Or how about in Poland, where Warsaw went to bat earlier this year in an effort to get the EU to enact an outright ban on cheaper synthetic rubbers from Russia in order to benefit the Polish company Synthos, which is owned by Poland’s richest individual, Michał Sołowow. In the end, Brussels only introduced a rubber quota of 560,000 tons until a transition period runs out at the end of June 2024.

While the movers and shakers prove yet again that war is a racket, the European working class is bearing the brunt of the costs.

Over the past year, real hourly wages decreased in 22 EU countries, including -1.8 percent in France, -3.3 percent in Germany, and -7.3 percent in Italy. The official line is that it’s Russia’s fault for causing higher energy prices. And while energy costs have certainly risen, companies are passing on more than those costs to consumers. From the New York Times:

Profit margins at public companies in the eurozone — measured by net income as a percentage of revenue — averaged 8.5 percent in the year through March, according to Refinitiv, a step down from a recent peak of 8.7 percent in mid-February. Before the pandemic, at the end of 2019, the average margin was 7.2 percent.

The crisis is being used to impoverish and discipline workers across the bloc, as well as slash social spending. Brooks holds Germany out as an example of Europe’s “core” that has successfully reduced its connections with Russia.

European Central Bank policymakers have known EU companies have used the food and energy inflation caused by the economic war as an excuse to increase their profits, making consumers foot the bill, yet they continue to hike interest rates with the stated goal of keeping wages down. As Reuters reported back in March:

Data articulated in more than two dozen slides presented to the 26 policymakers showed that company profit margins have been increasing rather than shrinking, as might be expected when input costs rise so sharply, the sources told Reuters.

Sol

2023-09-17 19:20:23

The War in Ukraine Helps Advance the Great EU Neoliberal Project

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