The Neoliberal Impulse

In this interview with Economist Richard D. Wolff he reminds us there is a World Wide revolt against the monopolistic crony capitalism of Neoliberalism and the dictatorship of the 1%.

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

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.
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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.

More from Renaud Lambert, Editor, Le Monde Diplomatique.

Hollande Capitulates to EU Pressure on Labor Laws Risking His Own Presidency

(W)hy would any president, potential candidate for presidential election, stand so firmly behind a bill that is so unpopular? And I think that of the many reasons, one is European pressure. You have to bear in mind that similar laws have been passed in Spain, of course, Greece, Portugal, Ireland–in plenty, in many countries. And France pretty much stands as the last domino in the European Union strategy to bulldozer work-related regulations.

And I think this is one of the reasons Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, stepped into the debate in France and said the bill that is proposed to the French people is–and I quote–the very minimum that needs to be implemented in a European country, the very minimum. And when you see the amount of people in the street, I mean, that infuriated people, such a comment.

But I think he was right. And I would expect that this explains the level of solidarity we are receiving, the labor movement is receiving from across the border. From the U.K., Jeremy Corbyn, head of the Labour Party, [brought support to ?] the workers strike in France. Ken Loach, who was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, sent a message of support in a recent meeting. We are receiving support from Podemos in Spain. We are receiving support from Portugal. People are looking at what is happening in France because they know that an important struggle is taking place here.
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The European Union is not like the United States, the addition of separate states under a federal government. It’s a plan to create a common market. It’s a corporate-oriented project that was intended to make it easier for companies to make profit and to streamline regulations that would hinder their profit-making. Hence what we have seen under the guise of creating solidarity, pushing for peace and prosperity, is ever better regulations in favor of companies and tougher and tougher laws directed, passed by Brussels for workers.