[Individual-members-EL] A few questions / informations

Sun Aug 31 19:12:06 CEST 2008

Have you considered the case of Belgium where transnational firms

enjoy royal privileges which have provoked President Bush's admiration? Some pay 1.25%  company tax instead of the 40% in the rest of the country. (notional interests they call that)

It must be very social since the tax laws have been voted by a socialist-liberal majority!

Say some socialist M.P.'s :" We did not know it would go so far !"

The present chairman of the Socialist Party, when he was Minister of Public Companies, had presented the new shareholding policy about Belgacom if I remember (Telephone Company).

An M.P. recounted the diverse elements and reached 49.9% for the State participation instead of the announced 50.1%.

The Minister answered "It does not interest people". 

No comment!

Another thing. People were complaining about the poor results in Peking. A socialist Minister proposed to suppress the "philosophical courses" ( religions + non confessional "morale") and replace that by gymnastic. A brilliant (!)"Socialist" predecessor preferred healthy bodies to full heads: guess who? Adolf Hitler himself!!

I do not invent it: it is written in "Mein Kampf". Cautiously the Minister of Education, another socialist, said it was impossible to change that as the "philosophical courses" are guaranteed by the Constitution.

But no condemnation of that stupidity. It is not gymnastics they should give but History, shouldn't they?

As for schools the situation is different in Belgium: we have very few private schools but we have "free" schools ( teachers are paid by the State but the rest is provided by the parents. There we have a free private management). 70% of the schools are "free" (mostly catholic) schools in the Flanders and 55% in the French speaking part of Belgium.  There the Community pays (except for books).

In the schools depending on the local authorities, more and more things are given to the private sector (school -kitchen, maintenance, etc). They have been cautious enough to go progressively in order not to shock, nationally, the trade-unions.

Since 1958, there is a competition amongst free schools and between the free school sector and the public one.

More than once I have heard Centrists saying that public schools should be subsidised like the free ones.

Now that we have lower means in our public schools, headmasters have more liberty to run the system.

There are conflicts with the handworkers' union because my headmaster is giving the sack to hand workers in order to dispose of more money. For the rest he is playing with unemployed people set to work, so he can pay less. Therefore we have more and more hand workers who are not statutory and more obedient. Before all this was decided in Brussels but the bad job of giving the sack is given to the headmasters. 

That is what is happening after 20 years of "socialist" power. Needless to say that they have reduced the money in the school system.

The conditions being better in the private sector, there is a lack of teachers so 1/3 are employed without the guarantees of a normal statute (chemists who teach mathematics, e.g.).As a shop steward, I can't motivate them to resist. Some tell me "Why should I take care? I'll find a better job in the private sector. It's just a matter of time and opportunities....... ".

And some do. Some take part-time: they are self-dependent and it is just to earn money before the 

business develops itself. 

Some say "I adapt myself ".  

There were in the past many trade-union militants amongst the teacher. In my school, I am almost alone

to speak about trade-unionism and actions. Who is going to teach about solidarity in such a context?

The situation is much more difficult for my colleagues in the "catholic" schools.

It will take me time to read the very interesting documentation sent by Mike. Sometimes I wonder "Where is all this going to stop? » Are we going back to Jurassic Park ?

Georges

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Nagler" <mnel at gmx.net>
To: <individual-members-el at listi.jpberlin.de>
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 7:36 PM
Subject: [Individual-members-EL] A few questions / informations

Dear friends,

i am at the moment a little bit busy with things at our local level - thats 
why i didnt took part on discussions on that list after the 3rd european 
left summer universitiy..

I have a few things that i want to tell you - and i looking forward if you 
can give me some help or informations on that:

1. At the moment our local parlament in our communitiy in Leipzig (east of 
germany) is going to make some contracts in (part-)privatisation in form of 
public-private-partnership. That concerns schools and perhaps also daycare 
facility for children. Its planned to make a decicion on that in the local 
parlament end of the year. At the moment we try to initiate a public debate 
on that - to stop that plans on privatisation. We have some experiences in 
other german cities with PPP and know also a bit about the big deals on that 
in other countries.
Do you have any experiences with Public-Private-Partnerships in your 
country/region/city? It would help us very much to know about your 
experiences.

2. Few months ago i wrote that we are planning activities at the European 
Social Forum in Malmoe that will take part from 17.-21. september 2008. 
("We" means in that sense different groups that work against privatisation 
in different european countries - individual members of the EL initiated 
that activity.)
That preparations nearly finished and during the merging process on the ESF 
now there will be a meeting that is supported by different groups that do 
active work against privatization of public goods or even on 
remuncipalisation or socialization.

For more informations on that see the enclosed document.

Will anyone on that list take part at the ESF this year? If yes - it would 
be a nice idea to have a small meeting on individual members there.

3. As member in Attac and the Taxjustic-Network i am involved at the moment 
in preparations on a campaign against tax havens. That campaign will start 
in spring 2009 - of course also because next year will be elections for the 
european parlament - and we want to place that topic in the election 
campaign. (2009 we will have elections in my region at the local, the 
regional, the national and the european level.)

I address this to you in the name of the working group on financial markets 
and taxes from Attac Germany because we are preparing an exhibition on tax 
havens. We want to show photos from real tax havens and Offshore Centers and 
inform people on tax evasion. The exhibition has already stations in 10 
cities in Austria and Germany, and the TJN UK, Attac Norway and France are 
also interested.

We would be glad if we could get some photos from tax-havens and would like 
to asked you whether you could spread the call for photos among people that 
live in tax-havens.

There is more information in english on the planned exhibition and the photo 
competition in the Newsletter of the TaxJusticeNetwork (page. 17):
http://www.taxjustice.net/cms/upload/pdf/TJF_4-2_AABA_-_Research.pdf

On our homepage there are some photos from the tax haven Kleinwalsertal (but 
the text is in German):
http://www.attac-netzwerk.de/ag-finanzmarkt-steuern/themen/steuern/steueroasen-ausstellung/#c4785

Biggest tax havens in europe: Guernsey, Jersey, Malta, Cyprus, Isle of Man, 
Liechtenstein, Gibraltar, Swizerland, Grenada, Ireland, Luxemburg, Monaco, 
Andorra, Great Britain, Madeira

The biggest offshore centres in europe are: Belgium, City of London, 
Frankfurt, Netherlands, Swizerland

It would be help us very much if you can spread that information. Also if 
you also interested in having that exhibition in your city next year - tell 
us.

4. Here an short up to date news from a big trade union demonstration 
initiated by NSZZ "Solidarnosc in Warszaw, poland, on the 29.08. with the 
slogan "Decent Work - Decent Life" ("Godna Praca - Godne Zycie"). . Its a 
slogan in co-ordination from WSF Nairobi 2007. And protest against the 
economic policy neoliberal government. 50.000 people took part on that 
demonstration.

Photo and video from media:

http://www.tvn24.pl/12690,1562878,0,1,petardy-w-kancelarie-premiera,wiadomosc.html

http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,80273,5640578,Zwiazkowcy_pod_kancelaria_premiera__Zlodzieje.html

http://www.wiadomosci24.pl/artykul/manifestacja_solidarnosci_w_warszawie_74832.html

http://www.wiadomosci24.pl/artykul/mms_godna_praca_godna_emerytura_74814.html

Best regards from germany,

Mike

Mike Nagler
Körnerplatz 8
04107 Leipzig

Mob: +49 (0) 179 - 96 19 584
@ : mnel at gmx.net

www.april-netzwerk.de
www.taxjustice.net
www.attac.de
www.european-left.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Stephen Spence
To: individual-members-el at listi.jpberlin.de
Sent: Saturday, August 30, 2008 2:45 PM
Subject: [Individual-members-EL] New Members of the List

Deasr All,

Mike Nagler was adding new members to this list but it still seems dead.  Is 
there anybody out there?

Best

Stephen Spence

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