In the ongoing Euro-crisis, our political leaders are constantly criticized for ‘playing catch-up’ and not being ‘ahead of the curve’ (although others might feel that they are completely round the bend). Perhaps, therefore, it is time to look up from the turmoil in the sovereign bond markets and the counsels of the European Union, dust off the crystal ball, and look forward to the next banking crisis. For it is becoming increasingly clear that banks across Europe face a much more serious problem than a 50 percent haircut on their holdings of Greek government bonds; and that problem goes to the heart of what is wrong with the current culture and practices of the financial sector.
On green capitalism, the indignados and the social forums
1 February 2012, byThe defence of the earth, the ecosystem and biodiversity is one of the most important topics on the agenda of the social movements in Latin America today and that is precisely what is at stake in the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development Rio +20, which will take place in June 2012 in Rio de Janeiro. The thematic Social Forum ’capitalist crises, environmental and social justice’, which concluded on Sunday 29 January in Porto Alegre (Brazil), served to establish the basis for mobilisation for this key date.
Is another world still possible?
1 February 2012, byThe central capitalist powers are using the economic crisis to introduce a new and catastrophic assault on the very processes of nature. This threat is on the table – or rather, underneath it – for the UN Summit on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, to be held in Rio de Janeiro next 20-22 June. So the world’s social movements need to build a massive, international campaign against this “green economy” as their main shared priority – a campaign that should find expression in a multitude of local and national mobilizations in the week from 5 June (World Environment Day) to 10 June, then come together at the World People’s Summit, which plans to organise debates and street actions in Rio de Janeiro from the 15 June through until the 21st. But the campaign is more than just a mobilization for an event. It needs to build durable structures and develop momentum for a long and hard battle against the green capitalist project, lasting well beyond Rio+20.
Theses on the “Arab Spring”
1 February 2012, by1. The gigantic upheaval that is shaking the entire Arab world since its initial tremors started in Tunisia on 17 December 2010 was determined by a long and deep accumulation of explosive factors: lack of economic growth, massive unemployment (the highest average rate of all world regions), widespread endemic corruption, huge social inequalities, despotic governments void of democratic legitimacy, citizens treated as servile subjects, etc.