Precarious work in Morocco’s green beans production for Dutch supermarkets. Green beans sold in Dutch supermarkets often hail from Morocco, where they are picked and packed under poor labour conditions. Pay is less than a living wage, unions are not respected or tolerated, overwork is mandatory and occurs on a regular basis, and labourers are exposed to pesticides and fertilisers without protective equipmen ...

Tijd voor protest! Per jaar wordt van duizenden vluchtelingen het verzoek om asiel afgewezen. Dit zijn wij, de ‘uitgeprocedeerde asielzoekers’ die volgens de Nederlandse overheid terug moeten naar ons land. Maar in een groot deel van de gevallen is dat onmogelijk. Omdat het land van herkomst niet de juiste papieren verstrekt, ons niet meer accepteert, of omdat we moeten terugkeren naar landen waar het, ook ...

For all its vaunted efficiency, capitalism has foisted wasteful inequality and environmental ruin on us. There is an alternative. What's efficiency got to do with capitalism? The short answer is little or nothing. Economic and social collapses in Detroit, Cleveland and many other US cities did not happen because production was inefficient there. Efficiency problems did not cause the longer-term economic dec ...

Het AH-management verwijst vol trots naar de afspraken die met CNV gemaakt zijn. Die afspraken werden gemaakt nadat de onderhandelaars van FNV Bondgenoten uit het pand gezet waren. FNV Bondgenoten heeft 10 keer zoveel leden. Een deal zonder de grootste vakbond is een provocatie. Het AH-management kiest voor een ramkoers. En daarom gaat de staking door. Inhoudelijk stelt de deal weinig voor. De stakende dist ...

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world this week, science may have confirmed the protesters' worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy. The study's assumptions have attracted some criticism, but complex systems analysts contacted b ...

The Cypriot parliament has thrown out a controversial plan to skim €5.8bn from savers' bank accounts, in a move that risks plunging the eurozone into a fresh crisis and heightens expectations that the cash-strapped nation will seek a funding lifeline from Russia. Cyprus has just 24 hours to find a solution to its funding gap before its banks are due to reopen following the dramatic no vote on Tuesday night, ...

Radicals have a habit of speaking in the conditional. Underlying all their talk about the changes they’d like to see in the world is the uneasy knowledge that our social system places rigid limits on how much change can be accomplished now. “After the revolution…” is the wistful, ironic preface to many a fondly expressed wish on the Left. ...

Hundreds of thousands take to the streets to denounce austerity and defend democracy as corruption scandals shake Spanish royal house and government. Europe’s 2013 protest season finally kicked off this week. On Saturday, three days after the umpteenth general strike paralyzed Greece, a “citizens’ wave” of indignation washed over Spain with hundreds of thousands of protesters swarming onto the streets of Ma ...

On the occasion of the general strike in Greece on February 20th, ReINFORM sent the following letter to the Dutch trade union asking them to declare their support to the struggle of the Greek workers. ...

At some point, there is a tilt; there always is. Then we shall settle down into our new historical system. Wallerstein foresees one of two possibilities: more hierarchy, exploitation and polarization; or a system that has never yet existed, based on relative democracy and relative equality. ...