Abstract

Q: There is much discussion on the nature and causes of the crisis now shaking all advanced capitalist countries. Let's see if it is possible to define its structural characteristics and draw an initial balance sheet of their phases.

A. By now everyone is conscious of the fact that we are not dealing with a brief recession and that unemployment will remain a problem until the 1980s. In this context then, what becomes interesting is the reaction of workers' consciousness to this phenomenon: in Germany, the crisis has had a disciplining effect. On the basis of social security guaranteed by law, the government has apparently succeeded in nipping any protest movement in the bud.