The National Front is ahead of all other parties, with a total of more than 6 million votes nationally. Everything has been said - and rightly so - about the overwhelming responsibility of the Socialist Party in this catastrophe. Unquestionably its security and racist policy, going as far as proposing to withdraw [French] nationality, has banalized and legitimized the discourse of the far right, while its systematic destruction of political rights and social protection has succeeded in provoking despair among workers, unemployed, pernsioners and casualized workers, those who were called the "people of the left".
South America: end of a cycle? Popular movements, “progressive” governments and eco-socialist alternatives
10 December 2015, byMore than 40 years after the coup d’état that defeated the Chilean road to socialism and 30 years since the foundation of the largest social movement on the continent, the Movimiento de trabajadores rurales sin tierra (MST - Movement of Landless Rural Workers) of Brazil; 20 years since the Zapatista cry of “Ya basta!” in Chiapas against neoliberalism and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), more than 15 years since the electoral victory of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela (and more than two years after his death), the peoples of South America and their attempts to build an emancipatory project seem to be at a new turning point. A, social, political and economic cycle of medium length gradually seems to be becoming exhausted, but not in a uniform or linear manner. With its real (but relative) progress, its difficulties and significant limitations, the experiences of the different and varied “progressive" governments of the region, whether centre-left, social liberal, or radical national-popular, claiming to be anti-imperialist or characterised in conservative circles as “populist", the Bolivarian, Ando-Amazonian or “citizen” revolutions or simple institutional progressive changes, these political processes seem to be encountering big endogenous problems, a strong conservative backlash (national and global ) and not a few unresolved strategic dilemmas.
Towards a pro-austerity “grand coalition”?
10 December 2015, byThe avalanche of austerity measures (all included in the 3d Memorandum signed by Tsipras) passed by the Greek parliament in the last weeks (possibility of home repossession for the bad-payers, series of new taxes) - and the imminence of new ones - combined with the first surge of social mobilization (successful general strike of 12 November, multiple sectoral mobilizations), provokes the first cracks in the Syriza-Anel majority.
The reasons behind France’s recurrent deadly floods
5 December 2015, byEarlier this month, exceptional rainfall caused flash floods in south-east France that swept through the streets of towns and villages, killing 20 people and causing an estimated 500 million euros of damage. It was the latest in a long list of major catastrophic flooding disasters in the country over the past 27 years. As Michel de Pracontal reports, neither fate nor surprise events explain the causes, but rather the incapacity of public authorities to tackle the prevalent dangers, due in no small part to both rampant urbanisation and bureaucratic nonsense.
Mr. Voutsis and the ?Truth Commission on Greek Public Debt
5 December 2015, byAt the very moment when the new President of the Greek Parliament, Mr. Voutsis, has decided to order the dissolution of the Truth Commission on Greek Public Debt, without even bothering to explain the reason for his act, on the other side of ocean, a politician who is running for the US presidency proposes the establishment of an independent truth commission on debt for Puerto Rico (a US protectorate). What’s more, he explains to us the importance of such an audit commission.
Interview with FeesMustFall activist, Palesa Mcophela
4 December 2015, byIn October 2015 students across South Africa took action in the largest protests since the fall of apartheid, occupying their campuses and holding teach ins and demonstrations under the slogan FeesMustFall. After 10 days they forced the government to back down and declare that fees which they had intended to raise by 11% next year would remain frozen.
The South African magazine Amandla interviewed student activist Palesa Mcophela about the dynamic of the protests and the ideas behind them.
Germany hardens its policy towards refugees
3 December 2015, byThe Federal Parliament adopted a new “Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz” law on October 15 under the new denomination of “Asylverfahrensbeschleunigungsgesetz”. That means that the refugees who are not able to obtain a status that gives them the right to remain on German territory can be repatriated more quickly. If they put up any opposition, they lose the right to a certain number of subsidies – they still have the right to be housed, to have their accommodation heated, to basic food, personal hygiene and medical care, but they lose the right to subsidies for clothes and other daily necessities. They will have much less money, and instead they will have coupons with which to buy food. They no longer have the right to the minimum income fixed by German law nor to subsidies that guarantee access to education for their children.
Response to Tariq Ali 2015, or the need for internationalist solidarity
2 December 2015, byTariq Ali spoke at a Stop the War rally in London on November 28, 2015, on the need to oppose any Western interventions in Syria. He did so by propagating, again, conspiracy views and actually legitimizing Russian imperialist interventions in Syria. [1]
The Red-Green Alliance on the referendum in Denmark
2 December 2015, byOn December 3rd Danes will vote on whether or not to end Denmark’s opt-out on the EU’s justice and home affairs rules and at the same time join 22 specific EU legislative acts. Enhedslisten - the Red-Green Alliance recommends a NO.