ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on understanding the relationship between labour and the crisis at different levels and across variegated geographies of increasingly antagonistic class relationships in Europe. It seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate on the role and potential of labour in the social struggles that are characterizing the unfolding of the crisis worldwide. The chapter addresses the fundamental theoretical-conceptual questions of the class character of crisis dynamics and responses, and, secondly, the need to reconceptualize the relationship between labour, the state and the economy. It also offers a conceptualization of labour within the current crisis in Europe that goes beyond dichotomizing attempts which try to focus on either the co-option or the resistance of labour. Highlighting the asymmetrical nature of the crisis, the chapter also seeks to map the highly uneven development of labour positions and strategies in the European Union (EU).
