their 1999 deadline.
And it ignores the fact that if the Euro is established, along with a European Bank policing the actions of member states, che scope to force concessions from any genugovernment is virtually nonexistent.
While leftists who ignore Maas"nationalism" of those fighting back, they have no answer to the fact that the oppressive power of an un elected central bank would create new national dir. Aca bernoon As millions of workers are becoming painfully ware, with their cherished pensions, jobs and living standards under attack, the Maastricht process is driv ng forward a continenta ffensive the EU are not to be driven down to the conditions im. posed in Tory Britain - and then progressively further in the name of compeaton with low-wage econo mies world-wide - they must unite in common sure The fight is not for the pound, the mark or the franc, or even arms he concealone singe rency: it is against the concerted effort of Europe's bankers to solve their crisis at our expense.
The only genuinely social Europe wil be one in which the wealth and the means of production are socially owned and democratically controlled by Europe's workers. OVER 200 trade union activists from all over Europe, as well as delegations from the USA, Canada, Turkey, South Korea and Belarus attended the third international conference of the Transnational Information Exchange (TIE).
Entitled "Towards a New Transnational Labour Response to Lean Production and Neo-liberalism", the conference was called by TIE and "Express" on 6-9 March. It was well organised with with simultaneous translation in 7 languages The starting plenary had an introduction by Kob Van Tilder of the University of Amsterdam. In a wide ranging contribution he de bunked the idea of "Globalisation" and showed how Europe is doing lass trade with the rest of the world Companies receiving outsourced work are often themselves masor world companies!
Workshops were held on Turkey, Mexico, South Korea and Belarus and there were also sessions on politics in the trades unions, the battle to change the unions including contributions from the "Black Workers for Justice USA.
There were other workshops on company unionism, AND on the fight against partnership and participation programmes.
One of the workshops was led by and CAMI/Canada plants, both of which started off as exemplary plants for the employers but which have now changed for the better in terms of resistance by workers in the form of negotiated agreements.
The Canadian Auto Workers reported on their highly militant contract negotiations and there was a lively debate about outsourcing that arose from the fact that they had more or less successfully op. posed it.
One of the most interesting debates was on Works Councils, which several of the German delegates were involved with. The general conclusion seemed to be that membership of such councils was not a matter of principle and that it is important to have a genuinely independent organisation of shop stewards.
"Interest group" meetings took place at the conference on the European Marches against unemploywhich Express are sponsoring, and on the Renault dispate in trance TIE is the only organisation that on the main issues now facing trade socialists and trade unionists give their full support to these initiatives.