austerity
IMAGO/Lehtikuva
As the European Parliament elections this June draw nearer, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is conducting a series of interviews with left-wing parties and candidates from across the EU on the election campaign, their political programmes, and the challenges facing left-wing forces domestically and at a European level. The foundation’s Duroyan Fertl spoke to Li Andersson, leader of the Finnish Left Alliance, Vasemmistoliitto, about her party’s priorities in this super election year.
read more "Opposing Finland’s Thatcherist Turn"
read more "Opposing Finland’s Thatcherist Turn"
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On June 27, 2023, the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and Counter Balance organized a roundtable in Brussels on European Public Investments for a Socially Just Transition, bringing together labor unions, civil society organizations, and academics. The aim was to discuss the impact of EU public investments on energy, housing, public services, and industry and to facilitate dialogue on pressing issues in these areas.
The discussions began with a focus on ...
read more "Roundtable on European Public Investments for a Socially Just Transition"
read more "Roundtable on European Public Investments for a Socially Just Transition"
Welfare State Retrenchment, the Effects on Women, and Feminist Responses in SwedenAbout the book
From an international perspective, the Nordic model can easily be seen as an ideal welfare state. Additionally, more than any other welfare state model, the Nordic model is not just a label applied by welfare state analysts; it has also been used with pride by Nordic governments and citizens (Lister 2009). The striving for equality and the high degree of universalism have been regarded as proof of the superiority of the Nordic model (Anttonen 2002). The concept of universalism is ...
read more "A Caring State?"
read more "A Caring State?"
Will the COVID-19 pandemic drive further privatisation of the services sector and a new wave of austerity, or can we expect a departure from neoliberal orthodoxy, towards re-municipalisation and increased public investments? These were just some of the questions posed in an online debate with Dr Dieter Plehwe and Dr Mirjam Katzin on 11 November.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the injustice and inefficiency of the privatising, outsourcing and commodifying of vital public services. It has also exposed the inadequacy of the current system in ...
read more "Countering the neoliberal privatisation of services"
read more "Countering the neoliberal privatisation of services"
Interviews with Carmen San José, Martin Schirdewan and Harald WeinbergFor years, the neoliberal policies followed by the European Union and EU Member States have imposed privatisations and cost-cutting measures on health care systems, causing a significant deterioration in the essential services such systems provide. In southern Europe in particular, the deterioration has been especially pronounced in recent years, with massive cuts in spending on social policies imposed on large segment of society by the ruling classes.
The coronavirus crisis is not only exacerbating ...
read more "Austerity and Health"
read more "Austerity and Health"
EU Relentlessly targeted members’ health spending over past decadeAbstract
A decade of austerity imposed by the European Union institutions and EU Member State governments has caused significant deterioration in healthcare services across the EU. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the EU’s healthcare and public sectors to be ill-equipped to respond to the outbreak in accordance with international best practice. The Stability and Growth Pact and the associated European Semester process have been the central tools used to enforce austerity across the EU since the 2008 ...
read more "Austerity kills"
read more "Austerity kills"
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the EU’s healthcare and public sectors to be ill-equipped to respond to the outbreak in accordance with international best practice. A decade of austerity imposed by the European Union institutions and EU Member State governments has caused significant deterioration in healthcare services across the EU. The Stability and Growth Pact has been the central tool used to enforce austerity across the EU since the 2008 financial crisis. Member States’ spending on healthcare provision has been targeted for reduction ...
read more "The EU’s role in attacking healthcare"
read more "The EU’s role in attacking healthcare"
The romanticisation of the Swedish welfare system and its positive effects on gender equality persists, notwithstanding the substantial dismantling of the welfare state in recent decades and Sweden’s drop in gender equality rankings. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, this development reflects an impact not so much of the last economic crisis when the government did not pursue the politics of austerity seen across much of the continent. Rather it is the effect of a long-term policy response ...
read more "Call for Tenders: Report/Study on “The effects of the dismantling of the Swedish welfare state on women”"
read more "Call for Tenders: Report/Study on “The effects of the dismantling of the Swedish welfare state on women”"
Quantité Critique (Critical Mass) is a group of sociology lecturers, doctoral students and undergraduates who have been investigating social movements in France since September 2018. For their survey on the ‘gilets jaunes’ (yellow vests) movement, they distributed questionnaires in a number of national Facebook groups linked to the movement. A total of 526 questionnaires were returned, covering the respondents’ degree of politicisation and links to the world of work. The group is also carrying out field work on several ...
read more "The core of the yellow vest movement rejects the far right"
read more "The core of the yellow vest movement rejects the far right"
The ongoing mobilisation of yellow vest adherents is arguably the most enduring and significant social movement in France since May 1968. It will have profound political consequences, though it is still too early to gauge their extent. Today, one of the most pressing questions for understanding what these long-term consequences might be is the political direction taken by the movement.
This article highlights the atypical, even paradoxical political profile of this movement, which is caught in a dilemma between unifying its demands, and...
read more "Ideological divisions in the ‘yellow vest’ movement"
read more "Ideological divisions in the ‘yellow vest’ movement"