Union map of where there were strikes and protests yesterday

You might not have noticed yesterday, what with the UK news much more concerned about what high paid cushy job David Miliband will be getting next, but across Europe millions of people were on strike and in the streets to protest the austerity policies of the EU governments.

Just like the ConDem government here, governments all across the European Union are making massive attacks on the working class, such cutting spending on vital services, taking away workers’ rights, throwing people out of work and generally making Europe a much more shite place to live.

Around 100,000 people took part in a Europe-wide demo in Brussels demanding an end to austerity policies. Delegations from 30 different countries are thought to have taken part. There’s some footage of it below:

There’s some great photos from the Brussels demo here, but a particular favourite of mine is these two who dressed up to take the piss out of right wing French President Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni:

Mr and Mrs Sarkozy

Meanwhile, in Spain there was a general strike, with 10 million people refusing to go to work in protest at the supposedly “Socialist” (the Spanish Socialist Party are more like New Labour) government, particularly plans to make it easier to sack workers and reduce the amount of compensation they’re entitled to. Protesters in Madrid went into any workplaces that were still open to hand out pamphlets and call on workers to join them, as well as blocking one of the main shopping streets the Gran Via. Throughout the different countries and regions that make up the Spanish state there were demonstrations taking place, and cops were used to break up picket lines, as you can see in this photo from Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

Here’s some footage as well of the protests in Huelva, Andalusia:

In Barcelona, riot cops attacked and beat protesters, who fought back by torching one of their cars:

Update from a comrade in Barcelona: “Protesters completely occupied the headquarters of a major bank, and set up 2 huge speakers from the balcony which they used to give a running commentary of events onto the street, and somehow jammed the frequency of a local radio station so that it broadcast their speeches instead, clever stuff.

Nearby, a police car was set on fire.  Riot police responded shortly afterwards by charging into the crowd and lashing out indiscriminately with batons, which I suppose was ‘revenge’ for the burnt car.”

In Ireland protesters gathered in Dublin to mark the return of the Dáil (Irish parliament) into session. The Irish government is hugely unpopular for its austerity plans, and has spent €25 billion on bailing out banks. This morning came the news that the government is saying it will have to spend €35 billion just on bailing out the Anglo Irish bank. In the photo below you can see what people think about that:

The flyer for the protests in Dublin can be seen here. As part of the action, a cement mixer with “Toxic Bank” painted on the side was driven into the gates of the Irish parliament.

In Greece, although the “mainstream” unions hadn’t called for a strike, public transport workers, doctors and dockers came out anyway. This follows on from the ongoing lorry drivers’ strike, which has seen supermarkets start to run short of supplies.

In Portugal 50,000 people marched in Lisbon and another 20,000 in Porto.

Here in Scotland the Scottish Trade Union Congress‘ “There is a Better Way” campaign did have a number of events to mark the Europe wide day of action. But what more can we do to try and catch up with our European friends? A good starting point would be getting yourself along to the street rally against the cuts organised in Glasgow this Saturday from trade union groups across the country. It probably won’t be on the scale of some of the protests seen above, but right now all across Europe it’s about kickstarting a movement that will show the governments and capitalists we aren’t going to accept paying the bill for their fuck ups. The rally meets at 12 at Buchanan Street subway.

One aim of the rally against the cuts is to try and build momentum for the all Scotland demonstration called by the STUC for October 23rd in Edinburgh (Facebook event here). It’s really important that both the Scottish and British government see there’s a real mood in Scotland to fight back against the cuts, especially from young people who already are suffering completely disproportionately from unemployment and the effects of the capitalist crisis.

The Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa

Yesterday marked the celebration of 50 years of independence for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In 1960, Congo was finally able to free itself from one of the most brutal regimes in all of colonial Africa: Belgian control. Of all the European colonial powers, the Belgians were notorious as the worst for their ruthless exploitation of the Congo’s resources, and their horrendous violence against its people.

Since independence, there’s not been much for people to celebrate, with a 32 year brutal dictatorship followed by a state of total civil war which is the second worst war in the history of humanity, and has claimed for more victims than world war one.

Around the world, not many people think about the almost unimaginable death toll of the wars in Congo, and when they do it’s only to confirm racist stereotypes about independent Africa. The Congo today is not only the home of a devastating war, but also unbelievably high rates of sexual violence, preventable disease, illiteracy and poverty.

But the blame for the disastrous state of the Congo today shouldn’t be put at the door of the Congolese people. Rather, its European powers, and later the US, that must accept responsibility for turning swathes of Central Africa into a hell on Earth.

Read the rest of this entry »

These signs were put up in the Italian town of Varallo after another right wing mayor also banned veils

A woman in Italy has become the first to be fined for covering her face. Known only as Amel, she was fined £430 under laws that ban covering your face in public places, after she was spotted by police in the Post Office.

The laws were originally brought in during the 70s to prevent political activists from hiding their faces. However, the mayor of the town of Novara, where Amel lives, now is using the law as a pretext to attack Muslim women.

Mayor Massimo Giordano is a member of the Northern League party, which takes a far right position on immigrants. Leader Umberto Bossi once called for boats containing immigrants from Africa (who he called “bingo bongos”) to be shelled, while another mayor from the party said “we should dress them up like hares and bang-bang-bang”. Party members have also been convicted of incitement to racial hatred for their part in trying to expel an encampment of Roma people.

Giordano has made sure the Italian laws, which have never been fully enforced before, are now being used against Muslim women. He’s said he wants Italian law to be amended so that it specifically outlaws wearing Muslim veils. He said:

Beard stroking tosspot Massimo Giordano contemplates racism

“I signed the new regulations for reasons of security but also so that people who came to live in our city are aware and respect our traditions. The people of Novara do not want to see people walking around in the city wearing a burka. This is the only way to stop behaviour that makes the already difficult process of integration even harder.”

Meanwhile, Giordano’s ambitions have almost already been fulfilled in Belgium, where the lower house just voted through a plan for a complete ban on veils and headscarves. This is despite the fact that parties representing Belgium’s different regions have been at each other’s throats, leading to the recent collapse of the government. However, MPs put their differences aside to give near unanimous cross-party support to racist measure. Hopefully however, the political crisis will mean it is months before the Senate can meet to give the law approval.

Several Belgian towns already have similar local laws. Another knobhead Mayor, Jan Creemers, of the Belgian town of Maaseik, said: “It became a problem in our town because we had about 50 women who walked around like that, which really annoyed many other residents. They kept coming to me to ask me to do something about it. I spoke to a couple of these ladies to ask them very simply not to wear this kind of clothing. But one in particular refused point-blank so eventually the police opened legal proceedings against her.”

And in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy, facing declining popularity, has decided pushing for a ban on veils is a good way of shoring up his right wing support, and is determined to try and push one through over the summer. The response of the opposition “Socialists” (the French equivalent of New Labour) has been to present their own bill, which would ban veils in public buildings such as hospitals or banks.

Belgian Mayor Jan Creemers stands up for "european values"

However, the most radical proposal has come from a German member of the European Parliament, who has called for Europe wide ban on veils. Silvana Koch-Mehrin, and MEP for the right wing Free Democrats (who are part of Angela Merkel’s coalition government) used an editorial in in Germany’s Bild newspaper (the German equivalent of The Sun) to make the extreme demand.

What all this shows is that after almost 10 years of the demonisation of Muslims, anti-Muslim racism has become mainstream for European governments. Many claim that the bans are aimed to protect women’s rights, but the comments by those who are enforcing these laws shows their real motivation: using the veil as a way to attack Muslim people. The fact is that racist politics across Europe finds it hard to come to terms with the fact that Muslims are Europeans too, and should be allowed to dress however they wish.

The idea that white politicians should be the ones to “save” Muslim women from oppression is itself racist. It also will make it more difficult for Muslim women who want to stand up for women’s rights within their own communities, if all Muslims feel they are subject to racist attack from outside. What women wear is not and should never be a matter for politicians to decide. It should be for women themselves to decide.

PM Yves Leterme's government has collapsed, despite him dressing up as a member of the Time Lord High Council to try and increase his authority

The government of Belgium has collapsed as part of a row between Dutch speaking and French speaking politicians.

This is good news for Belgian Muslims, who were facing the possibility of a racist legal attack, as Belgium was poised to become the first European country to ban Muslim women from covering their faces. However, the law, which was just about to be debated, has been delayed by the political crisis.

Belgian is split between Dutch speaking Flanders in the North and French speaking Wallonia in the South. Which region you are in decides which language is officially used in all official capacities, and the two different regions each have their own political parties. The city of Brussels in the centre is a bilingual district, but the row centres on breaking up this district into French and Dutch speaking areas. They argue it includes solely Dutch speaking towns round about the city. The Dutch speaking Liberals have quit the coalition government, claiming the French speaking parties are trying to block this process.

At the root of the crisis is inequality between the regions. In the past Wallonia was the industrial powerhouse of Belgium, and Flanders was poor. However, in the last 20-30 years this has changed around, with the decline of industry in Wallonia causing massive unemployment, while in the North the Flemish economy has experienced big growth based on neoliberal policies, finance and also the port of Antwerp, which is the third biggest port in the world.

Right wing Flemish politicians represent the resentment of Flemish bosses at the cost of supporting the unemployed and social services needed in Wallonia in their taxes, and demand more autonomy for their region. However, this is also overlaid with historical resentment by most Flemish people at the exploitation and oppression of Flemings when things were different in the past.

What happens next isn’t clear. The PM Yves Leterme has submitted his resignation to King Albert, who has not immediately accepted it but started consultations with politicians about the way forward. The whole crisis has been rumbling along for some time, and could conceivably could lead to the break up of Belgium. Last year rows over the same issue helped contribute towards a situation where Belgium had no government for 194 days!

Although the racist anti-Muslim law may well be scuppered for now by the crisis, the desire to curb the rights of Muslim women to wear what they want is unfortunately one of the few things that unites the mainstream parties across the linguistic divide. So it may well be resurrected when Belgium does have a government again. Anti-racists need to use the breathing space to try and organise against it.

Ultimately, the political crisis in Belgium will keep rumbling along as long as the country’s economic model remains committed to neoliberalism. Belgium needs to help the people of all the regions by taking their resources into public ownership and redistributing wealth to help alleviate the poverty and unemployment caused by right wing policies.

Bonus: For more in depth info about the economic and political background in Belgium, check out this article written during the governmental crisis last year.

A Belgian parliamentary committee has unanimously voted to finally tackle the scourge of creepy shopping centre Santas.

Concern has been growing in the European nation for years at the growth of fundamentalist Santa-ism, as these dodgy looking characters lure children towards their radical ideology with promises of “presents”. Many advocate that the entire Santa-believing world is united in a fundamentalist empire ruled from the North Pole, in which all adults will be forced to become toy manufacturing elves. Many fear the threat of Father Christmasification of Belgium.

The new law will ban appearing in any public place “with face covered or disguised in whole or in part to the extent that she cannot be identified”. Doing so will lead to a fine or up to 7 days in prison. It is hoped that the measure will help prevent Santas from congregating on Belgian streets or shopping centres.

Of course, the anti-Santa move will also have a significant impact on Muslim women. Belgian local authorities already have the power to ban the burqa or the niqab, and the city of Brussels has banned the wearing of headscarves in schools, prompting protests.

But the Belgian MPs have tried to reassure people that they are totally not racist, and the ban is just part of their commitment to a “liberal, open and tolerant society.” Indeed, it’s not as if looking at Belgian history would ever make you think they have a problem with racism.

The committee’s approval is a major step towards the bill becoming law, which would make Belgium the first European country to order covering the face in public places. This may well be followed by the Netherlands, where everybody’s favourite racist “secularist” Geert Wilders looks set to score big in the upcoming elections. And in France, after getting trashed in the local elections, right wing President Nicolas Sarkozy announced he would introduce a similar ban.

“The all-body veil is contrary to the dignity of women,” he said. “The answer is to ban it. The government will introduce a bill to ban it that conforms to the principles of our laws.”

Quite how characters like Sarkozy expect us to take them seriously when they tell us they’re defending women’s rights by passing a law about what they can and cannot wear I don’t know. The other major defence of this idea is that it’s about secularism. Secularism is the idea that religion should be completely separate from the state, and your religion should be a matter of personal conscience, not state law. Passing a law that makes religious dress a matter of state interest is therefore by definition not secularist.

Belgian Muslims protesting the headscarf ban. Banner reads: "School is my right, the veil is my choice."

The ban on covering the face in public places has united all the major political parties, and indeed the traditionally divided French and Flemish speaking politicians. The fact that there are so few voices willing to stand up against a state that thinks it has the right to regulate how women dress shows just how far the fight against anti-Muslim racism, and indeed against sexism, has to go.

SSY acknowledges that some of the Santa images displayed in this post would disturb even the most staunch defender of human rights. However, we feel that even the enormity of the threat these men pose to our mental health is no justification for a racist law which dictates how women can and cannot dress. As the Vice-President of the Muslim Executive of Belgium, Isabelle Praile, puts it:

“Today it’s the full-face veil. Tomorrow the veil, the day after it will be Sikh turbans, and then perhaps it will be miniskirts.”

Bonus: For sensible commentary on the issue of the burqa (as opposed to posts that steal convoluted Santa jokes from Belgian MPs) check out islamophobia watch and muslimahmediawatch. Santa images via Sketchy Santas.