Hello all!
As the latter piece of my two-part work for May Day, I am now posting on the successes and needed improvements of organized labor outside the U.S., particularly Europe. This comes after the first May Day posting for this year about labor in America, which I highly recommend reading before progressing to this one.
We'll start our look at labor rights in Europe, a continent which has had substantially better records for labor relations throughout the decades in comparison to us, but still has much to do. This standard applies especially to the European Union due to the E.U. debt crisis and subsequent responses across the region. However, the differences between the specific problems of each euro nation make this crisis all the more layered and difficult to solve. I'll be starting with those nations which are suffering the most due to the economic fallout, namely Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Romania. In these countries, the social safety net has quickly become a thing of the past in response to falling markets. Yet, things weren't always this horrible. In the Iberian peninsula, both Portugal and Spain suffered for years under repressive fascist (or in the case of Salazar, semi-fascist) governments that curtailed civil rights often and prevented any kind of good life for their citizens. This changed in the mid-1970s, when Francisco Franco of Spain died and the Carnation Revolution took place in Portugal. In both cases, liberal democracy soon followed dictatorship and new elected governments sought to restore the old empires to former glory that the old autocratic states prevented. In Portugal, on-and-off socialist party victories both for prime minister and parliament allowed significant steps forward in creating a Portugal that would both develop strong rights for workers and also be integrated into world economic developments over time. In Spain, left-wing government did not take place until 1982 when Spain's socialist party won elections, and began to reform a system plagued with irregularities and favor for the rich and powerful of the nation. Unfortunately, shortly after Spain introduced the euro and the Spanish popular party won elections, extraordinary property prices and high trade deficits would begin to build up until Zapatero and the socialists retook power in 2004. While not much was done in this time period to prevent a crisis that would result from the economic boom, when Spain's property bubble burst in 2008 the pain was well felt. Inflation skyrocketed along with unemployment, and Spanish bond value dropped to essentially nothing. While Portugal has taken economic help from the IMF and agreed to reforms, Spain has avoided bailout despite having unemployment of over 20% (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sp.html), a fate that the socialists did not have time to properly avoid due to the speed of the fallout.
In Greece and Italy, overall sluggish economics combined with inconsistency in credit and debt markets have allowed for holes in economic systems that were pelted with problems come crisis just 4 years ago. Greece suffered under multiple military-styled dictatorships throughout the 20th century, and just a few decades of democracy allowed Greece to liberalize its economy once more and to efficiently produce markets that the world considered highly desirable. For Italy, slow-paced political reforms that came after Mussolini was removed and the U.S. occupation ended led to longing for stable government, which came in the form of prime minister Berlusconi for a long time. Unfortunately, he also introduced quite a bit of corruption and bureaucracy into Italian politics and created a huge wealth gap between the richer north and the poorer south. Consistent faults on the part of multiple Greek leaders would come to light in 2008 to show that Greek bonds and debt were nowhere near as safe as promised, leading to huge market crashes that no country could have handled. Greece has needed bailouts, but Italy has not as of yet. But things are not looking good. The same holds true of Ireland and Romania. For Ireland, growing property prices and the collapse of the construction sector led to huge problems for the Cowen government in 2008. Romania, on the other hand, suffers from corruption, strong inflation, rising energy costs, and at a time drought. All this combined to ensure sharp GDP contraction in the former communist state.
And now, we come upon the solutions. Germany, Finland, and France have been strong proponents of austerity measures in order to bring the spending levels of debtor nations in line and to increase domestic consumption that would drive an economic surge to recovery. However, austerity is the harshest form of getting governments money and hurts economies significantly while applied. Austerity destroys public sector wages, and tightens an economy at a time when fluidity is far more important than structure or order. Oh, and the leaders of Europe have also noted that austerity isn't working (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-30/news/31508285_1_austerity-confidence-doctrine). Across European nations that are dying from the draconian measures, there is little public support for removing all the protections that people desired and needed just to balance out falling private demand. In Spain, cost-cutting under Mariano Rajoy has only stagnated an economy that cannot survive long without growing more. In Britain and Ireland, austerity has failed time and again to produce efficient results, and both haven't seen a working recovery in some time. In Romania, Traian Basescu has championed austerity while his people have rioted in the streets against it. How can we ignore the fact that destroying an economy in order to rebuild is not the policy to take? In France and Greece, public discontent is showing and may garner some promising changes. Both countries have elections coming up, and in France the socialist candidate Hollande has already won the first round. We now have a chance to pursue measures of economic growth, rather than ones that have only pushed nations further into recession. The only reason Germany has remained strong has been consistent demand for its products both on international markets and in its domestic consumption. Without this, Germany would be in a hole just like every other euro nation. It is time we finally realized that attacking unions, attacking public sector jobs, only hurts an economy. We must act now in Europe, or else we risk further crashes that can mean no good for anyone. Workingmen everywhere, unite!
That is all for my take on organized labor here and elsewhere, and I hope I've gotten my point across. If you have questions or comments, post them here anonymously if necessary. My email at zerospintop@live.com is active, along with my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ account. This is SuperJew McLovin, signing off.
As the latter piece of my two-part work for May Day, I am now posting on the successes and needed improvements of organized labor outside the U.S., particularly Europe. This comes after the first May Day posting for this year about labor in America, which I highly recommend reading before progressing to this one.
We'll start our look at labor rights in Europe, a continent which has had substantially better records for labor relations throughout the decades in comparison to us, but still has much to do. This standard applies especially to the European Union due to the E.U. debt crisis and subsequent responses across the region. However, the differences between the specific problems of each euro nation make this crisis all the more layered and difficult to solve. I'll be starting with those nations which are suffering the most due to the economic fallout, namely Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Romania. In these countries, the social safety net has quickly become a thing of the past in response to falling markets. Yet, things weren't always this horrible. In the Iberian peninsula, both Portugal and Spain suffered for years under repressive fascist (or in the case of Salazar, semi-fascist) governments that curtailed civil rights often and prevented any kind of good life for their citizens. This changed in the mid-1970s, when Francisco Franco of Spain died and the Carnation Revolution took place in Portugal. In both cases, liberal democracy soon followed dictatorship and new elected governments sought to restore the old empires to former glory that the old autocratic states prevented. In Portugal, on-and-off socialist party victories both for prime minister and parliament allowed significant steps forward in creating a Portugal that would both develop strong rights for workers and also be integrated into world economic developments over time. In Spain, left-wing government did not take place until 1982 when Spain's socialist party won elections, and began to reform a system plagued with irregularities and favor for the rich and powerful of the nation. Unfortunately, shortly after Spain introduced the euro and the Spanish popular party won elections, extraordinary property prices and high trade deficits would begin to build up until Zapatero and the socialists retook power in 2004. While not much was done in this time period to prevent a crisis that would result from the economic boom, when Spain's property bubble burst in 2008 the pain was well felt. Inflation skyrocketed along with unemployment, and Spanish bond value dropped to essentially nothing. While Portugal has taken economic help from the IMF and agreed to reforms, Spain has avoided bailout despite having unemployment of over 20% (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sp.html), a fate that the socialists did not have time to properly avoid due to the speed of the fallout.
In Greece and Italy, overall sluggish economics combined with inconsistency in credit and debt markets have allowed for holes in economic systems that were pelted with problems come crisis just 4 years ago. Greece suffered under multiple military-styled dictatorships throughout the 20th century, and just a few decades of democracy allowed Greece to liberalize its economy once more and to efficiently produce markets that the world considered highly desirable. For Italy, slow-paced political reforms that came after Mussolini was removed and the U.S. occupation ended led to longing for stable government, which came in the form of prime minister Berlusconi for a long time. Unfortunately, he also introduced quite a bit of corruption and bureaucracy into Italian politics and created a huge wealth gap between the richer north and the poorer south. Consistent faults on the part of multiple Greek leaders would come to light in 2008 to show that Greek bonds and debt were nowhere near as safe as promised, leading to huge market crashes that no country could have handled. Greece has needed bailouts, but Italy has not as of yet. But things are not looking good. The same holds true of Ireland and Romania. For Ireland, growing property prices and the collapse of the construction sector led to huge problems for the Cowen government in 2008. Romania, on the other hand, suffers from corruption, strong inflation, rising energy costs, and at a time drought. All this combined to ensure sharp GDP contraction in the former communist state.
And now, we come upon the solutions. Germany, Finland, and France have been strong proponents of austerity measures in order to bring the spending levels of debtor nations in line and to increase domestic consumption that would drive an economic surge to recovery. However, austerity is the harshest form of getting governments money and hurts economies significantly while applied. Austerity destroys public sector wages, and tightens an economy at a time when fluidity is far more important than structure or order. Oh, and the leaders of Europe have also noted that austerity isn't working (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-04-30/news/31508285_1_austerity-confidence-doctrine). Across European nations that are dying from the draconian measures, there is little public support for removing all the protections that people desired and needed just to balance out falling private demand. In Spain, cost-cutting under Mariano Rajoy has only stagnated an economy that cannot survive long without growing more. In Britain and Ireland, austerity has failed time and again to produce efficient results, and both haven't seen a working recovery in some time. In Romania, Traian Basescu has championed austerity while his people have rioted in the streets against it. How can we ignore the fact that destroying an economy in order to rebuild is not the policy to take? In France and Greece, public discontent is showing and may garner some promising changes. Both countries have elections coming up, and in France the socialist candidate Hollande has already won the first round. We now have a chance to pursue measures of economic growth, rather than ones that have only pushed nations further into recession. The only reason Germany has remained strong has been consistent demand for its products both on international markets and in its domestic consumption. Without this, Germany would be in a hole just like every other euro nation. It is time we finally realized that attacking unions, attacking public sector jobs, only hurts an economy. We must act now in Europe, or else we risk further crashes that can mean no good for anyone. Workingmen everywhere, unite!
That is all for my take on organized labor here and elsewhere, and I hope I've gotten my point across. If you have questions or comments, post them here anonymously if necessary. My email at zerospintop@live.com is active, along with my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ account. This is SuperJew McLovin, signing off.
I like this piece of journalism about Europe; very interesting, many facts that I did not know. Thank you for the superior effort and in depth research....Is it possible to have a sports themed blog in the near future?
ReplyDeleteNope, sorry. But thanks for reading.
ReplyDelete