The World Crisis and Beyond

Alternatives and transformation paths to overcome the regime of crisis-capitalismReader of the conference "The World Crisis and Beyond" on the 28th of October 2010 in Brussels, organized by Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels in cooperation with the World Forum for Alternatives and the Transational Institute From the text: Neoliberal financial-market capitalism has dragged the world into a crisis which threatens human civilisation as such. It is characterised by an extreme form of the combination of, on the one hand, the expansion of production, transport and ...
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The Perspectives and Consequences of EU-Differentiation

"The European Union (EU) is at a historic crossroads which poses a major challenge, too, to left politics. To meet that challenge will require an analysis of the situation and possible perspectives for the confederation of nations, which includes the issue of potential differentiations. The present crisis is making very clear how brittle and incomplete many previous answers and forecasts have been; obviously, forecasting capability is minimal. The complexity of events and problems is ever more difficult to grasp.Precisely for that reason, ...
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Through the economic crisis by „business as usual“?

The Swedish EU-Presidency in 2009After the controversial Czech EU-presidency there are high expectations within the left camp regarding the new presidency. Unfortunately the programme proposal doesn't fulfill these expectations. A presidency which shows such low reform efforts even in the end of June 2009, and which pretends that the EU can sail through the current crisis by business as usual, hasn't seen the writing on the wall or doesn't want to see it.Like all presidencies the Swedish presidency has published a programme that highlights...
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The Left in Government

Latin America and Europe comparedFrom the introduction: Since the late nineties, left forces have taken over government responsibility in a growing number of countries in Latin America; in Europe too, the left has participated in governing coalitions. An evaluation of whether government participation has been successful or not should be based on whether the left has been able to achieve structural changes effective beyond the short term of government participation, and whether it has been able to enlarge its social base. On the basis of these criteria, the ...
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The Left in Government – a Strategic Project?

Report on the conference in May 2009 in BrusselsSince the late nineties, left forces have taken over government responsibility in Latin America in a growing number of countries; in Europe too, the left has participated in governing coalitions. An evaluation of whether government participation has been successful or not should be based on whether the left has been able to achieve structural changes effective beyond the short term of government participation, and whether it has been able to enlarge its social base. On the basis of these ...
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The Multiple Crisis and Beyond (English, German)

"The issue we face today is a crisis with multiple aspects, for which I would first like to offer an analysis. Beyond that, moreover, I would like to look ahead to an utopia, and to the question: How can a solution to this crisis move us beyond the parameters of capitalism?The crisis is not only a financial one. Of course, attention today is focused on this aspect, but it is much more than that. It is also an economic crisis, which could lead to a world depression, with all the accompanying social ramifications. In addition moreover, we are also ...
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People are Central: Universal Human Rights and the European Left

Speech held at the opening of Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brussels Office in December 2008From the text:I am very happy to be here on this memorable day, and to be able to speak here sixty years after the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I would like to speak about universal human rights and the European left. In so doing, it is necessary that we remember the past, and define the point of understanding that we as left democrats have now reached. I would like to dedicate my remarks to Anna Politkovskaya and ...
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Introduction to the Democracy debate

Which democracy for systemic transformation, or how to cope democratically with a dying civilization?We are currently experiencing the most serious crisis today’s dominant civilization has brought about. A civilization that is modern and colonial simultaneously, deeply marked by patriarchy, built on the invention of race, caste and a specific form of state, and capitalist class relations, as well as on the destruction of nature. COVID-19 has not only killed hundreds of thousands and brought a frenetic, it has halted the globalized capitalist economy in ...
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Economic Guidelines for a Better Union

This report on EU and national guidelines for fiscal balances, commissioned by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Brussels Office, is written at a time when the EU and member state national governments appear determined to make the present highly constrictive fiscal rules, which have heavily contributed to an overall poor economic performance, even tighter. Despite the fact that the global financial crisis was a crisis brought on by excessive private debt, the EU and its most powerful member states insisted that the answer was to bear down ever more strongly on ...
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