Birth of the Euro-demo a warning to governments

SOME of the big battalions of the European labour movement have been flexing their muscles in recent days, and, significantly, finding that their broadsides are forcing governments to take note.

Sensitive to wide perceptions that cuts associated in the public mind with the single currency are unduly harsh, Italian, German, French and Belgian leaders have been bending over backwards to win back popular ground.

On Sunday in Rome, in a most impressive display of its might, the Italian trade union movement brought some 400,000 workers on to the streets. Intended as a shot across the bows of the government ahead of its mid-week mini-budget, the march was led by the leader of the former communist party (PDS), Mr Massimo D'Alema, whose ministers form the major part of the Olive Tree government.

The message was not lost on the government - its package of measures, designed to bring down the projected Italian deficit by 0.8 per cent to the Maastricht 3 per cent, was largely a combination of accounting measures and job stimulation using funds set aside by employers for paying workers who leave.

On March 11th, Paris saw the birth of the Euro-demo, when many thousands converged from Belgium, Spain, even Slovenia, and France's own Renault plants in protest at the firm's planned closures in Vilvoorde in Brussels. They carried placards demanding a "social Europe instead of a sweatshop Europe".

In Brussels the government made clear its sympathies and promised to prosecute Renault for its failure to consult. In Paris President Chirac called in the company's boss to upbraid him, and the European Commission, in the guise of our own Mr Padraig Flynn, pledged to look at tougher rules.

That weekend 70,000 marched through Brussels itself against the closure - there were contingents from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Holland, Greece and Austria. More pan-European marches are planned by the trade unions.

In the most remarkable about-face, Germany's Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, on March 13th retreated on pit subsidies only days after announcing cuts of £2 billion to the industry. Furious miners descended on Bonn in their thousands, forcing the Chancellor to reschedule the cuts and in the process saving nine pits from closure.

Following the success of the miners, the deputy secretary-general of the Federation of German Trade unions, Mrs Ursula Engelen Kefer, this week warned that strikes might spread if the government pursued its "irresponsible" cuts policy.

The unions are "at breaking point", she said, arguing that the government's policy was in fact jeopardising the launch of the single currency.

The Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, was "leading Germany into a self-built trap of a far-too rigid interpretation of the Maastricht criteria and austerity politics on the backs of workers and their families".

Stressing that the unions back the timetable for the launch of a strong single currency, Ms Engelen Kefer said that "the world will not crash if the deficit is 3.1 per cent, and we could have Maastricht without pushing more people into unemployment and poverty.

It is a message Europe's governments might do well to heed.