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Cultural workers and their unions together with associations in the cultural sector mobilised yesterday in the streets of Paris for the initiative" je marche pour la culture" (I march for culture). The call to the streets seeks to raise awarenness for the threat to culture in France and beyond caused by budget cuts and more generally by shortsighted and ill coordinated policies affecting the sustainability of the cultural sector.  

William Maunier, European President of UNI MEI Global Union addressed the rally to convey the support of the unions in Europe and beyond for the initiative of the French cultural sector. Maunier said "Culture is threatened throughout Europe. Austerity policies implemented in most countries of the European Union and overzealous interpretation of the primacy of competition rules tend to reduce the arts and culture to purely economic services and threaten sustainable funding for culture. The misconceptions of "crisis" asphyxiate culture and arts in Greece, Portugal, Spain, France today and tomorrow in most countries of the European Union. They are the cause of a drastic decline and unprecedented budgets for cultural and artistic activities, putting into question their deep historical models and their core tasks of production and dissemination of common democratic values , developmental, well-being, development of critical thinking and emancipation of consciences of citizens."

Culture, cultures in all their diversity, are a common heritage of the peoples of Europe the world and humanity. They must be protected from the simple play of economic forces. This is the meaning of the UN Convention on Cultural Diversity ratified by the European Union, Maunier added.

UNI MEI supports its Faffiliates in France and the march for culture and will continue to engage in a continuous dialogue with the EU institutions and in particular with new Members of the European Parliament who will be elected in 2014 and the new EU Commission, to defend a coherent European policy to promote and defend creativity and cultural diversity.

Learn more about "je marche pour la culture" here: www.je-marche-pour-la-culture.org