debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
In its Working for the Few briefing paper, Oxfam has called attention to a worrying trend: the wealth of 1% of the world’s richest people is equivalent to a total of US$ 110 trillion – 65 times the total wealth of the poorer half of the world’s population. In the last 25 years, wealth has been increasingly […]
Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable. […]
On 18 May 2014, Swiss voters clearly rejected the popular initiative for the introduction of a statutory national minimum wage of CHF 4000 per month respectively CHF 22 (Euro 18) per hour. The initiative was launched by the Swiss Trade Union Confederation (SGB-USS) which collected enough signatures to force the Swiss government and parliament to hold a […]
Five years after the beginning of the recession real wages in Britain are still well below their pre-crisis level. As of March 2014 real weekly earnings (deflated by the RPI) are at the level of November 2000; that is a staggering 12% below their peak in February 2008. Is that a good thing, improving the […]
The ‘Eastern enlargement’ in May 2004 opened the EU’s doors to ten countries. Of these, the four Visegrád states, the three Baltic countries and a former Yugoslav state had at that time completed their 15-year transition towards a market economy. In the first half of the 1990s these countries’ income, measured in terms of GDP, […]
This week, the informal EPSCO Council will meet in Athens to discuss, amongst others, the link between structural reforms and a job rich recovery. When doing so, ministers would do well to take a closer look at the labour market reform the Spanish conservative government undertook in February 2012. This reform did not limit itself […]
Sitting in nice wine bars or cosy restaurants in superbly gentrified inner city areas, the chattering liberal middle class expresses its disgust about the xenophobic under-classes turning against migrants and voting for right-wing populist parties. Being a member of the chattering class myself I fully share these feelings. The populist migrant bashing makes me furious. […]
After four years of college, my son is about to graduate with a degree in Environmental Politics. We are both aware that he is entering the job market at a time when more and more young people cannot find work. While putting together his résumé, he recently asked me what kind of skills today’s employers […]
Spain, under pressure from the Troika (International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank) has gone through three major labor market reforms, presented to the public as necessary in order to reduce the scandalous high level of unemployment: 25% in general and 52% among the young. Spain (and Greece) are on the top of […]
On 9 February a narrow majority of Swiss voters voted in favour of an initiative by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) calling for the re-introduction of quotas for immigrants from the EU. This decision is a huge setback for immigrants to Switzerland, for trade unions and for all progressive forces, and leads Switzerland unavoidably up […]
The Macroeconomic Institute of the Hans Boeckler Foundation (IMK) has recently held an interesting conference during which EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Laszlo Andor, delivered a keynote speech on how to address social imbalances in Europe and by doing so restarting the process of convergence. Watch below what the Commissioner had to […]
Henning Meyer has asked my opinion on the big societal challenges likely to characterize the year we’ve just entered. There are, no doubt, many – perhaps uncountable – unresolved issues that will demand close watching during the coming year and press us for bold decisions and fateful steps. They are too numerous and most of […]
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