Neoliberalism in Europe - stop austerity!

After the economic crisis in 2008, the neoliberal fairytale of austerity was given a new boost. The neoliberal ideology reflects the idea the dismantling of the welfare state is urgently needed. Austerity means that all state expenditures are reduced to a minimum so that on paper, the state has a balanced budget.

https://www.europeturnleft.eu/en/topics-overview/



Europe turn left!

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Topics overview

Introduction into the thematic areas

In recent years, the European idea is being questioned and offensively attacked more than ever. Anti-European movements such as the Brexit or the spread of right-wing populism are leading to an increasing re-nationalization. The project of a united Europe sticking together in peace is threatened. The young generation, however, has developed a certain sense of Europeanism and shows solidarity with refugees and people in dire need. The construction of Fortress Europe, though, is completely contrary to what they consider as European values. Nevertheless, many young people living without any prospects and under unemployment or precarious employment relationships are lacking an idea of how the European Union can promote their interests - or of how European solidarity could look like.

We want to carry out an in depth-analysis of the situation(s) in Europe and discuss and discover the current struggles and utopias together with comrades and friends from Germany and Europe. To this end, we have divided the programme into four pillars:

Europe swinging to the right - fight back!

"Law and Justice" in Poland, the Front National in France, the FPÖ in Austria, the Alternative for Germany - there is an alarming swing to the right across Europe which on the one hand, is reflected by recent electoral successes and which long since, on the other hand, leads to growing hatred and violence. For us it is not enough to explain the success of right-wing populists through peoples' discontent regarding the current policy and their alleged fears. Nor can we blame it on the arrival of refugees or the global terrorism.

Right-wing ideologies have never disappeared from Europe and now are given new, civic look filled with hatred. The so-called "bourgeois middle-class" experiences an authoritarian intensification and fears social decline. This agitation provides breeding ground for racist and inhuman violence - against refugees, people of colour, and leftists. In recent years, the Falken and the Jusos are more and more becoming targets of attacks. We count on democratic discourse and solidarity to help against agitation. We represent the leftist answer to this right-wing populism.

Neoliberalism in Europe - stop austerity!

After the economic crisis in 2008, the neoliberal fairytale of austerity was given a new boost. The neoliberal ideology reflects the idea the dismantling of the welfare state is urgently needed. Austerity means that all state expenditures are reduced to a minimum so that on paper, the state has a balanced budget. For the people, in turn, this means receiving bad or hardly any services and as a result suffering culturally, socially and in health.

Due to the crisis as well as the bad policy of the European Central Bank many countries, in particular in South Europe, got caught in a debt trap. The answer of the neoliberal policy was to keep those countries alive through emergency credits and force them to radically cut down their expenditures. Austerity being a salutary concept has been refuted more than seventy years ago. All the same, the governments have opted for this way. The result is high unemployment, increased infant mortality, the return of long repressed diseases due to a bad provision of healthcare, evictions for families etc.

We will look for alternative economic approaches on both greater and smaller scale - for this purpose we will invite leftist theorists, politicians as well as cooperative collectives and activists.

http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/future-of-work/dialogue/lang--en/index.htm



Background

Around the world, in economies at all stages of development, profound changes in the nature of work are underway. Numerous and diverse drivers account for these: demographic shifts, climate change, technological innovation, shifting contours of poverty and prosperity, growing inequality, economic stagnation and the changing character of production and employment. The transformations we witness now challenge us to imagine the future of work over the long term in order to steer this evolution in the direction of social justice. Rising widespread anxiety about whether the future will produce greater polarization within and between countries brings urgency to this task.

Recognizing the pressing need to begin marshalling global expertise to make the future of work the one we want, the ILO launched the Future of Work Centenary Initiative in 2013. Under the Initiative, this Symposium presents an important step to gain greater understanding of the changes we are witnessing and to develop effective policy responses that can shape the future of work. The Symposium will be structured around the Initiative’s four “centenary conversations” -- work and society, decent jobs for all, the organization of work and production, and the governance of work – and will gather international thinkers and actors who are at the forefront of debates on each topic. A special session will discuss the perspectives for and views of young people – including representatives of the social partners – in the future of work they will experience.