THERE is no more pathetic sight than that of European bourgeois politicians and economists manically trying to convince both themselves and the world at large that the economic crisis of capitalism is, if not over, then contained and the economic tsunami has been weathered.
So desperate are the bourgeoisie of Europe for an escape from impending disaster that they are grasping at the most ridiculous of economic straws – the latest being the promise from the Japanese government that it will buy up the eurozone government bonds thus providing the money to make all the bail-outs required.
Given that the Japanese currency is flat on its back and virtually worthless this is not so much a lifeline as a recipe for inflation on a scale not seen since the 1930s with one worthless currency propping up an equally worthless euro.
Nowhere was this heady optimism more on show than at the meeting this week between the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, and German chancellor Angela Merkel who assured journalists that the eurozone was on the right course, but that more work was needed.
Samaras added: ‘I would like to make clear up front that our country is undertaking great efforts that are linked with great sacrifices to get things back on track. We are trying to win back credibility, on the part of the people of Europe and on the part of the markets.’
In fact, behind closed doors Samaras will be forced to admit that the savage austerity cuts insisted upon by the eurozone bankers in order to secure the latest bail-out of the bankrupt Greek economy have yet to be implemented. They have run into the intransigent resistance of the Greek working class and youth.
Just before Christmas the country was gripped by huge strikes against the implementation of the new austerity measures with the central demand being for the removal of the Samaras government.
If this is not enough to unsettle Merkel then the release this week of figures showing that, far from being the economic powerhouse of Europe, Germany itself is sinking as its much vaunted industrial manufacturing base continues to crumble.
German industrial orders dropped by 1.8% in November, a drop driven by a 4.2% slump in business orders from overseas with orders for large industrial machinery falling by 3.1%.
Behind these dry statistics lie the very crisis for the working class of Europe and especially young people.
As the banking collapse has fed into the collapse of almost the entire manufacturing base of the Continent so it has fuelled unemployment on a scale never before seen.
Record high levels of unemployment have been reported in figures released yesterday across the entire EU with the rates within the eurozone countries being even higher.
Over the whole of the European Union the overall youth unemployment was 23.7% in November, up from 23.4% the previous month.
In the eurozone the figure was 24.4% out of work and not in education or training, up from 23.9% in October.
The overall unemployment rate for men, women and youth in the EU was 11.8% in November which represents 18.820 million out of work – a figure that can only grow even larger as capitalism continues its headlong rush into global collapse.
Every attempt to promote growth has failed dismally, and the future for workers and young people under capitalism is one of a life of unemployment and poverty.
The savage austerity measures being enacted in every country has created this vast army of unemployed as the price this bankrupt and historically outmoded capitalist system is demanding for its survival.
For workers and youth to have a future requires putting an end to capitalism.
This requires the building of revolutionary parties of the Fourth International throughout Europe to lead the European socialist revolution.
