Huge strikes planned across Germany while France unravels: The European spring has come

Huge strikes planned across Germany while France unravels: The European spring has come

Ethan Huff

 Public transportation in Germany is about to come to a grinding halt as the nation’s Verdi union, as well as the railway and transport union EVG, ready to unleash “paralyzing strikes,” to quote one news source, on the country’s airports and railways.

What began as a “winter of discontent” is now morphing into a “spring of discontent” as many nations across Europe, including not just Germany but also France and Greece, spiral into unrest over the collapsing global economy.

Verdi is negotiating on behalf of 2.5 million public sector workers in Germany who work at airports and other public transport hubs for higher wages amid persistent inflationary pressures. EVG, meanwhile, aims to help 230,000 employees at railway company Deutsch Bahn and bus companies find similar relief.

All of this is happening as Europe’s largest economy also plunges into a recession, which is looking more and more like it will soon become a depression that is global in nature.

“German economic activity will probably fall again in the current quarter,” said Bundesbank, citing a 0.4 percent contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of 2022. “However, the decline is likely to be less than in the final quarter of 2022.”

The global economy is crumbling in a perfect storm scenario

The claim is that two consecutive quarters of negative growth is indicative of a recession, though that definition seems to be constantly changing in order to kick the recession can down the road. Coupled with crippling inflation, the average person’s standard of living is declining – and people are getting restless and upset about it.

In nearby France, Europe’s third-largest economy, a similar wave of protests, strikes, and unrest is mounting after President Emmanuel Macron “rammed through” a highly unpopular pension reform “bill” that, as usual, harms the working man while benefiting the fat cats.

Then we have the economic downturn here in the United States where inflation, shortages, supply chain woes, and more are crippling this economy as well. It is almost as if the goal is to cripple the entire world in a perfect storm of economic failure.

“If you want change, you have to put your back into it,” wrote one commenter in criticism of the protesters who appear in media photos to be “prancing around in safety vests carrying cardboard banners and singing silly ditties.”

“Go into the government buildings and rip the cancerous rot out by the roots, and stop appointing the criminally insane to office,” this person added in disgust.

Another pointed to the film “V for Vendetta” as an example of what can happen when everyone is mobilized together under one banner.

“No need for violence then,” this person explained about another possible way to fix all this. “Why do you think the proverbial ‘they’ are so focused on censoring and stifling speech?”

To this, the original commenter responded that the film is just “Hollywood subversive propaganda” and a “finely tuned psy-op making you think that if you believe harder, pray harder, demonstrate harder, and vote harder, then good will always triumph over evil.”

“Reality is quite obvious in history,” this same person went on to contend. “The people are used, abused, and killed by the ‘elite’ until they reach a breaking point. Only then do they make use of their superior numbers, act as one, and remove their yoke.”

Many others commented in agreement that something must be done before everyone everywhere is forever chained and enslaved to the money masters.