About Stuart Holland

Stuart Holland was Labour MP in London Vauxhall and then adviser to Jacques Delors. He is a visiting Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and a Senior Scholar of the Institute of Social and European Studies, Köszeg, Hungary. He is author of Beyond Austerity: Democratic Alternatives for Europe (www.spokesmanbooks.com)

A European Germany Returns?

by Stuart Holland on 13 March 2018

The outcome of the negotiations for a Grand Coalition in Germany has been remarkable. For the SPD to get foreign affairs and labour is not surprising, but to gain the finance ministry is more than many could have hoped. The appointment of Olaf Scholz, Mayor of Hamburg, also might mean a new direction for Germany […]

Eurobonds: An Open Letter To Martin Schulz

by Stuart Holland on 18 May 2017

Martin, You may recollect that we met with Elisa Ferreira and Jacek Saryusz-Wolski in Strasbourg in 2012 when Elisa, he and I made the case that I had already made to Jacques Delors for joint EIB-EIF bonds for economic recovery. At the end of the meeting you said: ‘go with this and make sure you […]

Economic Recovery Of The EU Is Not Beholden To The ECB

by Stuart Holland on 1 June 2016

Europe is in a Gordian knot of debt, deflation and democratic deficits. A hegemonic Germany that Adenauer, Brandt, Schmidt and Kohl wished to avoid dominates the Eurozone, has defeated democracy in Greece and seems unassailable in its demands for austerity. German arrogance is matched by Commission subservience to Berlin. The ECB is assumed to be […]

Hans Böckler Stiftung Ad

The aim of this study is to explore the impact of the crisis and crisis-induced policies on incomes, inequality and poverty in Greece, to detect the types of adjustment and to show why prevailing perceptions and attitudes caused a heavy economic, social and political cost. Based on extensive income and tax data it investigates the changing relationship between labour, capital and pension income, changes in direct, indirect and property taxation, and their incidence on pre- and post-tax inequality and competitiveness between 2008 and 2012-13. It examines also the losers and the winners and the resulting social reclassifications within the Greek society, the multifaceted types of poverty and inequality and the changing relations between the haves and the haves-not.

New Social Europe Book

Is an unconditional basic income without means-test or work-test compatible with social justice and individual self-worth? Does it open up the space for an end to demeaning labour and a resurgence of voluntary work and cultural life? Is it affordable? This collection of short but compelling essays, all previously published in Social Europe, allows both proponents and opponents to make their case and is designed to extend this vital discussion to a wider audience.

Eurofound Advertisement

Living and working in Europe 2017

Eurofound's Living and working in Europe yearbook provides a snapshot of the latest developments in the work and lives of people living across the EU. It shows that the number of people active in the labour market is now at an all-time high, ratings for key public services are increasing, and there is a marked recovery in trust in national institutions in many Member States. It also highlights a continent in transition, where there is an imbalance in opportunities for prosperity, and quality of life, depending on where you live.

FREE DOWNLOAD

Social Europe Edition Book

Zygmunt Bauman was a towering intellectual who saw and analysed – right up to his death in early 2017 – the great socio-political changes, often convulsive, in modern western society long before his peers. Here we highlight his prescient insights into what he dubbed ‘liquid modernity’ with 24 chapters on topics ranging from online loneliness via precarity/poverty/inequality to migration, fear of the ‘Other’ and the decline of the nation state. Chronicle of Crisis, 2011-16, written by one of the great chroniclers of our times, will be read and re-read for decades and more to come.