ABSTRACT
The European Central Bank, it is safely shielded from public scrutiny and public pressure; in fact its entire structure is designed from the beginning to immunise monetary policy against electoral, let alone social movement politics. Blame is shifted upwards, allowing national governments to defend neoliberal policies at home by pointing to Brussels and referring opponents to “Europe”. In Europe it is the specifically European configuration of nation-states and supranational institutions that shapes what workers and citizens on the ground perceive to be their interests and where they can and cannot unite in supranational collective action. Very fundamentally workers in European industrial relations, including social and labour market policy, are not just workers but also taxpayers. Alternatively the blame is put by national governments on a lack of European institutions and European “integration”, as reflected in the survey data that della Porta cites.
