When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Economy

Black Friday Backlash From The Rest Of The World

A demonstration on Black Friday in a local site of Amazon in Leipzig, Germany
A demonstration on Black Friday in a local site of Amazon in Leipzig, Germany
Stuart Richardson

Droves of customers stampeding through large department stores on Black Friday was once a uniquely American phenomena. But the traditional day-after Thanksgiving shopping sale event has recently gained traction in other countries that have no connection to the American holiday. The insatiable consumerism that fuels American capitalism, it seems, is a more viable export than ever.

Black Friday has caught on big in Europe the last few years, despite grumblings about the marketing madness from local critics of the American model. Large U.S.-based multinationals, like Amazon, have undoubtedly accelerated the spread, with online shopping convenience for what is otherwise a regular working day in the rest of the world.

But this year, there looks to be the first tangible backlash. In Europe, where workers tend to enjoy greater social protections, the frenetic drive to increase sales at all costs — online and off — is being met with resistance. Labor unions in Germany and Italy chose to target both Black Friday and Amazon plants this year with strikes to undermine one of the busiest sales days of the year.

"Employees need to perform their best on Black Friday in the service of Jeff Bezos Amazon's founder and the customers," Ronny Streich, a strike leader in Leipzig, told the German daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. "And all this under working conditions that make you sick in the long run."

Amazon represents "a new model of exploitation" of workers around the world, Daniele Boroli, an Italian senator from the center-left Democrat party, told the Rome-based La Repubblica. Francesca Benedetti, a union leader at an Amazon plant in northern Italy, concurred, stating further that the joint strike in two European countries "gives even more value" to the protest. "It shows that it isn't just our site that has problems with this company," she said. "All around the world Amazon creates work conditions that are absolutely not compatible with our culture of protection" for workers.

The tension is not just a question of worker's rights, however. Several countries and large cities have sought to protect entire industries from creeping American-led, digitally-driven neoliberalism. Transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft have faced opposition from entrenched taxi industry interests in European countries. At the same time, local competitors in markets such as Russia and China pose another challenge to the U.S.-based leaders.

The American "economic way of life" dominated throughout much of the 20th century, capped by the fall of Communism in 1989. Will the explosion of Silicon Valley over the past two decades mean a sequel in this century? Steven Hill, an economist and author of Raw Deal: How the "Uber Economy" and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers, has his doubts, pointing to Uber's troubles as a good example of how success may not last. Speaking this week with the French daily Le Monde, Hill said the digitally connected economy "threatens the economic model that was successfully implemented after World War II by Europe and the United States. The biggest threat is in the way that people work and the future of work itself." A thought for Americans enjoying their holiday, and for the rest of us busy shopping at the office.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Green

Forest Networks? Revisiting The Science Of Trees And Funghi "Reaching Out"

A compelling story about how forest fungal networks communicate has garnered much public interest. Is any of it true?

Thomas Brail films the roots of a cut tree with his smartphone.

Arborist and conservationist Thomas Brail at a clearcutting near his hometown of Mazamet in the Tarn, France.

Melanie Jones, Jason Hoeksema, & Justine Karst

Over the past few years, a fascinating narrative about forests and fungi has captured the public imagination. It holds that the roots of neighboring trees can be connected by fungal filaments, forming massive underground networks that can span entire forests — a so-called wood-wide web. Through this web, the story goes, trees share carbon, water, and other nutrients, and even send chemical warnings of dangers such as insect attacks. The narrative — recounted in books, podcasts, TV series, documentaries, and news articles — has prompted some experts to rethink not only forest management but the relationships between self-interest and altruism in human society.

But is any of it true?

The three of us have studied forest fungi for our whole careers, and even we were surprised by some of the more extraordinary claims surfacing in the media about the wood-wide web. Thinking we had missed something, we thoroughly reviewed 26 field studies, including several of our own, that looked at the role fungal networks play in resource transfer in forests. What we found shows how easily confirmation bias, unchecked claims, and credulous news reporting can, over time, distort research findings beyond recognition. It should serve as a cautionary tale for scientists and journalists alike.

First, let’s be clear: Fungi do grow inside and on tree roots, forming a symbiosis called a mycorrhiza, or fungus-root. Mycorrhizae are essential for the normal growth of trees. Among other things, the fungi can take up from the soil, and transfer to the tree, nutrients that roots could not otherwise access. In return, fungi receive from the roots sugars they need to grow.

As fungal filaments spread out through forest soil, they will often, at least temporarily, physically connect the roots of two neighboring trees. The resulting system of interconnected tree roots is called a common mycorrhizal network, or CMN.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reach your limit of free articles.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Ad-free experience NEW

Exclusive international news coverage

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Monthly Access

30-day free trial, then $2.90 per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest