For three years now, Europe has been in the throes of the worst economic crisis since the end of the Second World War. Especially in the poorer countries of the EU, the crisis has struck with full force. In preparatory obedience, to make sure it would indeed fulfil all the expectations of international speculators, Spain brutally slashed its public budget. Pensions were reduced, workers rights struck down, public investments cut back and taxes raised. The result is a paralyzed country in which 40% of young people are now unemployed.
Archive for the ‘Mediterranean’ Category
Sinistra, Ecologia e Libertà
Saturday, October 30th, 2010
First national congress of the Italian left Party Sinistra, Ecologia e Libertà (SEL) (Left, Ecology and Freedom) in Florence, 22-24 October 2010
The Congress formalized the birth of the party Sinistra, Ecologia and Libertà, therefore merging the founding parties and movements, cooperating since 2009 ( Movimento per la Sinistra ( from PRC), Uniti per la Sinistra (from PdCI), a part of the Greens, Sinistra Democratica). Numbers: more than 1000 delegates representing 42,000 SEL members. Note that the high number of SEL members was highly facilitated by membership’s online procedure.
The Design Flaws of the Eurozone
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Not long ago, the columnists of the major newspapers would not in their wildest dreams have been able to imagine the events happening today. The taxpayers of the two largest European countries, Germany and France, are to help Greece out of its macroeconomic mess. But no! The word “macro-economics” is quite wrong here, because that makes it sound like rational policy. But: Greece necessarily reacts to its “social environment”, which is the international community. And that is structured by rules and by relationships of power and exchange. Here, certain groups with their institutions rule over other groups – be they the lower classes of their own countries, or other countries which have a lower level of technological development in the international division of labour.
10,000 Roma in Germany to be Deported to Kosovo: A cold welcome
Friday, January 29th, 2010During the wars in former Yugoslavia, some 130,000 members of the minority of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians (RAE) from Kosovo, fled. After arson attacks and expulsions during the war in Kosovo in 1999, and after the renewed flare-up of ethnic violence in 2004, no more than 35,000 of them still live in Kosovo today. For years, the German Federal Government has tried to deport a large number of the RAE refugees living in Germany to Kosovo – a total of more than 10,000 people.
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