The price of the Euro-ticket

Italian journalist Orsola Casagrande reports on the Cardiff counter-summit's challenge to Euro-leaders.

The turnout may have been lower than expected but the counter-summit in Cardiff was lively, noisy and positive. While the heads of governments were discussing ways to bring European institutions closer to the people, outside the palace of politics the people chanted their intention to "reclaim Europe". Their concerns and their analysis were in stark contrast to the preoccupations of the official summit.

The official gathering was dominated by the declaration on Kosova. Difficulties arose when it came to discuss the position of Turkey. The European leaders, despite strong opposition from Greece, said they wanted to send a "positive message to Turkey" so that "relations could be put back on track". Obviously this caused some worries among the Greek delegation who feared that it represented backtracking on the commitments made at the Luxembourg meeting. The presidency (in the person of Tony Blair) assured Greece that this was not the case, but the impression is that in some way Turkey is being given a privileged position among the countries eligible to join the Union.

On Saturday 13th June, the day before the Summit actually started, some 3,000 people marched through the streets of Cardiff. Among them were delegations from all over Europe, with one of the largest sent by the French movement of the unemployed. The delegation from northern Italy included five trade union leaders of the metal workers' branch of CGIL (which is the main left trade union federation in Italy) and in particular from FIOM (the more radical forces within CGIL, they were on the front line four years ago against Berlusconi's pension scheme reform). There were delegations from Holland and Ireland: some interesting contributions came from the Irish unemployed action group, unveiling the dark side of the Celtic Tiger.

The counter summit went on in the following two days with meetings and street parties by Reclaim The Streets. On Sunday there was a crowded meeting with Alan Simpson MP, Alex Smith MEP and Denzil Davies MP on "People's Europe". Simpson pointed out that "such a large crowd is really a sign of unreality" because in the House of Commons debate on the Cardiff meeting there was no mention at all about the "other meeting", yet "the Prime Minister is now talking about bringing Europe closer to the people". Most of the debate was dominated by the discussion on the Single Currency. The Labour Government has obviously embraced this goal, and, as a result, as Denzil Davies pointed out, "British government economic policy is being shaped to match the Euro Currency requirements". As all three main speakers underlined, it is ordinary people in the end who will carry the burden of such a policy, in cuts in wages and welfare protection.

There was great concern among the left-wingers gathered at the counter summit about the danger of not being able to "come out" of the dark: "If we don't manage to do so," warned Alan Simpson, "we will have to face a great right offensive." And it would be an offensive whose key words would be "hate and fear of the other" -- not only the immigrant, but also the poor, the drug addict: the weakest part of our society.

The justifications for the lone parent benefit cut had set a worrying precedent. The discussion focused on assigning personal blame rather than reaffirming public responsibility. The same is now being done to students, who are asked to shoulder the burden of financing higher education. "What they are telling us," concluded Simpson, "is that you can only have a place in a modern society if you have the money to buy it".

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