Doorbraak has published a lot of articles on the issue of forced labour for benefit claimants. The emphasis has mainly been on the regime they have to work under. But equally important is the substitution of regular paid work that is the consequence of forced labour. This substitution undermines the entire system of paid labour: why should an employer pay for workers when it is becoming easier all the time ...

Thessaloniki is a lively sprawling metropolis located in the north of Greece. As with the rest of the country, it is affected by increasing unemployment and poverty, a result of the government's Troika-dictated policies, which have driven the economy into a deep recession.   ...

We are extremely concerned by the response of the international community to the popular protests that have erupted against almost two decades of misrule in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Editorial, 17 February). Western media and politicians have argued that now is not the time for the western powers to disengage from Bosnia. ...

C.J. Polychroniou and Anastasia Giamali: Neoliberal ideology claims that the government is a problem, society does not exist and individuals are responsible for their own fate. Yet, big business and the rich rely, as ever, on state intervention to maintain their hold over the economy and to enjoy a bigger slice of the economic pie. Is neoliberalism a myth, merely an ideological construct? Noam Chomsky: The ...

Worried by the current crisis affecting the Eurozone and many other parts of the world, we also sometimes feel disempowered by our lack of deeper understanding of the mechanisms that have triggered such devastating developments. Some time back, Allegra started to explore the financial world (here),  the current transformations of Universities (here and here) as well as the power and failures of bureaucracie ...

By Magda Stoczkiewicz BRUSSELS - One of the worrying issues that emerged from last week’s European Council in Brussels is the ‘cut red tape’ initiative promoted by UK Prime Minister David Cameron. The proposal, which was welcomed by other EU leaders, is cause for alarm and threatens the protection of European citizens and the environment. The initiative is based on a report prepared by a UK Business Task Fo ...

Plunging Greek Wages Crater Q2 Disposable Income By 9.3%, Government Borrowing Rises To Record by zerohedge Can someone please explain this whole "Grecovery" concept to use because neither we, nor apparently the people of Greece which are not only unemployed and broke, but have negative savings, and collapsing wages, social benefits and disposable income, seem able to understand it. Here is the latest absol ...

27 anti-goldmine activists in the area of Chalkidiki are charged with the same accusation as the Golden Dawn: formation of a criminal organisation. Of course no weapons or ammunition have been found in their possession, nor have they been laundering money and blackmailing for cash as the Nazi gang. Without any specific action being linked with specific persons in the prosecutor’s call, the activists are acc ...

It could take up to 25 years to regain living standards prior to the economic crisis  If left unchecked, austerity policies could put between 15 and 25 million more Europeans at risk of poverty by 2025 – nearing the population of the Netherlands and Austria combined. This would bring the number of people at risk of poverty in Europe up to 146 million, over a quarter of the population, warns international ag ...

Many years before the first clouds of the crisis would hover over the greek skies, amidst greek society's most glorious of moments and its most mundane of days, the lives and labour of migrants would be faced with their meticulous devaluation. Impossible Biographies from Ross Domoney on Vimeo.   For them, the crisis has by now come of age. Yet despite and against shallow journalistic interpretations, t ...