Wouter van de Klippe

Ha-Joon Chang on the neglect of climate and the environment in today's economics degree @financialtimes.com
www.ft.com/content/9aab...

Four days after posting record profits over £1 billion, NEXT
closed its only unionised factory in Sri Lanka – and fired 1,416 workers via WhatsApp.

Workers were fired without consultation, without notice, and in clear violation of NEXT’s agreement with the trade union.🧵

EU’s shift to a US savings model risks dismantling its social contract Political choices should be debated democratically, not hidden in technocratic agendas of ‘financing gaps’

Ive written about @ecb.europa.eu and @ec.europa.eu push for a Savings and Investment Union:

SIU, the new answer to 'how do we pay for' , is a Trojan horse for the American welfare model, increasingly in the hands of (private equity) financiers

www.ft.com/content/052e...

Oh this? Just the NYT op-ed page leading with a piece that fields heavy intellectual artillery against European rearmament plans while linking to a Jacobin DE piece and quoting Ole Nymoen saying he'd rather be alive than dead.

God bless you Anton Jäger.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/o...

Ursula von der Leyen Is Waging War on Workers The European Union’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, has declared rearmament the bloc’s emergency priority. While military spending soars to new heights, working people face a fresh era of austeri...

"The European Union’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, has declared rearmament the bloc’s emergency priority. While military spending soars to new heights, working people face a fresh era of austerity."

Good piece in Jacobin on VDL's abandonment of Europe's workers.

jacobin.com/2025/06/von-...

What got much less attention today was the manifestation against austerity and social welfare cuts organised by Belgium's major trade unions.

While we all focus on rearmament, social programs are being cut across Europe.

Seems a poignant and symbolic day.

bsky.app/profile/epsu...

Update from Tyler Pager

Turns out if you want Trump to love NATO, all you have to do is promise to hand over trillions and call him daddy.

Makes sense.

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06...

Zohran Mamdani declares historic victory in New York City mayoral primary after Cuomo concedes ‘Tonight is his night,’ says ex-governor as progressive state representative tells supporters ‘we made history’

Really inspiring. Hope it sends a message to the Democratic machine.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The state-aid rules' death of Europe's electric vehicle battery industry Once, Europe’s car industry was the envy of the world. Stuttgart, Wolfsburg, and Paris set the pace in automotive innovation. Now, as Chinese manufacturers roll out cheap LFP batteries and software-de...

"Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is now presiding over a slow-motion collapse of the European auto sector."

Important opinion piece highlighting that, once again, the EU's archaic rules may be fuelling the death of the bloc's just transition capacities.

euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

The gap in political ideology between young men and women in Europe? It's story that sells itself. But it's also hugely overblown. Tell that to your editor.

My latest for EUobserver - The EU was toying with the idea of a tax on US Big Tech in retaliation to Trump's tariffs. Why does it seem like it's backing down now?

Exit stage far-right Following the collapse of the Wilders coalition, new elections will be held in the Netherlands. This is what a progressive strategy could look like

The @fesonline.bsky.social asked me to write a piece on the collapse of the Dutch government.

What happened and where do we go from here?

Check it out 👇

www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democ...

Where is the money the EU promised workers to go green? | Context by TRF Flagship EU fund to support fossil fuel workers and communities risks mad spending rush, says exclusive European Commission data

The EU's spent under 3% of its Just Transition fund.

This, while @industrialleurope.bsky.social & @etuc-ces.bsky.social have been raising the alarm on a prolonged crisis for Europe's industrial workers.

Important piece at the @contextnewsroom.bsky.social.

www.context.news/just-transit...

Leak of EU's full 2024 Gaza report piles pressure on Israel The leak of an internal EU paper from 2024 spelling out Israel's "war crimes" in Gaza will make it harder to claim Tel Aviv merits keeping free trade perks.

The leak of an internal EU paper from 2024 spelling out Israel's "war crimes" in Gaza will make it harder to claim Tel Aviv merits keeping free trade perks.

Leak of EU's full 2024 Gaza report piles pressure on Israel The leak of an internal EU paper from 2024 spelling out Israel's "war crimes" in Gaza will make it harder to claim Tel Aviv merits keeping free trade perks.

"The earlier report is so damning, it would make a mockery of the EU if it were to say on 23 June that Israel had not broken article 2 of the bilateral agreement on human-rights compliance."

Read the leaked EU Gaza report published by @euobserver.com.
euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

EU states sent 69 million rounds of ammunition to Israel Israeli media reported last year the state was facing an ammunition shortage.

EU states sent 69 million rounds of ammunition to Israel, notably Czechia 🇨🇿 and Italy 🇮🇹 including in the last months www.ontheditch.com/eu-states-se...

Peace: how is it made? (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, May 2025)

Taking Sides is a series of ebooks published by Le Monde diplomatique. In each ebook, we are releasing the most significant articles from our English-language archive since 1996, on a topic that merits your attention. This time: peace.
mondediplo.com/ebooks/peace

Unions Without Strikes Today's labor movement has been built to rely on forms of power that are all going away.

"The power of the contracts and the laws and the agencies that are supposed to protect us are all, ultimately, contingent on the fundamental power of the strike. We are finding out the hard way that unions that cannot or will not strike are easy to disregard."

inthesetimes.com/article/unio...

Steel giant ArcelorMittal announced intentions to invest €1.3 billion to decarbonise its plant in Dunkirk. Should we be celebrating? While ArcelorMittal’s plans to invest over a billion to decarbonise its site in Dunkirk sound groundbreaking, critics point to a history of inaction despite lofty promises and billions in subsidies.

While ArcelorMittal announced plans to spend over a billion on decarbonisation in Dunkirk, critics are sceptical.

Wrote a new piece on my substack - give it a read!

@steelwatch.bsky.social @carbonmarketwatch.bsky.social @industrialleurope.bsky.social @cgt.fr

open.substack.com/pub/klippe/p...

Steel giant ArcelorMittal announced intentions to invest €1.3 billion to decarbonise its plant in Dunkirk. Should we be celebrating? While ArcelorMittal’s plans to invest over a billion to decarbonise its site in Dunkirk sound groundbreaking, critics point to a history of inaction despite lofty promises and billions in subsidies.

While ArcelorMittal announced plans to spend over a billion on decarbonisation in Dunkirk, critics are sceptical.

Wrote a new piece on my substack - give it a read!

@steelwatch.bsky.social @carbonmarketwatch.bsky.social @industrialleurope.bsky.social @cgt.fr

open.substack.com/pub/klippe/p...

It’s time for the Teamsters and turtles to reunite Open access // by Benoît Bréville (Le Monde diplomatique - English edition, May 2025)

"‘The president’s nonsensical tariff saga is … pushing too many progressives to hop into bed with Wall Street’ wrote Sherrod Brown.'

In 1999 he marched in Seattle. Back then, the crowds fought free trade, unafraid of the wrath of the markets."

mondediplo.com/2025/05/01ed...

Ministers said to be considering bill to wipe out British Steel’s debts Chinese owner owed almost £1bn as government weighs up how best to attract buyer for Scunthorpe works

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

It's been fascinating watching these developments. I especially recommend interviews with workers responding to the gov stepping in.

Decisive action can bolster popular support - we still have to wait and see if Labour can get this right.

Set the "techbros reinvented the bus" timer back to zero

Here's an @nytimes.com statement on the relevance of the Pfizergate text messages case for transparency and accountability.

The carbon footprint of EU's defence spurge How should climate activists respond to Europe’s embrace of a ‘security’ emergency that has completely displaced its commitment to tackle the far bigger climate emergency? So far, the response from cl...

The global arms race could derail all efforts to tackle the climate crisis, absorbing all political attention, diverting resources from climate action and adding to the problem through increased military greenhouse gas emissions.

📝 by our @nickbuxton.bsky.social

euobserver.com/eu-and-the-w...

"There is no fraud. There has never been fraud," said Piotr Serafin, the EU budget and anti-fraud commissioner, earlier this week, at the Strasbourg plenary session of MEPs.

Netherlands adds voice to those calling for revision of EU-Israel deal The Netherlands is the latest member state to call for a revision of the EU's trade agreement with Israel, worth €46.8bn annually, due to concerns over human rights violations.

The Netherlands is the latest member state to call for a revision of the EU's trade agreement with Israel, worth €46.8bn annually, due to concerns over human rights violations.

"Talking left, voting right - An assessment of far-right voting on socio-economic issues in the European Parliament" by Gabriela Greilinger and Cas Mudde

Gentle reminder on this International Workers' Day that the far right is not and never has been the defender of the working class. 🤗

#MayDay

www.etui.org/publications...

Today, I posted a passage from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States to reflect on the history of International Workers' Day and what it can tell us of our troubling present.

Give it a read: open.substack.com/pub/klippe/p...