July 14th, 2010
by Michael Brie
1) A new strategic situation:
The short social-democratic decade and the return of the conservatives:
After the German parliamentary elections in 1998, thirteen of fifteen governments of the then member countries of the European Union were led by social democrats; Spain and Ireland were the only exceptions. Within a decade, this picture has been reversed completely. The centre-left in Europe is everywhere on the defensive.
Self-criticism on the part of the left of its last twenty years is the necessary point of departure for real renewal. For the life goals, the political convictions and the style of politics of the most important leaders were no longer of the left, the results of their politics no longer had any connection to leftist goals, and the cooperative base for a common left formation had disintegrated. To put it bluntly, this left no longer knew what it wanted. It no longer wanted what it could do. It could no longer do what would have been good for itself and for the country.
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July 14th, 2010
by Luciana Castellina
Text online in German – Video in French – PDF in English
I would like to start my talk with a remark which has no direct connection to CULTURE, but I think we can’t do without a somewhat dramatic observation: We are currently experiencing the decline of Europe and of the role of Europe. The dynamic is gone; the citizens don’t understand the European Union.
Two very different people told me quite memorable things recently. The first was one of our friends who works for the World Social Forum and organizes meetings all around the world, especially at the Social Forums in Africa and Latin America. He said: “You know what? Nobody wants to know anything about Europe anymore. Europe, what is Europe? What has Europe accomplished, anyway? We are much more interested in South-South relationships, like with Asia. But Europe… .” The other is a completely different kind of person from my friends at the World Social Forum: it is my daughter. She is an economist and teaches at the London Business School, which has connections with the University in Dubai. By the way: students used to go to London to study; now, the professors from London go to Dubai to teach. They “buy” the professors, so that they will come directly to them. So my daughter told me that the pupils from Dubai, the Arabian and Turkish elites, didn’t even want to hear anything about Europe. They say: “Europe? What is Europe? Europe is dead!”, and the Turks add: “Join the EU? No, they don’t want us, and anyway, we don’t care a bit whether we join or not! We are much more interested in Asia, China, the United States.”
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May 3rd, 2010
by Pedro Páez Pérez, Ecuador
Article published in the book “The Left in Government”, 2010
A century ago, Rosa Luxemburg stated that the historical dilemma humankind faced at that time was either socialism or barbarism. The current global crisis underscores emphatically the need to create the objective and subjective conditions to guarantee a solution that enriches and projects the best of human experience from the last centuries. It is a responsibility incumbent upon the progressive forces to immediately create a resolute programme which will permit political consolidation, while at the same time blocking the emerging neo-fascist agenda and opening the way for major transformations.
The profound changes of economic processes and social powers which have led to the enthronement of financialisation during the latest stage of capitalism have provided a series of particular challenges for the political actions of the progressive forces within the scope of the current crisis. A certain euphoria among critics of the system notwithstanding, it is important to acknowledge the strong presence of reactionary tendencies all over the world in a network of ideological, political and financial allegiance led by those who, for the time being, are the major beneficiaries of the crisis: a small Anglo-Saxon oligarchy tied to speculative, military and energy interests. Ironically the same social actors who are largely responsible for the current crisis have gradually learned from history how to use the destructive expansion of the profound processes currently in motion for their advantage.
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May 3rd, 2010
by Michael Brie
Article published in the book “The Left in Government”, 2010
Participation by the left in governments dominated by other forces has always been controversial. Primarily, five objections to government participation by the left have been formulated, to the effect that: (1) capitalism cannot be changed fundamentally; (2) only a revolution can solve the basic problems; (3) the state is only the instrument of political power of the economically dominant class; (4) government participation inevitably weakens the left; and (5) by its participation in government, the left makes the continuation of rightist politics possible in the first place.
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April 21st, 2010
by Auður Lilja Erlingsdóttir, Iceland
From the middle of the 19th century, the question of Iceland’s independence from Denmark dominated the Icelandic political scene. With sovereignty in 1918 and full independence in 1944, the Icelandic society began to change. Iceland moved from being an agricultural society to a more industrialized one, causing swift changes in settlement, life style and living conditions. The Icelandic party system was not immune to these changes in the social structure.
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April 9th, 2010
by Edgardo Lander, Venezuela
Text in German
With the recognition of the deep civilization crisis and the limits of the planet, any project for a democratic transformation of society necessarily has to include radical alternatives to the predatory logic of this society of progress and of subjugation/exploitation of so-called “nature”. This requires, in the first place, an anticapitalist option.
The logic of capitalist accumulation requires permanent expansion into new territories, the appropriation of new «resources», energies, markets and the labor force. That pattern of unlimited growth has ceased to be compatible with human life on the planet. Capitalism requires continues growth as a condition for its own existence. Capitalism with zero growth or with negative growth is simply not possible. But anti-capitalism is no longer enough. While capitalism has been the most powerful historical expression of a society of boundless growth and war against the conditions that make life possible, it does not exhaust this model. As the Soviet experience showed, a society without private property can be as developmentalist, productivist and predatory as capitalism.
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April 8th, 2010
Acuerdos de Asociación Europa-América Latina:
Socios privilegiados o tratados de libre comercio?
Ed. Birgit Daiber, 2010.
Download book in Spanish here
Association Agreements with Latin America are increasingly pushed by the European Union. The brochure “Association Agreements European Union – Latin America – Privileged partnerships or Free Trade Agreements?” gives insights into impacts of Association Agreements with the EU on specific sectors, such as agrofuels, water and energy, investments and services, analyses the negotiation processes between the European Union and the Andean Region, and explaines the political context of the probably soon be signed EU-Central American Association Agreement.
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Posted in Development Policy, Ecology and Climate, European Institutions, Latin America, Social Movements, Trade and Economy, Work Relations | No Comments »
April 7th, 2010
Exceeding all expectations, a critical mass of over 50 people (a milieu of left-wing social actors, academics, politicians, radical intellectuals and employees of the European Institutions) got together on 1st March 2010 to discuss a key issue of the European Left political agenda: fighting poverty in the European Union. Under the framework of the 2010 European Year against poverty sponsored by the European Commission, the Transform! Working Group Brussels organised a debate to explore Left alternatives for the fight against poverty in the “First World”, held in the Garcia Lorca Centre, a historic gathering place of the critical Left in Brussels (home of Spain’s Communist Party during Franco’s dictatorship).
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April 1st, 2010
On the 31st of March 2010 the European Commission adopted its long expected “Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the citizens’ initiative“. Advocates of the Lisbon-Treaty pointed to this one element as a great step forward towards a truly citizen centered European integration. Now the question raises: what about “the small print”, the administrative implementation rules?
A detailed critical analysis of this policy instrument
by Michael Efler: PDF-file
Related Blog: http://www.citizens-initiative.eu/
Proposal by the European Commission: PDF-file
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March 30th, 2010
The liberal theory of the political system resembles the neo-classical concept of the market: If all act in their interests, the public good will in the end emerge strengthened from the process. Of course, general rules must apply, but basically, everyone should be allowed to promote his or her own interests to their best ability. Looking at the reality in the centre of European politics one might have second thoughts about this. The European Parliament and, even more so, the European Commission, have become the main targets of a gigantic lobby industry. Washington is the only place where more lobbyists are to be found.
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