Undermining Fortress Europe
France
There has been an increase in youth struggles in recent years, concerning both the defence of access to education and study conditions, and the struggles against unemployment and marginalisation, which hit young people most of all. After mobilising against the introduction of a lower minimum wage for young people in 1994, young people massively participated in the public-sector movement of November-December 1995, defending their future working conditions, Italy
Over the last year, high school students have protested against education cuts totalling 4,600 bn Lira (US$ 2.75bn.) over three years, the increasing obligation to choose a career path at the age of 13, and the centre-lett government's favourable measures towards private (religious) schools.
Unfortunately, these struggles have been weaker than in previous years. And in some areas, right-wing groups have played a leading role in demonstrations and highNetherlands
Holland is one of the few counties which already meets the criteria tor joining the single European currency. "realistic" Dutch economic policies are broadly praised abroad. But there is a dark side to this success story. Never before have social security, education, health care, women's rights and the position of young people and migrants been deteriorating so quickly and profoundly.
The gap between the rich and poor has never increased as quickly as in these years of European convergence. But this has not sparked an upsurge in radical mobilisations. On the contrary, hardly anything is happening at all. All of the country's major youth movements have collapsed over the last three Denmark
There has been little generalised struggle on specific youth and student issues in recent years. Younger militants have, of course, been very active in general struggles, like the bus drivers strike in Esbjerg, anti-fascist activities, and opposition to the megalomaniac project to build a bridge from Denmark to Sweden.
The organised left has been in decline since the last wave of workers mobilisation in 1985. The once-strong Communist Party, and most of its trade union work, has collapsed. And although there has been an increase in strike activity these last three years, it has been very hard for the left to support these strikes, and spread them. For many of those in the Red Green Alliance (Denmark's main anti-capitalist formation) the ambition to do so is no longer supported by concrete experience. Some pin most of their hopes on 18 International Viewpoint and the quality of the public education system. More recently, young people have been at the centre of protests against the racist immigration laws of Interior Ministers Pasqua and Debré, as well as struggles to support the "paperless" immigrants, and activities targeting the extreme-right National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen.
The women's movement has been increasingly active these last two years, in response to attacks on the right to choose, and the discriminatory impact of the expansion of part time work. This spring, 2,000 school occupations. University student protests have concentrated on the imposition of entry quotas on some courses. But protests have been small and local, without a national dimension or national visibility.
Many young workers participated in last autumn's extended protests over the nonrenovation of the collective agreement of metal-workers. Participants
The delegation is organised by younger members of the Bandiera Rossa group, a years. There is no movement for the far left to intervene in, and since the far left is itself a victim of the decline in radicalism, there are no real possibilities to launch a new
The main youth campaign at present concerns government proposals to restrict the validity of student travel passes. Only those who live with their parents would still be able to buy a card giving unlimited access to public transport on weekdays. Eighty percent of students living away from home would loose out, under these reforms.
The students benefit from wide public support, including even conservative voters, who have favoured past education cuts, but feel that this is "going too far." The transport companies too are lobbying intensively, since they anticipate a dramatic fall in use of public the Alliance's parliamentary work.
The decline is less marked among young people. But, because they have little experience of mass mobilisations, many youth currents consider an event a success if they manage to mobilise their own supporters!
In the last elections, the Red Green Alliance won 20% of votes among those voting for the first time. Rebuilding the left requires recruiting new layers of active voung people to the Alliance. In the recent dispute over how to react to the social democratic government's proposed budget, most younger supports coincided with the views of Fourth International supporters in the Red-Greens. Participants
The Danish delegation is organised by younger members of the Socialist Workers Party (SAP), Danish section of the Fourth participants, representing over 150 groups participated in the Assembly for women's rights, which established a common platform of demands for future mobilisations. Participants
JCR-RED is an independent organisation in solidarity with the French section of the Fourth International. It has 300 members, mostly high school and university students, in almost all the country's major towns. * tendency and magazine within the Refounded Communist Party and its semi-autonomous Communist Youth organisation.
Non-Fourth International participants in the 14h Youth Camp include members of Communist Youth, and activists in high school and university groups and feminist collectives and international solidarity groups (mainly around Chiapas and Albania) with which Bandiera transport if the cuts go through.
Otherwise, the youth militant calendar is dominated by international meetings: A European Youth Summit will be organised in Eindhoven on June 11-13, and a range of activities are being planned to coincide with the convergence of the European Marches against unemployment in Amsterdam on June 14th. Participants
Rebel, the youth group linked to the Socialist Workers Party (SAP), Dutch section of the Fourth International. * International, with about 90 members, mainly in Copenhagen and Arhus, Denmark's second city. Younger comrades participate in general party work, building and working in the Red Green Alliance (1,300 members), and the broad left weekly Socialist Weekend.
There is no plan to build a SAP youth organisation, and younger comrades are active in the broader socialist youth organisation Rebel, and in anti-racist work. Specifically SAP youth activities include the quarterly newspaper Granseløs.
The camp is an opportunity for SAP members to show youth from Rebel and the Red-Greens what internationalism is all about, and what the Fourth International tries to do. The party as a whole will make a major effort to organise the 1998 youth camp in Denmark. *
19-25 July 1997 Brioude, France
Belgium
French and Dutch-speaking Belgian youth live in increasingly separate social, cultural and political environments. The two linguistic communities are responsible for a growing amount of public administration, including education and culture. In 1995-96, French-speaking students demonstrated in huge numbers against attacks on the quality of education. In Flanders, the attacks were introduced gradually, and there was much less resistance. When the "Dutroux" child abuse sandal erupted, Dutch-speaking youth struck in large numbers, and joined the labour movement in denouncing the class character of the Belgian judicial system. This did not happen in the French-speaking south, largely because of the failure of the student and highschool movement of 1995-96.
There was a demonstration of 3,000 young people for the legalisation of cannabis in Brussels on November 16th, 1996. Portugal
The "Socialist" government has reintroduced plans to charge course fees at the university level. In December, 5,000 students demonstrated against government policies, with Socialist Revolutionary (PSR) comrades making a visible contribution to the leadership of the movement. Unfortunately, this did not prevent right wing currents winning control of student unions at the main universities at the end of 1996. These groups are in favour of the student taxes, but are willing to lead protest, since the plans are now being introduced by a centre-left government.
PSR supporters, together with the larger Communist Youth, have created a Student Movement Against the Taxes (MECAP) outside the student unions. The aim is to win the campaigning in initiative away from the right, and, eventually, to challenge the rightwing dominance of the main student unions. The MECAP is the result of four years of student work by PSR supporters, and a growing willingness of the Communist Youth
On 3 May, some 4,000 people, 80% of them under 30 years old, demonstrated for lesbian and gay rights. For the first time in many years, there was a noticeable presence of French-speaking gay youth, and of women. Participation
The Socialist Young Guard (JGS/SJW) has about 60 members, mainly high school and university students, in nine geographical branches. The group participates in the major youth campaigns (on education. for the legalısation of cannabis) and in wider social movements, like the recent White Marches, campaigns against unemployment and racism, and for lesbian and gay rights. It produces a French magazine REDaction, and a Dutch magazine Tegenkrant.
The differentiation of the two linguistic communities has had an effect on the far left. In the early 1990s the JGS/SJW was strong in Flanders, and almost disappeared in the French-speaking south. In 1995, the group grew in the French-speaking area, but faced an internal crisis in the north. Today, the French sections are in astabilisation phase, while the Dutch-speaking sections are again growing. Luxemburg
Social democratic leaders in tiny Luxemburg have been in calition with the Christian Democrats for fifteen years. Their latest neo-liberal cuts threaten what for many years were unchallenged rights of the labour movement. This has contributed to modest growth in the activities of the young social democrats (generally to the left of their parent party), and the newly-formed "autonome" youth sub-culture, which concentrates on to work with those from the Trotskyist tradition. MECAP is Portugal's first nonbureaucratic student movement. There is no president, and the only structure is a general assembly, open to all students.
Younger members of the PSR are currently recruiting in high schools, around the party's traditional themes: feminism, antiracism, anti-fascism, anti-homophobia, ecology, legalisation of drugs and antimilitarism. As Christmas 1996 approached, a feminist youth group linked to the PSR launched a campaign against sexist and
The Party has been very active in the recent struggle to liberalise abortion legislation. No other left groups organised street demonstrations, which certainly made it easier for the Catholic-influenced right to block even these modest reforms.
The group is widely known in the country, as a result of its radical campaigning style. Dissatisfied with the traditional eggs and tomatoes, PSR supporters threw shit at French rightist leader Jean Marie Le Pen
The central campaign, north and south, has concentrated on the "scandles" which have shaken the country. The themes of struggle expose the class nature of justice, the police, corruption, fascism and the moral order, sexual liberation, and the exposure of the "personalities" who protected the childabusers.
This campaign did not meet its goals, largely because there has been little autonomous youth mobilisation on these themes. As a result, many JGS/SJW militants have switched their energies to the labour movement, where militant struggles in recent weeks have affected the Clabecq steelworks, and the Renault plant in Vilvorde.
For the first time, the group has a sıgnificant input into the struggle for lesbian and gay equality, and for the legalisation of cannabis. The JGS/SJW argues for the legalisation of deriminalisation of the consumption of other drugs. The group proposes that the sale of cannabis be organised through a non-profit consumer group, which would hold a legal monopoly. Distribution would be accompanied by an information campaign, and outreach to those consumers who abuse drugs. * ecology and animal rights. The recentlyreformed JSR, linked to the Luxemburg section of the Fourth International, is the only far-left youth organisation. The JSR recently launched a bulletin aimed at high school students, 8,000 of who walked out last December, in protest at the increasing difficulty of the graduation exams. The protest did not develop, largely because neither the students, nor the leftist minority, had real experience of organising a democratic movement. Maybe next time... during his recent visit to the Portuguese Participants
The delegation is organised by an autonomous youth caucus within the PSR, Portuguese section of the Fourth International. Last year's camp in Amarante, Portugal, consolidated PSR youth work, and helped the party create sections in a number of new parts of the country. The 10th PSR Congress in late 1996 elected a new central committee, with an average age of 26
Eighty people attended the subsequent annual youth meeting, which fixed its current campaigning priorities as reinforcing the feminist work recently begun, and initiating a discussion on ecology and lifestyles.
The group will continue its campaigning on the legalisation of drugs, and its intervention in student politics. The party as a whole is campaigning for a national referendum on monetary union, as part of a campaign for a Europe of the peoples and of social rights. *
June 1997 #289 19