What Future for Industry in Europe?

Saturday, 11th of July - 14:00-17:00

Matteo Gaddi, Valentina Orazzini, Frederico Tomasone, Max Vancauwenberge

Language: French & English, Translation provided

Europe is experiencing a deep crisis of deindustrialization. From chemicals to steel, automotive, and the entire subcontracting chain, closures and restructurings are multiplying. Yet, not everyone is in crisis. The profits generated by workers have largely been distributed to shareholders or reinvested outside Europe. Meanwhile, corporate leaders and European officials are holding summits and meetings, blaming regulations, high wages, or a lack of venture capital, and presenting militarization as a way to revive industry. In this session, we will revisit the causes of the industrial crisis. We will analyze the shock therapy being pushed by European leaders to impose their agenda. And we will discuss the responses from the working class to defend our jobs and secure an industrial future.

Matteo Gaddi is Head of Research at FIOM-CGIL. His main fields of expertise are economics and industrial policy.

Valentina Orazzini heads the European Office of FIOM-CGIL. Specialising in European industrial policy, she works on trade union responses to deindustrialisation, the ecological transition and the transformation of industry in Europe.

Federico Tomasone is Senior Project Manager at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation’s Brussels Office, where he works on industrial policy, housing, global social rights and the foundation’s projects in Italy.

The discussion will be moderated by Max Vancauwenberge. For several years, he has worked on issues related to industrial policy, the energy transition and the future of European industry. He is the author and co-author of several analyses published in Lava magazine on green steel, the crisis of European industry and the militarisation of the economy.