El Pais asked me to write a piece on the ‘fiscal disobedience’ movement that seems to be shaping up in Greece. Here is what I wrote. (I shall post the Spanish version, off El Pais’ site, when available):  “Can’t pay won’t pay”, was Dario Fo’s boisterous satirical play by which the playwright incited his audience to rethink their political responsibilities. During the past two years, here in Greece, a sponta ...

In his final dispatch from breadline Europe, Jon Henley finds nepotism, bribery and systemic low-level corruption are as much to blame for southern Europe's crisis as anything else.           Jon Henley in Thessaloniki for   guardian.co.uk It's the system, they say. It sucks you in, makes you complicit. You really have very little choice. It's everywhere, in every corner of your lif ...

The past two years the Greek population is witnessing the harshest austerity measures since the introduction of the Euro. Greece became the ‘black sheep’-member of the European Union and had to be punished hard. In 2010 the first austerity package was imposed by the Greek government under the commands of the Troika (the IMF, the EU and the ECB). As a result, last month unemployment reached 18% and 40% among ...

Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, V. What the Thunder Said We are indeed living in strange times. We are being forced to bare witness to the demolishment of the social foundations of the very essence of ʽEuropeʼ. The winds of history a ...

By Apostolis Fotiadis ATHENS, Oct 2, 2011 (IPS) - Every working day a long queue of people forms outside the State Translation Service in Thission in downtown Athens from early in the morning. Most are youngsters processing documents they need to leave Greece for study or work. Many move on to queue later outside embassies for visas. These are signs on the street of the emigration wave sweeping Greece. As G ...

Since the occupation of Wall Street first began on September 17th, the mainstream media has criticized the general assembly for its lack of a cohesive list of complaints or demands. Not to be rushed by expectations of corporations and the elite they serve, the Occupy Wall Street action took its time fulfilling this demand. On Thursday night, Occupy Wall Street participants voted on and approved the first of ...

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 ...

Many things are said the last few weeks about the Greek debt problem and the attitude of the Hellenic State and its citizens collectively. As an artistic vehicle of Greek origin Nightfall take the opportunity to offer music people -who may lack proper information about the political and financial matters ruling everyone’s life these harsh days- a brief view of current events. Firstly it is worthy to mention ...

[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 ...

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 ...