the audit

Reuters on the Scope of Unrest in Europe

February 26, 2009

Reuters has a nice roundup of unrest in Europe—much of it labor protests—it says is being caused by the financial crisis. It’s a long list and only going to get longer, and fallen governments, including those in Iceland and Latvia.

Here are some major protests:

IRELAND — Nearly 100,000 people marched through Dublin on Feb. 21 to protest at government cutbacks in the face of a deepening recession and bailouts for the banks.

and

Up to 2.5 million protesters took to the streets of France on Jan. 29 in a day of strikes and rallies to denounce the economic crisis but the strike failed to paralyse the country and support from private sector workers was limited.

That’s no joke.

Sign up for CJR's daily email

But Europe has a long history of labor protests, suggesting Reuters might be somewhat overreaching (though not by much) to blame it all on the financial crisis.

Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.