It is fanciful to presume that there are many Marxists who believe in an afterlife, so it is perhaps perverse to imagine Karl Marx sitting somewhere on a heavenly cloud, looking down at the world and contemplating the current state of the left. Nevertheless, if we suspend disbelief and give way to...
It is a time of monsters. The organic crisis of the old neoliberal project has also brought forth the rise of a new radical right. But what are the reasons behind this? Many different explanations exist, most of which are valuable in certain aspects. This text aims to gain a deeper understanding of their specific relationships with one another.
Our study on right-wing populism and workers' unions shows that people's everyday lives (at work and in their interactions with the welfare state) provide fertile ground for right-wing populism.[1]
Speech by Kostas Genidounias, President of the Panhellenic Association of Train Drivers (PEPE) at the conference organised by the Nikos Poulantzas Institute entitled "Safety: Countering the Argument - From Individual Responsibility to Multifaceted Collective Safety" held on 26th of April 2023.
The Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation's Madrid office, in collaboration with turba! comunicación, has published an analysis entitled "Impact of digitalisation on work" to map industrial relations and labour struggles in Europe's new digital economy.
Fincantieri is an Italian shipbuilding company that has expanded its global reach through a series of acquisitions and agreements and is portrayed as a respected and successful company. However, behind the façade of its industrial and commercial succes lies a darker reality of exploiting temporary workers and subcontractors to achieve its success.
Florentin Iancu, President of the Romanian IT Workers' Union (SITT), reflects on the history of his union, how it differs from other unions and how its members' attitudes to labour have changed over the years.
Workers at Delhaize (one of Belgium's largest supermarket chains) are massively protesting against implementation of the franchise model which is expected to lead to layoffs, precariousness, and lower wages, as well as to endanger national unions and set a new franchising trend in the whole retail sector in motion.
Jose Soeiro analyses why it is important to put care at the centre of the political debate to fight inequalities, and why making care a universal social right and collective responsibility should be the aim of a demanding democracy.
The body of evidence linking the occupation of cabin crew to an increased risk of breast cancer is steadily growing. Now that there is a chance of it gaining recognition as an occupational disease, more and more trade unions and associations are engaging with the issue.
Given that port workers work shifts, under high pressure and in arduous working conditions, many of them are totally worn out long before they reach pensionable age – and on average they die six years earlier. Port workers need to retire earlier if they are to enjoy a healthy old age.
This eBrochure, commissioned by the Left in the European Parliament, aims to provide a brief overview on the topics of economic justice and exploitative working conditions.
Finally, after two years of pandemic, the trade unions of many countries, and with them members of left parties, social movements, along with other citizens, can return to the streets on May Day.
Last month, Spain’s progressive government (Socialist Party and radical left Unidas Podemos) passed a comprehensive labour law that is in complete contrast to what neoliberal orthodoxy wishes to impose on labour market interventions. Spanish Professor of Labour Law Antonio Baylos gives an overview.
The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), supported by transform! europe, presents a policy paper on workers' wages in the garment and sportswear industries in Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe.
Being in favour and against a shift to working from home is not a strictly oppositional binary but should rest on a coherent theory of emancipatory politics. A politics which takes into account different costs and benefits of telework faced by workers per sector, strata and workers' demands, argues Giorgos Charalambous.
My main topic concerns the theoretical questions involved here which are emanating of Friedrich Engels famous essay The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, in which he basically demonstrates how labour became the principal condition of human existence. In a simplistic...
A newly released study on the current situation of on-demand workers for platforms such as Uber or Deliveroo in Europe, commissioned by the Left group in the European Parliament. The study includes an analysis of the various strategies used to combat the social model imposed on platform workers, both by platform workers and trade unions.
Let me start by showing where the problem lies: right now, across the EU, there are over 14 million people unemployed, and millions who have been furloughed or who are working precarious jobs. And yet we are only at the start of a global economic crisis, the extent and duration of which no one can...
Exactly 130 years ago, the first May Day was celebrated with strikes, demonstrations, and meetings called by the Second International as the Labour Day, the day of the working classes. Ever since then it has become a day like no other for progressives and socialists. The day of struggle for the...
The earth is heating up faster and faster. We live, work and produce at the expense of others and at the expense of our future. What needs to change? What challenges and tasks do employees and trade unions face in order to make good work and a good life for all possible?
Modern slavery and human trafficking is one of the fastest growing criminal industries and one of the biggest human rights crises today, United Nations and government officials said.
The 55th ITH Conference (5-7 September 2019, Linz/ Upper Austria) investigates the topic of “Working on the Land”, aiming to strengthen the links between labour history and rural history.
Organisers: Transform! Europe, Indonesia for Global Justice
Date: 30th September 2018
City: Gent (Belgium)
Overview
Transform! Europe and the Asia Europe People's Forum have been working together on Commons for some time already. At the last major meeting in Barcelona in June 2018 Rachmi...
For every industrial robot introduced into the workforce, six jobs are eliminated. – Since a few days, Amazon has started Amazon Go. The idea is simple: a shop where you go in, take whatever you want from the shelves, and the cost goes automatically to a magnetic card that you carry.
On the first Friday of October the Institute of Labour Studies, Ljubljana in collaboration with Zavod Bunker, RLS Southeast Europe and transform! europe organized a conference on the topic of the relation between labour and technology in the 21st century.
Post financial crisis, the most persistent scapegoats for many parts of society has been migrants and refugees. Used by mass media, politicians and common people alike, the problems of Europe have been condensed in the spiteful image of the ‘others’.
After a long quarantine, “revolution” is back as a topic of historiographical debate. The upcoming anniversary of 1917 – arguably one of, if not the most momentous event of the 20th century – has further fuelled this renewed interest.
The Second Session of the Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights concluded on Friday 28 October, after five days of extensive debate.
The so-called Labour Law, passed en force by the French government on 20 July, is the most serious attack against the “Code du Travail”, already undermined for the past thirty years. A short historical overview is necessary to better grasp the destructive scope of this law, promoted and enforced by a socialist government – cruel irony!
The dismantling of labour and social rights has gained in strength on the EU political agenda ever since the crisis broke out. This phenomenon, if more acute in the so-called periphery countries, is however to be witnessed everywhere in Europe.
Due to the inequalities in European societies such as the gender gap and the low value placed on care work, women have been hit specifically hard by the pandemic. This study focuses on the effects of the pandemic on women workers in the service sector in one of the most affected European countries, Spain.
The Slovenian Institute 8th March, supported by transform! europe, presents this collection of two sets of life stories: The first one was part of a campaign for workers’ rights, carried out before the pandemic, the second one is dedicated to the situation of self-employed parents during the pandemic.
Andrea Allamprese, Professor of Labour Law at the University of Modena, on reforms necessary to challenge – or even reverse – the trend towards labour precarisation in various European countries, edited by Tatiana Moutinho (transform! europe), with an introductory note by Danai Koltsida, Vice President of transform! europe.
The 2022 ITH Conference, organised by the International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH) is held in Linz/Austria and takes from the present epidemiological crisis to also reflect on other times of disaster and their implications for workers, organised labour and labour relations.
At this conference, The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) will present its proposals for the Recommendation on Minimum Income Schemes to the Council and ensure that the voices of people experiencing poverty are given a central role in the European debate on minimum income.
The group of the Left in the European Parliament organises the 2nd edition of the Transnational Forum on Alternatives to Uberisation. The event will aim to better understand the current issues at European level and to highlight the voice and demands of digital platform workers.
To draw attention to those sectors which, until now, have not been adequately recognised or remunerated and to strengthen the ties between the different feminist struggles in Europe, the Feminism Working Group of the Party of the European Left has organised this webinar.
This Seminar is a joint initiative of the Communist Party of Finland and the Party of the European Left, with the participation of transform! europe, presenting its current studies on labour, on Sunday 7, 13:00 to 13:30 CET (European Labour Initiatives).
The Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels Office, a member of transform! europe, organises this online event focusing on the role of working time reduction when addressing climate change.
This webinar, hosted by transform! europe and AEPF (Asia Europe People's Forum), aims to explore and discuss ways to overcome the often sterile debates between orthodox and heterodox advocates of 'change' and 'transition' in order to solve existing ecological, economic and social problems. Watch the video recording of the webinar!
In his lecture Christian Fuchs addresses the question of what digital capitalism is and why it should be criticised. A webinar organised by transform.at and transform! europe. Watch the full video.