[Peace-discuss] French Labor Law, Brexit, and Greek Austerity: Class War Against European Workers

[David Johnson]

  June 29, 2016

French Labor Law, Brexit, and Greek Austerity: Class War Against European
Workers 


Economist Richard Wolff says the old European elite believed it could fix
their broken capitalism on the backs of the masses and that has proved to be
a fatal mistake 

  _____  

biography

Richard D. Wolff is a Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of
Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently a Visiting Professor of the Graduate
Program in International Affairs at the New School University in New York.
He is the author of many books, including Democracy at Work: A Cure or
Capitalism, and Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. 

  _____  

transcript

Description: French Labor Law, Brexit, and Greek Austerity: Class War
Against European WorkersSHARMINI PERIES, TRNN: It's the Real News Network.
I'm Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore.

Labor and student-led protests continue in Paris in opposition to labor
conditions that are being rolled back in a bill that is forcing France to
conform to EU demands. The bill is being voted on on Tuesday. There have
been dozens of protests in France since March inciting discussions against
neoliberal economics. Europeans are still [scorching] from the Brexit vote
last week that throws the whole relevance of the European Union into
question.

Our next guest, Richard Wolff, argues that recent political realignment in
Europe are the result of a working class disgruntled by the effects of
capitalism. Richard Wolff is joining us now from New York, although he's
just been to Europe, and France in particular. Richard is a professor of
economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and currently
a visiting professor of the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the
New School University in New York. He's the author of many books, including
Democracy at Work: A Cure or Capitalism, and the just-released book
Capitalism's Crisis Deepens.

Thank you so much for joining us, Richard.

 

RICHARD WOLFF: Glad to be here.

 

PERIES: I know you're preoccupied with the disgruntled working class in
Europe at large, but let's discuss France first, the number of labor unions
and student movements out there protesting this labor bill. Give us a sense
of what's going on, and why this bill has been introduced.

 

WOLFF: Well, it's full of ironies that are wonderful signs for what is going
on, because they point so clearly.

Here's the basic story. A government, voted in by the French working class,
a socialist government--Mr. Hollande as the president is a socialist, and
the socialists have a commanding majority in the parliament, et cetera--this
socialist government, voted in on the promise of not allowing austerity in
France the way it has been imposed on so many other countries, like Greece,
and Spain, and so on, is now in a sense showing his true colors. He's turned
completely around. Forgotten are the promises to undo austerity, and what's
worse, he's pushed through a labor reform law which basically does
everything that the employers in France could have dreamed for a president
to do.

It allows employers to fire workers more easily than they could before. It
allows employers to command overtime. It allows less to be paid to workers.
It is, in short, a bill that is so lopsided and so one-sided in its effects
that first students and now the CGT, the most important trade union
federation in France, have basically declared war on the government and on
this law, and every day there are clashes in Paris, mostly now between the
CGT, the unions, on the one hand, and the government.

But the newspapers are filled with spectacles of helmeted police being sent
by a socialist government to beat the very people that put that government
into office. And if anything were more clearly a sign of the collapse of
what the very word "socialism" meant, as well as the collapse of
conventional politics, it's being acted out on the streets of Paris.

 

PERIES: Now, Hollande initially initiated this bill by decree. Now, it's
standing up for a vote today. What is that vote, and is it expected to pass?

 

WOLFF: Well, it's become a very contentious issue. The reason it was
originally done by Hollande as a decree was because it was quite clear that
if it had been submitted to the parliament it would not have passed. Whether
enough arms have been twisted, whether enough polarization has happened,
whether enough under-the-table and above-the-table promises have been made
to get it through, all the vote will mean is yet another maneuver, another
step, in what is now a standoff between the labor movement and its
supporters on the one hand, and this socialist so-called government on the
other.

And how that plays out now is nobody's clear call. Passing the bill, not
passing the bill. This is a moment of enormous historic importance, in its
way as important as the Brexit vote in Britain.

 

PERIES: And of course, what happened just a year ago in Greece, where in
spite of the referendum to not accept the terms of the bailout package, the
Syriza government went ahead and did it anyway in spite of the vote and the
popular vote that turned out and said, you know, we don't mind even leaving
the European Union in order to maintain and stop the austerity measures on
us. So this is definitely a trend that's going on across Europe. Give us a
sense of the other developments that you see that contribute to this
division in terms of the working classes, and the discontent and disgruntled
working classes, as you say.

 

WOLFF: Let me pick up from what you said, because it's a perfect starting
point. In Greece you had a classic situation. A poor, small corner of the
European economy, only freshly part of the unified Europe, is overwhelmed by
the economic crisis of capitalism's dissolving itself in 2008. No one in
their right mind could have blamed the Greek government or Greek policy for
causing that crisis.

However, in the years since 2008, the European rich countries, led by
Germany, have beaten into submission the Greek people, making them pay
through austerity programs, cut wages, cut government services, all of that,
pay a heavy, heavy price for an economic crisis they didn't cause, and an
economic crisis that had already hurt them in the private sector. But now
they're going to be savaged by the Europeans in the followup as they tried
to cope with this crisis. They got away with it, just as you said. Even when
the Greek people clearly voted by a majority not to go down the road of
austerity, it was forced on them by the French, the Germans, and by their
complicity, the British, as well.

That emboldened the old elites that run Europe to believe that they could do
pretty much what they want. Fix their broken capitalism on the backs of the
mass of people, with cut government services, cut government employment, all
of the austerity programs properly, so-called, without worrying about the
consequences. And that has proved to be a fatal mistake.

You may have been able to run over the Greeks, but nobody missed the
message. Not the Greeks, and not the French, and not the British. They could
see what was being done, and they began, through their suffering since 2008
and watching this process unfold, they began to recognize that this was a
capitalism in the West, at least, that was bringing them bad news. It wasn't
delivering the goods. It was delivering lower wages, less secure jobs, fewer
benefits, and less government help. And this is really what is going on.

In the case of Britain, it's perfectly clear that the mass of people wanted
to send a message to the old, established, austerity-committed government of
David Cameron, that they don't want him, they don't want what he does, they
don't believe in any of this. They believe that the leadership of the
European Union, what is crushing Greece, et cetera, is not something they
want to be part of. They feel victimized by all of that. And the Brexit vote
gave them a chance to say no, we don't want it. Sure, there were racist
elements and anti-immigration elements. That's part of the British political
scene. Of course it's going to play its role, seeking its objectives as part
of this.

But the bigger story is what's happening to the working class as it begins
to enter into a real historical fight. That's why the unions in France have
been able to mobilize very strong popular support for their anti-government
demand that workers' lives not be damaged more than they already have.

And finally, here we are in the United States, where again the same
scenario, in my judgment, is being played out. The old establishment that
ran the Republican Party and then ran the Democratic Party for decades find
itself surprised, amazed, just like Mr. Cameron in England, by what's
unfolding. Mr. Trump, considered by the old establishment to be a clown, is
now a presumptive leader. And on the other side, Mr. Sanders, who is
expected to be a marginal 2-3 percenter, is turning out to be a massively
popular leader despite calling himself a socialist.

You're seeing everywhere that the traditional, old, capitalist-maintaining
center-left, center-right, is dissolving. And the polarization is the new
issue on the horizon. It is surprising the old elites, but that's really
only a sign of how out of touch those governing elites have become as they
become not only richer than everybody else, but have become basically
spokespersons for those who've done real well in the last 70 years. But
those are not more than 5-10 percent of the people, and everybody else is
now looking in new directions for new solutions.

 

PERIES: Richard Wolff, such a pleasure to have you on the Real News, and we
look forward to ongoing analysis from you.

 

WOLFF: My pleasure, I'd be glad to do it.

 

PERIES: And thank you for joining us on the Real News Network.

 

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