English
Free Julian now! A MeRA25 video message in support of the petition to restore Assange’s access to the outside world
, 14/04/2018
You can disagree with him, mock him, despise him. But you cannot ignore what he contributed to your understanding of crimes committed in your name against humanity. Or that he is persecuted for this and nothing else. End Assange’s isolation now. Sign the petition!
Internationalism vs Globalisation: Why progressives across Europe and beyond must forge a common internationalist movement – Talk at the Royal Festival Hall, accompanied by Andreas Gursky’s images and Danae Stratou’s ‘The Globalising Wall), 9 APR 2018
, 13/04/2018
Ladies and Gentlemen, my heartfelt thanks for your presence here tonight. Thanks also to the good people at South Bank who honoured me with the humbling idea and invitation to combine my own musings on globalisation with the remarkable images of Andreas Gursky – images which have, over the years, done so much to enlighten […]
Why we founded new political party MeRA25 to challenge austerity in Greece – The New Statesman, 5 APR 2018
, 07/04/2018
After successfully quashing Greece’s 2015 debtor’s prison break, Europe’s deep establishment has embarked on a mission to declare the country’s economic and social crisis over. To recall Tacitus, “they make a desert and they call it peace”. Since 2015, the Greek state has paid its creditors a sum equal to the aggregate pre-tax revenues of […]
INTERNATIONALISM vs GLOBALISATION, at the Royal Festival Hall, London, in association with the adjacent Andreas Gursky exhibition at the Hayward Gallery – this Monday 9th APR 2018, 19.30
, 07/04/2018
Join economist and Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) co-founder Yanis Varoufakis for a keynote talk on the economic force that has shaped our world: globalisation. This South Bank talk is punctuated by images from acclaimed German photographer, Andreas Gursky, whose iconic photographs have documented global capital and its effects for three decades, and whose […]
No Brexit for a Eurozone Britain? Project Syndicate op-ed
, 04/04/2018
As British Prime Minister Theresa May is finding out, disentangling a member state from the EU is an arduous and complex undertaking. But how much harder would Brexit have been had the United Kingdom adopted the euro back in 2000? ATHENS – “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” […]
MANIFESTO of MeRA25 – the new party set up by DiEM25 in Greece to revive the spirit of the Greek Spring
, 02/04/2018
The state of permanent debt bondage, which threatens Greece with desertification, is in the mind of every Greek. Imposing emigration on our young, and indignity to those who stay behind, it hangs over the country like a thick, dark cloud. Unable to discern any light in the long night of our Great Depression, the Greeks’ […]
Brian Eno & Yanis Varoufakis: Restore Julian Assange’s access to visitors and the outside world!
, 28/03/2018
It is with great concern that we heard that Julian Assange has lost access to the internet and the right to receive visitors at the Ecuadorian London Embassy. Only extraordinary pressure from the US and the Spanish governments can explain why Ecuador’s authorities should have taken such appalling steps in isolating Julian. Only recently the […]
Hans Werner Sinn: Varoufakis acted very prudently and wisely to defend Greek interests
, 22/03/2018
Perhaps the best known and respected conservative German economist, Hans-Werner Sinn (Munich University and for many years Chair of Ifo Institute), had this to say in reaction to the claims of various troika officials that I cost Greece billions of euros: “Yanis Varoufakis has acted very prudently and wisely to defend Greek interests… Arguing, […]
Support the Stansted 15: When solidarity becomes a terrorist-related offence liberty and democracy die
, 22/03/2018
Last March, 15 activists chained themselves around an aircraft that was being used by British authorities to deport asylum seekers from Stansted Airport, many of whom had legitimate reasons to fear for their lives if returned to countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. While at first the Stansted 15 were charged with aggravated trespass, the charges were soon […]
SHAKING THE SUPERFLUX: Shakespeare, economics, and the possibility of justice – 6th Annual Shakespeare Rose Lecture, 19th March 2018, Rose Theatre, Kingston
, 22/03/2018
Full script of my lecture at the Rose Theatre on Shakespeare: Since brevity is, indeed, the soul of wit, let me begin by stating the obvious: I am as qualified to deliver an annual Shakespeare lecture in this splendid theatre as an ant that walks in wonder on an iPhone is able to explain the mystery […]
The Guardian previews my Annual Shakespeare Lecture, tonight (19 March 2018) at the Rose Theatre
, 19/03/2018
Mark Lawson, in today’s Guardian, previews my Annual Shakespeare Rose Lecture, ahead of tonight’s delivery. He begins with its title ‘Shake the Superflux’ and the statement: ‘The beauty of King Lear is that it encourages us to think about inequality’. Is Theresa May Macbeth? Might King Lear agree with Jeremy Corbyn? On Monday night, one of Europe’s leading […]
Trump and trade tariffs: big lies founded on small truths – The Guardian, 18 MAR 2018
, 18/03/2018
Donald Trump is perhaps the US president best equipped to understand that some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. His personal business plan always involved racking up enormous deficits and debts, before finding a way to unload them on to others – his employees and creditors mostly. Last week the US president imposed tariffs […]
“Greece was strangled by the creditors in 2015. We stand with Yanis Varoufakis and with the truth.” Professors Jeff Sachs (Columbia) and James K. Galbraith (Texas)
, 18/03/2018
Thomas Wieser’s claim that Yanis Varoufakis and the Greek government of 2015 cost their economy 200 billion euros is ludicrous. As Wieser knows – because he was one of the architects of the policy – the Greek economy in 2015 was strangled by its creditors. The creditors inflicted severe damage from the first day: by […]
‘Shake the Superflux’: Yanis Varoufakis to deliver the 6th Annual Rose Shakespeare Lecture, Monday 19th March 2018
, 18/03/2018
Yanis Varoufakis has emerged not only as an embattled finance minister, iconoclastic economist, and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25), but a life-long lover of Shakespeare. He called the Greek debt crisis ‘a Shakespearean tragedy’, reported that observing the European Union is ‘like watching Othello’, and compared the world’s Deep Establishment to Shylock and Macbeth. Those […]
LA STAMPA interview on the Italian election result (the original answers in English) – 9 MAR 2018
, 09/03/2018
In this interview LA STAMPA sought my views on the outcome of the Italian elections. My original answers (in English) appear below. The gist? Italy’s election result is yet another example of the political centre’s implosion as a result of the establishment’s perseverance with failed, austerity-based policies, pretending that they were the solution to our […]
Was defeat inevitable? A review of Adam Tooze’s meta-review of ‘Adults in the Room’ [1]
, 07/03/2018
To read one excellent review of one’s book is a joy. To read an engaging and deeply thoughtful review of different categories of reviews of one’s book is a rare privilege. Normally, I should have left matters there, enjoying the diversity of opinion that Adults in the Room engendered. But this is not an academic book […]
How Europe’s Band-Aid Ensures Greece’s Debt Bondage – Project Syndicate op-ed, 26 FEB 2018
, 04/03/2018
ATHENS – Greece’s never-ending public-debt saga has come to signify the European Union’s inept handling of its inevitable eurozone crisis. Eight years after its bankruptcy, the Greek state’s persistent insolvency remains an embarrassment for Europe’s officialdom. That seems to be why, after having declared the euro crisis over in the rest of Europe, the authorities […]
LE PARISIEN – Varoufakis : «Macron est excellent sur la forme, mais décevant sur le fond»
, 17/02/2018
L’ex-ministre grec des Finances veut lutter contre la pauvreté de façon «concertée» en Europe. L’ancien ministre grec des Finances, Yanis Varoufakis, fait le tour de l’Europe à la recherche d’alliés pour proposer un programme de gauche aux élections européennes de 2019. Vous voulez avoir des listes avec un label commun dans tous les pays pour les élections […]
“La batalla de Varoufakis contra el ‘establishment’ europeo es el libro del año” – Review of Adults in the Room (Spanish edition) in El Confidencial, by RAMÓN GONZÁLEZ FÉRRIZ
, 17/02/2018
El libro de memorias de Yanis Varoufakis sobre sus poco más de cinco meses como ministro de Finanzas griego, ‘Comportarse como adultos. Mi batalla contra el establishment europeo‘, (Deusto) es, probablemente, el libro del año. Y lo es por muchas razones: su narración de las maratonianas reuniones del Eurogrupo sobre la posible reestructuración de la deuda griega y […]
Review of French edition of Adults in the Room – in LE GRAND CONTINENT
, 17/02/2018
« Nous allons, en même temps que le possesseur d’argent et le possesseur de force de travail, quitter cette sphère bruyante où tout se passe à la surface et aux regards de tous, pour les suivre tous deux dans le laboratoire secret de la production, sur le seuil duquel il est écrit : no admittance except […]
Did the judge who refused to withdraw Julian Assange’s arrest warrant labour under a gigantic conflict of interest?
, 15/02/2018
“I find arrest is a proportionate response.” That was the judgement delivered in court last Tuesday by Judge Emma Arbuthnot, presiding over the case brought to court by Julian Assange’s lawyers. Their argument had been that the warrant for his arrest ought to be withdrawn because arresting him (after the extradition request from Sweden had […]
And the name of DiEM25’s Greek political party is…
, 14/02/2018
We have white smoke! DiEM25’s members overwhelmingly approved the name of our new Greek electoral wing – the political party with which DiEM25 will contest elections in Greece, returning the spirit of the Greek Spring to the place of its birth. As with all major DiEM25 decisions, members voted from across Europe, confirming once again […]
Long review of ‘Adults in the Room’, by J.W. Mason, in the Boston Review
, 13/02/2018
Adults In The Room: My Battle With Europe’s Deep Establishment Yanis Varoufakis Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28.00 (cloth) In the spring of 2015, a series of debt negotiations briefly claimed a share of the world’s attention that normally goes only to events where celebrities give each other prizes. Syriza, a scrappy left-wing party, had stormed into […]