Trade union and social organizations from France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy have signed a joint statement to promote coordinated protests between November 20 and November 22 against the increase in the cost of living.
The meeting took place this Tuesday in Paris (France), on the initiative of the Confederation of Tenants’ Unions, and brought together groups for the right to housing, workers’ unions and climate movements.
In the agreed text, the organizations denounce the “runaway” escalation of the cost of living, “with housing out of reach and basic food and transportation each time more expensive,” and warn of the “return of austerity, linked to the demands of the creditors of public debt and to the arms race.” They also commit to turning solidarity into “a daily practice and an organizing tool.”
The protests will be structured around a common program that calls for guaranteeing the right to housing and lowering the price of housing, food and energy, in addition to increasing wages and pensions and strengthening public services. They also defend the right to work and regularization to eliminate the “racist barriers,” apply higher taxation to large fortunes and put an end both to rearmament and to the use of fossil fuels.