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Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 09:45:40 -0500
From: International Viewpoint <100666.1443@compuserve.com>
To: ".Press English" <fi-press-l@mail.comlink.apc.org>
Subject: EuroMarches conference in Luxembourg


A new start in Luxembourg

International Viewpoint, 6 November 1997

The European Marches (EM) movement as formally established at a conference in Luxembourg on 4-5 October. The network will be called European Marches against Unemployment, Job Insecurity and Social Exclusion. A constitutive motion was approved, establishing, among other things, that "the network has a loose structure and decisions are not enforceable on organisations or collectives who are members. Decisions are not taken on a majority basis but arrived at only after working towards a consensus.

The network is pluralistic. Differences in the economic situation across the European Union should provoke the exchange of ideas and actions, rather than create division within the movement. There is a general acceptance of different approaches to common objectives, such as the fight against unemployment, job insecurity and social exclusion. The network is in no way a new organisation, nor does seek to compete with existing European union structures (the European Trade Union Congress, ETUC), or with existing organisation of the unemployed, (the European Network of the Unemployed, ENU), or with any other organisation involved in the fight against social exclusion."

The first concrete initiative of the network was the approval of the call for an EM demonstration on November 20, in Luxembourg city at the same time as the meeting of the European Summit on Employment.

Initiatives

We all know that it would be impossible to relive the Amsterdam Rally every six months. On the other hand, we need to fix long term aims to continue forward from Amsterdam. Delegates agreed that we should not limit ourselves to demonstrating every time there is a European Summit! Though, obviously, organisations in the host country of these Summits will inevitably put strong pressure on the EM to organise something. The next European Co-ordination meeting on 10-12 January 1998 will try to find a way out of this problem.

Delegates evaluated the Marches earlier this year, and concluded that they were part of a series of events that might be pushing EU Member State governments to do something about unemployment. Other factors include the election of social democratic governments in Britain and France, ETUC pressure, the initial promises of France's Jospin government, and the campaigns for full employment of the network of European economists, and members of European parliament, animated by British MEP Ken Coates. Over 100 delegates were present, representing 11 countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great-Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, the Spanish state, and Sweden). Irrefutable proof of the dynamism created by the launch of the European Marches.

Contact: European Marches against Unemployment, 104 rue de Couronnes, 75020 Paris, France. Tel. +33 1 44 62 63 44 fax. 01 44 62 63 45 Email: <marches97@ras.eu.org> (Information Bulletin available by subscription)


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