Instead of an analysis of what kind of "austerity measures" and in whose favor, the troika and its vassals in the Greek government have been preparing, I'll just show you a table of taxes before and after the new tax system, a part of the latest austerity package, is implemented, by income category. This is income tax only, it does not include social security taxes... The really fun part is at the bottom of ...

No wonder the protesters are back. They are angry at the backdoor rewriting of the social contract Ha-Joon Chang   Rioters beat a policeman during a rally against government austerity measures in Athens. Photograph: John Kolesidis/REUTERS Throughout the 1980s and 90s, when many developing countries were in crisis and borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund, waves of protests in those count ...

In Quebec, Canada, an impressive student struggle, connected to protests against attacks on civil liberties has ended in a partial, but nevertheless important, victory. There is reason to learn lessons, but also to celebrate and to be inspired. Let's shout it from the rooftops, as a sign of more to come. For months, students in Quebec fought against a Draconian college fee rise that the Chares government tr ...

The response of journalists and TV producers to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party is at best muddled, at worst complicit By Aris Chatzistefanou Golden Dawn, the neo-Nazi party of Greece, made a rather strange proposal this week: let's create a new public holiday, they said, to commemorate victims of Communist guerrillas at the end of the second world war. By "victims", they mainly refer to the Nazi collaborato ...

  Dear friends and comrades,   We are organizing a big workers "CARAVAN of STRUGGLE & SOLIDARITY" which will take place from 12 Octomber until 15 Octomber in Greece. We would like to invite you to our first stop of our tour at THESSALONIKI, GREECE on FRIDAY 12 Octomber. If you are coming, we can arrange travel tickets and accomodation. You will show up at Ivanofio basketball arena. Thanks a lo ...

INFORMATIVE DEMONSTRATION FOR THE CALL OF “25S SURROUND THE PARLIAMENT” 19:00H, 25-09-2012, DAM SQUARE, AMSTERDAM   CONTEXT The collective “Plataforma En Pie” (Stand Up Platform) made a calling through social media to force a new constitutive process in Spain, under the slogan “ On the 25th of September Occupy the Parliament”. The lack of clarity and transparency both in the objectives of the call and ...

Mohammadi Younus grew up in Ghazni Province, in the east of Afghanistan, and studied medicine in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. He had “a problem with the Taliban… a political problem” during the dark days of their rule, and he landed in jail. He decided to leave the country and crossed into Iran. He bought a fake passport for a little more than two thousand dollars and made it to Turkey. He registere ...

The Deposit Flight Which Could Undermine the Euro By Yalman Onaran An accelerating flight of deposits from banks in four European countries is jeopardizing the renewal of economic growth and undermining a main tenet of the common currency: an integrated financial system. A total of 326 billion euros ($425 billion) was pulled from banks in Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece in the 12 months ended July 31, a ...

  Chicago teachers end strike, school to resume Wednesday (Reuters) - Chicago public school teachers voted on Tuesday to end their strike and resume classes in the third-largest U.S. school district, ending a confrontation with Mayor Rahm Emanuel that focused national attention on struggling urban schools. Some 800 union delegates representing the 29,000 teachers and support staff in Chicago Public Sch ...

Yesterday, Portugal saw the biggest mobilization since the 1974 revolution. Hundreds’s of thousands of people came to the streets to protest the new package of austerity measures being imposed by the troika. 3 People have been arrested for separate incidents. One of those arrested was caught in possession of explosives in front of the IMF offices in Lisbon. There is an uncertain number of injuries due to an ...