Category: Europe

12 Mar

Comments Off on Anti-Germanism: the anti-austerity politics of fools

Anti-Germanism: the anti-austerity politics of fools

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KEVIN OVENDEN returns to Athens for the first in a new series of posts at Left Flank. It is worth reading in full yesterday’s speech by Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras on the incendiary issue of German war reparations to Greece. The issue was not resolved upon the unification of the German state in 1990 […]

Filed under: Europe, Featured, Greece

18 Jan

Comments Off on Dispatch from Athens #9: After the election, the deluge?

Dispatch from Athens #9: After the election, the deluge?

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After the election, the deluge? All the polls today continue to put Syriza ahead. The scope for speculation over the result next Sunday has narrowed. Immediate expectation is defined by two questions. Can Syriza win an absolute majority? And what will be the precise distribution of votes outside the two poles of the Left and […]

Filed under: Europe, Featured, Greece

02 Jan

2 Comments

Understanding Podemos (3/3): ‘Commonsense’ policy

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This is the third part of Left Flank’s series exploring the rise of Podemos. [i] The first part looked at how the new organisations drew on the inspiration and power of the 15-M (“Indignados”) movement. The second part critically examined the Podemos leadership’s deployment of radical populist strategy. In the third part Luke Stobart examines […]

14 Nov

14 Comments

Understanding Podemos (2/3): Radical populism

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The first part of Left Flank’s series exploring the rise of Podemos looked at the positive incorporation in the project of the “Indignados” (15-M) movement’s participatory democracy and radical opposition towards “politics”. Here Luke Stobart looks more critically at the “radical populism” that has shaped the approach of its dominant grouping (and now formal leadership) […]

05 Nov

14 Comments

Understanding Podemos (1/3): 15-M & counter-politics

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What Podemos’s present success reveals is the breakdown, the crisis or the collapse (choose the term you prefer) of the Spanish party system. Because in reality the Transition regime is sinking like the Titanic and Podemos is merely the iceberg that caused this. So as soon as the cock crowed on 25-M, all the captains […]

21 Sep

2 Comments

A funny thing happened on the way through Upton Park

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I was inspired partly by an exchange of well-made points on my Facebook wall between two great friends Jay and Paddy. But the main reason for taking time out to write this on a sunny Sunday morning in east London is because a funny thing happened on my way home last night. I really hope […]

12 Aug

6 Comments

Ukraine, the sanctions war & 21st century imperialism

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We live in dangerous times. The last week has seen Russia impose trade sanctions on Australia, in a quite understandable response to the sabre rattling over Ukraine by our idiot politicians, and in particular, the enthusiasm displayed by Julie Bishop in backing sanctions against Russia. Sanctions and counter sanctions. The European Union and Russia are […]

12 Jul

3 Comments

Free PDF version of On Utøya available

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On July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik, a Right-wing writer and activist, killed more than sixty young members of the Norwegian Labour Party on Utøya island. Captured alive, Breivik was more than willing to explain his actions as a ‘necessary atrocity’ designed to ‘wake up’ Europe to its betrayal by the Left, and its impending destruction through […]

11 Jun

9 Comments

Post-Budget: Just what the hell is Abbott up to?

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In today’s Sydney Morning Herald, Economics Editor Ross Gittins portrays Tony Abbott as a political “chameleon” who went from being a soft “populist” before the election — backing Labor’s spending commitments, promising minimal cuts despite saying that the Budget deficit needed to be reversed, etc. — to “an inflexible ‘conviction politician’ who doesn’t seem much worried […]

08 Jun

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Europe: Political decay, Right fractures & Left strategy

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KEVIN OVENDEN looks at the implications of the European Parliament elections. *** Q. The recent elections across Europe for the European Parliament have been described as a “political earthquake”. What happened and what does it mean for the Left? The results indicated a very significant fall in support for the traditional parties of government across […]