Against the Labor Reform, the cuts, and the assaults on the working class. The CNT rejects any kind of negotiation over the rights conquered by the
working class and demands the repeal of the Labor Reform. The CNT’s
confederal committee has decided to call a 24-hour general strike for
March 29, which will extend the call that has already been made for
Galicia and the Basque Country. This call will be formalized in the
coming days.
The CNT rejects any kind of negotiation over the rights conquered by the
working class through years of struggle. We call for this
strike with the primary objective of immediately repealing the the labor
reform that was approved yesterday by the Parliament, which we consider
a head-on assault against the working class. This reform continues the
measures started by the previous government, such as the labor reform of
2010 and the cuts to public employee salaries, to pensions, and to public
services, cuts which are being deepened by the current government.
The CNT demands the end of an economic policy designed to make the
workers pay for the crisis of the banks and the employers. This policy
has led to an unacceptable number of unemployed workers, a number which does not stop growing, as well as to an impoverishment and worsening
of the working class’s living conditions.
The CNT also calls this strike against the cuts. The strike will happen
the day before the setting of the General State Budget which will
incorporate a brutal attack against public services and social rights.
The
CNT rejects the agreement reached in February between the CCOO and UGT
unions and the employers’ confederation, the CEOE, as well as the
amendments that those unions have presented to the parliamentary process
of the labor reform. The CNT rejects these amendments as a valid
alternative, since they share the spirit of the reform and assume the
logic of the employers and the government, who suppose that the only
escape from their crisis must come through the workers surrendering
their rights, placing the working class into a position of weakness from
the start. The same logic has already led these unions to accept the
raising of the retirement age to 67, even after the general strike of
September 29, 2010.
For the CNT, the strike on March 29 must be only the beginning of a
growing and sustained process of mobilization, one which includes the
entire working class and the sectors that are most disadvantaged and
affected by the capitalist crisis. This mobilization must put the brakes
on the dynamic of constant assaults on our rights, while laying the
bases for the recovery and conquest of new social rights with the goal
of a deep social transformation.
All of these reasons have led the CNT to make this call for March 29 on
its own account. With this call the CNT wants to give coverage to
everyone who is taking up positions for a real and continued
confrontation that will pay back the assaults on the working class with
the same force with which we are receiving them, together with all
workers’ organizations that share these objectives and reject the
policies of agreement and social peace.
For the CNT, a confrontational rejection of the policies and the bureaucratic
union model of the CCOO and the UGT, and their discredit among broad
groups of workers, must not become excuses not to take action or
struggle. Instead, this rejection must spur us on to reinforce our
struggle through a different form of unionism – one based on direct
action, on autonomy, and on mutual aid. Against assaults of the
magnitude that we are facing, working-class unity is fundamental. This
unity must take place in the rank-and-file, in workplace and
neighborhood assemblies, in industrial actions and pickets, until the
mobilization against those who are responsible for and benefit from this
situation – the employers, the banks, and the government – is turned
into an unstoppable dynamic that raises a barrier against the temptation
to turn the rights that belong to everybody into a bargaining chip that
belongs to nobody.
It’s time for all workers – unemployed or employed, retired, on the
black market, students, and the precarious – to say “Enough!” We must
seize the streets rather than abandon them in order to impose our
strength and our demands.
March 29 – everyone in the street, everyone in the strike.
