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Hope

UK Campaigners Take Inspiration From Greek Vote

July 8, 2015 Matthew Weaver, www.theguardian.com , , , ,
By Matthew Weaver in The Guardian - Buoyed by the no vote in the Greek referendum, anti-austerity campaigners across Britain are to stage “Oxi to Osborne” protests on Wednesday against cuts the UK chancellor is expected to announce in his budget. Organisers from the People’s Assembly group said interest in about 40 planned protests had soared since Sunday’s overwhelming no vote to austerity in Greece. The UK protests include a mass “die-in” outside parliament to protest at the impact of welfare cuts. Speakers are expected to include Marina Prentoulis, a British-based Greek academic and member of the radical Greek governing party Syriza, and Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn, who welcomed the Greek vote. Campaigners from Disabled People Against Cuts, who tried to storm parliament last month over the scrapping of the Independent Living Fund are also planning to take part.

Leaders Of Europe’s New Left Rejoice As Greeks Vote ‘No’

July 7, 2015 Charlotte Alfred, www.huffingtonpost.com , , ,
By Charlotte Alfred in The Huffington Post - This is the breaking point; everything will either start or end here, they say with their fingers crossed as they circle through the rooms of this seven-story palace located in the aptly named Liberty Square. “We have a responsibility; we feel the pressure of it,” a Syriza official smiles but responds nervously to Anderson’s predictions. However, the atmosphere is positive here at the offices of the new leader of the European left: Tsipras, who is not here but at the Old Royal Palaces, which house the Greek Parliament. Meanwhile, the ballots are closing and the stations are running the latest polls, which were not shown earlier to avoid influencing the vote. Everyone is saying “no” to the troika. Even the Greek polling institutes have come to the same conclusion: They agree that the Greeks are voting “no.”

Our Mania For Hope Is A Curse

May 26, 2015 Chris Hedges, www.truthdig.com , , , ,
Those who cling to the myth of human progress, who believe that the world inevitably moves toward a higher material and moral state, are held captive by power. Only those who accept the very real possibility of dystopia, of the rise of a ruthless corporate totalitarianism, buttressed by the most terrifying security and surveillance apparatus in human history, are likely to carry out the self-sacrifice necessary for revolt. The yearning for positivism that pervades our corporate culture ignores human nature and human history. But to challenge it, to state the obvious fact that things are getting worse, and may soon get much worse, is to be tossed out of the circle of magical thinking that defines American and much of Western culture. The left is as infected with this mania for hope as the right. It is a mania that obscures reality even as global capitalism disintegrates and the ecosystem unravels, potentially dooming us all.
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