The entrance of the Chrisi Avgi leader Nikos Michaloliakos in parliament (as a result of the Greek elections on 6 May 2012), has brought to light all of his "heroic" past. His youthful exploits include two incidents with a film interest: The bomb attacks on the cinemas Elli and Rex in central Athens. On March 11, 1978 an explosion shakes the cinema Ellie on Academias street, during a viewing. It is Saturday ...

The main message of the elections of May 6 is the denouncement of the austerity measures and their main supporters. The parties of the previous governmental coalition PASOK (socialists) and Nea Dimokratia (conservatives) that support the memoranda and the harsh austerity policies suffered huge losses. In particular, they lost about 3.000.000 votes and received together 32% of the total votes. This is a dram ...

By ALEN MATTICH   The European Union, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are negotiating hard among themselves about how to structure debt relief for the Greek economy. The latest reports suggest they might have come up with a temporary deal among themselves. But what the EU, ECB and IMF want won't matter unless they get the Greek government to play as well. And that's by no mean ...

The global Occupy movement wants a better world. Such a world is possible, and here's how.   We are living in a world controlled by forces incapable of giving freedom and dignity to the world's population. A world where we are told "there is no alternative" to the loss of rights gained through the long, hard struggles of our ancestors, and where success is defined in opposition to the most fundamental ...

The French are revolting. The Greeks, too. And it’s about time. Both countries held elections Sunday that were in effect referendums on the current European economic strategy, and in both countries voters turned two thumbs down. It’s far from clear how soon the votes will lead to changes in actual policy, but time is clearly running out for the strategy of recovery through austerity — and that’s a good thin ...

Anti-capitalist protests in Union Square brutally attacked by police. Economic hardship among the workers. Ostentatious expenditure by the wealthy.  This scenario sounds like the news headlines of the past couple of years, yet the period referred to is the year 1914 and the story is the one told in More Powerful Than Dynamite: Radicals, Plutocrats, Progressives and New York’s Year of Anarchy.  This book is ...

Argentina's record levels of employment and massive reductions in poverty have little to do with exports Mark Weisbrot guardian.co.uk One of the great myths about the Argentine economy that is repeated nearly every day is that the rapid growth of the Argentine economy during the past decade has been a "commodity export boom". For example, the New York Times reported last week: "Riding an export boom for com ...

Anti-immigration platform finds plenty of supporters with fascist far-right party Chrysi Avgi polling at 5% It is 9 o'clock on a Saturday evening and the stairwell in the apartment block at 50 Deleyiannis is jammed with young men engaging in banter. Most are dressed in black with little or very short hair, some wear black caps emblazoned with the words Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn), almost all ripple with muscl ...

The elections of May 6th take place in a moment that people are facing the absolute misery. After two years of implementation of the destructive policies of the 'memorandums' (cc. the commitments of the Greek government towards the EU, the ECB and the IMF), the Greek elite, the EU, the IMF and the bankers hold the gun to people's head trying to gain moral and political justification for their policies. Duri ...

Donatella della Porta, professor of sociology at the European University Institute, is a signatory to the ‘Another Road for Europe’ appeal, which has a strong emphasis on the need to democratise the EU, not only by strengthening the European Parliament but through greater participation of civil society. ‘Italy needs reforms, not elections,’ declared Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, as h ...