English
Discussing SOCIETY AFTER COVID-19 with Brian Eno on DiEM-TV – VIDEO
, 03/04/2020
DiEM TV honoured me yesterday night by asking me to host a discussion on SOCIETY AFTER COVID-19 with Brian Eno – an idol of mine that I am privileged now, in my old age, to count amongst my friends, not to mention a co-founder of DiEM25. Enjoy his take on our current predicament as well […]
Why are they saying no to the eurobond? The case for constructive disobedience in the EU Council
, 30/03/2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTil8xccFJA
What should the EU do NOW: DiEM25’s 3-Point Plan for averting a Covid-19 Depression
, 27/03/2020
With Lives, Livelihoods and the Union on the brink, the COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest test of the European project in the history of the Union — and we are failing. Solidarity was meant to be a foundational principle of the EU. But solidarity is missing at the moment it is most needed. COVID-19 has revealed a fundamental truth: […]
Last night Julian Assange called me. Here is what we talked about
, 24/03/2020
Last night, immediately after our first DiEM25 TV event, my phone rang. It was Julian. From prison. It was not that first time that he honoured me deeply by using the few phone calls prison allows him to make to call me. Like every other such occasion, when I unexpectedly recognise his voice a torrent […]
How deep will the Depression occasioned by Covid-19 be? Debate on BBC World Service’s THE REAL STORY
, 20/03/2020
Coronavirus: The economic crisis – Just how bad will the downturn be and can anything be done to soften the blow? Contributors Stephanie Flanders – head of Bloomberg Economics Yanis Varoufakis – Greek economist, politician, secretary-general of DiEM25 who also served as Greek finance minister during 2015Linda Yueh – economist and author of the book: ‘The Great Economists’ […]
Monetising misery & the future of capitalism – ABC Radio National, BIG IDEAS program
, 20/03/2020
Enormous global corporations and financial institutions are now, some say, more powerful than governments. Rules that once constrained and regulated capitalism have gone. And when their power causes massive destruction, the captains of Big Capital find ways to profit from the destruction. So, is modern capitalism, itself, a threat to capitalism? Or will corporations always […]
The Eurogroup fails Europe once again. Brace for a hideous EU recession
, 17/03/2020
The Eurogroup met yesterday, Monday 16th March, to hammer out its coordinated fiscal response to the massive recession already in progress following the lockdown of much of Europe’s society. The task they faced is enormous: If sales, tourism, services etc. fall by 50% for just one month (which is certain), and then by 25% for […]
On the lethal interaction between the coronavirus contraction & global capitalism’s never-ending post-2008 crisis – VIDEO
, 16/03/2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-wpDZkie4&feature=youtu.be
EUROLEAKS: Letting light in to how crucial decisions are made (or not) in the EU
, 11/03/2020
On March 14, for the first time, European citizens will be able to take a front seat in the meetings where their future is decided: DiEM25’s #EuroLeaks will take YOU inside the Eurogroup that has no standing in law, but where the most far-reaching decisions about all our lives are made. WHY AND WHY NOW? – […]
Yanis Varoufakis: “Syriza Was a Bigger Blow to the Left Than Thatcher” – JACOBIN
, 11/03/2020
Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Jacobin why he’s publishing his secret recordings of the critical Eurogroup meetings of 2015 — and why the Left around Europe is struggling to overcome Syriza’s disastrous legacy. Yanis Varoufakis during his speech in Hellenic Parliament. Dimitrios Karvountzis / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty INTERVIEW BY George […]
Climate change is capitalism’s Waterloo – IRISH EXAMINER
, 11/03/2020
Steven Mnuchin’s snide remark about teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg at this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos outraged liberal commentators. US treasury secretary Mnuchin, responding to Thunberg’s call for an immediate exit from fossil fuel investments, said that she should go to college “to study economics” before “she can come back and explain […]
Brexit: A rational choice for the wrong reasons? – Financial News & Project Syndicate
, 11/03/2020
The motives and thinking behind Brexit were even less worthy than those behind US President Richard Nixon’s move in 1971 to ditch the Bretton Woods system. But, as with the “Nixon shock,” there is a singular underlying historical factor that explains Brexit. ATHENS – At pivotal historical moments, rational political ruptures often are brought about […]
Coronavirus has sparked a perfect storm of nationalism and financial speculation – THE GUARDIAN
, 09/03/2020
Nationalism and speculation have seldom had a better opportunity to combine forces as the one riding today on the coattails of Covid-19, known as the coronavirus. When Covid-19 leapfrogged from China to Italy, even ardent Europeanists normally appreciative of open borders joined the deafening calls to end freedom of movement across Europe’s national borders – a […]
Oligarchy & Xenophobia: The only beneficiaries of Greece’s economic ‘recovery’ – The Guardian
, 04/03/2020
Spring is already in the air across Greece. Even in the bleakest of times, nature’s renaissance renders hope irrepressible. But this one is proving a cruel spring for a people caught up in a decade-old crisis yielding one ritual humiliation after another. Costas runs a small bookshop in my central Athens neighbourhood. Although jovial by […]
DiEM25: Resisting the militarisation of the Greek-Turkish border under a Paneuropean cloud of xenophobic hysteria
, 02/03/2020
DiEM25 condemns the militarisation of the Greek-Turkish border, the European Union’s violation of every principle of Humanism, the instrumentalisation of refugees both by the Turkish regime and Brussels, the abandonment of Greek islanders to their own devices – the list goes on and on. DiEM25 calls for an immediate opening of all borders. The Greek-Turkish […]
“We are here so that unarmed truth has the final word” – speech at Julian Assange London rally 22-2-2020
, 23/02/2020
Leaking the Guilty Secrets of Power is not a Phrase, it is a Sentence. And no one is facing a longer one today than JA. Julian has GAINED the right to quote another past prisoner, another enemy of Empire, Mahatma Ghandi. Like Ghandi Julian could say: “You can chain me, you can torture me, you […]
This Saturday we demonstrate in London against Julian’s deportation and in support of your right to know
, 20/02/2020
Where: Australia House, London | When: This Saturday at 11.30 | Why: Marching to Parliament Square to defend your right to know by protesting Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States Parliament Square Speakers (13:30 15:30) Roger Waters Yanis Varoufakis Chrissie Hynde Brian Eno M.I.A. Lowkey Kristinn Hrafnsson – editor in chief of WikiLeaks Vivienne […]
Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno on Money, Power and a Call for Radical Change – video
, 17/02/2020
In November 2019, Intelligence Squared brought to its stage Brian and myself to discuss money, power and the prospects of a form of radical change that makes the world a better place for the many. Quick reminder: Brian and I are amongst the co-founders of DiEM25 – the Democracy in Europe Movement whose campaigns and […]
Euroleaks: Why release? And why now?
, 16/02/2020
During 2015’s first half, as Greece’s finance minister, I participated in thirteen crucial Eurogroup meetings – before the SYRIZA government (disrespecting the referendum result of 5th July) capitulated. The result of that capitulation was my immediate resignation and a permanent austerity program (until… 2060). From the beginning, the first Eurogroup, it was clear that the […]
The EU’s green deal is a colossal exercise in greenwashing – The Guardian
, 09/02/2020
Ursula von der Leyen’s signature proposal co-opts the slogans of climate activism, but has none of the substance Emergencies tend to reveal our true priorities. When our house is burning down or the storm waters are flooding in, we hold on to what we value most, and leave the rest behind. A decade ago, the […]