The European Regional Office of the WFTU on the occasion of International Workers Day, addresses a class greeting to all working people.
We address a militant greeting to all working people in the health sector who, in difficult circumstances, and in many cases without the necessary means, are waging the battle to cure our fellow human beings who have been infected with the coronavirus.
This year’s May Day finds workers in unprecedented conditions as the entire planet is faced with the coronavirus pandemic.
Thousands of families have lost their loved ones and hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings have been infected with the virus and are suffering.
These shortages are the result of anti-social policies that are being promoted by the European Union and governments aimed at serving the interests of capital and the privatization of the public health system. With these policies, they have dismantled the public health sector of its human resources, infrastructures and equipment.
The reformist leadership of the trade union movement in Europe is also responsible for the sufferings of the workers, since with its stand and compromises it undermined the struggles and demands of the working people.
The coronavirus pandemic and the need for a common approach with regards its consequences have highlighted in the most revealing way the lack of solidarity between states. In the European Union fierce competition and powerful economic interests of states and monopolies prevail, while billions of euros are being channeled into the arms and war industry instead of health and social welfare. Governments are promoting economic measures that serve the interests of businesses.
Capital and multinationals have exploited the conditions created by the pandemic to launch attacks on working people’s rights, violating their right to work in safely and the protection of their lives, and with the sole aim of maximising their profits.
That is precisely why the World Federation of Trade Unions is honoring this year’s International Workers ‘Day under the slogan “Working People’s Health Above Profits”.
The current situation highlights the need to strengthen joint actions against the attacks waged by capital and the need to intensify the struggle.
The European Regional Office of the WFTU assures working people that faithful to the principles of internationalism and solidarity that characterize the 75 years of the life and struggle of the WFTU and honoring the vanguard militant martyrs of Chicago, it will continue to struggle for a just society without exploitation.
