there was so little press coverage in the run up to the Summit itself - a complete contrast with last year when Amsterdam dominated the media for two or three weeks.
After the rows over who was to head the European Central Bank, it seemed that the Eurocrats wanted to dodge further exposure for the time being.
Lack of press attention was not the only factor. The campaign to build support for Cardiff did succeed in deepening the debate on European integration within the labour movement: nevertheless this remains a difficult issue to mobilise around in Britain.
After many years of Tory rule, the real effects of the Maastricht convergence criteria for the single currency are not as apparent as they are in France or Germany.
This problem will need to be tackled in the next months, both in order to build an internationalist "No" campaign if Blair calls a referendum on the single currency itself, as well as to build for further international action such as the demonstration in Cologne next summer.
l Financial Appeal! - Unfortunately, the campaign’s accounts after the Cardiff march show a deficit of over £600. We realise that you may have already contributed financially to the Committee but need to ask you to consider a further contribution to meet our costs.
Our debts are the price of a well-organised event, and most of the outstanding amount is owed to individuals on the Committee. Any further financial support would be greatly appreciated.
A copy of the Committee accounts is available on request.
Please send donations to: Cardiff Euro Demo Committee, c/o CCTUS, 131 Crwys Rd, Cathays, Cardiff, CF2 4NH, Wales.