Credible Opponents to Austerity?
'Driven by their fetish of "competitiveness," a part of the European Commission and German Chancellor Angela Merkel … are trying to better position Europe globally by way of reducing hard-fought employee rights and social standards in all countries. Cuts in unemployment benefits, reductions in worker protections, lower pensions, expansions to limited work contractions … and weakening the unions: Those are just some of the ideas that are on the table. European Union countries are to pledge to reform their social and labor systems so that they conform to the market.
'What should be done to counter such plans? ... So far, alternative models for how to stimulate Europe's economy and fairly tax wealth exist only on paper and must be finalized. When it comes to linking European protest movements and coordinating salary demands ... the unions are hopelessly behind. And European, and particularly German, Social Democrats (and the Greens in Germany) have not emerged as credible opponents to austerity. On the contrary.
'But if the neo-liberal and post-democratic restructuring of Europe is to be stopped, only frontal opposition will prove effective. The existence of Europe is at stake.'
Die Tageszeitung (Grmany)
[left-leaning daily]