The Mobilization of the Unemployed in Europe

In the face of high unemployment in Europe for the past thirty years, the unemployed have organized themselves and mobilized at levels ranging from the local to the transnational. These contentious movements invite us to revise traditional analyses that conclude that the unemployed are not able to get mobilized. Through long-term analysis of movements of the unemployed in ten countries (Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland), this work explores why, when, and how the unemployed move from acquiescence to protest.

Jean Faniel is a researcher at the Centre de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Politiques (CRISP) in Brussels. He has published a number of articles on Belgian trade unions, mobilization of the unemployed, and the relationshipbetween trade unions and the unemployed. He is co-editor of L'Europe du chomage, a special issue of Politique europEenne 21 (with Didier Chabanet, 2007), and of SolidaritE en mouvement. Perspectives pour le syndicat de demain (with Carl Devos, Corinne Gobin and Kurt Vandaele, 2009).