Sunday

10th Dec 2023

Opinion

May Day: Mega-rich blocking economic justice for workers

  • Amazon boss Jeff Bezos earned €44bn in 2020 in the EU — but paid no corporation tax (Photo: palomaleca)
Listen to article

As the German playwright Berthold Brecht once said: "Two men—one rich, one poor—come face to face. Said the poor man with a twitch: Were I not poor, you wouldn't be rich."

The Covid-19 pandemic hasn't been bad for everyone. The wealth of billionaires increased more during the pandemic than in the past 14 years — the biggest surge in billionaire wealth since records began.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

As we mark International Workers' Day in celebration of the achievements of the labour movement worldwide, the case for abolishing billionaires has never been clearer.

At a time when Europeans are going through a severe cost-of-living crisis, with fuel and food prices spiralling, it is immoral to allow a minority to amass unprecedented amounts of wealth through greed and exploitation, threatening our rights and democracy itself in the process.

The European Union loves to tout its championing of social rights. A year ago, the EU even hosted a Social Summit, ostensibly reaffirming its commitments to the so-called European Pillar of Social Rights.

However, we must judge EU governments by their actions, not words.

The EU has failed to meet its 2020 target of lifting 20 million people out of poverty, something the UN called "a defeat for social rights".

117 new European billionaires

While Europe's 628 billionaires grew $1 trillion (€950bn) richer in the first year of the pandemic, including 117 new members added to the billionaires' club, a huge proportion of Europeans edged towards poverty.

In 2020, 96.5 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion — that's one in five Europeans. Almost a quarter of children in the EU are at risk of poverty.

These shocking figures only worsened with the pandemic. Two-thirds of EU citizens consider that their current financial situation is worse than before Covid-19, with 68 percent reporting difficulties in making ends meet.

The EU unemployment rate stood at 6.2 percent at the beginning of the year. But what this figure does not show are the many millions with jobs but earning salaries that are not enough for a dignified living.

Families unable to pay their bills and who cannot afford secure and stable housing or childcare. The phenomenon of the working poor has reached alarming levels in the EU.

So what do billionaires have to do with it? They and their corporations have persistently worked to weaken and undermine labour rights to maximise profits.

In other words, billionaire wealth accumulation is directly linked and could not exist without the persistence and pervasiveness of labour exploitation and social inequalities.

Billionaires have aggressively lobbied to weaken EU legislation aimed at protecting workers' hard-earned rights such as dignified wages, health & safety standards, social welfare safety nets, and collective bargaining.

They have also gone on a buying spree of the most influential mass media outlets and engaged in political financing, notably to the benefit of the far-right, causing strife and pitting workers against each other.

All the while they have been allowed by governments to divert much-needed funds from public coffers through aggressive tax planning and tax evasion.

In 2016, the offshore wealth of EU residents stood at a staggering €1.5 trillion. Corporations like Amazon, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, earned €44 billion in 2020 in the EU but paid no corporation tax.

Faced with these attacks, workers have not stood idle. Growing discontent with the billionaire class and the political forces defending their interests has led to inspiring mobilisations.

Amazon workers and campaigners have led outstanding protests under the "Make Amazon Pay" banner to address the corporation's labour abuses, tax evasion and environmental crimes.

Recognising the role the company plays in the global economy, they have staged coordinated strikes and protests to stop the company's operations in their tracks and put pressure on governments to act, even in the face of intolerable repression.

Workers in France, Belgium, Germany and Spain are resisting increases in the retirement age.

Faced with shrinking public budgets, governments have used working people as scapegoats instead of forcing big companies to make a fair contribution to pensions.

Notably, in France, workers succeeded in forcing the government to halt the increase thanks to organised protests.

Workers' struggles are too many to count.

Their lessons from centuries of resistance to oppression are that when workers come together they can change the prevailing order and the system.

The proliferation of billionaires and that phenomenon's reverse dark side, the working poor, calls for a historic mobilisation on a global scale.

Workers are pushing in the right direction. On the road to equality and justice, making billionaires pay is a mandatory stop.

Author bio

Özlem Demirel is a German MEP with The Left.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Investigation

US billionaires funding EU culture war

Conservative US billionaires, some with links to Trump, are paying anti-abortion lobbyists in Europe tens of millions of dollars to shape policy and law.

How should EU reform the humanitarian aid system?

The example of Ukraine illustrates that donors like the EU should be more ambitious about the localisation of aid. And this funding to local actors needs to be predictable, flexible, and longer than the typical one-year funding cycle.

Tusk's difficult in-tray on Poland's judicial independence

What is obvious is that PiS put in place a set of interlocking safeguards for itself which, even after their political defeat in Poland, will render it very difficult for the new government to restore the rule of law.

Can Green Deal survive the 2024 European election?

Six months ahead of the EU elections, knocking an 'elitist' climate agenda is looking like a vote-winner to some. Saving the Green Deal and the EU's climate ambitions starts with listening to Europeans who are struggling to make ends meet.

Latest News

  1. How Moldova is trying to control tuberculosis
  2. Many problems to solve in Dubai — honesty about them is good
  3. Sudanese fleeing violence find no haven in Egypt or EU
  4. How should EU reform the humanitarian aid system?
  5. EU suggests visa-bans on Israeli settlers, following US example
  6. EU ministers prepare for all-night fiscal debate
  7. Spain's Nadia Calviño backed to be EIB's first female chief
  8. Is there hope for the EU and eurozone?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us