Europe's winter of discontent - by Eric Reguly
Protests and strikes are spreading across Europe as workers in hard-hit economies fight for the dwindling numbers of jobs, reflecting a brutal economic reality that seems at odds with official government forecasts in some countries.The protests and strikes, many small, others massive, have hit France, where some two million people took to the streets last week, as well as Russia, Greece, Britain and several other countries. The strikes in Britain took on xenophobic overtones as hundreds of workers at nuclear and coal-fired electricity generating plants stopped work Friday and yesterday in disapproval of the use of non-British workers on a refinery project. Economists and some politicians think part of the problem is the apparent gap between government projections of gross domestic product and how events are actually unfolding. At the street level, the situation looks worse than the official government forecast.
France's national statistics office predicts French unemployment will climb to 8 per cent by midyear from 7.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2008. The EC expects France to see a 9.8-per-cent unemployment rate this year and 10 per cent in 2010. A diplomat in Moscow, who did not want to be identified, said the Russian government is “extremely worried” about political unrest as the economy unravels. The government, he said, fears rising unemployment will bolster the support for the extreme nationalist and right-wing parties.
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