News analysis
The week ahead
Europe on strike
Sep 5th 2010, 22:02 by The Economist online
FRANCE and Britain will both be hit by public-sector strikes on Monday 6th September. French unions plan to strike in protest at plans to reform their pension entitlements. Meanwhile workers on London’s underground train network will go on strike in sympathy with colleagues losing their jobs at ticket offices. In the week when Britain’s House of Commons returns from its summer holiday, here is a reminder that austerity will not be much fun.
STRIKES will continue to affect South Africa, where Cosatu, a federation of unions with some 2m members, has been on strike since August 18th. While the strikes may hurt South Africa’s newly burnished image abroad, far more damage would be done if Jacob Zuma, the president, supports a proposed Protection of Information Bill, which could send troublesome journalists to prison for up to 25 years.
ETA, a terrorist group fighting for independence for the Basque region of Spain, has sent a video to the BBC declaring a ceasefire. The coming week will determine how serious an undertaking this is: ETA, has killed hundreds of people over the past decades, has made similar promises in the past and not kept them.
JAPANESE politics will be gripped by the manoeuvring between Naoto Kan, the prime minister, and Ichiro Ozawa, who heads a powerful political machine, to lead the DPJ. The party must decide who leads it on September 14th and at the moment the race is finely balanced. A victory for Mr Ozawa is not what the country needs as it tries to pull itself out of 20 years of economic torpor.
In this blog, our correspondents respond to breaking news stories and provide comment and analysis. The blog takes its name from newsbooks, the 16th- and 17th-century precursors to newspapers, which covered battles, disasters, debates and sensational trials
Advertisement
- Analects | China
- Americas view | The Americas
- Babbage | Science and technology
- Bagehot's notebook | British politics
- Banyan | Asia
- Baobab | Africa
- Blighty | Britain
- Buttonwood's notebook | Financial markets
- Charlemagne's notebook | European politics
- Clausewitz | Defence, security and diplomacy
- Democracy in America | American politics
- Eastern approaches | Ex-communist Europe
- Elysée | France’s presidential election
- Free exchange | Economics
- Game theory | Sports
- Graphic detail | Charts, maps and infographics
- Gulliver | Business travel
- Johnson | Language
- Leviathan | Public policy
- Lexington's notebook | American politics
- Newsbook | News analysis
- Prospero | Books, arts and culture
- Schumpeter | Business and management
Most commented
- Foreigners in China: Barbarians at the gate, again
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- Brazil’s economy: A bull diminished
- Russia and NATO: Rethink the reset
- Gay marriage: North Carolina begs the question too
- Politics and private equity: Bringing the Bain
- Nationalism online: Backfired
- India-China relations and the media: Blame the messenger
- Turkey’s cultural ambitions: Of marbles and men
- Greece and the euro: Exodus, chapter 1
Over the past five days
Most recommended
- The euro crisis: The Greek run
- Foreigners in China: Barbarians at the gate, again
- Brazil’s economy: A bull diminished
- Greek politics: Slouching towards the drachma
- Rival versions of capitalism: The endangered public company
- Jacob Zuma: Portrait of a president
- Bo Xilai v Chen Guangcheng: Who is the mightier?
- Facebook goes public: Not top of the pops
- The euro crisis: Going, going, gone?
- Remembering Peter David: What he wrote
Over the past seven days
Advertisement
Readers' comments
The Economist welcomes your views. Please stay on topic and be respectful of other readers. Review our comments policy.
Sort:
Over 1 Million Workers Strike In South Africa
Over a million teachers, nurses and other government workers went on strike across South Africa last week, suspending public education and health care to demand better pay from their government, which is resistinghttp://www.newslook.com/videos/245557-over-1-million-workers-strike-in-south-africa?autoplay=true
Bite sized global round-up - Mmmmm tasty
"A victory for Mr Ozawa is not what the country needs as it tries to pull itself out of 20 years of economic torpor."
Curious statement... I would think that this is up to the Japanese voters to decide
I disagree with Tiamat, as I don't think unions are categorically to blame for strikes. Germany has very strong unions, yet hardly any strikes because the Sozialpartnerschaft prevents them. France on the other hand has a long tradition of striking, and in the case of Britain I guess the latest budget cuts make some kind of popular upheaval hard to avoid.
Unions are not senseless institutions with the sole aim of promoting the interests of their constituency, rather they are what their members make of them. They should be an organisation that negotiates deals on the basis of common sense and prevents the exploitation of workers that don't hold much clout otherwise. In doing so they promote stability and therefore efficiency in our society.
I don`t know about others, but I hate those syndicalists... The workers are at the will of a new tyrant, the chiefs of some trade unions. You are either on strike with us, or you`re out! Also, they have no idea about economics, about the good of the country, all they want is bigger salaries and a huge pension.