Despite the introduction of the European Citizens’ Initiative a decade ago, transnational democratic mobilisations remain a rarity in Europe. Yet as Imre Szabó, Darragh Golden and Roland Erne explain, there remains scope for organisations to build support for public services and oppose privatisation across borders. Drawing on a comparison of two European Citizens’ Initiatives put forward by trade unions, they identify some of the key factors that determine success.
‘Nationalism becomes predominantly a popular cause, […]. Internationalism, at the same stroke, starts to change camps – assuming new forms in the ranks of capital.’ This is how the historian Perry Anderson depicts the emergence of two groupings whose struggle shapes politics in our age: populist nationalism on one side against elitist internationalism on the other.
