Why “left industrial policy”?

The multiple crises put the European left parties and social movements under pressure to find answers to often contradicting challenges. On the one hand we are in the midst of an environmental world crisis, which originates largely in the capitalist metropolis of the North. On the other hand millions of Europeans are unemployed and the economic crisis after the Lehman Brothers crash has proven those voices wrong who thought that the service sector will provide stable and good job opportunities. Industrialisation is back on the agenda. A left industrial policy leading to a progressive reconstruction of the continent’s economies is the necessary path out of the ongoing crises.

This paper summarises the discussions of a two-day workshop which took place in April 2015. Around 40 politicians, scientists, activists and trade union representatives from 11 European countries have been reflecting on the following questions: What are possible notions of a pan-European economic and fiscal coordination? How can a revision of the EU structural and cohesion policy overcome stagnation as well as economic, social and regional imbalances? What shape should a European New Deal of the 21st century take?

The workshop was organised in cooperation with the office of the Member of the German Parliament Axel Troost and Transform! Europe. It is part of a series of coming workshops accompanied by publications and articles.