Europe

Violent Protests In Kosovo: Protesters Call For Gov’t Resignation

February 2, 2015 Revolution News!, www.revolution-news.com Educate! Europe, Kosovo

Large scale protests, organized by opposition and fueled by nationalism, have erupted in the last 15 days in Kosovo, culminating yesterday after the expiration of an ultimatum for Aleksandar Jablanović’s resignation. Several thousand citizens participated in protests yesterday. Reports about the number of injured are contradictory, but at least 40 police officers and 50 demonstrators were injured in yesterday’s violent protests. Protesters are demanding from Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi to sack Jablanović, as well as nationalization of the Trepče mine that is owned by both Kosovo and Serbia.

First We Take Athens: Europe’s Debt Colony Revolts

January 30, 2015 Heathcote Ruthven, www.roarmag.org Resist! Debt, Europe, Germany, Greece, Spain

In the past four years Greece’s economy has shrunk by a quarter. Child poverty is at 40%. A quarter of a million people are without electricity. Unemployment stands at 26%, and most of these people do not receive benefits. For those in work, job security and wages have been cut and 33% of the population has no health insurance. The list goes on. The story is a familiar one. The Greek state was lent huge amounts by the IMF and Eurozone countries — it is 175% of it’s GDP in debt — in exchange for brutal austerity conditions to be imposed. Syriza want to stop all of this. The newFinance Minister described the bailout deals, with characteristic Greek flair, as “fiscal waterboarding policies that have turned Greece into a debt colony.” He is now aiming to negotiate 50% of their debt to be wiped off (such a thing has happened many times before, including to Germany in 1953).

The European Union May Be On Verge Of Regime Collapse

January 28, 2015 John Feffer, www.truth-out.org Educate! Europe, Finance and the Economy, History, Politics, Social Change

And yet, for all this success, the European project is currently teetering on the edge of failure. Growth is anemic at best and socio-economic inequality is on the rise. The countries of Eastern and Central Europe, even relatively successful Poland, have failed to bridge the income gap with the richer half of the continent. And the highly indebted periphery is in revolt. Politically, the center may not hold and things seem to be falling apart. From the left, parties like Syriza in Greece are challenging the EU’s prescriptions of austerity. From the right, Euroskeptic parties are taking aim at the entire quasi-federal model. Racism and xenophobia are gaining ever more adherents, even in previously placid regions like Scandinavia.

The Greek Left, A Call For Pan-European Change

January 27, 2015 Antonis Broumas, www.roarmag.org Educate! Elections, Europe, Greece, Left, Syriza

This is the first time since the Spanish revolution of 1936 that a left party wins general elections in Europe. In this weekend’s national elections in Greece the leftist SYRIZA took 149 out of 300 seats and will now form a coalition government with a small right-wing anti-austerity party to run the country. After seven years of neoliberal overkill the Greek people overthrew the two-party regime that has been governing the country for the past 40 years with socially catastrophic results. The populist-right New Democracy (ND) party took 27,8% and the ex-socialist (now turned neoliberal) PASOK received a petty 4,6% of the votes. SYRIZA has increased its electoral base by 10% since the 2012 elections, by amassing the votes of the underclasses and the violently proletarianized lower middle class.

Syriza Wins, Declares End To ‘Vicious Cycle Of Austerity’

January 26, 2015 The Guardian, www.theguardian.com Organize! Elections, Europe, Greece, Left, Syriza

The anti-austerity far left party Syriza has won the Greek election by a decisive margin, but just short of an outright majority. With more than three-quarters of the results in Syriza is projected to win 149 seats in the 300 seat parliament. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said his party’s victory marked an end to the “viscious cycle of austerity”. Referring to the neoliberal conditions set by the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank, he said: “ The verdict of the Greek people renders the troika a thing of the past for our common European framework.”

Europe’s Ascendant Left Declares ‘Subservience Is Over’

January 24, 2015 John Queally, www.commondreams.org Organize! Europe, Greece, Left, Spain

Syriza and Podemos have become the mouthpiece of the anti-austerity movement in southern Europe while Tsipras and Iglesias have emerged as key political leaders who emerged from the grassroots, street-level protest movements which rose in opposition to the severe economic policies imposed by elite forces following the financial crisis that began in 2008. In relatively short time, both Syriza and Podemos went from being non-existent political entities to standing on the doorstep of taking power. With national elections in Greece just days away, and Syriza's polling numbers only improving, Alexis Tsipras announced that his party is prepared to "overthrow" the status quo and vowed to implement swift changes to undo the austerity policies—imposed at the behest of foreign creditors and attached to a bailout package offered by the European Central Bank and the IMF—that have left the Greek economy in tatters.

China’s New Silk Road Threatens US Imperialism

January 1, 2015 Pepe Escobar, www.salon.com Create! China, Europe, Imperialism, Trade, Transportation

November 18, 2014: it’s a day that should live forever in history. On that day, in the city of Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang province, 300 kilometers south of Shanghai, the first train carrying 82 containers of export goods weighing more than 1,000 tons left a massive warehouse complex heading for Madrid. It arrived on December 9th. Welcome to the new trans-Eurasia choo-choo train. At over 13,000 kilometers, it will regularly traverse the longest freight train route in the world, 40% farther than the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway. Its cargo will cross China from East to West, then Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Germany, France, and finally Spain. Today, 90% of the global container trade still travels by ocean, and that’s what Beijing plans to change. Its embryonic, still relatively slow New Silk Road represents its first breakthrough in what is bound to be an overland trans-continental container trade revolution.

Despite Ban, Monsanto & Bayer GM Crops Contaminate Europe

December 31, 2014 Christina Sarich, www.nationofchange.org Educate! Europe, Food and Agriculture, GMOs, Monsanto

Europe banned the cultivation of GM rapeseed, but new studies prove that genetically modified Brassica napus L. is growing all over Switzerland. This is likely the first study of its kind to prove that cross-contamination (or possible illegal seed spreading by Biotech and Monsanto) is a bigger problem than anyone may have suspected. The study published in PLoS is titled, “Unexpected Diversity of Feral Genetically Modified Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.) Despite a Cultivation and Import Ban in Switzerland.” Of 105 plants sampled, 15 contained the banned GMO rapeseed variety. Though this was considered a ‘small’ contamination rate in the study, there obviously should be no GM plants present at all considering the ban. This is concerning, too, since once GM seeds are introduced into the wild, they can continue to cultivate, interbreeding with non-GM, local plants.

‘European Disintegration, Unemployment & Instability’ From TTIP

November 11, 2014 Glyn Moody, www.computerworlduk.com Educate! Europe, TPP, Unemployment

The problems of TTIP are so many - total lack of meaningful transparency, the unnecessary inclusion of an ISDS chapter, the threat to Europe's high standards governing health, safety, the environment, labour etc. - that the agreement's supporters have been forced to fight back with the only thing they claim to offer: money. TTIP, they argue in multiple ways, will take us to the land of milk and honey, boost the GDP massively, and lead to lots of extra dosh for every family in the EU. But as I've explained, none of this is true. Even the European Commission's own research shows that the most ambitious outcome - that is, one that is already totally unrealistic given the resistance that TTIP is meeting - would produce a boost to Europe's GDP of 0.5% - just 119 billion euros. However, as I and many others have pointed out, this is after ten years, and therefore represents a *cumulative* boost to GDP, which works out at around 0.05% GDP boost per year on average. Here's someone else joining that chorus:

Proving Power of Renewables In Europe

October 21, 2014 Deirdre Fulton, www.bullhorn.nationofchange.org Create! Energy, Environment, Europe, Renewable Energy

The wind power boom in Nordic countries is making fossil fuel-fired power plants obsolete and is pushing electricity prices down, according to reporting by Reuters published Friday. Power prices in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have dropped sharply as renewable energy floods the market, efficiency measures lower energy use overall, and growth remains stagnant, reporter Nerijus Adomaitis writes. This, in turn, will lead to the "mothballing" of 2,000 megawatts (MW) of coal capacity in Denmark and Finland over the next 15 years, a Norway-based consultant tells Adomaitis. According to the article, "Pushing fossil-fueled power stations out of the Nordic generation park is part of government plans across the region."

Mass Anti-Austerity Protest Faces Riot Police

October 3, 2014 Alliance News, www.morningstar.co.uk Resist! Austerity, Europe, Italy, police brutality

Thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets of Naples Thursday as the European Central Bank (ECB) convened in the city to discuss how to avert looming deflation in the eurozone. "No to the ECB, no to austerity - housing and income for all," was the slogan of the march organized by left-wing groups that attracted protesters including students, laid off workers and squatters. "They are coming to the South to 'celebrate' the social disaster that they have created," the organizing committee said on a Facebook page with the title Block BCE! Jatevenne! (Block the ECB! Go Away!).

Thousands Of Gazans Fleeing To Europe

September 18, 2014 Jack Khoury, www.haaretz.com Educate! Europe, Human Rights, Immigration, Israel, Palestine

Thousands of Palestinians have left the Gaza Strip for Europe using tunnels, traffickers and boats, testimonies obtained by Haaretz show. Gazans have been fleeing the Strip since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, but their escape was hardly covered in the media since they have been leaving clandestinely, with the help of paid smugglers. The sinking of two ships carrying Palestinians from Gaza — one off the coast of Malta last week, and the other off the coast of Egypt — and the drowning of hundreds of passengers have focused attention on the trend. The Palestinian Embassy in Greece reported yesterday that the ship that sank off the coast of Malta was carrying more than 450 passengers, most of them Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and that it was rammed intentionally by another ship run by rival smugglers.

Soccer Players Punished For Palestinian Solidarity

September 9, 2014 Adri Nieuwhof, www.electronicintifada.net Resist! Europe, FIFA, Israel, Palestine, Soccer

In an attempt to bring the Euro 2020 competition to Jerusalem, the Israeli Football Association (IFA) has submitted a bid to UEFA – the governing body of European football. The IFA is proposing the Teddy Stadium as the location for the tournament. But this venue is also home to Israel’s ultra-racist Beitar Jerusalem team. The Red Card Israeli Racism campaign has been pushing for the exclusion of Israel from the bidding process, reminding UEFA of Israel’s unlawful claim on Jerusalem as its “capital” and the recent massive assault on Gaza. UEFA will make a decision on 19 September. The federation claims it does not mix sport and politics. But if UEFA awards the Jerusalem bid it will be a political decision. Israel is sure to exploit the occasion to promote an image of Jerusalem as if Palestinians do not exist. Political symbol? In fact, UEFA does mix sport and politics. Last week it was reported they had imposed fines on Scottish and Irish football clubs over supporters who waved the Palestinian flag and chanted pro-Palestine slogans during European matches. UEFA apparently considers the flag of Palestine a political symbol because the conflict with Israeli forces in the region was then still ongoing, reported Scotland Now.

The Time For Burning Coal Has Passed

August 28, 2014 Claudia Ciobanu and Silvia Giannelli, www.ipsnews.net Resist! Coal, Europe, Fossil Fuels, Protest, Sustainability

“People have gathered here to tell their politicians that the way in which we used energy and our environment in the 19th and 20th centuries is now over,” says Radek Gawlik, one of Poland’s most experienced environmental activists. “The time for burning coal has passed and the sooner we understand this, the better it is for us.” Gawlik was one of over 7,500 people who joined an 8-kilometre-long human chain at the weekend linking the German village of Kerkwitz with the Polish village of Grabice to oppose plans to expand lignite mining on both sides of the German-Polish border. “It's high time to plan the coal phase-out now and show the people in the region a future beyond the inevitable end of dirty fossil fuels" – Anike Peters, Greenpeace Germany They were inhabitants of local villages whose houses would be destroyed if the plans go ahead, activists from Poland and Germany, and even visitors from other countries who wanted to lend a hand to the anti-coal cause. The human chain – which was organised by Greenpeace and other European environmental NGOs – passed through the Niesse river which marks the border between the two countries, and included people of all ages, from young children to local elders who brought along folding chairs. At least 6,000 people in the German part of Lusatia region and another 3,000 across the border in south-western Poland stand to be relocated if the expansion plans in the two areas go ahead.

Greek Cleaners Become Symbols Of Resistance

July 16, 2014 Maria Zepatou, www.youngist.org Resist! Europe, Greece, Policy, Resistance, Unions

It took nine months for the 396 cleaners that had been made redundant by the Greek Finance Ministry to gain their victory. Since September 2013, they have been on strike, selling T-shirts to survive and pay for banners and other activism materials, and facing police brutality. In May 2014, the court of Areios Pagos ruled that the women, who used to clean tax and customs offices across the country, should return to their posts immediately, since the layoffs were not supported by any study that proved them to be in the state’s best interests. However, this was only the beginning. The Greek government declined to comply with the court’s ruling, and applied for an appeal. The case will be transferred to a higher court in September, but, according to the cleaners’ lawyer, Yiannis Karouzos, the case can’t be re-examined, and the first decision will only be technically checked for legal errors. The Supreme Court that accepted the government’s request for an appeal issued the reasoning behind this decision, stating that “ensuring the continuation of the state’s financial policies (…) is linked with the general public interest, as opposed to the personal interest of each cleaner.”

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