DiEM25 UK
Britain needs a People’s Debate, not a second Brexit referendum
, 24/01/2019
Britain is teetering on a knife’s edge: about to crash out of, or back into, the European Union. Either outcome would represent a defeat for democracy in the UK and in the EU. Crashing out would inflict substantial economic hardship on the weakest in Britain. It would boost jingoism and parochialism, drive England further apart […]
The Brexit clock must be run down, not re-set – op-ed
, 24/01/2019
The overwhelming defeat that Britain’s Parliament inflicted upon Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan was fresh confirmation that there is no substitute for democracy. Members of Parliament deserve congratulations for keeping their cool in the face of a made-up deadline. That deadline is the reason why Brexit is proving so hard and potentially so damaging. […]
Turning Brexit Into a Celebration of Democracy – Project Syndicate op-ed, 26 DEC 2018
, 14/01/2019
Paradoxically, while the current Brexit impasse is pregnant with risk, the British should welcome it. Their discontent with the choices before them is an opportunity, not a curse, and more democracy is the antidote, not the disease. ATHENS – Discontent without end looms over Britain. Leavers and Remainers are equally despondent. Her Majesty’s Government and […]
At the Edinburgh Festival, in conversation with Jeremy Corbyn on reviving socialism, with Maria Alyokhina (Pussy Riot) on despotism, and with Shami Chakrabarti on liberty
, 08/01/2019
In 2018, the good people behind the Edinburgh Festival kindly invited me to host a series of discussions under the title KILLING DEMOCRACY? My remit was: Further to explore the question of whether the current form of financialised capitalism is devouring democracy, reflecting on my work with the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25). In a series […]
DiEM25’s European New Deal plan can succeed where Macron and Piketty failed – The Guardian
, 14/12/2018
If Brexit demonstrates that leaving the EU is not the walk in the park that Eurosceptics promised, Emmanuel Macron’s current predicament proves that blind European loyalism is, similarly, untenable. The reason is that the EU’s architecture is equally difficult to deconstruct, sustain and reform. While Britain’s political class is, rightly, in the spotlight for having made a mess […]
“The EU declared war and Theresa May played along” – Interview in The NewStatesman
, 23/11/2018
In 2016, shortly before the EU referendum, Yanis Varoufakis warned that the UK was destined for a “Hotel California Brexit”: it could check out but it could never leave. The former Greek finance minister spoke from experience. In 2015, his efforts to end austerity – “fiscal waterboarding” – were thwarted by the EU (a struggle […]
The euro and Steve Bannon’s Fascist International – Oxford Union address, video & audio 16th November 2018
, 16/11/2018
On 17th October 2018, Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice President of the European Commission, addressed the Oxford Union in support of the motion that “the euro has never been stronger“. Today, Friday 16th November 2018, Steve Bannon is addressing the Oxford Union also. In between, on Wednesday 14th November 2018, I had the opportunity to also address […]
Behind the closed doors of negotiations with the EU? – The Guardian podcast, November 2018
, 10/11/2018
As the Brexit negotiations near crunch point, Theresa May is still battling to keep her party on side as she edges closer to a deal with Brussels. But is it possible to take on the EU in negotiations and win? One man who staked his political career on trying just that was the former Greek finance minister Yanis […]
DiEM25’s radical Europeanist political agenda – Interviewed by Jacobin’s David Broder
, 03/11/2018
Last Friday, Yanis Varoufakis was in Italy to promote European Spring, a list of candidates standing across the continent in next May’s European election. The former Greek finance minister visited Rome just days after the European Commission had struck down the Italian government’s budget, sparking further rows over Brussels’ authority to curb member states’ spending. […]
Art and Class War – Introducing DiEM25’s Art & Culture Policy Agenda. At Central St Martin’s, 10th October 2018
, 13/10/2018
Brian Eno correctly said that children play to discover how the world works and, once they grow up, art is the adult way of continuing to… play. But, then, he incorrectly surmised that art is not dangerous. True, in the good society art would not be dangerous. But, in our terrible societies the madmen in […]
DiEM Voice presents HERE & NOW: A CREATIVE VISION OF EUROPE, with Brian Eno, Srećko Horvat, Danae Stratou, Bobby Gillespie, Rosemary Bechler & Yanis Varoufakis. Wednesday 10th October 2018 (7pm), Platform Theatre, Central Saint Martins, London
, 04/10/2018
A culture war is underway in Europe – not between the ‘anywheres’ and the ‘nowheres’, but between those who use culture to divide – by class, by race, by nation – and those who use it to connect and include. This war is not based in Parliament – but on the street, in our homes, […]
Discussing the Labour Party’s fitness for government, Brexit et al – on BBC 2’s Politics Live
, 01/10/2018
Yanis Varoufakis and Conservative MP Ken Clarke join Andrew Neil, along with Camilla Tominey from the Telegraph and Labour’s Rupa Huq. They discuss whether Labour is ready to govern, Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit meeting with the EU’s Michel Barnier and the Salisbury poisoning suspect reported to be a Russian military officer.
Discussing Europe, Brexit, capitalism, DiEM25 and almost everything in between with Ruth Wishart at the Edinburgh Book Festival, August 18, 2018
, 01/10/2018
, 01/10/2018
ATHENS – As deadlines approach and red lines are redrawn in the United Kingdom’s impending withdrawal from the European Union, it is imperative for the people of Britain to regain democratic control over a process that is opaque and ludicrously irrational. The question is: How? Democracy can never aspire to being more than a work […]
Democracy, Socialism, Europe and Scottish Independence – four clips on STV
, 05/09/2018
PART 1 – WHY SOCIALISM? Interviewer: You are meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss socialism. Why? Varoufakis: Because democracy needs a healthy democratic socialist movement to be part of the political process in order to be healthy PART 2 – REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL PART 3 – DEMOCRATS MUST GET TOGETHER ACROSS PARTY POLITICAL AND NATIONAL […]
INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM, NOT SOCIALISM IN ONE COUNTRY: On the UK Left’s relation with Europe – Open Labour document
, 17/07/2018
Socialism is internationalist. As socialists, we ought to be taking down borders between workers; not putting new ones up. Labour deserves, at a minimum, the same rights and freedoms as capital if we are to be masters of the system, not its servants. The political aim of the Left has always been to improve labour, […]
The terrible prophesies of Brexit – op-ed in literary magazine FIVE DIALS
, 03/06/2018
Brexit rode to victory on the coat-tails of a type of discontent whose power sprang from its insuperable reluctance to specify its nature. Seemingly focused on a foreign power centre that British voters saw (with some justification) as the usurper of their democratic rights, its real focal point was nebulous and imprecise enough to encompass […]
Turn the Brexit page and let’s move on by uniting progressives in the UK and in the EU: Interview in BIG ISSUE NORTH, 22 APR 2018
, 15/05/2018
Progressive people and politicians in the UK should end the “idiocy” of wishing for a second referendum on Brexit and instead turn to what can be salvaged from leaving the EU, according to Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister. Even though the UK is likely to leave the EU with a bad deal, it […]
Addressing Sheffield’s Festival of Ideas: DiEM25 is here to help heal the rift between progressive Remainers and progressive Leavers – audio, 18 APR 2018
, 20/04/2018
Ladies and gentlemen, the main reason for being here tonight is to use, in our capacity as the Democracy in Europe Movement – DiEM25 -, to press whatever resources we have into the service of healing the rift between progressive Remainers and progressive Leavers. We have enough divisions in the UK, we have enough divisions in […]