Yesterday, Sven Giegold announced that the privatization of the German railway has been halted by a large coalition of NGOs and trade unions led by Attac Germany. "It is the first major civil society victory against neoliberal projects of the governing big coalition", Sven wrote.

This is an amazing achievement of Attac Germany and its partners! I am very impressed.

This first victory of the coalition against the Bahnprivatisierung can be compared with the success of Attac France and its allies in 2005 when they made the NON win in the referendum on the Neoliberal EU constitution. The projected Bahnprivatisierung "is now in a political deadlock". Just as the Neoliberals came back with their "Reform-Treaty", they will of course continue to push for the privatization of the German railroads.

Today, Monday 19 November, the European Trade Union Confederation ETUC will present a petition with more than half a million signatures to European Commission President Barroso. The petition calls for an EU directive on public services.

The European Attacs should now proceed to demanding a public railway service for the whole EU, hopefully in alliance with the ETUC. If coal and steel could once become integrated, then why not the railways? It is time to scrap the nukes and invest in, for instance, public transport. After all, this might also be good for the environment and help stop the global warming.