The last months of the year are traditionally the time when national parliaments vote on the budgets for next year. Like in the years before, in many countries deep cuts in social services and further privatizations are planned. Despite good-sounding news from and for the financial markets, austerity for ordinary people continues. This might not be by accident. ...

Pitchfork movement organizers vow 'peaceful invasion' of Rome until ruling regime steps down. Marking the sixth day of relentless blockades, occupations and mass demonstrations that many warn may set off "a spiral of rebellion" across Europe, protesters—marching under the banner of the 'Pitchfork' movement—gathered Saturday in Rome, Turin and Venice, Italy. "Activists wearing Italian flag masks and white no ...

Accidental Death of an Anarchist (Morte accidentale di un anarchico) is a play by Dario Fo, recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature. It is a classic of twentieth-century theatre, and has been performed across the world in more than 40 countries, including Argentina, Chile, England, India, Romania, South Africa and South Korea. The play is a farce based on events involving a real person, Giuseppe Pin ...

The history of the secret neo-fascist army in Italy set up ostensibly to resist Soviet invasion, but in reality to be used in the event of the working class growing too strong once again   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGHXjO8wHsA   Following the end of World War II, the Italian workers’ movement was rapidly gaining strength. In some towns the fascists had been kicked out by Resistance forces (a ...

Anti-austerity protesters in Rome threw eggs and firecrackers at the Finance Ministry during a march Saturday to oppose cuts to welfare programs and a shortage in low-income housing. Police said 11 people were detained. ...

How terrible, how sad, said the politicians from Italy to England. Pope Francis called the shipwreck a “disgrace” and offered prayers for the victims. Italy took the easy route saying, quite understandably, that it was a problem for Europe as a whole. But less than a week later, the drowning of some 363 migrants off the coast of   the island of Lampedusa has already fallen out of the main news. Had the vict ...

               Associated Press  German flags wave in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin. FRANKFURT—Immigration to Germany hit a 17-year high last year as Southern Europeans flocked north to escape economic recession and search for jobs, fueling the debate over the consequences of immigration for the German economy. In all, 1.08 million people moved to Germany last year, or 13% more than in 2011, Ger ...

Via Mint Partners' Bill Blain, Today’s big event was Italy's 10% auction. Buyers can’t ignore yield, and I suspect many were “encouraged” to participate. But a decent Italy auction doesn't change the brutal facts. Electoral fall-out blankets the Euro battlefield, but it was decisions made years ago that have brought us to this blasted heath. Markets are caught in... Stalemate. On one side you have the disbe ...

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 ...

No wonder the protesters are back. They are angry at the backdoor rewriting of the social contract Ha-Joon Chang   Rioters beat a policeman during a rally against government austerity measures in Athens. Photograph: John Kolesidis/REUTERS Throughout the 1980s and 90s, when many developing countries were in crisis and borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund, waves of protests in those count ...