Europe Follow

New wave of xenophobia The possibility of Romanians and Bulgarians being able to travel to seek work when their countries join the European Union (EU) in the new year has been greeted by the usual xenophobic noises.

Labour’s long anticipated approach to the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union (EU) was announced last week. As expected, Home Secretary John Reid has opted for various restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians working in Britain.

The end of the First World War coincided with a huge wave of workers’ uprisings across Europe, fuelled by the Bolsheviks coming to power in the 1917 Russian Revolution.

York was in shock last week as Nestle Rowntree announced 645 job losses at its York factory - following on from 234 earlier in the year. The move is another step in the multinational’s outsourcing of jobs to lower-wage economies in eastern Europe.

Trident

Last week saw the publication of a report by a group of MPs called the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into Antisemitism. It is an important document to confront, because it is part of a Europe-wide attempt to widen the definition of antisemitism to include root and branch criticism of Israel.

‘I came to Britain in 2000, before Poland joined the European Union (EU). So I had to wait six months before I could get the right papers and was allowed to work.

No one knows how many people from the new central and eastern member states of the European Union (EU) have moved to Britain since they joined in May 2004. Estimates vary between 300,000 and 500,000, mainly Polish workers. Certainly in London, they seem to have fitted in very quickly.

It is now a little over five years since the great protests at the G8 summit in Genoa. This event put the anti?capitalist movement in Italy in the vanguard of the struggle against neo-liberalism and war throughout Europe.

Many people today are interested in a revolutionary alternative to capitalism. But they often worry that socialism is associated with the brutality of Stalinism, a system which dominated Russia and Eastern Europe for much of the 20th century and that was no better than Western capitalism.

Yvonne Ridley is the political editor of the Islam Channel, the only English language Islamic focused satellite channel in Europe. She explained to Socialist Worker why the Islam Channel will be supporting the demonstration:

This Thursday will see the beginning of Europe’s biggest left wing conference in central London. Marxism 2006 will continue until Monday of next week.