European governments are finding that bail-outs for bankers and the rich are provoking social discontent among the population as a whole
Two years ago the UK Ministry of Defence's Strategic Trends depicted an alarming futuristic scenario in which proletarianised middle-class radicals engage in revolutionary activity and violent 'flashmobs' threaten the authorities with lawless disorder. There are growing signs that these predictions may be more prescient than was originally thought.
Last night's scenes in central Paris were just the latest in a string of violent clashes across Europe since December's 'Greek Intifada' where the police shooting of a teenager became the catalyst for a major grassroots revolt. During January, police have confronted demonstrators protesting deteriorating economic conditions and political corruption in Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria. There have been smaller demonstrations in Spain, Turkey, Denmark and Italy.
Whatever their specific national contexts, these disturbances are another consequence of the bursting of the speculative capitalist bubble and the illusion of unlimited prosperity that once sustained it. In the Latvian capital of Vilnius, one 63-year-old protester criticised "the lies, corruption and those grinning, fat faces behind the windows of Parliament". A young Frenchman interviewed by the BBC last night complained about Sarkozy's government aiding bankers but leaving ordinary people to their own fates.
The US military sees the modern city as the battleground of the 21st century
These disturbances cannot be explained away by the usual references to 'anarchists' and 'outside agitators'. For too long European politics have been conducted by career politicians who have mostly accepted the neo-liberal model as the only game in town and allowed irresponsible and unaccountable financial elites a free hand.
While their electorates may have accepted such behaviour when times were good, they may be less disposed to do so in stagnating economies, where bail-outs for bankers are accompanied by wholesale redundancies and cuts in benefits for the most vulnerable sectors of society.
All these factors mean that Europe's 'winter of discontent' may become more widespread. How will the societies affected by these upheavals respond? One possibility is repression. In Greece and Italy in the 
About the author
Matthew Carr is a writer and broadcaster based in Derbyshire. He has reported on the Mafia wars in Sicily, the Israeli-Palestinian... MORE
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