Assorted content to end your week. – Polly Toynbee looks at how the UK is now treating children in need as investment opportunities to be exploited by investors, rather than people to be assisted. And Mark Taliano writes that privatization is a problem rather than a solution when it comes
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Parchment in the Fire: EU officials plotted IMF attack to bring rebellious Italy to its knees – Telegraph Blogs
EU officials plotted IMF attack to bring rebellious Italy to its knees – Telegraph Blogs. The revelations about EMU skulduggery are coming thick and fast. Tim Geithner recounts in his book Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises just how far the EU elites are willing to go to save the
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Labour-reform decree gets final approval – English – ANSA.it
Labour-reform decree gets final approval – English – ANSA.it. The Lower House on Thursday gave final approval to the government’s decree to simplify Italy’s labour-market regulations. It passed with 279 votes in favour, 143 against and three abstentions. The decree has come under intense fire from trade unions, which say
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: The left needs a progressive Euroscepticism to counter the EU’s ills | Costas Lapavitsas | Comment is free | theguardian.com
The left needs a progressive Euroscepticism to counter the EU’s ills | Costas Lapavitsas | Comment is free | theguardian.com. Frustration is currently sweeping Europe and for good reason: persistent unemployment, inequality, weak growth and a pervasive sense of powerlessness, to name a few. Unfortunately, the main political beneficiary is
Continue readingTerahertz: Humanist Hustings–Europe Votes 2014
Moving to London (details eventually coming) has allowed me to attend more great events. Last night, I attended the British Humanist Association’s Humanist Hustings all-candidates forum for the upcoming European Parliamentary Elections. The event was held in Conway Hall, London’s freethought home. To my mind, no humanist group in Canada
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) – Benchmarking Working Europe 2014 / Books / Publications / Home
European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) – Benchmarking Working Europe 2014 / Books / Publications / Home. The report Benchmarking Working Europe 2014 reviews the crisis and EU austerity policies in the last five years from the point of view of Europe’s social agenda. Filed under: Austerity, Europe Tagged: Austerity, crisis,
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Why France’s Economic Problems Matter
I’ve had the good fortune to live in France for the past 10 months on a year-long sabbatical and therefore been able to witness firsthand the travails of the Socialist government as it wrestles with the country’s economic woes. Indeed, the unpopularity of president Francois Hollande was exposed a couple
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Wage Development in the European Union
Wage Development in the European Union Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Austerity, Europe, Eurozone Crisis, inequality, Labour
Continue readingThe Wandering Joe: Crimea and Misdemeanours
Bad puns aside, the recent intrigue in Crimea has been responsible for more nonsensical political blustering than any single international incident in the past decade. It has been a curious exercise to sit back and watch everyone work themselves up and deliver half-baked analyses based on laughably outdated assumptions. Please
Continue readingThe Wandering Joe: Crimea and Misdemeanours
Bad puns aside, the recent intrigue in Crimea has been responsible for more nonsensical political blustering than any single international incident in the past decade. It has been a curious exercise to sit back and watch everyone work themselves up and deliver half-baked analyses based on laughably outdated assumptions. Please
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Edward Robinson laments the willingness of European centre-left parties to abandon any attempt to argue against austerity even when the evidence shows that’s the right position to take: Centre-left parties in Europe appear to have completely lost the argument for pragmatic fiscal
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Tony Blair and the Corporatization of Social Democracy
Tony Blair, by any sensible yardstick, is a douchebag. Recently, The Guardian, under the headline “Toxic”, detailed Blair’s “downward spiral”. This included the revelation that he may have been having an affair with Wendi Murdoch, the now ex-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Blair was once good pals with Murdoch
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Radical Democracy and Collective Movements in Greece, Spain | Euro Crisis in the Press
Radical Democracy and Collective Movements in Greece, Spain | Euro Crisis in the Press. By Marina Prentoulis and Lasse Thomassen The 2011 movements of the squares, the ‘aganaktismenoi’ and ‘indignados’ as they came to be known in Greece and Spain respectively, brought to the forefront old and unresolved debates on
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Creating radically democratic solutions to the financial abduction of Europe | openDemocracy
Creating radically democratic solutions to the financial abduction of Europe | openDemocracy. LOTTA TENHUNEN and ADRIÀ RODRIGUEZ 6 March 2014 Last weekend we participated in the European meeting and seminar The New Abduction of Europe -– Debt, War and Democratic Revolutions in Madrid. The meeting, organized by Fundacion de los Comunes in the framework of the network
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Swiss vote on immigration boosts far-right parties through rest of Europe | World news | The Observer
Swiss vote on immigration boosts far-right parties through rest of Europe | World news | The Observer. When Christian Ragger heard that the Swiss had voted to cap immigration into their country in a referendum last weekend, he was “deeply impressed”, he says. “All over the world, immigration is protected
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Norwegian voting patterns are a warning to leftwing parties elsewhere
Henning Finseraas and Kåre Vernby Low levels of citizen participation in politics have long been seen as a serious democratic problem, and a possible relationship between turnout and election outcomes is a prominent topic of discussion in political science. The most frequent claim is that left-of-centre parties benefit from higher levels of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension | Articles: Ukraine and the rebirth of fascism
The violence on the streets of Ukraine is far more than an expression of popular anger against a government. Instead, it is merely the latest example of the rise of the most insidious form of fascism that Europe has seen since the fall of the Third Reich. Recent months have
Continue readingthe reeves report: Europe looks to coal to reduce electricity prices
One year after The Economist signalled an ”unwelcomed coal renaissance”, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 6 that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in a big way. Lignite, a low-quality form of coal that contains less units of energy and greater volumes of carbon than
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Syriza Succeeds in Greece by Challenging European Left’s Approach to Reform
Syriza Succeeds in Greece by Challenging European Left’s Approach to Reform. Leo Panitch on Syriza’s radical approach to ‘reform’ in Europe. Filed under: Austerity, Capitalism, Social Democracy, Socialism Tagged: Europe, Syriza, the Left
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Five Theses on the French Left
Reblogged from thecurrentmoment: As an antidote to the snide gossip that passes for analysis of French politics at the moment, and in line with our broader reflection on the state of the European left, here are five theses on the French left that we hope might go some way to
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