Belgian youth:
"For Jobs not Bombs"
Tens of thousands of youth joined the fight against the austerity program of the right-wing Martens government in a march of more than 30,000 against youth unemployment in Brussels on April 24. The march was built by a walk of about reg die bormen youth through the
400 unemployed
The following is the article on the march published by Rood, the Flemish language weekly paper of the Belgian section of the Fourth International. verk verdomme been somewhat shortened. The translation is by IV. The article was written by a leader of the Socialistische Jonge Wacht/Jeunes Gardes Socialistes (SJW/JGS, Socialist Young Guard, the youth organization associated with the Belgian section of the Fourth Internayear and a half ago, the Socialistische Jonge Wacht launched a petition calling on "all youth organizations in the workers movement" to organize "a march against youth unemployment."
Today, after the impressive success of the April 24 youth march, it is clear to everyone that only a united fightback on Belgian youth demand "No bombs, jobs damn it." (DR) a national scale of all youth and their organizations can mobilize the masses of youth against the crisis. The united front of the youth organizations around the trade-union common front of the two major labor federations in the country brought out almost as many as the giant union federation march of A lot of workers in the plants saw the youth march as a way of continuing the fight against the government's special powers laws, since this fight has been quiescent for a month.
At the march, we saw a lot of factory delegations....The week before the march, the unemployed marchers visited a lot of plants.
These actions made it clear that the youth were not fighting in isolation, but wanted to march together with the labor
The most striking fact in the youth march was that this united front had mobroad layers Many hundreds of high-school and unemployed youth marched for the first time in Brussels. Many hundreds of young workers who do not go to trade-union marches were also at the youth
The day before the March, on April 23, in Antwerp 2,000 high-school youth struck for jobs and against the government's cutbacks in education. marched to the drydocks in Hoboken and chanted, "Reopen Cockerill, jobs for all."
On the same day, 2,000 high-school students in Luikse struck in solidarity
Ghent and Louvain, smaller school strikes were organized on the day the marchers came by. Over the week before the Brussels demonstration, thousands of high-school youth participated in actions organized to greet the marchers and in local demonstrations.
Nonetheless, a lot of unorganized youth stayed home. The provocative attack by the police on the Antwerp highschool students and in particular on the FTGB youth action against the Martens government frightened a lot of people (which, of course, was their objective.) A lot of high-school youth did not want to demonstrate along with mom or dad, and vocational school students weekend training courses.
It was an enthusiastic demonstration with a lot of music and radical slo-
From the beginning, the slogans for jobs, money, and the right to education were posed more sharply against the government, and also against the arms
"Martens to the dole queue," was shouted by various groups, including by members of the Catholic youth organization and union confederation. "Get the money from where it is," bombs, jobs damn it!" became the dominant slogans, being taken up by thousands of people.
Here the discussions in the jobless contingents, in the 122 local committees over the last weeks preceding the march had an effect. In all the actions, the question came up spontaneously:
the money going to come from to meet
What is responsible for And van Vreven statements about the siting brought home to thousands of youth that the growing militarization is being paid for by cutbacks in social benefits and in-
The agitation of the Socialistische Jonge Wacht also had something to do the radicalization of the slogans. The SJW played an active role in the organization of the high-school strikes and the other preparatory actions for the
The main slogans in the SJW actions were precisely "Martens to the dole queue," "No bombs, jobs damn it," and "Get the money where it is," along with "Forward to a general strike." The SWJ sold many hundreds of stickers with these
The SWJ papers Tegenkrant and French-speaking youth) moved quickly. The SJ groups in various provinces are growing because a lot of youth have been attracted by our active intervention and our radical slo-
More and more people are losing their jobs and having their unemployment benefits cut off. To fight this, we have to build a united front involving more and more workers and youth.•
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