Ten years since the financial crisis: Is capitalism headed for another crash?
Ten years on, the world economy has not fully recovered from the 2008 crash, writes Adam Adelpour, and levels of global debt are again at record highs
Workers not seeing the benefits despite economic pick-up
Is Australia heading back into boom? Treasurer Scott Morrison certainly hopes so, saying new figures showed that, “the Turnbull Government’s plan for a stronger economy is working”. The Coalition’s election pitch relies on it.
Wage growth slumps as workers feel economic pain
As part of trying to soften us up for “the economic leadership our nation needs”, Malcolm Turnbull has been telling us Australia is a “high wage, generous social safety...
OXI! NO vote in Greece can strike a blow against austerity
Syriza’s decision to refuse the austerity deal offered by the Troika and to call a referendum on the proposals is a major step forward. It is a product of pressure from the left and the workers’ movement to stand firm on saying “no” to austerity.
Syriza backsliding in Greece as EU tightens the screws
Greece narrowly avoided default in May by scraping together the €750 million debt repayment due to the IMF. The European Union is tightening the screws, demanding the new radical left Syriza government capitulate to accept further austerity in exchange for another bailout.
EU leaders prepare to punish Greece
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras’s first act in government was canceling privatisations in electricity and the ports of Pireaus and Thessaloniki.
Hands off Medicare, stop Abbott’s cuts: United action can beat the Liberals
OVER 1000 people joined a demonstration in Sydney today to demand Tony Abbott keep his hands off Medicare and stop his planned wave of cuts to services and jobs....
Nationalise Holden — we need a fight to save every job
After 64 years manufacturing cars in Australia, making billions in profit, and taking billions in government subsidies, General Motors Holden has announced its Australian factories will close in 2017....
Italian voters elect for anything but austerity
The stockmarkets panicked at the Italian election result at the end of February. Neither of the major parties won enough votes to form the stable government that the EU,...
Cyprus “bailout” triggers another round of crisis
Another shockwave hit the world economy as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) attempted to negotiate a “bailout” deal for bankrupt Cyprus. The deal would have involved taking money from...
Despite deal, US economy still not clear of the cliff
US debt negotiations went down to the wire in January before Democrats and Republicans reached a deal to avert the so called “fiscal cliff”. Yet little has been solved....
Europe rocked by general strikes in Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece
Workers walked out in general strikes across Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece as well as parts of Belgium on November 14.
In Spain this is the second general strike in...
Golden Dawn: fascists feeding on Greece’s misery
The Greek economy is in a depression. The austerity measures demanded by the troika have made it worse. Nationally one in four Greeks are out of work. Those with...
Anti-austerity battle reignites in Europe
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government must feel under siege. And in late September it was literally besieged, as more than 40,000 people surrounded the Congress building in Madrid....
Debt crisis spreads from Greece across Europe
France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and—last but not least—Spain. A storm of anti-austerity protest has been sweeping through Europe. This represents a very sharp change in the political temperature. For...
Summer of discontent: crisis and resistance in Spain
Spanish people have risen up in a new surge of resistance to the government’s relentless austerity reforms.
On 19 July, 800,000 marched in Madrid alone, along with hundreds of thousands...
Can’t pay, won’t pay: debating solutions to Europe’s debt
Crisis in the Eurozone
Edited by Costas Lapvitsas
Verso Books
$29.95
The debt crisis in the eurozone has become the most glaring problem facing global capitalism.
Across the world many states face high levels...
German MP speaks on solidarity with Greek workers: “My no in the Bundestag is a yes to resistance”
Kate Davison interviewed Christine Buchholz, German Federal MP for Die Linke ("The Left" Party) and supporter of Marx21, about their efforts to build solidarity with Greek workers facing severe...
A new workers’ paper in Greece
Workers at Eleftherotypia, Greece's second largest newspaper have taken over their workplace and begun producing their own newspaper to report on the movement against austerity, explains Moissis Litsis Eleftherotypia newspaper...
New wave of Greek austerity answered by new strikes
The new Greek austerity package, demanded by “the troika”—the IMF, European Union (EU) and European Central Bank imposes further vicious cuts on the people of Greece. But the level...
System error: Capitalism’s crisis and the alternative
The economic crisis is getting worse and heading our way. Solidarity looks at the roots of the crisis in the capitalist system and the socialist alternative
It's been five years...
Statement: Solidarity with workers in Greece
This statement on Greece, signed by organisations in the International Socialist Tendency and others, explains the vicious austerity policies facing the Greek people and offers solidarity in the Greek...
Jobs crash: Gillard fiddles as recession looms in Europe
The world faces a “1930s moment”, as the IMF warned in late January. Five years after the economic crisis erupted in 2007, global capitalism has failed to recover.
The European...
Political challenges for the Occupy movement
For the past two months, the Occupy movement has electrified US politics and inspired movements in its image around the world. The occupations themselves have been relatively small, but...
Euro crisis tipping the world back into recession
Political and economic turmoil is engulfing Europe. In the space of a few days in November the governments of Greece and Italy fell after the financial markets judged them...
Eyewitness: Spain’s ‘indignados’ spirit spreads to the workplace
There were beautiful scenes on October 15 when more than a million people took to the streets across Spain, reports Daisy Farnham.
One protester in Seville described it as “a...
Eyewitness: Greek strikes a show of workers’ power
Hundreds of thousands of angry Greek trade unionists marched through central Athens on October 19 in the biggest workers’ demonstration since the toppling of the military dictatorship in 1974,...
Bad banks, credit and the capitalist economy
Jean Parker begins a series on issues in economics by looking at credit and banking
The collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008 was the event that triggered...
Occupy Australia—Build the struggles to fight the system
The Occupy Wall Street protests have struck a chord, voicing opposition to corporate power and disillusionment with the US political system. It has mushroomed into a movement that has...
Spirit of Seattle is back as protesters take on Wall Street
US-based anti-capitalist activist Virginia Rodino reports on a protest at the heart of the system
On Friday 17 September a group of largely young campaigners, artists, and students occupied Wall...
Panic and protest as Eurozone crisis deepens
The crisis in the eurozone is again reaching panic levels. The world economy was “entering a dangerous phase”, IMF chief Christine Lagarde told the world’s finance ministers in Washington...
Eyewitness: UK rioters’ rage at a criminal system
Carl Taylor gives an eyewitness account of the London riots and the moral hysteria that's followed
FOR FOUR days in early August angry crowds gathered in poor, inner city areas...
Chaos and carnage in the world economy
The economic crisis is back with a vengeance, argues James Supple
CHAOS ON global stockmarkets in recent weeks has revived fears that the world economy is heading back into meltdown....
Greek workers show how to fight
Greece is in turmoil (see here). Workers are escalating resistance, staging their first 48-hour general strike as the government passed through vicious new austerity measures. But the Greek crisis...
Greek workers rise up as government faces default
Europe’s leaders spent June playing a giant game of poker, as they bluffed each other over who would contribute most towards bailing out Greece from bankruptcy. But all the...
Eyewitness: Spain’s indignant take democracy into their own hands
An atmosphere of rebellion has swept across Spain. On May 15, tens of thousands of people took to the streets for statewide demonstrations calling for “real democracy now” under...
Keynes and recovery: Labor’s mixed up economics
Jean Parker looks at Labor’s muddled defence of its neo-liberal budget, and its abandonment of social democratic policies
“Keynesians in the recovery”, written for the Australian Fabian News (May 2011)...
One million protest sexism in Berlusconi’s “bunga bunga” Italy
In early February, over one million people rallied across Italy asking “se non ora quando?” (if not now, when?), demanding an end to the rampant sexism characterising Italian politics...
Greek workers: “Let’s have Cairo everywhere!”
Greek workers held their first general strike of the year in February—their eighth in just 12 months. Work stoppages and nearly 60 demonstrations demanded an end to the government’s three-year...
Economic crisis sends Irish politics in chaos
Official politics in Ireland descended into chaos in January. The ruling Fianna Fail/Green Party coalition has collapsed and prime minister Brian Cowen is no longer leader of his own...
Spain’s workers take on cuts—and their union leaders
January 27 marked yet another day of strikes and demonstrations in Spain. This time, workers were not only calling for an end to the Spanish government’s cuts: they were...
British student protests: a generation in revolt
Dave Sewell, a student activist from Britain, takes a look at the burgeoning movement of students against the education cuts
If I forget everything else, I’ll always remember November 10...
Spain next in line for a tough battle against austerity
The debt crisis is extending and deepening across Europe. As European governments force working people to pay for the costs of the crisis through austerity measures, more and more...
Ireland: ‘Fear of poverty, homelessness and unemployment are pervasive’
A new wave of economic crisis is sweeping Ireland. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund were forced to announced a $150 billion bailout in late November—most of...
Britain’s Tories declare war on the poor
Britian's Tory government has announced massive spending cuts, signalling the biggest shake up of the UK welfare state since WWII.
Around 50,000 took to the streets across the UK in...
Revolt against pension reform rocks France
A massive wave of strikes and protests has gripped France, as workers battle to stop the raising of the retirement age. Workers showed their potential power to defeat the...
Crisis and despair in Obama’s America
David Glanz looks at the problems haunting Barack Obama in the face of swing against the Democrats in the mid-term elections
MORE THAN 130,000 workers lost their jobs across the US...
Roma the scapegoats for a French government in crisis
Over 1200 Roma have been expelled from France over the last two months, as the Sarkozy government pushes forward with plans to dismantle the 500 “illegal” Romani camps that...
Workers strike back in defiance against austerity in Spain
Spanish workers demonstrated what will be needed to stop austerity in Europe with their successful general strike on September 29. The “socialist” president of Spain, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, promised...
Nazi victory in Sweden is a warning for Europe
Sweden's September elections were historic for all the wrong reasons. For the first time ever, a Nazi party, the misnamed Swedish Democrats (SD), won seats in parliament. On the...
Mass strike wave paralyses South Africa
South African workers have put their government on notice that they will not bear the burden of the global economic crisis.
In mid-August, 1.3 million public sector workers issued the...
French burqa ban sows division
A BILL to ban Muslim women from wearing the burqa and niqab in public went through the lower house of French parliament last month.
The French government dressed up the...
All out truck strike: new stage in Greek resistance
FOR A week in July over 33,000 Greek truck drivers staged an industry-wide strike that paralysed much of the Greek economy. It follows six general strikes in six months,...
Rebellion against austerity spreads across Europe
“Europe’s strike-filled spring turning into a strike-filled summer”—this was the worried headline of Europe’s Examiner, bemoaning the resistance spreading across Europe to austerity measures.
European states have borrowed and spent...
Capitalism’s crisis: Back with a vengeance
After a year of stabilisation, the global economy is once again on the brink of a new plunge into recession.
Europe has been convulsed by a new banking crisis, as...
Crisis in the Eurozone: how deep does it go?
The debt crisis is Greece is the only the most severe case of government debt problems across Europe. Noe Wiener explain how the problems have built up and why...
Rudd’s Budget—fiscal conservatism rides again
Forget the end of neo-liberalism and a new era of social democracy that Kevin Rudd talked about in his Monthly essay. The fiscal conservative Rudd has returned (if he...
Greek workers all out to stop IMF cuts
Greece exploded again in strikes and protests at government cutbacks, as European leaders and the IMF were forced to fast-track emergency loans to the Greek government, increased in size to...
Greek workers escalate their resistance
In late March European Union leaders announced a joint rescue package with the IMF to stop Greece defaulting on its debts.
They have promised Greece €22 billion in case...
Rudd’s austerity plans a danger to us all
Rudd came to office promising to be an “economic conservative”. His government is crafting a similar image as it prepares to fight this year’s election. Contrary to the received...
Greek workers resist crisis and cutbacks
In every economic crisis, the central question is who shall bear the cost—the bosses or the working class? In Greece, that question is being fought out on the streets, with...
Bumpy ride ahead for world economy
A mild panic swept global share markets in the last week of November, when Dubai World, with debts of $US59 billion, asked its banks for a six month moratorium on...
Guidebook for understanding the system
Unravelling Capitalism
By Joseph Choonara, Bookmarks, $20
Joseph Choonara’s new book, Unravelling Capitalism is a short but comprehensive guide to Marxist economic theory and its continued relevance to understanding the dynamics...
Fight needed to stop 600 job cuts at Bridgestone
The business media, and an increasing number of politicians, are claiming that the economic crisis has passed and we are entering into a sustained period of “recovery”. Try telling...
US labour stats show workers paying for recession
On the September 14 anniversary of the collapse of Lehmann Brothers, Obama gave a speech to Wall Street declaring that the global economy had been pulled “back from the...
Solar systems campaign unites jobs and climate
The campaign to save Solar Systems holds the potential for uniting the fight for jobs and renewable energy.
Its factory in Abbotsford, Victoria currently sits idle after 100 workers were...
‘Green shoots’ of recovery don’t signal an end to the crisis
“Green shoots” is the buzzword of economic commentary over the last few months. They are meant to re-assure us that the global crisis will not be as bad as...
Why socialists support nationalisation
As companies around the world sack workers and close their doors in response to economic crisis, Jasmine Ali demonstrates the importance of the demand for nationalisation
“State ownership of the...
Sober reality behind economic recovery hype
The government is now arguing that the recession will not be as bad for Australia’s workers as first thought. We are told there is evidence of “green shoots” of...
Workers pay the price to save General Motors
General Motors, a company previously thought to epitomise the success of American capitalism, has collapsed, filed for bankruptcy, and been taken-over by the US government. While Obama has committed...
Rudd budget won’t shield us from recession
Rudd tried to dress up his first recession budget by announcing a small increase in the aged pension and more money for building infrastructure. But underneath that plenty of...
After the saucepan revolution, Iceland steers left
In January, the government of Iceland was the first to be brought down by the global recession. Now, Iceland has moved sharply to the left following its general election...
Keynes or Marx?
Political leaders across the world are embracing Keynesian economic policies. But they are incapable of escaping capitalist crisis, writes Feiyi Zhang
“The ghost of John Maynard Keynes, the father of...
Recovering Marx’s theory of economic crisis
The recession has brought a renewed interest in Marxist explanations of economic crisis. Rick Kuhn’s book is timely in this context. Published last year, it is the product of...
Editorial: A fight needed to stop the jobs massacre
Refugees have temporarily pushed the global recession off the front pages, as Rudd ratchets up his racism, claiming desperate people pose an “emerging threat”. Meanwhile, the real threat of...
G20: Can world leaders solve the crisis?
The leaders of the G20 put on a united face and declared the outcome of their London summit on April 2 a historic success.
As their final communiqué put it:...
Rage at G20 meeting rocks London
A range of protests against the G20 summit in the UK captured public anger over the economic crisis. The city financial district was brought to a standstill on the...
Can China’s rulers survive the crisis?
As China’s economy slumps, deep running social tensions are threatening to explode writes Tim Erickson
China's rulers fear that their grip on power is threatened by global economic turmoil. President...
Employment expert: stimulus failed to target jobs
Solidarity spoke to Bill Mitchell, from the University of Newcatle's Centre of Full Employment and Equity, above how Rudd's stimulus spending could be targeting massive job creation
Kevin Rudd appears...
Editorial: Don’t sacrifice jobs and living standards for crisis
Every week brings news of thousands of jobs lost as the Australian economy falters.
Revised growth projections from the IMF have underlined the depth of the decline facing the world...
Rudd won’t save jobs in the public service
Despite its promise to create jobs in the economic downturn, the Rudd government is imposing job cuts on the federal public service.
Cuts of 3.25 per cent in each...
A green new deal to meet capitalism’s crisis
We face two global crises, climate change and economic collapse. The answer to both is climate jobs, or what some have been calling a “green new deal”.
If we try...
France rocked by general strike for jobs
The second general strike in two months brought France to a standstill on March 19. Millions demonstrated in 200 cities and towns around the country.
While many unions and...
Irish workers refuse to pay for the crisis
Anger at the Irish government’s response to the recession has exploded into angry and growing protests. Over 120,000 joined a protest in Dublin in late February, and unionists are...
Why “Buying Australian” won’t save jobs
Demanding the government "buy Australian" or impose tariffs has failed to save jobs in the past, and paints "foreign workers" as the enemy, writes Phil Griffiths
As job cuts start...
Migrants are not to blame for job losses
In response to the economic crisis, the federal government has moved to reduce Australia’s skilled migration intake.
Some unions not only welcomed this, but called for cuts to the 457...
Fosters uses crisis as excuse to slash wages
Profitable companies are using the economic crisis as an excuse to sack workers and slash wages.
Despite a 9 per cent rise in profit to $713 million dollars last financial...
Bosses divide and conquer at Drivetrain
Bosses at Drivetrain Systems have used “divide and conquer” tactics to stop workers resisting mass sackings at an Albury-Wodonga gearbox factory.
The company dismissed all 338 workers without pay on...
Support Pacific brands workers
Workers across the country were outraged with the announcement in February that Pacific Brands plans to sack 1850 workers. Many joined the factory workers’ rallies in Melbourne, Sydney and...
Support Pacific Brands workers—defend every job
Support from Hong Kong Trade Unions for Pacific Brands workers
Workers across the country are disgusted and outraged with the announcement that Pacific Brands bosses plan to sack 1850 workers....
Editorial: Fight needed to save jobs
Rudd’s attempts to pump up the Australian economy with tens of billions in government spending have been widely welcomed. We are facing a deep international recession. Many people are...
Rudd doles out $42 billion, but is it enough?
It’s an indication of how nervous the ruling class is about the prospect of economic collapse that Rudd the financial conservative has become Rudd the $42 billion man.
The stimulus...
Workers across Europe strike against recession
Workers across Europe are meeting the deepening recession and growing job losses with action. Over the course of the last weeks, literally millions of workers have taken to the...
Waterford Crystal: ‘We’re occupying to save our jobs’
Six hundred workers are occupying the Waterford Crystal factory in Ireland after receivers tried to sack them and close the plant.The plant had already suffered cuts in jobs and...
Will taking wage cuts save jobs?
As unemployment edges upwards, the myth that cutting wages can save jobs is being promoted once again. Accepting this would be a huge mistake that will hurt our living...
Going down: world economy sinks further into recession
The global economic crisis is entering a new phase, as production declines and governments desperately try to stop a global recession turning into depression. China has seen a fall...
Is Rudd returning to social democracy?
“Seismic changes are underway”, writes Kevin Rudd in the latest issue of The Monthly. He declares that a “regime change” from the neo-liberal order to a renewed emphasis on...
Take childcare into public hands
A not-for-profit consortium led by Community Childcare Co-operative NSW has made a bid for 241 ABC childcare centres that the company’s receivers had deemed “economically unviable”.
Calling itself Children 21,...
Can the jobs massacre be stopped?
Throughout 2008, Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan remained optimistic to the point of absurdity about the state of the Australian economy in the face of the global economic crisis....
Making sure we don’t pay as economy fails
So far the world economic crisis has not had the same impact in Australia as in the US or Europe. A few months ago some pundits were confidently...
Slump shows Rudd hasn’t bailed us out
What a difference a month makes. In mid-October, Kevin Rudd was the toast of corporate Australia. But now no one is confident that Australia will avoid recession.
His decision...
ABC Learning–save the centres, save the jobs
As Solidarity goes to print, the fate of up to 386 ABC Learning child care centres is in doubt. That represents one-tenth of the national child care resources. The...
University staff resist job cuts in Victoria
The shocking announcement a few weeks ago of the largest ever mass sackings in Australia’s higher education sector at Victoria University (VU) prompted a well attended protest rally in a quiet time of the...
Global summits solve little as world economy slumps
It forecasts its members to record an overall fall of 0.3 per cent in 2009, with the US economy set to decline 0.9 per cent, Japan 0.1 per cent...
Socialist planning and alternatives to the market
The failure of free market policies evidenced by the collapse of major banks and big falls on the stockmarket raise whether there is an alternative to the market as...
Will Rudd’s spending package save Australia from economic disaster?
There have been three constant themes in the Rudd government's rhetoric about the global financial crisis.
The first is that Australian banks are fundamentally sound, unlike those in America, because...
Rudd’s plan won’t shield us from this crisis
The struggle over who will pay for the growing economic crisis has begun. Across the world banks are collapsing and economies are heading into recession.
The US economy shrunk in...
Italy rises up against economic crisis and cutbacks
Last month Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi told people how they could stave off financial disaster--buy shares in two national energy companies--yet by the end of that days trading...
World economy faces protracted downturn
As Solidarity goes to print, many mainstream economists are claiming the worst of the banking crisis is over.
Governments worldwide have adopted a whatever it takes strategy aimed at...
US workers hit hard by housing crisis
Following the dot.com crash in 2000 and the 9/11 attack in 2001, US workers were told it was their patriotic duty to spend. This was Bush's strategy for avoiding...
The birth and life of neo-liberalism
The current economic crisis has shaken belief in the capacity of neo-liberal “free market” policies. Tom Orsag examines where neo-liberalism came from—and where it is going
The re-emergence of worldwide...
Are we headed for another Great Depression?
The Great Depression of the 1930s strikes fear in the hearts of working class people around the world, with memories of skyrocketing unemployment, homelessness and hunger.
Ernest Price looks at...
Struggling to hold on: the Unemployed Workers Movement
The economic devastation that gripped Australia during the 1930s dealt an almost fatal blow to the organised labour movement. In the face of mass sackings and wage cuts, there...
It’s their crisis–why should we pay?
Leaflet distributed by Solidarity students at Sydney University seminar on the financial crisis
The world is suffering its most serious financial crisis since the 1930s. Most economists believe that more...
