Poul Thomsen, Greece and the cynicism of the IMF
by DANIEL MUNEVAR
For the casual reader, Poul Thomsen’s recent piece |1| on the role of the IMF in the bailout review negotiations currently taking place between Greece and the Troika would seem balanced and reasonable. At the end of the day, as he has argued elsewhere, |2| the numbers simply need to add up. For that there is a tradeoff between the “ambition of the reforms” Greece needs to impose and the amount of debt relief that can be granted by its European partners. In blunt terms, more austerity implies less debt relief and vice versa. Thomsen argues that given the contentious character of the negotiations the IMF is simply there as a friendly companion that supports both its Greek and European partners to help them make the tough decisions required to develop a program that adds up. However, for someone who is more familiar with the role that the IMF in general, and Thomsen in particular, has played in placing Greece in the precarious situation that it finds itself today, his piece can only be defined as brazen and cynical.
En EE UU Estamos asistiendo a un movimiento importante y muy significativo.Por primera vez desde los años 1930, asistimos a debates sobre el socialismo y el fascismo en los medios de comunicación de masas. Bernie Sanders se define, de forma franca, como un socialista democrático, al mismo tiempo que la candidatura de Donald Trump alimenta el debate sobre el fascismo.
Atónita asisto al último esperpento madrileño centrado en la obra de títeres que ha terminado con el encarcelamiento de los titiriteros.
The richest 62 persons now control more than half of the world’s money, according to a new Oxfam report. Total wealth of these individuals is the same as that of the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people. The rich-poor gap is growing wider. The ultra-wealthy group of persons is getting wealthier.
The Oxfam report An Economy for the 1%, shows that the wealth of the poorest half of the world’s population has fallen by a trillion dollars since 2010, a drop of 41 percent. This has occurred despite the global population increasing by around 400 million people during that period. Meanwhile, the wealth of the richest 62 has increased by more than half a trillion dollars to $1.76tr. The report also shows how women are disproportionately affected by inequality – of the current ‘62’, 53 are men and just nine are women.
Ce texte, « Lénine et Trotsky face à la bureaucratie », inédit sur la toile, n’a été publié qu’une fois [1]. Cette étude a été réalisée pour un cours de formation présenté à l’été 1989 – elle se veut donc d’une écriture simple, mais aussi rigoureuse et bien documentée. Elle est sur notre site ce 21 janvier 2016 à l’occasion du 92e anniversaire de la mort de Lénine.
This Sunday (17 January 2016) we celebrate the anniversary of our first public act: the press conference at the Lavapiés Theater District in Madrid in which we were lucky to participate. We have built a great organization which has managed in two years of history to produce a storm of enthusiasm for change and has become a reliable electoral tool. We have helped to open a new cycle in which public life is no longer split in two and, above all, we have repoliticized society in a moment in which possible responses to the suffering of the people might have been resignation, apathy, or even hatred. And we have done it fundamentally by articulating a new and terrible sense of reality in material terms (the crisis and its effects) and in subjective ones (outrage at the socioeconomic reality and the corruption in government).
Se ne va l’autore che della commedia all'italiana di Monicelli, Comencini, Risi e Germi aveva forgiato una versione più raffinata e potente, coraggiosa e militante, dal grande respiro storico. La sua cinematografia tocca l’apice di successo e di pubblico con C’eravamo tanto amati (1974) e Una giornata particolare (1977), ma La più bella serata della mia vita (1972) e Brutti, sporchi e cattivi scolpiscono nell'immaginario collettivo il ritratto impietoso e sublime di un Paese perennemente uguale a se stesso
Entre 2008 et le second trimestre 2015, l’Espagne a connu 416.332 ordres d’expulsion de logements. |1| Les expulsions sont une des conséquences de la crise, mais la loi qui les autorise est bien antérieure. Il s’agit de la « loi hypothécaire » imposée par décret sous la dictature de Franco en 1946, et qui demeure en vigueur.
En un sorprendente pacto en el último minuto el dilema “Mas o marzo” que ha dominado el debate político catalán de los últimos meses ha sido evitado. No habrá nuevas elecciones autonómicas en marzo y el presidente de la Generalitat no será Artur Mas, sino Carles Puigdemont. En Catalunya se inicia un rumbo teóricamente claro en su objetivo principal, pero en la práctica lleno de contradicciones y un nuevo pulso entre el movimiento soberanista catalán y el Estado español; este último, después de las elecciones del 20D, no tiene gobierno ni una orientación política clara, pero sus fuerzas mayoritarias son firmemente contrarias a reconocer el derecho a decidir de Catalunya.
After the Portuguese general election last October it seemed unlikely that the actual outcome could have made such a long run. The Socialist Party, led by Antonio Costa, had to choose between its utter surrender to the center-right or a shift to the left, pressured by the relative majority of the right-wing coalition that governed in Portugal during the troika years on the one side, and a rising left on the other.
Auteur notamment de L’impossible capitalisme vert et de plusieurs articles pour Contretemps-web, Daniel Tanuro revient ici sur l’après-COP21, notamment sur l’illusion des « technologies à émissions négatives », et défend l’urgence de solutions écosocialistes à la crise climatique.
Two recent events — the second-round victory on November 22 of right-wing candidate Mauricio Macri in Argentina’s presidential election, and the December 6 victory of the right-wing Democratic Unity Roundtable, |1| winning two thirds of the seats in Venezuela’s National Assembly elections — have radically altered the political map in South America. In the following interview, Argentine Marxist Claudio Katz discusses what these setbacks for the left mean for the progressive “process of change” that has unfolded on the continent over the last 10-15 years. My translation from the Spanish.
DONALD TRUMP’S CALL to ban Muslims from entering the United States set off a political and media firestorm that’s raging as we go to press. But Trump’s latest outrage essentially lit the match to underbrush that was ready to be ignited. Trump himself is not so important — a vicious demagogue, but not a mass organizer or leader. What matters, following the carnage of the “Islamic State” attack in Paris and the San Bernardino mass shooting, is the climate in which the priority target of opportunity for racist reactionaries has become Muslim refugees, immigrants, communities and mosques.
La memoria historica interpela a los crimenes del fraquismo pero tambien a los del estalinismo y sus complices en el estado español. Muchos de los mitos de la resistencia republicana fueron fanaticos que aceptaron las ordenes de Moscu sin rechistar, y mas de uno, convencidos de que lo hacian por el bien de la revolucion.
Se acerca el final de la campaña electoral. Mítines llenos, los partidos del régimen nerviosos y Podemos, En Marea en Galiza, Compromís-Podem en el País Valencià y En Comú Podem en Catalunya aumentando sus expectativas, generando una sensación de remontada a la que el PSOE es incapaz de responder. Todo está abierto.
Il y deux forces qui sortent gagnantes de la session électorale, une autre est en sursis, une quatrième a été laminée.
Pas une seule région pour le Front national – qui pourtant engrange le meilleur score de son histoire. Une victoire de la droite – plus faible qu’espérée. Un parti socialiste en retrait – qui sauve de justesse la face. Une « gauche de la gauche » marginalisée ou subordonnée, inaudible. Voilà en quelques mots les résultats de ces élections régionales de décembre 2015.
On ne peut se voiler la face : ces élections régionales sont catastrophiques, dans la mesure où elles constituent un succès non seulement pour le FN et pour la politique antisociale du gouvernement qui le nourrit, mais aussi un véritable désastre pour les classes populaires et les partis qui sont censés les représenter.