The euro zone is heading into stormy
waters. The crisis that opened with the near collapse of the world
banking system in 2008 has now deepened into a crisis of insolvency of
entire nations. The bourgeois has no idea of how to get out of the
crisis, which is sweeping like an uncontrollable tsunami from one
country to another in Europe. In the words of Italy’s finance minister,
“There should be no illusions about who will be saved. Like on the
Titanic, the first class passengers won’t be able to save themselves.”

As I write these lines the destinies of Greece are being decided in a
titanic struggle in which the Greek working class is confronting the big
banks and capitalists of all Europe. The EU is subjecting Greece to the
most shameless blackmail. They say: either accept draconian cuts in
your living standards, or else we will refuse to hand over the next
tranche of 12 billion euros.

Workers have been feeling the pinch for
some time, even before the slump of 2008-09. Now they are in for an even worse
time, the most prolonged squeeze on living standards in recent memory.