AS THE US and the UK continue to fuel and arm the war in the Ukraine, the economic outlook for Europe and the EU continues to worsen as super inflation takes hold and threatens to turn the masses of both the working class and the middle class into paupers.
There are now demonstrations taking place, or about to take place, in all of the EU states, with workers and the middle classes demanding wage rises to match the galloping inflation that is turning millions into paupers.
In the UK, hundreds of thousands of nurses will go on a mass strike action for the first time, demanding a 17% pay rise as the cost of living soars.
The industrial action by the RCN will begin before the end of the year. It is unprecedented in its 106-year history.
RCN union officials say that the salaries of nurses have dropped by as much as 20% in real terms over the last 10 years, which has left members struggling to feed their families and to pay their bills.
Hundreds of workers at London’s Heathrow Airport will walk out in the run up to the Football World Cup in Qatar this month, over demands for better pay. The 700 workers will strike for three days beginning on November 18.
In fact Europe is being engulfed by widespread transport strikes as the cost of living escalates, destroying the lives of millions. Widespread transport strikes have partially paralysed Europe. In Greece, workers have held a 24-hour general strike, which has seen thousands of protesters on the streets of Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki. Clashes erupted between protesters and security forces.
One Greek demonstrator said: ‘I make 900 euros a month. Until I get paid again, I will have paid my mortgage, my electricity and my water bill, and only crumbs will be left over to survive with. I cannot get through the month. It is difficult to make it to the end of the month. For me, my wages have already been spent after the first ten days.’
The European Union has already warned that the eurozone is set to slide into a slump over the winter, with Brussels hiking inflation forecasts for 2022 and 2023 amid soaring energy prices.
In Paris, commuters were faced with delays as Metro workers called a major one-day pay strike. A variety of unions have recently staged strikes across several sectors seeking pay increases or increased hiring amid spiralling energy costs and widespread inflation.
Food prices have now hit record highs in Spain amid a worsening cost of living crisis that is keeping the cost of living painfully high in the European country.
The International Monetary Fund has predicted that Europe’s advanced economies will grow by just 0.6% next year. It also warns that more than half of the countries in the eurozone will experience recessions this winter.
Germany, which is considered the EU’s biggest economy, is also expected to go into recession within the year. The German economy has been built on cheap energy, that is cheap gas from Russia, and this business model is over. So Germany has to produce renewable energy, and then go back on track with its business model. But this will take a couple of years.
Meanwhile there is no Russian oil, they have cut off the hand that has been feeding them, stoking unemployment, growing poverty and a rising militancy in the working class throughout Germany.
Paris commuters were bracing for bedlam last Thursday as Metro workers called a major one-day pay strike.
Next year, Europe’s output and income will be nearly half a trillion Euros lower than last year’s IMF forecasts.
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF Chief, stated: ‘We have downgraded three times, since October last year, our growth projections last time we brought (20)22 to 3.2% growth and for (20)23 projections was 2.9%.’
Meanwhile Europe is in turmoil with the French police brutally confronting protesters venting their anger over the cost of living crisis and soaring inflation in the capital, Paris.
In the UK workers’ patience is wearing very thin both with the government and their trade union leaders. UK workers are demanding their leaders call a general strike to bring down the Tories and to bring in a Workers Government and socialism. Workers all over Europe agree with them.
In fact the time has come for the organisation of the European Socialist Revolution to bring about the end of capitalism, paving the way for the World Socialist Republic! Sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International must be built throughout Europe to lead this struggle.