Friday, March 5, 2010

The European strikes and the trade unions

from World Socialist Web Site. The author uses the current European economic crisis to illustrate how unions under capitalism collaborate with capitalists to maintain the system.
Last week was marked by two significant developments. [First] A strike wave hit Europe as workers in a series of countries began to demonstrate their opposition to the austerity measures demanded by the European Union and the banks.
[Second] In all countries, the trade unions responded by isolating and suppressing the workers’ actions and closing ranks with their respective governments and the European financial elite. The central concern of the unions was to prevent the working people of Europe from uniting in a common struggle against their common enemy—the European bourgeoisie and its agents in the national governments and the European Union.