> as long as the EC central
>bank does not resemble the Bundesbank ?
John, will not a strict interpretation of the Maastricht convergence
criteria ensure that the Euro will indeed be managed according to an
economic policy reflecting and fostering the interests of German capital.
E.g., the single currency will erase even the restricted possibility
offered by the ERM to resort to devaluation while the stability criteria
will tie even more the weaker countries' economic policies to that of
Germany. So suggests Guglielmo Carchedi, "The EMU, Monetary Crises and the
Single European Currency", Capital and Class 63 (Autumn 1997): 99
>
>Another question: how do proponents of the 35-hour week in Italy, France, and
>the Netherlands realistically think it will be possible to pay workers who
>work only 35 hours for 40 hours' work ? Unless there is a massive increase
>in productivity (so that the rate of surplus value extraction remains more or
>less the same) won't there be a capital strike, or diversion of capital into
>the financial sector, or somesuch thing ?
This proposal is attractive because it suggests that the entire working
class can benefit from the reduction of unemployment. It would seem that
capital is already on strike and already diverted into the financial
sector. What is interesting is why productivity gains don't now issue in
commensurate real wage gains or reduced hours. It seems that without
intending to do so ordinary workers' demands are running up against the
limits of the capitalist system. This holds of course for the glorious
autonomous actions by the unemployed to reduce gas, electricity and rent
payments and to demand amnesty for the officials who participate in these
auto-reductions.
Rakesh
