Do you think UK and Europe is becoming more socialist given that unions are beco

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   navneetjhaposted 11 years ago

   Do you think UK and Europe is becoming more socialist given that unions are becoming stronger.
   
   During recession I have seen unions becoming more strong given the support they got while industrial strikes. Is Britain and Europe getting communist day by day.

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   Josakposted 11 years ago

   Depends by country, Spain and some Eastern European countries have gone the other way while I do think that most of western Europe is going further to the left or more socialist if you like. Certainly not more communist though which is a very different thing.
   
   It's a positive trend in my opinion, towards the economically stable and high quality of life nations in the North.

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   CHRIS57posted 11 years ago

   I cannot follow your impression that unions get stronger during recession. I think it is the other way around. In hard times unions get more resilient, they loose power. Unions only gain power if there is something, some wealth, some success to be distributed. If there is nothing to be distributed, no strength, no power. That is at least my interpretation.
   But then who am i to argue about this. I am living in an economy with work councils, cooperation, stakeholder capitalism. Some call it socialism. Well, - it is not, i assure you.

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   maxoxam41posted 11 years ago

   Which country in Europe is really socialist? France that just elected a leftist government has a capitalistic economy. It is implementing social measures relieving the crisis the economy is experiencing. In what way the UK that has a conservative at its head is becoming more socialist? Because suddenly the unions are rebelling against drastic policies enforced by the radicals in power? Under Thatcher the Unions also created mayhem, it didn't mean that the country was turning to communism!

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   bilboburglerposted 11 years ago

   As someone who was an adult in 1978 I can tell you that the place has moved to the right in this area in the last 30 years or so.  The unions have far less power.  I have no idea what you think "Britain getting communist"  means but certainly not more communist.  I'm not aware that there have been many "industrial strikes" recently (nor how that links to communism) though the size of the public sector means that strikes in the public sector demonstrate that something good is happening (if it ain't hurting, it ain't working).
   
   Which country are you based in and what is your source of news that has lead you to question this?

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      navneetjhaposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I have been living in UK for last 3 years and this is my observation. I think Europe on a whole is getting a closed society. The openess in the economy which we saw in 90's and early 2000 is getting narrow after the recession UK.

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   Silverspeederposted 11 years ago

   I live in the UK and cant think of any significant industrial action in the past 3 years, the unions have moved their focus from traditional industries and commerce to the public sector workers.
   The EU is a socialist utopia with faceless leaders issuing demands of the people to feed its political ambitions, the unions of course are all for this as they benefit from socialist or pseudo socialist governments. The unions in the UK benefit to the tune of £millions every year.
   I personally do not trust unions while their leaders get huge amounts of money sometime 10 times the average wage for telling others to strike and lose much needed wages while they continue to dine at the top table. Orwell's Animal Farm comes to mind. 
   Unions represent a political ideal not its membership.

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