Metaphorical aftershocks from the earthquake that recently devastated Nepal, killing thousands, continue to be felt in the state of Israel — nearly 5,000 kilometers away.
Kurds, Labor, and the Left in Turkey: an Interview with Erdem Yörük
8 June 2015, byThe results of the Turkish elections on Sunday 7 June, giving the HDP 12 per cent, have provoked a lot of interest in this new formation. After our previous article HDP’s poetic call for “Great Humanity” and the Parliamentary elections in Turkey we are publishing an interview with Turkish political commentator Erdem Yörük first published on LeftEast on 6 June 2015.
Catalonia: earthquake in common
7 June 2015, byWhile awaiting the next Catalan parliamentary elections, the municipal elections of 24 May 2015 have confirmed the profound transformation that the Catalan party system has experienced since 2012, an accelerated melting of traditional loyalties and the emergence of new references among young people who never had the old ones. Without doubt, the most interesting thing is the success of the convergence candidacies around Podem, the CUP or, in the case of Barcelona, Ada Colau and her team, which have shattered the local political landscape and, in doing so, shaken up the whole Catalan political map on the eve of the crucial elections on 27 September 2015, which Artur Mas did not want and that he postponed as much as he could after the 9 November 2014 referendum on independence.
”Perhaps with unstable governments the citizens will win”
6 June 2015, byTeresa Rodriguez is the general secretary of Podemos in Andalusia. She was interviewed by Carmen Torres for El Mundo on May 30 2015. Hurrying to take the C1 bus which takes her to the Santa Justa station in Seville to go by train to Cadiz. Teresa Rodriguez, secretary general of Podemos in Andalusia and spokesperson of its parliamentary group, has given up the official car. “If you live in a housing estate and you are going in an official car to Parliament and then back home, I imagine that you don’t feel the pressure from the street” she explains. Of the 4,254 Euros which correspond to her post she takes only 1,730, the salary she had as a teacher. The rest is donated to social causes. The carpets of the Parliament are trodden with care, to prevent the “seduction of the institutions” from trapping Podemos.
HDP’s poetic call for “Great Humanity” and the Parliamentary elections in Turkey
5 June 2015, byThe parliamentary elections in Turkey will take place this Sunday. 54 million people can vote for a new parliament on June 7th. The electoral scene is focused on the HDP, the Peoples’ Democratic Party. In this article I will try to explain how this phenomenon came into being, and what the dynamics are that made it a prominent actor in the elections.
Caste violence
4 June 2015, byWe condemn the decision taken by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), on May 22, to ‘derecognise’ the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle (APSC), an independent student body of the institution.
Scotland after the British general election
3 June 2015, byThe day after the May 7 election, George Kerevan, newly elected SNP MP for East Lothian, was walking through his constituency. He was approached by a group of young working-class women who recognized him, proudly declared that they had all voted SNP and wanted to take “selfies” with him. When Kerevan asked why, they replied “because this is history”. They were of course right. The day before the SNP had taken 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland, leaving the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour with one each.
Hijacking the Anthropocene
2 June 2015, byHow the anti-green ‘Breakthrough Institute’ misrepresents science to advance a technocratic agenda and undermine grassroots environmentalism.
Auditing the Greek Debt: unity of place, time and action
1 June 2015, byLike a classical Drama, Greek debt is characterized by unity of place (Greece within the EU), unity of time (2010-2015), unity of action (the policies enforced by the 2010 and 2012 memoranda that resulted in a 25% fall in the GDP and an unprecedented peace-time deterioration of the Greek people’s living conditions), also clearly identified characters (the Troika institutions, the Greek governments, some private creditors). Debt restructuring is often used to launder illegal and/or odious debts so as to give them a look of legality and legitimacy. In such cases audits usually have to go 10, 15 or even 30 years back in time.