Ok, so imagine it’s economic “good times”, the credit flows freely, and people can basically afford lots of consumer goods to keep themselves happy. In that scenario people are fairly docile, and not too interested in protesting. Simply, enough people feel satisfied with the state of their lives. Obviously, there are the dedicated protesters, and the single issue campaigns still going, but widespread unrest doesn’t really happen.
Now lets look at where we are today: unofficial strikes in the energy industry across the UK, caused by fear of (or experience of) unemployment. Recent widespread strikes in France over the government’s handling of the economic turmoil, and anti-government protests throughout Russia – something which would have been unthinkable until very recently.
The British strikes are the ones which worry me the most just now. There is an alarming degree of what looks like xenophobia in a lot of the protests. I wouldn’t for one moment accuse all strikers of that, and there are certainly real concerns and issues to be tackled in employment here, but I just can’t help but feel this is partly a symptom of the shift towards the acceptability of the far-right in European politics again. The Netherlands have slowly been moving away from their renowned toleration and liberal attitude; Austria’s far-right is growing stronger; and domestically, the British National Party is collecting increasing numbers of local council seats.
Simultaneously, Russia seems to be having what might be a shift to the left. The protests there seem to be primarily led by the Communist party. I doubt that Putin or Medvedev will be pushed out of office by a little dissent, but the political colour of these demonstrations illustrates another facet of the problem in Europe: things are becoming more extreme. No-one really knows how long the recession will last, but I would venture a guess that if it goes on for long enough, the more extreme elements of the political spectrum (both ends of it) will gain a foothold. People seem more open to the soothing lies of the far-right, and the prospect of the alternative economy of the far-left, when their livelihoods are threatened in the way that they are now.
The problem for the “alternative centre” (that is, those towards the centre of politics, but not tied to the traditional centre parties), and for Greens in these times is to assert positive alternatives to the business as usual approach at the heart of the traditional centre, and get those sensible ideas heard over the emotional arguments shouted out by the extreme movements.
The Green New Deal is a great tool to use in achieving this, but we also need to properly address the issue of free movement of labour throughout the Union. Ordinary people aren’t EU policy experts, and if they see workers brought in en masse from abroad, when there is increasing domestic unemployment, then they will quite naturally be unhappy. I don’t yet know what the answer to this one is. My gut feeling (once described as being a “European nationalist” viewpoint) tells me that the free movement of labour must be preserved, but how can this be achieved without prolonging the unrest, or causing future strikes? Every government in the Union should be looking at this issue. It’s one which could easily harm the EU and Britain’s place in it.
