St Don Bosco's Dream of the Two Pillars
Posted on 08/31/2007 1:34:04 PM PDT by lizol
Riot police called after Polish shipyard workers enter EU headquarters
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:26 p.m. August 30, 2007
BRUSSELS, Belgium – Belgian riot police were called Thursday after several Polish demonstrators entered headquarters of the European Union before a protest against EU plans to reduce state subsidies to the Gdansk shipyard.
About 30 protesters entered the foyer of the building where the public has free access. They left peacefully when police arrived. The workers chanted “Solidarity” as they went out – the name of the trade union that launched Poland's peaceful anti-communist revolt in 1980.
“We were just being tourists and wanted to take some photos,” said Solidarity representative Karol Guzikiewicz.
Police acknowledged that they may have been called in because of a misunderstanding. About 40 officers, some in riot gear, stood in a line around the Commission entrance while the workers trooped out.
In January, dock workers caused several hundred thousand euros of damage to the European Parliament building in the French city of Strasbourg when they fought with police in a separate row over EU moves to liberalize port services.
On Friday, about 100 Gdansk workers are scheduled to protest outside the Brussels building to complain about an EU clash with the Warsaw government. EU regulators say Poland can no longer feed state money to the historic yard to keep it alive by paying its running costs because this gives it an unfair advantage over other businesses.
They insist that Poland must either work out a restructuring plan for the yard with a one-time cash injection or have it return millions of euros in government subsidies received since Poland joined the 27-member bloc in 2004.
Workers fear this could lead to the yard's closure and the loss of 3,000 jobs.
The Gdansk yard is deeply significant for Poles because it is the place where Lech Walesa led a strike that won government recognition for the Solidarity union. This sparked a protest movement that undermined the Communist regime, which collapsed in 1989 and 1990.
Walesa, a shipyard electrician who later became the president of Poland, has called the shipyard's struggles a personal blow.
EU = PU
I am not enamoured with this enterprise.
I guess they remember what happened to the other empire Polish shipworkers went on strike against.
But then contempt is just about the only thing that Eurocrats has to offer the world.
The thing is that those “Eurocrats” are pushing down state subsidies for more positive capitalism. The socialist ideologists of the Kacinsky gouvernment are unfit to survive without money from the countries in western Europe since they are unable to manage a free economy. It is not the “Eurocrats” as you call them that are the bad ones in this game. If a industry can not earn money anymore it has to die sooner or later. It does not matter if it has history or not. This is quite simple and should also be understandable for a American conservative with a capitalist mind.
The suffering of the eastern Europeans was tragic but has nothing to do with contemporary business.
Shipyard should be simply privatized and the EU would allow subsidy if only Polish government would close down half of company. Both sides likely want to destroy this shipyard.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.