Austerity is wrong, so much we know and have repeated to each other countless times. We actively remind each other that austerity is destroying public services, massifying poverty and unemployment and imploding the economy, all this while failing to deliver on its promise of solid public or private finances. In all countries, bail-out programmes have [...]
Posts under ‘Europe’
European Socialist leader sees danger in austerity
Apr 22nd, 2013 by Ben Folley.Europe’s social democrats need to recognise the consequences of imposing austerity on their own voters. Support is declining, or at best stagnating, as parties fail to offer an inspiring alternative to spending cuts. But there is evidence in Brussels that some are taking this seriously. In some measured comments, Hannes Swoboda MEP, the leader of [...]
Progress: the fixers attack the “fixing”
Apr 22nd, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Once again the Blairites are attacking Ed Miliband and Labour’s new direction. No sooner had David Miliband announced his departure from British politics than Blair, Mandelson, Milburn and other assorted “grandees“ started to attack his brother, without regard to the impending local elections. Cowardly right-wing shadow cabinet members are briefing anonymously against him on a daily basis too. [...]
Italian centre-left pays price of facing right not left on austerity
Apr 19th, 2013 by Tom Gill.Things are not going at all well for Italy’s centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani. Once clear favourite to replace Mario Monti as prime minister, he’s now fighting for his political survival. Parliamentary elections in February denied his alliance enough votes to govern alone and the upstart Five Star Movement led by comedian-blogger Beppe Grillo rejected offers [...]
Why should the Labour Party make arbitrary rulings on Young Labour’s international participation?
Apr 13th, 2013 by Dominic Curran.I reacted with dismay and astonishment by the Labour Party’s arbitrary decision to limit the number of participants at the Young European Socialists summer-camps to five (out of a possible fifty), stopping most members from attending. I attended the 2012 summer-camp in Croatia and it was a really rewarding experience. It’s a really rare chance [...]
Why Hollande’s plans on tax havens and dodgy politicians aren’t good enough
Apr 12th, 2013 by Tom Gill.French President Francois Hollande, facing a major popularity crisis following two major tax scandals involving a minister tasked with cracking down on tax evasion, and very senior aide who was treasurer for his presidential campaign, announced Wednesday a number of measures to address tax dodging and the dodgy financial dealings of politicians. But, as French left [...]
My statement on the Labour Party limiting youth participation at international events
Apr 11th, 2013 by Daniel De La Motte-Harrison.My interest and enthusiasm in becoming a proud Young European within the Labour Party happened quite by accident. At a London Young Labour event I overheard news of a trip to the European Parliament for LGBT Labour members. Deciding to go, despite not knowing any other participants at the time, was one of the greatest [...]
France’s L’Humanité: the secret of the radical daily’s success
Apr 11th, 2013 by Tom Gill.Interview with L’Humanité editorial director Patrick Apel-Muller by Vittorio Bonanni (translated by Tom Gill) Patrick Apel-Muller is a journalist of L’Humanité, he’s what in France is called the editorial director. A senior editor with some extra powers. So nearly a director, although formally this role is played by the Communist MEP Patrick Le Hyaric, but [...]
The fight against Thatcherism must go on
Apr 9th, 2013 by Carl Packman.Yesterday, at 12.02, the anarchist Ian Bone wrote on his blog “Thatcher died this morning”. Moments after it hit Twitter and Facebook, though, as always, it was taken with a pinch of salt. That was until the BBC and Sky broke the news on its airwaves – the former Prime Minister had died, this was [...]
Policy turns against bank bailouts, and not before time!
Apr 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The Cyprus deal should mark a turning point in the aftermath of the 2008-9 financial crash. Until now bail-outs of Eurozone banks have been almost entirely at taxpayers’ expense. The same applied to Brown’s bailouts of UK banks which cost taxpayers £67bn plus a further several hundred billions in loan guarantees, liquidity support and asset [...]
