The Other Voices

Monthly Email-Newsletter of the International Coalition for a Different Europe

Issue 3, April 1997

June is now coming very close. This third issue of The Other Voices has news on the German and Swedish preparations for the alternative summit, and of course from The Netherlands itself. You can also read about the start of the European Marches against Unemployment, scheduled for April 14th, actions agai- nst EU transport and biotech policies, the launch of The European Anti-Maastricht alliance (TEAM), and much more. At the end of this issue of The Other Voices, there is background news on the IGC, inc luding more confidential "non-papers" of which more and more can now be found on the internet.

News from the Netherlands

Alternative Summit 12 - 17th of June

The publicity for the alternative summit will start later this month when a full programme and details on how to register will be sent around to groups all over Europe, including of course the readers of The Other Voices. The alternative summit will be a colourful mix of debates, culture, workshops and actions, starting on Thursday June 12th. There will be spea- kers from all parts of Europe, as well as non-Europeans. A glimpse in the list of speakers shows a high degree of diver- sity: Christophe Aguiton (European Marches), Nicholas Hildey- ard (The Ecologist magazine), Frieder-Otto Wolf (Green MEP), Vandana Shiva (eco-feminist from india), Susan George (Trans- nationals Institute) and representatives of the free trade unions in South Korea, among many others.

As announced in the last issue of The Other Voices, we invite your organisation to propose workshops to take place during the alternative summit. Also proposals for other kinds of activities, including cultural ones, are very welcome. Get in touch with the secretariate of the Dutch Coalition for a Different Europe!

In quite a few countries we have contact with groups who are planning to organise cheap transport to Amsterdam in June (f.i. Denmark, Sweden, Spain, France), but we would be happy to hear from other countries as well. Also if you can help with publicity in your country, don't hesitate to get in touch!

Squatting action against EU Ministers Meeting

In the early morning op April the 3rd, a group of 60 people squatted a large hotel in Noordwijk, a beachtown. It was a well-prepared action against the ECOFIN conference, a heavily secured meeting by the European ministers of Economics and Finance, also in Noordwijk. The activists wanted to have a "counter-summit" in the squatted hotel, with discussion, music, demonstrations and theatre. They also wanted to discuss further action during the big Eurotop in Amsterdam next june.

The counter summit, a non-violent happening of three days with the motto SQUAT EUROPE, was expected to attract over 200 people. The hotel had been unused for over 6 years, so under dutch law the squat was legal. Despite this, the activists were evicted after one day, before the ECOFIN council started. Apparantly, the authorities could not accept a strong protest against the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) so close to the official ECOFIN summit. 200 activists at 500 meter near the prestigious Huis ter Duin hotel in Noordwijk, the place of the ECOFIN summit, was considered to be a too great security risk.

After the eviction, the activists regrouped in the town of Leiden, 10 kilometers away. The next morning, they squatted an empty school in this town, this time with more success. The counter summit could proceed. Sunday 5/4, a demonstration was organised in Noordwijk. More than 100 activists dressed in garbage bags showed up in front of the hotel where the EU ministers met, to protest against the way the EU treats public opinion.

For more contact:
Group Informal Counter Summit
P.O. Box 2228
2301 CE Leiden
Netherlands
e-mail: robbel@stad.dsl.nl

International Updates

News from Germany

Finally, a German campaign office for the alternative summit in Amsterdam has been set up. Supported by the German Greens and members of the European Parliament the office is based in Bonn. Bernd Schneider functions as full time campaigne manager with the aim to get a German "Initiative for Different Europe" off the ground. Currently phone calls and letters are being send out to a great variety of organisations, ranging from powerful trade unions to local student structures. At this point in time, positive responses are coming in every day. May 9th will see the official campaigne start with an opening congress in Bonn, gathering some 200 representatives of their organisations. Due to the short time until the Amsterdam summit, the German initiative will hardly be able to decide on a common political platform. Instead it will focus on starting a public debate about Maastricht II. The campaign office will use the remaining time to gather input on all kinds of topics dealt with in the treaty changes proposed by the Dutch EU Presidency. Input from European organisations will be highly appreciated. A suggestion from Bonn regarding other European campaigne offices is to exchange information on the position of the respective governments in the current negotiations. People wanting to get in contact with the German summit cam- paigne, as well as Germans wishing to attend the alternative summit in Amsterdam, should write to:

Koordinierungsstelle Alternativgipfel Amsterdam Bundesgeschaftsstelle Bundnis 90 / Die Grunen attn: Bernd Schneider, Baunscheidtstr. 1a D-53113 Bonn, Germany
phone: +49-(0)228-16 87022
fax: +49-(0)228-16 46642
email: FIC@oln.comlink.apc.org

News from Sweden

In Sweden the preparations for the Alternative EU-summit and the European marches are coordinated by Friends of the Earth Sweden, the trade union SAC and others groups. These will do their do their best to spread information, and also arrange buses directly to Amsterdam. This has also led to some local cooperation, with smaller organisations and individuals in for instance Stockholm and Malmo, where local marches or actions will take place, for instance on May 17. Swedish Friends of the Earth has invited groups from all over Sweden as well as from Denmark, Norway and Finland for a preparatory meeting in Malmo on April 11th.

Here follows a translation of the platform we have been using in this initiative. We hope it can be fruitful within an all-the-time needed discussion about how to continue the developement of cooperation between popular movements within and between the countries of Europe.

Swedish Discussion Platform 97

For jobs, democracy and a sustainable Europe

Since the 1970s mass unemployment has become permanent in one country after another all over Europe and the rest of the world. Mass unemployment is trigggered by the undemocratic globalisations process which is promoted by the EU. Adjust- ments to the interests of the corporations and competition on the world market are prioritised before social needs, environ- mental protection and the struggle against unemployment. The situation gets worse by the growing power given to big countries, lobbyists and experts within the EU and the extension of EU politics to a growing number of political areas, increasing centralisation of power but not social empowerment.

We, organisations and people, would like to cooperate against these socially and environmentally destructive politics. We propose the development of a political action agenda for international popular movement cooperation. The proposal is built partly on the proposal from the Alternative Forum to the EU summmit in Madrid 1995. It shall be seen as a basis for continued discussion between movements and people who want to work with different activities before, during and beyond the EU-meeting in Amsterdam June 1997. We have to cooperate across ideological differences and unite the work in different fields to help get Europe and the world out of the social and ecological crisis:

Progressive tax on wealth and ressource use. Abolish unemployment!
Reduce working hours 6 hours working day! More jobs in social care!
Ecological reconstruction for green jobs now! Progressive income tax!
Tax on currency transfers and speculation! Raise environmental taxes on wasteful ressource use!
Defense and improvement of workers's rights and the environment against global competition! For peace and freedom in Europe!
Yes to national tax and financial politics no to EMU! Yes to a common security agreement including Russia and North America and a broadened neutrality zone in Europe integrated with solidarity with the East and the South.dismantle NATO and WEU!
Yes to an open Europe no to racism and the Schengen agreement
No to the transeuropean network of motorways, of EU and corporations
Yes to international cooperation no to an European supranational political union. No to Maastricht II.

Contact: Tord Bjork and Louise Pettersson, Friends of the Earth-Sweden jobs-working group, Barnangsstan 28A, 11841 Stockholm, Sweden, telephone +46 8 7022017, fax +46 8 7140154

News on the European Marches

On Monday April 14th the first of the fourteen main European marches against unemployment, job insecurtity and social exclusion will start from Tanger, Sarajevo, Southern Italy and Finland. On the same day, there will be symbolic actions in different coun tries all over Europe, to celebrate the march departure. An example is Amsterdam where a symbolic march will take place around the headquarters of the Dutch National Bank. This is the building where the EU summit will be held on June 16 and 17th.

The first press conference in Brussels announcing the start of the marches resulted in good press coverage in a number of countries. The Guardian (UK) quoted Robert Cremieux from the Belgian organising committee for the unemployment march who declared: "We are marching to proclaim our anger and because we want a Europe where the people rather than big business decide on policy".

A number of French intellectuals have published a "common call for action" to support the European Marches and their demands for "a radical and decisive policy of struggle against unemployment and precariousness, based on a different dis tribution of wealth including among other measures a tax on financial speculation and a massive reduction of labour time, without diminution of the wage-earners income". The signatories, include Pierre Bourdieu, Hoang-Ngog Liem, Arianne Mnouchkine and the Theatre du Soleil, and Bertrand Tavernier. The full text can be ordered at the Dutch Coalition for a Different Europe.

The start of the marches in the UK sounds very promising. The start is marked by the March for Social Justice in London on April 12th, organised by the 500 sacked Liverpool dock workers. The dockers invite "all those who oppose the government trad e unionists, the unemployed, pensioners, people with disabilities, the homeless, refugees ad asylum seekers, environmentalists and the young". The invitation has fallen on fertile ground: Reclaim the Streets, the direct action movement that has organ ised a number of spectacular street parties against the overload of cars in cities, will join in and organise a TWO DAY FESTIVAL OF RESISTANCE. More information on the March for Social Justice: +44 181 442 0090, Reclaim the Streets: +44 171 281 4621

Another activity this month within the framework of the European Marches, is on April 22nd in Geneva. A symbolic demonstration on the problems of globalisation is planned, in the surroundings of the head quarters of the World Trade Organisation and the International Labour Office.

For more information on the European Marches against unemployment, job insecurtity and social exclusion, contact Marches Europeennes, 104 rue des Couronnes, 75020 Paris. Tel: + 33 1 44626344. Fax: +33 1 44626345. E- mail: marches97@ras.eu.org

TEAM launched succesfully

The European Anti-Maastricht Alliance (TEAM) was started at a meeting in Edinburgh in December 1992 but has since then been dormant. This was mainly due to the high level of activity of the participating organisations in referenda and election campaigns i n their own or neighbouring countries. About 80 people representing 40 organisations from 16 countries participated in the TEAM meeting in Copenhagen 1 3 March which was the first gathering since Edinburgh. One of the aims of the meeting was to establish a more structured TEAM than previously seen. And that was achieved. At the Copenhagen meeting TEAM adopted a constitution, elected a Board and set out a number of priority areas for its work. The Board consists of a Coordinator and six other members. Henr ik Overgaard-Nielsen from Denmark was elected Coordinator and the other board members are from Finland, France, Iceland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. TEAM is primarily an information network. Thus TEAM should assist the member organisations in ob taining information and documentation, create fora of debate, organise international meetings, build contacts between participating organisations and elected representatives in the national parliaments and the European Parliament.

For further information, please contact: Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen, tel/fax +44.181.7437795 or Helle Hagenau, European Parliament, MON 207, Rue Belliard 97 113, B-1047Brussels, Tel. +32.2.284 4579, Fax +32.2.284 9144, E-mail: hhagenau@europarl.eu.int

Short News and Updates

Beyond Maastricht-II

24th and 25th of April, the "Greening the Treaty" campaign and Mouvement Ecologique (Friends of the Earth Luxembourg) organise the conference "Beyond Maastricht II: answers to globalisation from the perspective of environmental NGOs". The conference includes speakers from the European trade union confederation, Friends of the Earth, International Forum on Globalisation, the European Marches against Unemployment, etc. Among other things, it aims to "coordinate the common activities of different actors in the run up to the Amsterdam EU summit in June 1997". For more ifnormation, contact Mouvement Ecologique, 6 rue Vauban, L-2663 Luxembourg. Fax: +352 422242, email: meco@ci.rech.lu

These tides

These Tides is a new magazine for all those working to build the post-EU Europe. These Tides has in depth articles about campaigns around Europe. It is a place to trade ideas as the campaigns of all traditions are covered. It is a place to trade tactics as large and small campaigns are covered. These Tides is independent, but seeks to cooperate closely with all organisations in our movement. These Tides will launch mid-April with 32 pages plus colour cover price stlg2.00, Dkr 20. send stlg0.50 or DKr 5BEF 25 or any equivilent p+p for free first copy. News releases appreciated. Contact These Tides at BP 6, Bxl 46, B-1047 Bruxelles, tel +32.2.284.5399, fax 284 9399

Actions to stop the EU patent on Life Directive!

The Pure Food Campaign's call for an action week against genetically engineered foods and crops (April 21-26) has sparked a lot of interest. AEDENAT in Spain, one of the organisations joining this international protest, will focus on the EU's role in promoting genetic engineering and agricultural biotechnology. Gregorio Alvaro presents the plans of AEDENAT:

As you know, just now, we have an important challenge in Europe because the future "directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions" is being discussed in the European Parliament. The biotech lobby is strongly pushing for getting a directive which allows "patents on life". On the contrary, a lot of European groups and activists are pushing for avoiding the "patents on life" in the future European Patents Directive.

AEDENAT believes that the "patents on life" and "the genetic engineered food" are the two sides of the same coin. We believe that the European "April Global Days of Action" should be focused on the battle against the "Patents on Life" in order to avoid a patents directive according to biotechnology companies purposes. We invite you to carry out april days actions joining the battles against the "genetic engineered food" and the "patents on life".

In Spain, AEDENAT will carry out some theater sketch performances about these subjects in front of European Community Delegations and Health Ministry Delegations. Also, we are going to present petitions to the City Councils and to the Provincial Parlaments in order to get them to reject the Patents on life. Public speeches and press conferences are being organized in different cities, such as Madrid, Gijon, Rioja and Valladolid.

For more information, contact Gregorio Alvaro, AEDENAT Phone: +34-1-522-64-26, fax: +34-1-571-71-08 E-mail aedenat@nodo50.ix.apc.org
http://nodo50.ix.apc.org/aedenat/home.htm

European Transport Action Weekend

In the weekend of April 4/5/6 transport action groups throughout Europe protested against the expansion of infrastructure. A focus of the protests was the EU's Trans European Networks (TEN), 140 new major infrastructure projects, including 15.000 km of new highway in Western Europe and a similar amount in Central & East Europe. A few examples of actions that took place:
* in Warsaw the Polish Ecological Club organised a bike demo and protest at the government building to protest against the building of the A1, A2, A3 AND A4, all roads that 'need' to be built to make sure that Poland will link up with the European Union Free Market, where money & wheels make the world go round
* in Vienna the VIRUS-group showed to the public how to move in a city in an environmentally wise way, using bikes and 'Gehzeug' (Austrian 'walking vehicles')
* the VERDI-group from Turku (Finland) protested against the unwanted Thomas-bridge, which is part of the new road Helsinki-Turku, which again is part of one of the TEN-priority projects ('Nordic Triangle')
For more information, contact Frank van Schaik, A SEED Europe Office, P.O. Box 92066, 1090 AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 20 6682236, fax +31 20 6650166, email: aseedeur@antenna.nl or take a look at http://www.antenna.nl/aseed/

Contact address

If you have proposals for activities during the alternative summit or questions, get in touch with us at the following address:
Dutch Coalition for a Different Europe,
Olivier Hoedeman
P.O. Box 54, 1000 AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel: +31 20 4222712
Fax: +31 20 4223171
Email: ander.europa@xs4all.nl
WWW: http://www.snore.org/different-europe
Visitors address (please phone first): Damrak 83-1, Amsterdam (150 metres from Central Station)

Agenda of Upcoming Events

* 14 April, all over Europe: start of European Marches
* 24 25 April, Luxembourg: Greening the Treaty-II and strategies towards Amsterdam
* 20 23 May, Brussels: Assembly on the Appeal for Full Employment
* 14 & 15/6 Socialist Party-conference on alternatives to neoliberal Europe
* 12 17 June, Amsterdam: Top van Onderop, alternative summit Towards a Different Europe including, among a lot of other events:
12 & 13/6: "Speak out against racism", European-wide anti-racism conference
13/6: How sustainable is the EU?
14/6: European demonstration against unemployment, job insecurity and social exclusion
15/6: International seminar on European Nuclear Non-Proliferation

The next issue of the Other Voices

Contributions before April 26th!



WHAT WE WOULD LIKE FROM YOU:
* news from your organisation or network: activities and campaign news related to European Union and Maastricht-II * news from the discussion in your country: EMU, Maastricht-II, etc.
* ideas for international cooperation

Your contributions should preferably be short and condensed, with a contact address where people can receive more information.

ALSO FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DUTCH COALITION FOR A DIFFERENT EUROPE ARE EXTREMELY WELCOME: Postbank NL 7609478, att. Platform Naar een Ander Europa, Amsterdam

IGC Background

New non-papers on the Internet


In the last issue of The Other Voices, you could read about the confidential "non-papers" which give an often disturbing insight in the IGC negotiations. These papers are not available for the public, but Green MEP Nel van Dijk has managed to put some examples on the World Wide Web. In March, Nel van dijk put confidential papers from the Dutch presidency of the EU on the internet which reveal the intention to get rid of a clause concerning non-discrimination basis of age, handicap and sexual preference. The WWW-adres is http://www.xs4all.nl/~nelvdijk.

The new non-papers contain proposals for the new EU-treaty concerning fundamental rights of European citizens, non-discrimination and equal treatment of men an women. The Dutch presidency proposes to limit the non-discrimination paragraph to gender, race, ethnic background and religion. The earlier proposal from the Irish presidency also included age, handicap, social background and sexual preference. The proposal for equal rights for men and women moreover is kept outside of the scope of the European Parliament. The Dutch presidency wants decisions on this matter to be taken by qualified majority in the Council of Ministers. Nel van Dijk criticizes the Dutch governments attempt to keep for instance non-discrimination of gays and lesbians out of the treaty: "In this way all European policy on these issues becomes impossible in the future".

Amnesty protests against IGC asylum proposals

In a press release, Amnesty International has in strong wordings rejected the Spanish proposal to include a provision in the European Union Treaty denying the right to seek asylum to citizens of EU Member States in the other EU countries. This, says the Amnesty statement, "contravenes international human rights standards, and is a dangerous precedent that could lead to the implementation of similar measures in other regions of the world".

The EU Presidency's representative, Mr. Michiel Patijn, declared in February that the Spanish proposal was "politically accepted". In its critique, Amnesty International points to the fact that the Spanish proposal would clearly contravene obligations undertaken by EU member states under international human rights treaties. "It is a core principle of international refugee law that all asylumseekers, irrespective of their country of origin, should have access to a fair and satisfactory individual asylum determination procedure," Amnesty International said.

The organization stresses also that international obligations resulting from the Geneva Convention should be individually respected by each Member State. "It is the States who are party to the Convention and not the EU as such. Affiliation to a supranational body such as the EU cannot be used by Member States to evade their obligations under international human rights law". "Not only does the proposal contravene the 1951 Geneva Convention, but also it ignores the fact that no one can guarantee that EU citizens will never have to flee human rights violations in the current or an enlarged European Union," Amnesty International said.

Environment versus internal market

The oficial WWW-site for promoting the EU Summit in Amsterdam (http://www.eurosummit.amsterdam.nl/nederlands.html) contains a English language discussion forum, in which Dutch minister of environment De Boer recently put the following statement:

"In Europe the environment should be as important as and perhaps even more important than the 'market' and the 'currency'"

A nice statement which might inspire the readers to react. Here follows parts of a reply by Richard Wouters, active in the Dutch Coalition for a Different Europe for the Green-Left Party (GroenLinks) (for the full text, contact the Dutch Coalition for a Different Europe):


Dear Mrs. De Boer,

I greatly appreciate your position. But allow me to wonder if this is also the position of your colleagues in the Dutch government, especially those who are currently presiding the negotiations on a new EU Treaty: minister Hans van Mierlo and state secretary Michiel Patijn. I have some questions on their commitment to the environment, which I will formulate below. First your position: I infer from these words that in the present European Union, the environment is not of equal importance as the internal market and the single currency (the 'Euro' as it has been so unimaginatively baptized). Yet you probably agree it is the very existence of the internal market (the free movement of goods, services and capital between the 15 member states and the harmonization of laws to facilitate this trade) that calls for a strong EU environmental policy. 'Fair competition' on a 'level playing field' demands environmental minimum standards respected by all member states. Competition in the internal market will become tougher as soon as member states share one currency: cross-border transactions will be easier and prices will be comparable at a glance. So monetary union will encourage 'environmental dumping' unless it is accompanied by an offensive EU environmental policy. Such a policy is all the more urgent because production and consumption in Europe are already far from 'sustainable'. We're using up an unfairly great share of the earth's resources, to the detriment of people in the South and future generations.

Of course, all of this is no news to you. You also know that the ability of the European Union to implement 'greener' policies depends to a great extent on the goals and competences attributed to its institutions by the EU Treaty, and to the decision-making procedures this Treaty provides for. So we need to 'green' the EU Treaty. The current Treaty of Maastricht gives the EU only limited competences in the field of environmental policy. The most important 'green' measures, like ecotaxes, can be blocked by any one member state using its veto. (Remember that the legislation needed to create the internal market was adopted so quickly because of the absence of a national veto right.) Other environmental measures can be adopted by qualified majority voting (QMV) in the Council of Ministers, but the European Parliament has only a limited say in these matters. This undemocratic procedure undermines public acceptance of EU policies. It also affects the quality of EU legislation, since the EP holds 'greener' views than the majority of member states.

Dear minister, if you want to 'green' the EU Treaty before the advent of monetary union (foreseen in 1999), it has to be done in the current negotiations on the revision of the Treaty of Maastricht. The fact that the Dutch government is presiding the final phase of these talks between the governements of the member states should be helpful.

Your colleague and party leader Wim Kok hopes to sign the new EU Treaty during the Amsterdam Summit in June. The text of the Treaty will strengthen the Union's commitment to sustainable development. All the member states agree that this should become one of the main goals of the EU. But these words are hollow if the EU doesn't get the instruments to make the promise come true, if it doesn't get the degree of democracy and transparancy it needs to regain public confidence in its endeavours. If your fellow social-democrat Kok disappoints you, if he brokers a Treaty which is bad news for both the environment and democracy, if he is nevertheless proud of it, if he stands there padding Hans and Michiel on the back "We did it, boys, we did it" while you think "How on earth am I going to sell this Treaty to the public, to my civil servants, to my friends in the environmental movement?", well, in that case you should know that you can always change sides. Give up the lonely place at the top that you never seemed happy with anyway, find new political friends. Friends who are more seriously committed to both sustainable development and European democracy. I promise I will put in a word for you.

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