Revolting Europe
deregulation
France’s Loi Macron: the consecration of archaeo-liberalism
This week France’s government forced a controversial deregulatory economic bill through parliament by decree, provoking a confidence vote and further splits within the ruling socialists, with rebels including former minister Benoît Hamon. Drafted by a one-time investment banker and designed to win respite from the German-led EU over draconian deficit reduction demands, it has been pursued in the name of … Continue reading
Abandoned in austerity Spain: no job, no benefits
Read the news and it’s all upbeat about Spain. The Spanish economy grew 0.6 percent in the second quarter, the fastest rate since 2007, before the country slipped into recession. That’s the fourth consecutive quarter of growth. And Spain’s unemployment rate has fallen to a two-year low – of 24.5% in the second quarter. Of course at … Continue reading
Why Greeks are right to protest Sunday opening
Today Greece is seeing further nationwide protests by shop employees and campaigners against Sunday shop opening imposed by the Government under the terms of the Troika’s hated memorandum of understanding. The idea is that it will boost competitiveness and spur consumer spending in the recession-hit economy. But according to the latest statistics of the National Confederation of … Continue reading
Inequality and corruption threaten democracy
By Guido Rossi* The widespread perception that corruption has permeated the entire political, economic and social development of Italy in ways more serious than ever before, seems to have two obvious causes. The first is that it is a consequence of the decline of the existing order and the Italian political institutions; the second is … Continue reading
Why precarious work deepens the crisis
By Guglielmo Forges Davanzati According to the CGIL union, workers employed with temporary contracts earn an average salary of about € 800 per month in Italy, and are predominantly based in the public administration and in the South. The OECD certifies, with respect to our country, that temporary work affects mainly young people under the … Continue reading
France’s battle over Sunday shop opening
There’s a revolt in France, we are told. Not about growing economic misery, rising unemployment and falling living standards. Not in anger at the scandalous, and still widening inequality of wealth. It is about opening shops on Sunday. The press say it’s about freedom, that it’s about jobs, about growth. But is it? Two large … Continue reading
Who will represent the educated precariat?
The crisis in Spain and elsewhere has accelerated the emergence of a new social group , making it much more visible in the media and in social and political terms. But unions and the are failing to respond to their needs, argues Bruno Estrada* The crisis in Spain has accelerated the emergence of a new … Continue reading
Mad Men of the Roundtable
Merkel and Hollande have given key positioning to the European Roundtable of Industrialists and their corporate wish-list. They are set to influence a future Competitiveness Pact – a next step towards authoritarian neoliberalism. Corporate Europe Observatory
Margaret Thatcher: the architect of Europe’s crisis
Thatcher introduced to Europe the economic and political model that is now destroying it. Here’s some dedications from critics (from the European mainland) of the late British prime minister, who has received such lavish, and unwarranted praise, in recent days. French Communist Party: For some she put an end to the “monopoly” of the unions, she … Continue reading
Workers descend on Rome to ‘build a future’
Thousands of construction workers protested Saturday in Rome in a bid to ‘build a future’ for themselves. They arrived from around the country in 150 buses, a thousand trains and dozens of ferries from the Italian islands. The rally in the Italian capital today comes as the sector is facing its worse crisis since the Second … Continue reading
Monti has done the precise opposite that he promised: communists
Worse than Berlusconi: Italian Communists on 100 days of the Monti government More
Evidence based policy-making in Spain
Evidence-based policy-making is in short supply in Europe as governments, egged on by bankers and other capitalists, go around blindly creating one disaster after another without the slightest attention to the facts. Mariano Rajoy’s Spain, with the catastrophically brutal austerity package it passed at the turn of the year and subsequent moves to deregulate the … Continue reading
OECD gives failed neo-liberal lessons to Italy
Italy should privatise TV and utilities, weaken employment rights and remove other legal ‘barriers to competition’ and generally reduce the involvement of the state and government in the economy. This will ensure that an economic rebound is ‘more sustainable and fair.’ These are recommendations of the Paris-based organisation. As if countries like the UK or … Continue reading
Greek austerity plan ‘economically unviable and socially unsustainable’ say European trade unions
ETUC General Secretary Bernadette Ségol says latest Greek austerity plan ‘offers no perspective towards recovery’ and attacks labour rights More
Monti, Italy and jobs for life
Italian premier Mario Monti hasn’t been in the job long, but is already the new darling of the European elite. So much so that some political pundits have dropped ‘Merkozy’ – the Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy duo – for the ‘Merkonti’ trio. Certainly, his economists’ training and measured, articulate manner, contrasts favourably with his … Continue reading
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