European labour
movements are under severe pressure as a result of the global financial and
Eurozone crises, which have been used by capital to attack unions and workers’
rights. In our recently published essay in the Socialist
Register 2015, Roland Erne
and I assess the response of European labour movements to this attack and
discuss to what extent relations of transnational solidarity have been
established in this process. As Germany plays a central role in the European
political economy, particular attention is placed on the role of German trade
unions. In this blog post, we draw out some key points of our argument.