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A capital idea: corporate taxation in a globalised era

US election 2020

The transformation of work

Most popular

Europe’s ‘long-Covid’ economic frailty

Europe’s ‘long-Covid’ economic frailty

by Adam Tooze on 25th January 2021

Last year’s agreement on an EU recovery package was widely celebrated. This year its inadequacy will sink in.

Spain: more stable employment contracts

Spain: more stable employment contracts

by Ane Aranguiz on 21st January 2021

The Supreme Court has modified its jurisprudence on subcontracting, limiting the scope for abuse of temporary contracts.

Unsplendid isolation: Britain after ‘Brexit’

Unsplendid isolation: Britain after ‘Brexit’

by Paul Mason on 18th January 2021

Paul Mason writes that a Biden US presidency allied to an EU pursuing ‘strategic autonomy’ leaves a ‘sovereign’ UK with a bit-part role.

Capital and ideology: interview with Thomas Piketty

Capital and ideology: interview with Thomas Piketty

by Thomas Piketty on 23rd December 2020

Thomas Piketty tells Robin Wilson how wealth and power can be transferred from capital to workers and citizens.

Gig workers’ rights and their strategic litigation

Gig workers’ rights and their strategic litigation

by Aude Cefaliello and Nicola Countouris on 22nd December 2020

A window of opportunity has opened up to utilise EU law on health and safety to advance the rights of ‘gig’ workers in domestic courts.

The infrastructural power of platform capitalism

The infrastructural power of platform capitalism

by Funda Ustek-Spilda, Fabian Ferrari, Matt Cole, Pablo Aguera Reneses and Mark Graham on 16th December 2020

We can’t go back to a world without labour platforms, so their proprietary digital infrastructure must be recreated as a public good.

Politics

‘The day of liberation is a bit like a second birthday for me’

‘The day of liberation is a bit like a second birthday for me’

by Knut Dethlefsen on 27th January 2021

Knut Dethlefsen offers a personal reflection on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Unsplendid isolation: Britain after ‘Brexit’

Unsplendid isolation: Britain after ‘Brexit’

by Paul Mason on 18th January 2021

Paul Mason writes that a Biden US presidency allied to an EU pursuing ‘strategic autonomy’ leaves a ‘sovereign’ UK with a bit-part role.

Belarus needs more than the Sakharov Prize

Belarus needs more than the Sakharov Prize

by Frank Hoffer on 14th January 2021

Strengthening of civil society, construction of democratic institutions and economic support must all figure in an EU agenda for a post-Lukashenka Belarus.

What saved American democracy?

What saved American democracy?

by Bo Rothstein on 13th January 2021

Democracy in the United States survived the assault by Donald Trump and his supporting mob. But why it survived raises questions awkward for some.

Economy

Supplying critical goods: lessons from the pandemic

Supplying critical goods: lessons from the pandemic

27th January 2021 By Jan Grumiller

Security of supply for medical and pharmaceutical goods must become a high political priority—with industrial policies promoting reshoring.

An end to wage-dumping in the German meat industry?

An end to wage-dumping in the German meat industry?

26th January 2021 By Şerife Erol and Thorsten Schulten

The German meat industry is being pushed off its low road of migrant-labour exploitation towards regulation and potential collective agreement.

Time to put an end to union-busting

Time to put an end to union-busting

25th January 2021 By Esther Lynch

Trade union rights are human rights and must be protected in EU law.

Europe’s ‘long-Covid’ economic frailty

Europe’s ‘long-Covid’ economic frailty

25th January 2021 By Adam Tooze

Last year’s agreement on an EU recovery package was widely celebrated. This year its inadequacy will sink in.

Food-delivery riders, algorithms and autonomy

Food-delivery riders, algorithms and autonomy

21st January 2021 By Valeria Pulignano and Claudia Marà

A ruling by a court in Bologna has undermined platforms’ claims to impartial algorithms and autonomous contractors.

Society

A rail renaissance for Europe

A rail renaissance for Europe

28th January 2021 By Lena Donat

The European Year of Rail can support the Green Deal and sustainable recovery. Europe needs more international trains with easier booking.

Big Tech media and the EU’s weak reed of ‘competition’

Big Tech media and the EU’s weak reed of ‘competition’

26th January 2021 By Steven Hill

The attack on the US Capitol revealed the dangers of Big Tech media platforms—but envisaged EU competition laws won’t fix them.

Must try harder: recovering from educational inequality

Must try harder: recovering from educational inequality

19th January 2021 By Shane Markowitz

School closures during the pandemic have hit socially excluded students hard. The EU needs to ensure every child can reach their potential.

Culture, creativity and coronavirus: time for EU action

Culture, creativity and coronavirus: time for EU action

19th January 2021 By Elena Polivtseva

The pandemic has highlighted a longer-term failure adequately to address the working conditions of cultural professionals in Europe.

Ecology

No time to spare for the Paris climate promise

No time to spare for the Paris climate promise

12th January 2021 By Mary Robinson

Having squandered past opportunities and shirked previous commitments, we now must start making up for lost time.

Legal hurdles facing a green and just transition

Legal hurdles facing a green and just transition

24th November 2020 By Ingo Venzke

The irony of genuinely ‘free trade’ is only regulation enables it. Europe cannot lead the ecological transition without recognising this.

How public development banks can help nature

How public development banks can help nature

17th November 2020 By Elizabeth Mrema and Carlos Manuel Rodriguez

Public development banks will be critical to global efforts to ‘build back better’. They should complement their climate investments with nature-based goals.

Trade unions and climate change: the jobs-versus-environment dilemma

Trade unions and climate change: the jobs-versus-environment dilemma

12th November 2020 By Adrien Thomas and Nadja Dörflinger

Unions can be torn between mitigating climate change tomorrow and saving jobs today. A significant Just Transition Fund could ease that dilemma.

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Renewing labour relations in the German meat industry: an end to 'organised irresponsibility'?

Over the course of 2020, repeated outbreaks of Covid-19 in a number of large German meat-processing plants led to renewed public concern about the longstanding labour abuses in this industry. New legislation providing for enhanced inspection on health and safety, together with a ban on contract work and limitations on the use of temporary agency employees, holds out the prospect of a profound change in employment practices and labour relations in the meat industry. Changes in the law are not sufficient, on their own, to ensure decent working conditions, however. There is also a need to re-establish the previously high level of collective-bargaining coverage in the industry, underpinned by an industry-wide collective agreement extended by law to cover the entire sector.


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ETUI advertisement

ETUI/ETUC (online) conference Towards a new socio-ecological contract 3-5 February 2021

The need to effectively tackle global warming puts under pressure the existing industrial relations models in Europe. A viable world of labour requires a new sustainability paradigm: economic, social and environmental.

The required paradigm shift implies large-scale economic and societal change and serious deliberation. All workers need to be actively involved and nobody should be left behind. Massive societal coalitions will have to be built for a shared vision to emerge and for a just transition, with fairly distributed costs, to be supported. But this is also an opportunity to redefine our societal goals and how they relate to the current focus on (green) growth.

What targets or objectives should be set and how might they be reached? How can we create a sustainable European growth model? How can we reverse the trend towards growing inequalities? What kind of Green New Deal is a realistic and feasible prospect for Europe? What elements of justice, solidarity and equity constitute a fair and sustainable social foundation? What are the roles of the market, the state, industry and civil society? And what role can trade unions play to build a sustainable future that addresses all of these dimensions?


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Confirmed speakers include: Ursula von der Leyen, Mariana Mazzucato, Nicolas Schmit, Dominique Meda, Tim Jackson, Juliet Schor, Frans Timmermans and many more.


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Eurofound advertisement

Industrial relations: developments 2015-2019

Eurofound has monitored and analysed developments in industrial relations systems at EU level and in EU member states for over 40 years. This new flagship report provides an overview of developments in industrial relations and social dialogue in the years immediately prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Findings are placed in the context of the key developments in EU policy affecting employment, working conditions and social policy, and linked to the work done by social partners—as well as public authorities—at European and national levels.


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Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Read FEPS Covid Response Papers

In this moment, more than ever, policy-making requires support and ideas to design further responses that can meet the scale of the problem. FEPS contributes to this reflection with policy ideas, analysis of the different proposals and open reflections with the new FEPS Covid Response Papers series and the FEPS Covid Response Webinars. The latest FEPS Covid Response Paper by the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, 'Recovering from the pandemic: an appraisal of lessons learned', provides an overview of the failures and successes in dealing with Covid-19 and its economic aftermath. Among the authors: Lodewijk Asscher, László Andor, Estrella Durá, Daniela Gabor, Amandine Crespy, Alberto Botta, Francesco Corti, and many more.


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Social Europe Publishing book

With a pandemic raging, for those countries most affected by Brexit the end of the transition could not come at a worse time. Yet, might the UK's withdrawal be a blessing in disguise? With its biggest veto player gone, might the European Pillar of Social Rights take centre stage? This book brings together leading experts in European politics and policy to examine social citizenship rights across the European continent in the wake of Brexit. Will member states see an enhanced social Europe or a race to the bottom?

'This book correctly emphasises the need to place the future of social rights in Europe front and centre in the post-Brexit debate, to move on from the economistic bias that has obscured our vision of a progressive social Europe.' Michael D Higgins, president of Ireland


MORE INFO

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