Europe is convulsed by protests and strikes. Driving the movements is anger at the relentless rise in the cost of living, the grind of austerity, and the lack of a future on offer for young people.
In France, the movement has been kicked off by school and college students, protesting against austerity conditions in education and the threats of more cuts to come. They have been joined by workers, acting to defend students from police violence and struggling themselves against the bosses’ austerity attacks.
In the south of Ireland, the biggest day of strikes in a generation took place on 14 October. There, working-class pressure forced trade union leaders to call a one-day public sector general strike. In Spain and Italy one-day general strikes have been called. In Belgium, Austria and Albania, youth have taken to the streets.
In Britain, Socialist Party members are helping Socialist Students to organise student walkouts in schools, colleges and unis, as part of the 20 November International Youth Strike.
Our members are to the fore in the trade unions too, fighting for the nationwide strike action needed to demand fully funded public services and decent pay. And putting the pressure on the Trades Union Congress to act on the policy passed at its September conference for a mass union-led demo against austerity.
The capitalist bosses in Britain are inevitably looking anxiously over the English Channel, and rightly so! The same conditions fuelling events in Europe exists here too.
