Protests in Europe against austerity measures are expected throughout September.

STEVEN HILL
Hill (who travels to Europe on Monday for an extensive speaking tour and research trip) is author of the new book “Europe’s Promise: Why The European Way Is The Best Hope In An Insecure Age” (http://www.EuropesPromise.org). In observing the rash of labor actions in Europe, he said today: “Many have an attitude of ‘Oh, there go those Europeans, on strike again. It must be because the European economy is sinking.’ Both of those are stereotypes that really don’t advance the dialogue in the United States.

“First, the European economy in many ways is doing better than the U.S. economy. Country by country, northern Europe is doing quite a bit better than the U.S., while southern Europe is having a harder time than the north. But overall Europe’s growth rate has been double that of the U.S. (on an annualized basis). And even in southern Europe, i.e. Greece, Spain, etc., everybody there has health care and families and individuals have access to a support system that most Americans don’t have that helps them during these difficult times. So the real question is: why aren’t Americans out in the streets, protesting their declining wages, the theft of national wealth by banks and corporations, their lack of health care, and Social Security being threatened?”

See Channel 4 “Unions in France say more than two million people have joined a series of nationwide protests”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167