RICHARD WOLFF ON THE EUROPEAN PROTESTS

While the union leadership in this country continues to sit on its hands and do nothing, mass protests rolled across Europe this week as opposition grows to the attempts by European Government's to impose austerity policies.

Spanish workers disrupted transport and television broadcasts in the first general strike in eight years. Spain’s two biggest unions said 72 percent of workers joined the strike, including 65 percent in the energy sector and 82 percent in the airline industry,

Traffic in parts of central Brussels came to a standstill as over 100,000 marchers, many of them carrying union flags and banners, made their way from one of the city’s main train stations to the headquarters of the EU Commission and the European Council.

There were also demonstrations of varying scale in Dublin, Lisbon, Rome, Riga, Warsaw, Nicosia, Bucharest, Prague, Paris, Athens and Belgrade.

In an interview with Radio New Zealand's Kim Hill, Professor Richard Wolff talks about the European protests and their implications.

Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts and the author of Capitalism Hits the Fan.

The interview was first broadcast on 2 October.

You can hear the interview here.