Almost one in four young people in the European Union are currently unemployed. In Greece this figure hits 57%, in Spain 56%, in Ireland it is 29%. In total 5.5 million young people are unemployed across Europe and emigration is rife, with people leaving Ireland in numbers not seen since the Famine. In the face of this crisis the European Union has no solution to offer, its latest proposal a ‘Youth Guarantee’ is nothing more than wishful thinking.
As their system continues to slide into its worst crisis since the 1930s, the frantic efforts of world capitalist leaders to reverse the process are farcical, contradictory and ineffective. “Is anyone in control? Is this a runaway train?” asked a presenter on a British news programme on Monday evening - the day Wall Street crashed by 6% and markets everywhere plummeted.
In its recent World Economic Outlook report the International Monetary Fund (IMF) more than doubled its growth estimate for the Irish economy in 2014 – from 1.7% to 3.6%
December's budget will see an unleashing of new assaults on public services and living conditions for working class people, writes Paul Murphy MEP. The government and the Labour Party in particular, will declare that unfortunately, there was no other choice. This is a lie.