BY ERNIE MAILHOT AND MICHEL DUGRÉ
PARIS - The capitalist rulers of Europe are growing more and more concerned over the state of their economies.
Pointing to the sharp slowdown in the French economy Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former president of France, joined a growing number of capitalists and called for easing the economic requirements for the implementation of the so- called European monetary union.
The recent announcement of $4.1 billion in losses by Daimler-Benz, Germany's biggest industrial group, served as a reminder of the depth of the current crisis in Europe. Daimler-Benz announced January 22 that it was ending all financial ties with the Dutch aircraft maker Fokker. Daimler- Benz controlled 51 percent of Fokker and its move threatens the jobs of more than 9,000 workers.
The governments of France and Germany strongly rejected Giscard's proposal. This debate illustrates the divisions in the ruling circles of Europe on how to attack the rights and living standards of the working class.
In Germany, the government is pushing an agreement with most unions that calls for no wage raises above the inflation rate in return for a vague job creation program. Joachim Fels, who follows the German economy for Goldman, Sachs Co., said that to reduce unemployment, "It would take a major overhaul of the wage formation system."
"You would need several years of consecutive declines in real wages," he emphasized.
Meanwhile, big business and the Elysée Palace in France are continuing their drive to roll back the gains of working people here despite the labor and student fightback in November and December.
The French government has not given up its plans for drastic cuts in social security. On January 24 the government approved a measure taken from the Juppé austerity plan that calls for a new tax of 0.5 percent on almost all revenue. This tax is called the Reimbursement of the Social Debt (RDS).
It was in response to the Juppé plan, announced by the government last November, that millions of French workers and their supporters carried out the biggest and most important strikes and mobilizations in France in decades.
A key part of the Juppé plan - shelved for now since the December mass strikes - was a reform of the rail workers' retirement benefits, a gain these workers have historically fought for and defended. This plan includes retirement after 37.5 years of work at 74 percent of pay. Today 353,400 people, including retired rail workers or their survivors, receive pensions through this system. The active workforce on the railroad is currently 182,350 workers.
The French government has run the railroads here since the 1930s and estimates the rail system is more than $38 billion in debt. The government pays approximately $4 billion out of the $5.4 billion yearly pension costs.
The attempts by Paris to divide off public sector workers, especially rail workers, by portraying them as a privileged few has made little progress. Nat London, a member of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) at Renault, said that since the strikes in December discussions have increased among workers in private industry on the need to win back the pensions and other benefits that were taken away from them in recent years. Signs and stickers have appeared in some plants supporting these demands.
In further fallout from last year's mass strikes, 700 members of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT) who work on the railroad in the southeast region of Paris quit the CFDT and joined the independent union Solidarity, Unity, Democracy (SUD). SUD was founded by workers who left the CFDT in 1989. They represent mostly workers at France Telecom and the post office. The leadership of the CFDT, the second-largest labor federation in France, after the CGT, angered many workers in France when it supported the Juppé cutback plan in December.
The General Confederation of Labor (CGT), the largest workers organization in France, along with the teachers union, has called for a week of labor actions culminating in regional demonstrations on February 11. These mobilizations in workplaces and elsewhere will demand the withdrawal of all aspects of the Juppé plan. The scope and character of these actions are not clear yet.