14.11.08
RMT joins Paris protest against EU rail privatisation drive
Members of rail union RMT from across Britain have demonstrated in Paris as part of an international protest against European Union diktats demanding the break up and privatisation of rail networks in all member states.
The demonstration, called during the French EU presidency by the French rail union CGT and the European Transport Workers Federation, demanded an end to EU-led rail ‘liberalisation’ policies.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow pointed out that the damaging privatisation of British Rail along the lines of EU directive EEC/91/440 shows that the EU rail ‘liberalisation’ model is a disaster.
“Rail privateers and their shareholders have bled billions of pounds out of the industry while taxpayers now pay over three times more in rail subsidies than under public ownership.
“Despite this insane state of affairs the neo-liberal mandarins of Brussels are rolling out their dangerous and failed privatisation model across the continent,” he said.
Since the introduction of directive 91/440/EEC – which requires a split between train operations and rail infrastructure –three EU rail packages demands ‘competition’ in rail freight by 2006 and full ‘liberalisation’ in international passenger services by 2010.
“As a result Eurostar has just announced plans for a “transnational privatisation” with the state inheriting the historic debt of the enterprise and the private sector taking the profit.
“Yet the UK experience has shown that the private sector is willing to take money in the form of public subsidy out of the rail network and is incapable of investment for the public good as the fiasco over the funding of Eurotunnel shows.
“The current global capitalist crisis will only reinforce these failures with a vengeance,” Bob Crow said
RMT, other rail unions across Europe and the ETF are calling for an end to rail privatisation and a new future for nationalised, democratically-controlled, publicly-owned railways and more public investment in railways for economic growth and the environment.
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