Mass layoffs in Germany highlight new stage in global slump
Last week, two major German industrial firms announced mass layoffs and a third filed for bankruptcy. Eon, Germany’s largest energy provider, confirmed that it will eliminate 11,000 of its 80,000 positions worldwide, including 6,500 in Germany. The company cited the German government’s decision to phase out the use of nuclear power for energy generation.
Nokia Siemens Networks, one of the world’s largest telephone network suppliers, said it will cut its work force by 25 percent, slashing 17,000 jobs internationally, including thousands in Germany.
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These developments in Europe’s strongest economy are a stark indication of a sharp downward trend within the world economy that points in the direction of a full-scale depression. They show that the hollow “recovery” which followed massive government bailouts of the banks in 2008 and 2009 was only a stage in the deepening crisis of the world capitalist system.
They also show that no country is immune from the crisis and the brutal policy of the bourgeoisie of mass layoffs and austerity. The ruling class intends to make the working class pay for the breakdown of the profit system by rolling back all of the social gains of the previous century.
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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/nov2011/pers-n29.shtml
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