Sign the petition. The Concerned VU Group (Verontruste VU’ers) seeks national and international solidarity to stop its Executive Board from the imminent implementation of a Strategic Plan based on a strict business model that has been rejected by the VU University’s Works Council and the Trade Unions. The VU University Amsterdam is no exception to the current European trend of commercializing public educati ...

Eighteen years since the end of Apartheid – and the dawn of ‘freedom and democracy’ -  the  brutal killings of 44 miners by the police in the Lonmin owned platinum mines at Marikana last Thursday has exposed the stark reality of the suffering and agony of the South African proletariat. Innumerable sporadic struggles have been crushed by the state repression in these long years of so called independence from ...

While the eurozone teeters on the brink, construction work is underway in Frankfurt’s financial district on new headquarters for the European Central Bank (ECB). Due for completion in 2014, the 185 metre tall, futuristically designed skyscraper will have double the office space of the ECB’s current residence, the Eurotower. It embodies the expectations for the future of the single currency from the one inst ...

This debit crisis is following same path as one 30 years go. Time to rethink how economics is taught to avoid another lost decade. Monday marks a significant anniversary in recent economic history for it was on this day in 1982 that Mexico announced a moratorium on its international debts. The default marked the start of what became known as the third world debt crisis. Three decades later that crisis is no ...

Since July 4, we have been reading in major world newspapers and in statements by legislators, central banks, and judicial authorities, that there is a “scandal” about something called LIBOR. Before that time, few persons outside the group concerned with banking had even heard of LIBOR. Suddenly, we were being told that major banks in Great Britain, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France, and proba ...

Far from embodying some timeless ‘Olympic spirit’, the 2012 Games reflect the injustice and inequality of the current economic system, writes David Renton. Long before John Carlos stood beside Tommie Smith to give their famous clenched-fist salutes on the podium at the 1968 Olympics, he was a boy growing up in Harlem. ‘When I first learned about the existence of the Olympics,’ he recalls, ‘my reaction was d ...

There’s a famous scene in Casablanca where the police chief, Captain Renault, arrives to close Rick’s cafe and announces: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” A croupier hands him a bundle of notes: “Your winnings, sir.” Renault pockets the cash and orders: “Everybody out at once!” ...

As Europe struggles to deal effectively with the economic crisis and stares a lost decade in the face, radically different alternatives are urgently needed. The ideas from the right of the political spectrum, most notably the commitment to unrestrained free market capitalism, not only caused the crisis, but are now exacerbating it through cuts and privatisations that damage the wider economy. They offer no ...

What can Europe learn from the United States? First, the United States – like Canada, England and China – have central banks that do what central banks outside of Europe were created to do: finance the budget deficit directly. ...

The famous clenched-fists image of Tommie Smith and John Carlos protesting against black oppression at the 1968 Olympics is worth revisiting as London 2012 presents us with a regime of licensed private dictatorship, writes Mike Marqusee. ...