Western European Trade Unionism at 2000

Abstract

Tuesday, 30 November 1999, was not 'business as usual' in France. That day saw between 80,000 and 120,000 French bank workers-more than at any time since 1974-staging a national one-day strike. This illustration does not prove that most French or European workers and their unions are returning to their former militancy. As we shall see this is very far from the case. But this one day of mobilization simply reminds us that Europe's working classes are far from being at an all time low and that Europe's socio-political future remains contested. There are huge and growing pressures for Western Europe to adapt to the practices and mores of American managerial and financial capitalism. Yet the positive political consequences of the mid-century defeat of European authoritarian capitalism, of the restraints that this subsequently imposed on Europe's capitalist classes, of the experiences of Christian Democratic and/or Social Democratic governments vying to attract workers' votes, and of the wave of collective worker mobilizations of the 1970s are still present.