credit crisis
More protests in China
There have been further protests by workers in China as the economic crisis prompts attacks on conditions, jobs and pay.
On December 28th ground crew at Hong Kong's international airport walked out in a three-hour protest against cuts to announced bonus payments, grounding flights. The 1,000 workers were employed by Hong Kong Airport Services Ltd. The economic crisis was cited as the reason for the attampted clawbacks by company bosses.
Britain heading for 'unemployment bloodbath'
Britain faces an unemployment "bloodbath" in the new year with many tens of thousands of jobs axed in the public and private sectors.
Senior government figures are braced for a dramatic lengthening in dole queues in the first quarter of 2009, as employers delay announcing redundancies until after Christmas.
Thousands of civil servants and town hall workers will share the pain as government efficiency savings bite, while struggling retailers and manufacturing industry are heading for heavy redundancies.
Economic crisis and direct action in Iceland photo gallery, 2008
Images from the social unrest following the collapse of the banking system in Iceland in 2008. More images can be found on flickr here.
Economic crisis and direct action in Iceland
Since early this winter, Iceland has been facing economic crisis. People are getting angry, some of them wanting back the “good old” prosperity, while others and hopefully the majority, are realizing the real cost of capitalism.
The three major business banks have been nationalized, putting their debt on the people’s shoulders. People have been losing their lifelong savings; loans have increased and are getting sky high (and for sure they already were high enough). 200 people lost their job every single day of November and more and more people are facing the threat of losing their houses.
General strike in Italy against government handling of the crisis
Hundreds of thousands of workers downed tools and took to the streets in a four hour stoppage stating "we won't pay for the crisis".
The strike by the General Confederation of Italian workers (CGIL) shut down postal services nationwide, transport services and airports in several cities and many automobile manufacturers, in some of which strikers were joined by members of other unions.
A brief history of the crisis
A concise background to the current financial crisis and recession.
However it may seem, the current crisis didn’t come out of nowhere. Following WWII, the government and employers were keen to appease a population weary from years of war and rationing.
What recession means for us
An analysis of the likely impact of the coming recession on workers' lives and a rallying call for collective action to mitigate that impact.
The recession is here. We're told to tighten our belts and brace ourselves for redundancies, wage and service cuts. Politicians and business leaders are united in saying we should pay for a crisis not of our making [see box for a brief history of the crisis]. A recession is simply when the economy shrinks for 6 months in a row.
credit crisis
Articles about the financial crisis or "credit crunch" of 2008.
The biggest ‘october surprise’ of all: a world capitalist crash - Loren Goldner
Loren Goldner's analysis of the recent global financial crisis.
Loren Goldner
October 2008
“There will be periods of 30 years which will pass with the seeming importance of a single day, and single days with the importance of 30 years.” (old Marxist maxim)
Inflation, rising prices and the 2% pay ceiling
An analysis of the use of inflation to attack workers' conditions.
If the government were to announce that it was cutting the wages of all workers - public and private sector - there would presumably be uproar. And yet this is exactly what they have done by calling for ‘pay restraint’ and insisting all wage rises are capped at 2%. Make no mistake, a sub-inflation pay ‘rise’ is a pay cut. No amount of statistical trickery changes this simple fact.
General strike over prices brings Belgium to a halt
A nationwide strike against rising prices disrupted transport, retailing and manufacturing across Belgium on Monday.
High-speed international rail services in and out of the country to France, the UK, Germany and the Netherlands were cancelled and picketing disrupted the port of Antwerp.
Workers were protesting in advance of the government's 2009 budget to demand action on inflation and the rising cost of living.
