No to the retirement reform, yes to better work sharing. This cine-tract was created by art and film students at Lycée Gabriel-Guist’hau in Nantes, France, to support the social movement against Sarko’s retirement reform. | Print
Geography Archives: Europe
Countries in the continent of Europe
The Paradox of Capitalism
John Maynard Keynes, though bourgeois in his outlook, was a remarkably insightful economist, whose book Economic Consequences of the Peace was copiously quoted by Lenin at the Second Congress of the Communist International to argue that conditions had ripened for the world revolution. But even Keynes’ insights could not fully comprehend the paradox that is […]
Merkel, Muslims, and Multi-Kulti
It’s those foreigners again! In June and July, during the World Cup, Germans cheered their soccer team’s every skilled pass, every goal — and seemed proud that so many of its players had immigrant backgrounds, from Tunisia, Nigeria, Brazil, Spain, Yugoslavia, Ghana, Poland, and Turkey. Hurrah! But now it’s October. The leaves have changed color […]
Wilhelm Weitling, the First German Communist
‘The founder of German Communism’ is how Engels describes Wilhelm Weitling (Engels 1975 [1843], p. 402).1 It is not a name that comes immediately to mind when considering the origins of modern communism, but he, a diligent student of the Bible, was an early comrade of Marx and Engels and deserving of greater recognition for […]
French Protesters Have It Right: No Need to Raise Retirement Age
The demonstrations that have rocked France this past week highlight some of its differences from the United States. This photo, for example, shows the difference between rioting in baseball-playing versus soccer-playing countries. In the U.S., we would pick up the tear gas canister and THROW it — rather than kick it — back at the […]
Storming the Bastille, Sans Papiers
At the end of the afternoon of May 27, a mass demonstration marched into the Place de la Bastille in Paris. The march itself represented what can now be viewed as a low point in the national union mobilizations to challenge the proposed weakening of France’s public pension regime and other reactionary responses of […]
The Myth of Expansionary Fiscal Austerity
Introduction Recently governments, economists, and international financial institutions have been debating the merits of further fiscal stimulus to combat the Great Recession versus fiscal austerity or “adjustment” — that is, higher taxes and/or lower government spending — to combat budget deficits. Some supporters of austerity have gone as far as arguing that fiscal adjustment could […]
Besancenot: “Blocking the Economy to Block the Reform”
Esteban: Hello, this Tuesday’s action is a symbolic last-ditch stand, isn’t it? Olivier Besancenot: No! It’s another stage toward the general strike which is beginning to happen. On Tuesday night, strikes will be renewed, and there will be new demonstrations, as well as numerous blockades. The question posed now is about blocking the economy […]
Old Trees and a Railroad Station in Stuttgart
Dietrich Wagner, 66, blinded by police, Stuttgart, 30.09.10 A retired engineer of 66 loses an eye, forced from its socket by water cannon at short range. High school kids in an approved protest demonstration get beaten and excruciatingly blinded by pepper gas. Over 400 people are injured in a major police attack, which failed completely […]
First as History, Then as Farce: The Euro Crisis Revisited
When the Crash of 2008 hit Wall Street, European capitalism was thrown into disarray. With the demise of the export-absorbing monster that was the US consumer market, what in 2003 Joseph Halevi and I called “The Global Minotaur” (see Monthly Review, Vol. 55), Europe not only lost a critical source of aggregate demand but also […]
Maduro: “Venezuela Has Sacred Right to Use Nuclear Energy for Peaceful Purposes”
The Venezuelan foreign minister characterizes as insolent the statement of the US State Department spokesperson who said that the US will closely watch Russia’s agreement to build a nuclear power plant in Venezuela. The United States has no moral high ground to stand on, since the US is using nuclear energy for military purposes. […]
Medvedev and Chávez Sign Agreement to Build First Nuclear Power Plant in Venezuela
After a high-level meeting of the Russian and Venezuelan delegations, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed this Friday a series of strategic agreements, including an agreement to build the first nuclear power plant in Venezuela. The agreement, which had been negotiated during Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to Caracas last April, […]
Another Outrage: Pushing Back Social Security Benefits
In France, millions march against the Sarkozy plan to push the age of eligibility for full retirement benefits from 65 to 67. “We can no longer afford” to pay for workers’ retirements at age 65, Sarkozy says. Similarly, rumors swirl in Washington and beyond that Obama’s special Deficit Reduction Commission is tilting toward similar changes […]
Media Mine the Miners in Chile
The Mine The Miners Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. This cartoon was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 15 October 2010. Cf. “In fact, the 33 miners over whom the media have swarmed paradoxically remain voiceless. Neither they […]
Brazil Should Lead on Access to Essential Medicines
By the greater use of compulsory licenses, Brazil could lower drug costs not only in Brazil, but in developing countries overall. At a time when the New York Times is reporting that “the global battle against AIDS is falling apart for lack of money,” it is absolutely essential that the price of lifesaving medicines in […]
France: Let’s Turn On the Heat!
Bettencourt has supplied the pot . . . let’s turn on the heat! Karak is a cartoonist based in Montpellier, France, who blogs at . This cartoon was published in his blog on 24 September 2010; it is reproduced here for non-profit educational purposes. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi [at] gmail.com). Cf. “President […]
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Who was on the aircraft firing the missile? Nobody. Who got killed? A nobody. Eneko Las Heras, born in Caracas in 1963, is a cartoonist based in Spain. This cartoon was first published on his blog . . . Y sin embargo se mueve on 11 October 2010. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi (@yoshiefuruhashi | yoshie.furuhashi […]
Adding Insult to Injury: On the 2010 Bank of Sweden Economics Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel
Imagine a world ravaged by a plague, and suppose that the year’s Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded to researchers whose whole career is based on the assumption that plagues are impossible. The world would have been outraged. That is precisely how we should feel about yesterday’s announcement of the recipients of the 2010 Nobel […]
French Labor Activism, US Labor Passivism
US workers suffered a major rise in unemployment from its level in 2008 (5.8 %) to its level in the second quarter of 2010 (9.7 %). By comparison, French unemployment rose from 7.4 % in 2008 to 9.2 % in the second quarter of 2010. These data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show […]
The Death Penalty, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the European Parliament
What does the USA have in common with China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea? You would hardly guess, but the European Parliament stated loud and all too clear on October 2nd: those are the countries which put lots of people to death. In a long, detailed resolution, approved almost unanimously by 574 members […]
