The headlines say it all.

"European governments tremble as anger spreads" (The Age); "Buckling Europe fears protests may spark a new revolution" (Telegraph); "French government fear rise of the left" (BBC).

As the harsh reality of the global economic crisis begins to bite, workers across Europe have begun to fight back, sending the collective blood pressure of the ruling classes through the roof. Protests, riots and strikes are becoming a common occurrence, with every action inspiring and reinforcing the next.

Greece

It was Greece which kick-started the growing resistance sweeping the European continent. Since December, Greece has been rocked by riots, strikes and protests against the right-wing government of Costas Karamanlis. The detonator for the struggle was the police shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Anger over the killing fused with the discontent in Greek society over job cuts, low wages and lack of opportunities.
Showing immense determination and staying power, these protests are set to continue into February, with civil servants planning a strike for February 25.
Adding to the pressure on the government is the action of Greek farmers, who have joined the unrest by blockading the main crossing to Bulgaria, paralysing shipping operations to Crete and attempting to drive their tractors into central Athens, to protest the low prices paid for their produce and to demand subsidies.
The scale, intensity and longevity of the Greek protests have deeply worried governments throughout Europe. They are right to worry.

France

On 29 January, in the biggest protests in France in over a decade, 2.5 million public and private sector workers took to the streets in 200 cities and towns across the country.
The national strike saw air traffic controllers, train drivers, teachers and nurses join postal workers, bank clerks and car workers to protest against unemployment, rising living costs and the destruction of health care and public education. A focus for the strikers' anger was President Nicolas Sarkozy's multi-billion dollar bailout of the banks. In Paris, the parade was led by people carrying an effigy of a donkey in a dunce's cap with the slogan "€36bn for the bankers and we get screwed".
As the CGT, the largest union federation, wrote: "Hit hard by an economic and financial crisis for which they are not responsible, workers refuse to be the crisis's first victims."
Last year Sarkozy pushed through state pension cuts and dismantled the 35-hour week. But his "reforming" zeal has shown signs of faltering. Last month, nervous that the Greek protests would inspire emulation by French students, he shelved a contested high school reform plan after students staged street protests.
In the aftermath of the national strike, which was supported by 69 per cent of the population, Sarkozy has remained uncharacteristically tight-lipped, concerned not to further inflame anger. But he is fighting a losing battle. As protest organiser Stéphane Borras put it: "We are seeing a radicalisation, perhaps the beginning of a very big movement... Inequality is growing in Europe and inequality is always the cause of revolt."

Ireland

Displaying workers' preparedness to fight for their jobs, workers at the Waterford Crystal factory in Ireland occupied their plant on 30 January.
As the prosperous "Celtic tiger" tumbled into recession mid last year, factories began shutting their doors and unemployment soared to record levels within months.
When its parent company went into receivership on 5 January, the receiver attempted to close down Waterford Crystal, announcing that 480 out of the 700-strong workforce would immediately lose their jobs.
Angry at being thrown on the scrap heap, over 400 workers stormed the historic plant to keep it open, and hundreds are still occupying the premises as we go to print. Food parcels and blankets have been provided by the local community and to connect with the long tradition of struggle in the Irish labour movement, the Starry Plough - the flag of Irish socialist James Connolly - has been raised over the plant.
Within 24 hours the occupation had forced talks between the unions, the government and the receivers. One worker from the occupation said, "If the private sector won't keep open the plant, then it should be nationalised." The actions of these workers are an important lesson for all of us - that it is only by fighting for our rights, not depending on the good graces of governments or companies, that we have any hope of turning the situation around.

Iceland, Baltic Countries and Eastern Europe

Particularly concerning for the European ruling class are the so-called "emerging markets" such as Iceland, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania. While major industrial nations like France have enough resources at this point to stave off financial collapse by bailing out their banks, the "emerging markets" face going or are bankrupt.
The crisis has already claimed its first government. In Iceland on 23 January protests forced the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde along with his whole cabinet. For months, demonstrations shook the once tranquil streets of Reykjavik after their fast-expanding banks collapsed under the weight of foreign debt in October 2008.
Protesters gathered around Iceland's parliament calling on the government to resign, while others surrounded Haarde's black limousine, pelting it with eggs, cans and snowballs. To break up the protests, police used tear gas. But the demonstrators refused to be intimidated and eventually Haarde's government fell.
In Latvia, Lithuania and other countries in the former Eastern bloc, there's been regular rioting, as well as the largest demonstrations since the fall of the Stalinist regimes in 1989-91. According to political commentators in the region, Eastern Europe is heading for a violent "spring of discontent". Destabilising the region is the explosive cocktail of expectations built on a decade of double-digit growth rates crashing up against the cruel disappointment of the recession, soaring inflation and rising unemployment.
For increasing layers of people in Eastern Europe, their illusions in the free market as the answer to "Communism" - as those brutal, dictatorial state capitalist regimes called themselves - are beginning to crumble. As Socialist Alternative has always argued, we need a radical alternative to both barbaric models of capitalism. We need to fight for genuine socialism, which gives workers democratic collective control over both economic and political life.
But the anger at the crisis is not just generating positive responses collective mass action against governments. Throughout Eastern Europe attacks on the Roma, gays and lesbians and migrants are on the rise. These reactionary politics are fostered and encouraged by governments seeking to distract attention from the real culprits for people's misery - themselves and their corporate friends.
It is a salutary reminder that if a credible alternative based on working class unity isn't offered, the discontent and despair produced by the crisis can lead to the targeting of scapegoats and the rise of racism. However at this stage the anger at the economic crisis has not led to a major resurgence of the far right in Europe. Rather, it is the politics of the left that are finding a larger audience.

China

The growing resistance is not confined to Europe. With China hurtling towards recession, protests and riots are sweeping the country.
To give just a snapshot of the unrest. Along China's coastal economic zone, there are reports of workers storming government buildings after factories closed without paying wages. In southern China, to protest against a pay cut imposed by managers, hundreds of workers blockaded a highway. In the southern province of Guangdong, striking textile workers fought pitched battles with security guards. In northern China 6,000 workers occupied a textile mill.
The situation is set to become more explosive as millions of rural migrant workers return to the cities after celebrating the Chinese New Year, to find they are out of work. It is estimated that 25 million migrant labourers will be jobless this year. Adding to the flammable tinder are the tens of thousands of university graduates without any job opportunities. We should expect many more struggles to rock China in the near future.
Even the Chinese authorities have conceded this. In an unusually candid article published by the state-run Xinhua news agency, senior reporter Huang Hu wrote: "Without doubt, now we're entering a peak period for mass incidents. In 2009, Chinese society may face even more conflicts and clashes that will test even more the governing abilities of all levels of the Party and government."
The article also stressed that the protests were increasingly politicised, making it harder for officials to douse them by force or cash hand-outs. "Social conflicts have already formed a certain social, mass base so that as soon as there is an appropriate fuse it always swiftly explodes and clashes escalate quickly."

We need a revolution

We are still only in the early phases of this systemic economic crisis. The struggles breaking out across Europe and China and the emergence of a new, more confident left are amazing developments. They should inspire anyone who wants to resist the attempts by governments and corporations to further subordinate our lives to their pursuit of profit.
But we need to do more than just reject the mantra of governments around the world calling on workers to accept wage restraint, individual responsibility and sacrifice. In the huge battles that lie ahead, battles which will define politics in decades to come, we need to go beyond the immediate tasks of defending our living conditions. This crisis makes it clear that, if we want to live in a world where our lives are no longer trampled on, we need to fight to overturn this whole rotten system.

International Socialists

Liz W