14 November will see Europe’s first ever continent-wide general strike. It will be far from complete, but workers in several different countries will be out “for jobs and solidarity in Europe: no to austerity”.
There will be full one-day general strikes in Spain and Portugal. Greek unions are expected to follow up their two-day general strike on 6-7 November by striking again on 14 November.
In Italy, the CGIL union federation has called a four-hour general strike.
According to some reports there will also be general strikes in Cyprus and Malta. In France, the unions are organising numerous demonstrations in working time: the Paris one assembles in Montparnasse at 2pm.
The Rumanian unions, and the usually very cautious German unions are also organising demonstrations (one at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin at 3pm).
British unions, sadly, are lagging. In London a solidarity protest at the European Commission office (32 Smith Square, SW1P 3EU) is planned, but called by a left-wing campaign, COR, rather than by the unions.
The crisis and the cuts are Europe-wide. The fight back needs to be Europe-wide.
