Meeting in Bilbao strengthens international solidarity

en español – em português

More than 60 people from 35 organizations and 16 countries are gathering this week in Bilbao, in the Basque Country, to strengthen international solidarity between workers in coping with the voracity of capital. The seminar “Food, water and energy are not commodities” organized by the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) of Brazil and Mundubat (Basque Country), began on Tuesday 29 th of October 29.

The focus of the activity is to identify the strategies of the capital markets to face the economic crisis and to strengthen the union workers’ fight. ” In this time of crisis, capital takes more aggressive measures against workers and the environment and transnational companies act everytime more aggressive without any respect for the motherland, the employees and the natural resources. They only face profit” said Leonardo Bauer, national coordination of MAB.

During the analysis, Soniamara Maranho, another member of the coordination of MAB, highlighted the strategies of the capital markets to get out of the crisis: the appropriation of the more advantageous natural resources, the increased exploitation of the workers, the creation of new technologies and the appropriation of the structures of the states.

The meeting honored the workers who were victims of this logic. The participants stand still by two recent cases of workers in the energy sector who died. One of the victims was Carlão, a Cemig worker. He was killed last week by an electrical discharge, a result from job insecurity. Six miners were killed yesterday while working in León and three are hospitalized in serious condition.

The panelists reflected about the mechanisms of the capitalist exploitation in a globalized world, with emphasis on the exploitation of workers and nature.

Energy production appears as a central element for understanding the estrategies of the international capital. As Kostis Damianakis, from the Cretan Network against Sustainable Industrial Energy, pointed, the discussion about being for or against this type of (sustainable) generation is a false dilemma and a trap of big business. ” The key is to discuss energy for what and for who”.

Mónica Vargas, from the Observatory of Debt Globalization, drew a picture of how large infrastructure projects and international integration are focused on the extraction of raw materials.

The workers’ struggle against transnational

Juan Hernandes Zubizarreta, from the Institute of Development Studies and International Cooperation of the Public University of the Basque Country (Hegoa-UPV), hegihlighted in his contribution the four axes that should be attacked in the fight against transnationals: beyond their own companies, the State of origin, the receiving State and the international financial organizations.

“The only way out for workers is to articulate political formation with popular organization and united struggles” said Soniamara. According to Zubizarreta “in order to make this confrontation, we need to build networks of international solidarity and that means having common agendas against a common enemy, because transnational companies also have no boundaries.”