Revolting Europe
public services
France’s public servants: too many, too expensive, too often off sick?
Christian Chavagneux challenges the assumptions behind Macron’s drive to downsize France’s public sector. On 16 October, at the end of his meeting with the public service unions, the Minister of Action and Public Accounts, Gérald Darmanin, said he had already met them 37 times since taking office. The dialogue exists, but it is mostly a … Continue reading
Swedish lessons? Interpreting the recent elections
It is difficult to conceive that those responsible for the crisis, implementing measures that created the crisis, are the answer to it. Yet they’ll have us believe these are the lessons from the Swedish elections. Is this so, asks Francisco Louçã A little over a week ago, the Swedish elections produced a slim majority for a … Continue reading
Why the French are right to go on strike
After the recent strikes affecting the French railways – the longest in recent history – air traffic control and the entertainment industry there are fears among the establishment that, as the Economist puts it, France is ‘back to the bad old days’. That was the terminology used about Britain in the 1970s and early 1980s … Continue reading
Social services axe 57,000 jobs as Spain moves towards workhouse welfare model
Spain’s social services have axed 56,700 jobs over the past three years as part of a drastic austerity-driven downgrading of the country’s welfare state. In what will be seen as further evidence that workers and society’s weakest are being made to pay the price of crisis originating in the banking sector and the EU’s draconian budgetary rules, … Continue reading
Italy’s fresh privatisation drive is economic nonsense
IN THE RADICAL PRESS / IL MANIFESTO Italian ministers have given the OK to afresh wave of privatisations, but to what purpose asks Marco Bersani Italy’s cabinet yesterday gave the go ahead to place on the Stock Exchange a 40% stake in the Italian Post Office and 49% of air traffic control company ENAV, aiming … Continue reading
The crisis in the Balkans reflects Europe’s failure
Forget Berlin – to see the dark side of Europe we must look to Bosnia, the first victim of Friedman’s “shock therapy” on the Continent, says Emilio Molinari If someone in the European elections wants to understand a little more of the dark side of the European Union, of the Fiscal Compact and the 3% budgetary … Continue reading
Italy’s industrial meltdown – what is to be done?
As the crisis at white goods maker Electrolux heralds another round of plant closures in the Eurozone’s second largest manufacturing nation, economist Guido Viale argues that Italy has to take a radical new approach based on public sector intervention. What is to be done when the owner of a company decides to close down a … Continue reading
Lessons from the victory against Madrid’s hospital privatisation plan
Victory this week against Madrid’s hospital privatisation – and other recent struggles in Spain – shows popular resistance delivers results, says Esther Vivas “Resisting is pointless,” we hear endlessly repeated. “So many years of protest but the crisis continues, why bother?” insist others, inoculating us with apathy and resignation. “Protests could lead to something that’s even … Continue reading
Employers call for ‘tax haven’ in France
By Patrick Apel-Muller The new head of the French Employers Association MEDEF, Pierre Gattaz, considers himself to have the ear of power, so much as to say aloud what employers want in France: ‘A tax haven’. He did not mean by this one of those tiny states which are used to launder money from corporations … Continue reading
Why Greece is slashing public sector jobs
Amid much protest in the streets, the Greek government last night passed a law firing thousands of public sector workers. Twenty five thousand public servants – mainly teachers and municipal police – will be placed in a layoff scheme by the end of 2013. They have eight months to find another position or get laid … Continue reading
Spanish radicals ‘ready to govern the exit from neo-liberalism’ – Interview with Cayo Lara
Interview with Cayo Lara, leader of Izquierda Unida (United Left) Cayo Lara, 61, is general co-ordinator Izquierda Unida (United Left). During the party’s last Congress he was re-elected by a unanimous vote to lead the party, that in parliamentary elections in November 2011 achieved almost 7% of the vote, winning 11 seats. Since then, under his … Continue reading
Thousands rally for publicly run health services in Madrid
More than 60,000 health workers and citizens turned out in the streets of Madrid in the fifth mass protest against the privatisation of the capital’s health services since the start of the year. Unions CCOO and UGT and the radical United Left party formed part of the ‘white tide’ rising against the plans of the … Continue reading
Italians say ‘enough’ in mass protest against new government
“Enough. We can not wait any longer.” This was slogan behind which tens of thousands of workers, students, pensioners and radical left activists were marching in Rome Saturday in the first major protest against Italy’s new centre-left-right government. Led by metalworkers’ union Fiom, thousands of people marched to the beat of drums and whistles in … Continue reading
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
How Austerity is Hurting Women in Europe – In Numbers
Women are disproportionally affected by austerity cuts because they are society’s main carers, and the main users of public services and welfare recipients, where there have been heavy reductions in budgets; they predominate in low paid, insecure employment, which is expanding, facilitated by labour counter-reforms; because they are heavily employed in the public sector where … Continue reading
THE EURO
The Dossier
FRANCE
GERMANY
GREECE
ITALY
PORTUGAL
SPAIN
