Solidarity with Greek workers Letter to the Greek Prime Minister November 2012 As part of the run up to the 14 November ETUC Day of Action against austerity, for jobs and growth, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has written formally to the Greek Prime Minister - at the request of Greek trade unions - expressing 'anger and dismay about ... measures which will hit harder the weakest and will deteriorate f ...

Greece’s Parliament did what it had to do on Thursday. Despite some defections from the ruling centrist coalition, lawmakers narrowly approved a $23 billion package of new austerity measures, including further spending cuts to social services, pensions and public salaries, as well as tax increases demanded by Greece’s European lenders. ...

In the heart of Europe, a democracy now teeters on the edge Editorial   The Guardian, In spring 2010, as Athens wrangled with the IMF and the rest of Europe for what would turn out to be a €110bn emergency loan, a revealing, chilling phrase slipped out. When Greece's then-premier, George Papandreou, begged for easier borrowing terms, he was told by Angela Merkel that the deal had to hurt. According to a wel ...

The Greek government has secured enough votes to pass deeply unpopular austerity measures essential to unlocking further aid from foreign lenders. The fragile three-party coalition managed to secure 153 votes. 151 votes were needed to win approval for the package of spending cuts, tax hikes and labour reforms despite the junior-ruling Democratic Left party's refusal to back it. Outside parliament buildings ...

In BBC Paul Mason’s report published a few days ago, the notorious Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros declares ‘We are at war with domestic and international bankers’ (3:08 Mason’s report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19976841) Sure, Panagiotaros likes to imagine himself as a righteous warrior, but truth falls closer to the fact that he is a mercenary, and after looking between the lines one can understand ...

By LIZ ALDERMAN                                          Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York Times Elena, a cancer patient, at a clinic in Athens. Her illness long went untreated.   ATHENS — As the head of Greece’s largest oncology department, Dr. Kostas Syrigos thought he had seen everything. But nothing prepared him for Elena, an unemployed woman whose breast cancer had been diagnosed a year bef ...

Exactly one year ago, the EU agreed to several extreme measures to combat the ongoing economic crisis, to mixed results. But despite its unique economic distress, Greece shows no sign of cutting back its considerable military budget. ­A year ago to the day, EU leaders met to tackle debt troubles that German Chancellor Angela Merkel described as Europe’s worst economic crisis since the end of WWII. The EU sp ...

Michael Nevradakis Ph.D student in Media Studies, University of Texas at Austin   Is austerity the way forward for Greece and other countries that are in the throes of a severe economic crisis? According to much of the world's media, the answer to that is a resounding "yes." Since the outbreak of the economic crisis in Greece in late 2009, many prominent media outlets, including all of Greece's major t ...

People came to London from across the land to march in protest at the coalition government's spending cuts. Nurses, firefighters, teachers and prison officers joined over 150,000 protesters yesterday in huge demonstrations against the Government, loudly cheering calls for a 24-hour general strike. Union officials and politicians, including Labour leader Ed Miliband, bitterly attacked the coalition's spendin ...

A new letter was sent today signed by more than 20 organizations that belong to the European Water Movement to Commissioner Olli Rehn and the European Commission after the very late response of his directorate (over a year!) on their first letter. Our concerns are shamelessly confirmed since in this text, it is clearly stated that the Commission policy is indeed to impose the privatization of water services ...