In Athens, thousands are marching at the General Strike demonstration – it is estimated that the ADEDY (public servants’ union) demo alone has more than 10,000 participating. Demonstrators from the union’s march tried to push down the police fence outside parliament and were tear-gassed by police. At least four detentions have been reported so far, including 17-year olds. There is also at least one confirme ...

The Dutch Oil company rejects watchdog's claims that its local contracts made it complicit in the killing of civilians. David Smith The Guardian, Monday 3 October 2011 Shell has fuelled armed conflict in Nigeria by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to feuding militant groups, according to an investigation by the oil industry watchdog Platform, and a coalition of non-government organisations. Militants ...

Think Greece's current economic malaise is the worst ever experienced in Europe? Think again. Germany, economic historian Albrecht Ritschl argues in a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, has been the worst debtor nation of the past century. He warns the country should take a more chaste approach in the euro crisis or it could face renewed demands for World War II reparations. Former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer ...

Dear All, The issue of the fortune that the Papandreou family has made by the buying and selling of credit default swaps (CDS) is "old news" in Greece.   The first time that this issue was raised within Greek parliament was by the MP of the Conservative Party (ND) P Kamenos. The revelations that "Mr"  P Kamenos made provided the first base of evidences regarding the very profitably activities concernin ...

Inthe recent days repeated racist attacks take place in various neighborhoods of Athens. Slogan written outside of Aghios Panteleimonas church "Foreigners Out of Greece", "Go to Hell" • Last night, 2 Afghan immigrants were attacked outside their home. When they saw a group of thugs approaching, scared they tried to run away but did not manage to escape. The gangs attacked them leaving one stabbed! The victi ...

Just came back from Syntagma square and i felt like sharing with you what happened but basically my innermost disappointment. Today was the day that the greek parliament was about to vote this new tax on properties and a call for gathering in Syntagma square was quite well promoted some days ago. But in Syntagma were something like 1000 people, there was no dynamic at all, a few people scattered around here ...

Assembly of Open Assemblies The last 3 years, no matter where we live, our lives are strongly influenced by the crisis. This crisis broke out in 2008 and transformed itself to a sovereign-debt crisis particularly in the EU-periphery. This crisis was not created by the people. The bankers and the financial institutions with the support of the governments are responsible for it. Today the people are asked to ...

[Swedish reporter] Kajsa Ekis Ekman visited this misunderstood country with a broken social contract where... everybody agrees with each other. How would it feel if all that belong to us were sold to pay back loans, from which we never received any benefit? If our salaries were cut down to half and the money went directly to foreign banks? And if, while we were preparing ourselves to struggle for a bare livi ...

Groningen 6 Oct. Yanis Varoufakis Co-speaker Michael Koetter Language English The Euro is in crisis. Europe’s politicians and central bankers are in confusion. And European electorates balk at more bailouts and more centralization. Is the Euro finished? Should the ‘PIIGS’ (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) never have joined the Eurozone? Will Greece go bankrupt? Who will follow? And do we need a U ...

HERAKLION, Greece—The first time he despaired of his debts, Vaggelis Petrakis drank a poisonous brew of beer and gasoline. By MARCUS WALKER for the World street Journal   A note he left didn't mention the financial woes of his fruit and vegetable business, of which his family was well aware. Instead, he left instructions for his children on how to look after his animals. "Put mother rabbit in a differe ...