The war in the Ukraine, started by Russian imperialism,  is intensifying and this increases the danger of a long lasting inter-imperialist war and that can lead to more and more countries being drawn in. Russia as well as US/NATO and EU talk about a possible nuclear war. This war, fueled by both sides, poses a threat to all the peoples of Europe, first and foremost in Ukraine and Russia. Tens of thousands have already been murdered for the interests of capital and the struggle of the imperialist powers. The longer this war lasts, the more people will die, the more Ukraine will become a field of ruins and the worse the consequences will be, such as inflation, recession and layoffs!

The working class and the peoples in whole Europe are suffering under the consequences of the active participation of their own bourgeoisie in this war for the re-partition of imperialist spheres of influence, plundering raw material sources and exploitation of labor force:

Increasing poverty, high inflation, energy crisis and first signs for a recession. Already during the pandemic, the burdens had been shifted to the working class and peoples, while the profits of capital increased. Now working people are being pushed down even deeper.

At the same time, aggressive nationalism, militarism  and fascism is promoted by the ruling class, to try to split the working class and the people. On both sides, they want people to follow their war plans willingly. But our sisters and brothers in other countries are not our enemies. Our enemy is the ruling class and we have to struggle against it in our own country!

Today the opposition to the reactionary war is growing in our countries and its rejection is widening internationally. It is more and more necessary to express this opposition in the workplaces, in the streets, building a united popular front against the war and the consequences of war!

Instead of becoming cannon fodder in this imperialist war, it is urgent to fight for our own interests:

Increasing wages and pensions!

No layoffs! No suppression of workers right!

We don’t pay your war! Riches and bosses have to pay!

Money for health and education – not for war and rearmament

Solidarity with Ukrainian people means stop war

We express our international solidarity with the people in Ukraine and Russia, who are against this war

We express our international solidarity with the working class within Europe and the world.

Stop the war now! Ceasefire! No more sending weapons and war funding!

Our countries out of NATO, Russia out of Ukraine!

Only with the developing of a revolutionary mass movement it will be possible to stop this war and enable a just peace without oppression of the peoples, without forced annexations and robbery.

European parties and organisations that are members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations (CIPOML):

Organization for the Construction of the Communist Workers Party of Germany (Arbeit Zukunft)

Communist Party of Albania

Communist Workers’ Party of Denmark – APK;

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (m-l);

Workers’ Communist Party of France

Communist Platform of Italy

Labour Party (EMEP), Turkey,

Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-1955 (Anasintaxi)

and the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Group, Norway

The European Union has set new rules that promote statutory “adequate” minimum wages. Cloaked in what appears to be a “social reform”, the new directive[1] on minimum wages jeopardises the system of Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) in countries where they still prevail.

Member countries where wages are set through collective bargaining agreements must take steps towards a statutory minimum wage if less than 80 per cent of the workers and employees are covered by a CBA.

In a majority of the countries of Europe, national legislation on a minimum wage already exists. In Spain and other countries, this has by no means secured workers not covered by a CBA an adequate income or a decent standard of living. Conversely, the minimum wage frequently is considered a salary “ceiling” rather than a “floor”.

Minimum wages set by law and a European Labour Authority that imposes whatever “labour standards” the EU might decide, are a disguised attack on the workers of Europe, their trade unions and the system of collective bargaining. A strong and class-conscious trade union movement is pivotal in the struggle against cutbacks in wages and pensions, defending jobs and rejecting longer working days and precarious work.

Our real income is declining every day. While conducting their aggressive politics for war, the ruling class demand that the workers of Europe prepare themselves for further “sacrifices”. This is “the price we must pay” for the war in Ukraine, as NATO Secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has put it. Russian workers are hearing similar “patriotic” lies from the aggressors in Moscow. Increased military spending promotes inflation and is financed by budget cutbacks on welfare and social benefits.

Today, the working people of Europe are struggling to survive due to towering inflation and soaring energy and food prices, forcing them to choose whether to starve or to freeze in the approaching winter months. Sanctions, war and militarism are aggravating the situation on all fields.

In this situation, statutory state imposed minimum wages that never keep up with inflation, help the capitalists extend their profits and let the working class pay for imperialist war in Ukraine and other war preparations.

We refuse to pay for the emerging economic crisis accelerated by aggressive war politics and armaments race, threatening to destroy us and our countries. Instead, it is time to breach this maximum profit system that is heading mankind towards disaster.

No substantial EU legislation has ever been to the benefit of the working class in Europe. The neo-liberal concept of the European labour market, where workers are forced to compete among themselves at home and abroad to “freely” undercut the price of labour power, is detrimental to the working class and strong trade unions. In general, statutory minimum wages will not stop, but more often accelerate this race to the bottom.

Hard times require harder and broader struggle to defend our economic and political interests! Only strong and independent class organisations, struggle and international solidarity can ensure workers an income above the poverty line and open perspectives to a better future, putting an end and forever the wage labour system.

October 2022

European parties and organisations that are members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations (CIPOML):

Organization for the Construction of the Communist Workers Party of Germany (Arbeit Zukunft)

Communist Party of Albania

Communist Workers’ Party of Denmark – APK;

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (m-l);

Workers’ Communist Party of France

Communist Platform of Italy

Labour Party (EMEP), Turkey,

Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-1955 (Anasintaxi)

and the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Group, Norway

[1]https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/adequate-minimum-wages/

A wave of workers’ strikes is developing in several countries of Europe. They have in common the requirements for higher salaries. In Britain, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, France… hundreds of strikes take place in all types of companies. These strikes, their demand and their class character inspire the workers, the trade-unionists, and masses of European countries.

The workers refuse the decrease of their wages because of the high rates of inflation, especially the rocketing prices in food, energy, heating, housing, transport… The strikers, male and female, struggle for real increases of wages that at least cover the inflation. These strikes for higher wages are today the core of class struggle, the struggle between Labour and Capital.

The high profits, especially those of the monopolies of energy, transport, food, weapons, the banks, are largely denounced : they show the nature of capitalist imperialist system, which means over-exploitation, poverty for the masses and war. By striking for higher salaries, the workers not only defend their vital rights but defend also the interests of all the masses. They also express the refusal of broad sectors of workers to pay the consequences of the imperialist war in Ukraine.

We support these strikes and call for their extension in all sectors in all countries.

We support the actual struggle of the workers in France, who will be in a general strike the 18th of October, for higher wages for all the workers.

We call for developing nationally and internationally the solidarity with the present movements of strikes and all these that will inevitably develop.

October 2022

European parties and organisations that are members of the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organisations (CIPOML):

Organization for the Construction of the Communist Workers Party of Germany (Arbeit Zukunft)

Communist Party of Albania

Communist Workers’ Party of Denmark – APK;

Communist Party of Spain (Marxist-Leninist) – PCE (m-l);

Workers’ Communist Party of France

Communist Platform of Italy

Labour Party (EMEP), Turkey,

Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-1955 (Anasintaxi)

and the Marxist-Leninist Revolutionary Group, Norway