"True wealth is the fruit of human labour. By their mobilization, European workers can put an end to the financial orgies"

Address to the European Workers

by Jean-Luc Melenchon and Oskar Lafontaine :


With the current leaders of the European Union, we are heading for disaster.

For years now they have been conceding more and more power to high finance. The outcome is catastrophic. The environment has been sacrificed and unemployment has literally exploded. Wage earners are being pressurized and impoverished. The real economy has become hostage to the banks.

And now, pretexting the crises that they themselves have created, European governments intend to pursue and tighten austerity measures. Under pressure from Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, they have decided to concoct a new treaty which will deny the European people their right to freely decide their budgets and impose tighter regulations throughout Europe. Not one of them plans on asking the people for their opinion on such a fundamental text. This is a headlong rush into a Europe of austerity. Since Europe cannot exist without or against the will of the people, we therefore demand that a referendum be called throughout our different countries concerning this future treaty

Sarkozy and Merkel want to extend the disastrous 2010 programme, a programme which has severely deteriorated the situation of German workers, to all of Europe. Their aim is to heighten competition between European wage earners and to level down the rights which have made Europe one of the world’s most socially advanced regions. This strategy deliberately pits European citizens against each other. In fact, Sarkozy and Merkel have not hesitated an instant in fanning the flames of nationalism and xenophobia, at the risk of reopening old wounds. Merkel's entourage speaks of forcing the Greeks to sell their islands. Sarkozy speaks of the new arrivals in the euro zone as poisoned pills. These provocative remarks are aimed at diverting the anger of the people away from the real culprits, the banks, high finance and the political leaders who have relinquished their power to them We call upon you to resist with all your might against the decline of our European civilisation.

We urge you not to fall into this trap, a trap that threatens peace across Europe. Together, let us preserve the friendship between our two peoples, the Germans and the French, because sustaining peace throughout Europe depends on it.

How can we guarantee peace in Europe? Peace cannot be decreed. It is cultivated through cooperation between peoples, its purpose is to serve all. It is incompatible with the domination of two arrogant heads of government over the rest. It must rely on politics that serve the general European interest. The time has come to take control in order to meet the needs and aspirations of the great mass of the population and therefore of the workers of Europe: the sharing of wealth, the protection and enlargement of the right to a decent retirement, the recovery of public services, the eradication of insecurity, the relentless struggle against poverty and inequality, and ecological transition.

We urge the European workers not to give up! Finance can do nothing against a determined people. True wealth is the fruit of human labour. By their mobilization, European workers can  put an end to the financial orgies. And start building, at last, a world which is finally human.


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