THE first culprit of Greece’s biggest tax-evasion scandal in recent memory may not be a high-rolling tycoon but the former finance minister. In 2010 George Papaconstantinou, the chief negotiator of Greece’s first bail-out by the European Union and the IMF, took delivery from the French government of a computer disk with the names of some 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts. Mr Papaconstantinou should imme ...

Growers and shrinkers   The fastest growing and shrinking economies in 2013 MACAU will be the fastest growing economy this year, according to the latest estimates from our sister company, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Growth is expected to return to a faster pace as new casino projects are resumed and Chinese visitors (with rising wages) continue to raise gambling revenues. Mongolia, in second ...

By Jacob Devaney, Founder and Director, Culture Collective   What started as a murmur in early October from First Nations People in Canada in response to Bill C45 has become a movement that echoes the sentiments of people all over the world, a battle cry of love for the planet, "Idle No More." At first glance it might appear that this movement is isolated and doesn't effect you if you are not native or ...

By Stephanie Bodoni, Elisa Martinuzzi & Gabi Thesing The European Central Bank will be allowed to keep private files showing how Greece used derivatives to hide its debt after defeating the first court challenge using the bloc’s freedom of information rules. “Disclosure of those documents would have undermined the protection of the public interest so far as concerns the economic policy of the European U ...

 contrainfo (a picture from last year’s solidarity demo) Last night a group of people went to make noise at the new location of the Schiphol deportation prison (Amsterdam). It is an international tradition on New Year’s Eve to go to the prisons to break the silence and isolation. In the new Schiphol prison ‘De Poort’ over 1,000 people will be locked up. Even more cells for a murderous system. Last night, re ...

By Naomi Kresge   It was 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday when Greek Coast Guard Ensign Chrisafis Theofilos’s boat got a report of a migrant drowning off the coast of the island of Lesbos. [nggallery id=4] As dawn began to break, Theofilos sped south toward the man’s coordinates. His scheduled departure had already been delayed five hours by a broken radar system that headquarters in Athens hadn’t yet fixed. Th ...

Once again, the State is trying to terrorise by means of sudden raids against occupied self-organized spaces. Villa Amalias squat is housed in the building of Heyden and Acharnon street for 22 years. Within the squat hundreds of political and cultural events have been held (concerts, theatrical performances, screenings etc), while the anti-commercial culture that opposes the culture of sale and profit, powe ...

 “Why are you stepping on his belly? You have already arrested him!” A 40-year-old man is arrested because he posed this question to a policemen stepping on the belly of an already immobilized immigrant.   On Saturday 21 July 2012 the 40-year-old man was in his apartment in Athens with his family when he heard shouts from the street. He went outside to see what was going on and he saw 4-5 policemen hav ...

Greece fails to provide even basic requirements of safety and shelter to migrants, the report says Greece faces a "humanitarian crisis" over its mistreatment of asylum-seekers and migrants, according to a report by Amnesty International. The group accuses the government of detaining thousands of refugees, including many children, in "shameful [and] appalling" conditions. Greece is a major gateway for migran ...

By Kritische Studenten Utrecht It is already the 17th month that the factory “Viomichaniki Metalleutiki” in Thessaloniki, Greece, remains closed. The workers attempt an important struggle under difficult circumstances, to get the factory out of capital's grasp and put it under workers control. What difficulties do these workers encounter? How does direct democracy on the workfloor work? How to deal with the ...