austerity
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Now Playing, Limited Engagement, at the Odeon: Slick Alexis in “Illegal Illegitimate Odious”
Alexis Tsipras, one time star of student government and summer stock before graduating to bourgeois government and dinner theater, has pulled off what one of his predecessors could only dream of doing: posing the demands of the EU for the impoverishment of current and future generations as a referendum for the “people” to vote upon. Continue reading
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Child Tax Credit
30,000 of us – and rising – are working together to stop David Cameron taking money away from some of the poorest children in the country. Please will you add your name to the petition against his cuts to child tax credit? Continue reading
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Child Tax Credits: The Cruelest Cut
The government knows their plans to cut child tax credits will push more kids into poverty. So today they’re trying to cover it up – changing the definition of child poverty to hide the effects of their cuts. They’re panicking about official evidence showing that the number of children living in poverty in the UK… Continue reading
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Child Tax Credits: Spare the rich and punish the child
George Osborne is planning to cut support for children living in the poorest families in the UK. If the cut goes ahead, it would take away the special help that gives these children the chance of a happy and healthy childhood. It pays for essentials like healthy food and school uniforms. Continue reading
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Different Boy, Same Game By S. Artesian
Here’s the thing about history: it always, but always, out-goofs me. I mean I’ve been known to use hyperbole, satire, spoof, sarcasm, exaggeration, and near-drunk hallucination to illuminate the macabre humor, the grinning madness that is the result of, and circulates with value production, but I’m an amateur, a naïf, when compared to what capitalism… Continue reading
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‘The time is here to be seized’ By A. Sivanandan
Neoliberalism is not working. All that stuff, about wealth trickling down, no society only individuals, the market as the regulator of everything, is shown to be false in terms of everyday reality. What Tory ideology has produced on the ground are closures to libraries, youth centres, hospitals, the selling off of whole housing estates, benefit… Continue reading
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The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments By Ellen Brown
Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made… Continue reading
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Syriza’s Only Choice: A Radical Step Forward By Spyros Lapatsioras, John Milios, and Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos
The transitional “bridge Agreement” of the 20th of February is a truce intended by the Greek government and welcomed by the other side (the European “institutions”). Within the truce period (the next four months), the conditions for negotiating the next agreement will be shaped. This could mean that everything is still open. However, that is… Continue reading
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Greece Told Deeper Austerity Needed to Secure Additional Loans By Robert Stevens
Euro zone finance ministers met Monday to discuss a set of proposals from the Syriza-led Greek government based on the austerity programme both sides signed on February 20. Greece was required to submit a list of austerity measures deemed acceptable to its creditors as a precondition for receiving a pending load of €7.2 billion and… Continue reading
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UK public sector workers hold one-day strike By Julie Hyland
Just prior to the day of action, Conservative Minister Matthew Hancock said that pay would be curbed for four years, until at least 2018 if his party returned to power in the 2015 general election. Pay restraint would have to remain in force until the government has “the books balanced”, he said. His admission deepened… Continue reading
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New disability payments system responsible for deaths in Britain By Dennis Moore
A new disability benefit, Personal Independence Payments (PIP), brought in by the UK government to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA), has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people. In addition, many seriously ill people have been left without a payment months after applying. Continue reading
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UK: Labour Party targets unemployed youth for benefit withdrawal By Joe Mount
The opposition Labour Party will end the entitlement to unemployment benefits for those aged between 18 and 21 if it comes to power, leader Ed Miliband announced. The punitive policy means that youth without A-levels or equivalent qualifications would lose their income unless they enrol in vocational training courses. Only those with qualifications would retain… Continue reading
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Poll spotlights British economic insecurity By Julie Hyland
A poll by the Guardian /ICM turned what the newspaper described as a “spotlight on the anxiety of a nation.” The poll underscored the economic insecurity experienced by many workers and youth. Continue reading
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The Labour government was to blame for the NHS’s biggest disgrace – why should we listen to them now? By Caroline Molloy
The latest ex-Blair advisor to lambast the NHS for being ‘slow’ to adopt privatisation is Paul Corrigan. But his past hastiness had a little-noted role in the NHS’s darkest episode. If you were going to release a report arguing for the UK’s health system to become more like that of the United States, you probably… Continue reading
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What might a trip to your GP look like in future By Jonathan Tomlinson
The government’s plans for the future of primary care are long on gimmicks, but short on cash. Jonathan Tomlinson sees a more interesting vision of the future – if sufficient funding is there. Continue reading
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Portugese Communist Party Central Committee Statement – May 27, 2014
The Central Committee of the PCP met on May 27, 2014, and assessed the results of the elections for the European Parliament as well as their political consequences; assessed the most relevant aspects of the country’s economic and social situation and the consequences of the Troika’s policies, the campaign of mystification surrounding the so-called “clean… Continue reading
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New research documents heightened social inequality in Britain By Simon Whelan
According to research conducted for the UK’s Post Office, the richest fifth of British society have a spare £18,680 annually after living costs to place in savings. This is more than many workers and unemployed have to budget for an entire year. Meanwhile, the poorest fifth of society will spend almost £2,000 (£1,910) more than… Continue reading
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Austerity forces British children into record levels of poverty By Joe Mount
By 2020, an estimated 5 million children—one-third of all children in Britain—will be “sentenced to a lifetime of poverty,” according to new research from the Save the Children charity. An additional 1.4 million children will be forced into poverty during the next six years, according to the research. Continue reading
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Spanish state: ‘We must continue to widen the cracks that have begun to open up’ By Josep Maria Antentas
Overall, the crisis of the two-party system is, for now, tilting towards the left. This is worth noting given that across Europe, reactionary forces advanced everywhere. The vote for the left to the left of social democracy in the Spanish state is possibly, together with the vote for Syriza in Greece, the only two bits… Continue reading
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Support for Portugal government nosedives By Paul Mitchell
There was a record low number of voters—just 34 percent. Votes for the two right-wing government coalition partners, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and Peoples Party (CSD-PP) collapsed from 40 percent (1.4 million votes) in 2009 to 27.7 percent (909,000 votes), leading to the loss of three of their 10 Members of the European Parliament… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 