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10 April, 2001Six trade union confederations in Spain and France have issued a joint statement "for freedom and against terrorism."
SPAIN/FRANCE: On March 28, a joint declaration concerning ETA terrorism was issued by six trade union organisations in Spain and France: the Spanish CC.OO. and the UGT, and the French CFDT, FO, CGT and UNSA. This declaration, supported by the European Trade Union Confederation and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, is reprinted here in extenso.
FOR FREEDOM AND AGAINST TERRORISM
Faced with the intensification of terrorism perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA, the trade unions who signed the Joint Declaration,
- Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT),
- Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT),
- Force Ouvrière (FO),
- Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes (UNSA),
- Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT),
- Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.),
declare the following:
- The defence of the right to life, the freedom for all citizens, the struggle against all forms of totalitarism, are basic for all workers and their union organisations. We express our deepest solidarity with all terrorist victims, their families and the social sector affected.
We commit ourselves to the promotion of as many social initiatives as necessary among the workers of the Basque Country, the rest of Spain and France in order to fight against ETA's terrorism and to defend human rights, democracy and civil rights.
- ETA's violence and the organisations it controls is directed preferably, in this last period, against important members and elected representatives of the two main political parties (PP and PSOE), as well as against journalists and members of the security forces, and no social sector which opposes such barbarity is free from its threats. It is important to bear in mind the fact that various trade unionists have been assassinated and trade union offices attacked. Moreover, a large number of persons threatened, among them university teachers, intellectuals, and artists, have had to abandon the Basque Country. A criminal violence is exercised against normal citizens for thinking in a different way from ETA. This way of acting, indignant and intolerable, is comparable to fascist methods.
ETA's terrorism and the violence that it generates are used, as instruments for political action and these are inadmissible forms of totalitarism aimed at preventing the exercise of freedom and democracy, and imposing on citizens and the Basque society, a totalitarian project.
As members of the European Trade Union Confederation, we will be promoting in its headquarters and among all European trade unions, as well as in the international sphere, the information and debate necessary so that workers and citizens of the Basque Country and those that suffer from ETA's terrorist campaign receive adequate support and solidarity on the part of workers and the entire international trade union movement.
- We are calling on all nationalist political parties inside and outside the Basque Country to defend their ideas by democratic means and to work within the political and institutional framework existing in the European Union, France and Spain, which guarantee the defence of any democratic political objective.
- We ask all trade union organisations that share our democratic values to break their allegiance with trade unions, social and political organisations that act within the context of ETA.
- We urge the unconditional dissolution of the ETA terrorist group. The Basque social and political organisations worried about their culture and identity should defend their political objective exclusively through democratic channels. There is no political objective that could be legitimately endorsed in democracy by means of coercion and assassination.
All political programmes or objectives are acceptable if they form part of the debate on ideas, in the respect for democracy and in the framework of rights and constitutional methods that guarantee equality between citizens.
This contributes in giving more strength and legitimacy to all projects within society.
In a democratic society no objective justifies the use of terrorist action and assassination as a means of self legitimation.
- The trade unions who signed this declaration, and who have traditionally been active participants in the struggle for democratic freedom, in the defence of workers and citizens interests, endorse it because we consider that on this occasion one has to act again in order to defend freedom and fundamental human rights.
FOR FREEDOM AND AGAINST TERRORISM
Faced with the intensification of terrorism perpetrated by the terrorist group ETA, the trade unions who signed the Joint Declaration,
- Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail (CFDT),
- Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT),
- Force Ouvrière (FO),
- Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes (UNSA),
- Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT),
- Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.),
declare the following:
- The defence of the right to life, the freedom for all citizens, the struggle against all forms of totalitarism, are basic for all workers and their union organisations. We express our deepest solidarity with all terrorist victims, their families and the social sector affected.
We commit ourselves to the promotion of as many social initiatives as necessary among the workers of the Basque Country, the rest of Spain and France in order to fight against ETA's terrorism and to defend human rights, democracy and civil rights.
- ETA's violence and the organisations it controls is directed preferably, in this last period, against important members and elected representatives of the two main political parties (PP and PSOE), as well as against journalists and members of the security forces, and no social sector which opposes such barbarity is free from its threats. It is important to bear in mind the fact that various trade unionists have been assassinated and trade union offices attacked. Moreover, a large number of persons threatened, among them university teachers, intellectuals, and artists, have had to abandon the Basque Country. A criminal violence is exercised against normal citizens for thinking in a different way from ETA. This way of acting, indignant and intolerable, is comparable to fascist methods.
ETA's terrorism and the violence that it generates are used, as instruments for political action and these are inadmissible forms of totalitarism aimed at preventing the exercise of freedom and democracy, and imposing on citizens and the Basque society, a totalitarian project.
As members of the European Trade Union Confederation, we will be promoting in its headquarters and among all European trade unions, as well as in the international sphere, the information and debate necessary so that workers and citizens of the Basque Country and those that suffer from ETA's terrorist campaign receive adequate support and solidarity on the part of workers and the entire international trade union movement.
- We are calling on all nationalist political parties inside and outside the Basque Country to defend their ideas by democratic means and to work within the political and institutional framework existing in the European Union, France and Spain, which guarantee the defence of any democratic political objective.
- We ask all trade union organisations that share our democratic values to break their allegiance with trade unions, social and political organisations that act within the context of ETA.
- We urge the unconditional dissolution of the ETA terrorist group. The Basque social and political organisations worried about their culture and identity should defend their political objective exclusively through democratic channels. There is no political objective that could be legitimately endorsed in democracy by means of coercion and assassination.
All political programmes or objectives are acceptable if they form part of the debate on ideas, in the respect for democracy and in the framework of rights and constitutional methods that guarantee equality between citizens.
This contributes in giving more strength and legitimacy to all projects within society.
In a democratic society no objective justifies the use of terrorist action and assassination as a means of self legitimation.
- The trade unions who signed this declaration, and who have traditionally been active participants in the struggle for democratic freedom, in the defence of workers and citizens interests, endorse it because we consider that on this occasion one has to act again in order to defend freedom and fundamental human rights.