We are currently witnessing the collapse of the neoliberal project and yet, in the absence of a serious, purposeful democratic movement, it looks very much as if the combined forces of neoliberal capitalism are consolidating their hold on Western society. The last crisis, in the mid-seventies, was resolved only with Thatcher's election in 1979 and Ronald Reagan's a year later, and the launch of the neoliber ...

Montism after Monti and the constituent challenge for movements. by Francesco Raparelli http://www.dinamopress.it/news/italy-from-crisis-to-crisis   The scenario is very uncertain, yet it is worth to try and guess some developments. Uncertain, because the financial markets attack on Italian bonds has not fully unfolded yet. Within hours, we will hear how dramatically our yield spread over Germany has w ...

Doctors are left "playing God," having to choose which patient will get the costly treatment.   By Benoît Vitkine LE MONDE/Worldcrunch THESSALONIKI - It was in 2009 – what feels like ages ago now - that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported that the Greek healthcare system was "rather efficient." Around that very same time, doctors in Thessaloniki successfully cured ...

[ Scroll down for Dutch.] Source: http://www.openeurope.org.uk/Content/Documents/PDFs/greece2ndbailout.pdf   A new restructuring of the Greek debt is in sight. After 2 loan agreements with the IMF and the EU and one debt restructure in February 2012, politicians and analysts consider a new restructuring inevitable. The new element that is politically-speaking extremely sensitive in central and northern Euro ...

PARIS — Its membership in the euro currency union hanging in the balance, Greece continues to receive billions of euros in emergency assistance from a so-called troika of lenders overseeing its bailout. But almost none of the money is going to the Greek government to pay for vital public services. Instead, it is flowing directly back into the troika’s pockets. The European bailout of 130 billion euros ($163 ...

A worldwide research effort in collaboration with BBC Panorama and the ICIJ reveals the people behind these anonymous companies       The existence of an extraordinary global network of sham company directors, most of them British, can be revealed. The UK government claims such abuses were stamped out long ago, but a worldwide joint investigation by the Guardian, the BBC's Panorama and the Wa ...

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 ...

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 ...

By Augustine Zenakos: 425.000 Greek voters sided with a neonazi political party in the last election. Though Golden Dawn is implicated in a surge of violent attacks, and while its views range from the ridiculous to the downright racist, its popularity is rising by the day. What exactly is Golden Dawn, where does it come from, what is its true nature? What is the extent of their relationship to the police? A ...

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 ...