Talks
“Brexit, for all its ills, has reinvigorated British democracy” – Cambridge Union address, 8 NOV 2019
, 11/11/2019
Last Friday (8th November 2019), I delivered a Cambridge Union address on (what else?) Brexit. My opening message was: “Instead of moaning about the state of British institutions, rejoice! For all its many ills, Brexit has reinvigorated British democracy.” Unlike most continental European parliaments, the House of Commons remains at the heart of decision making and, […]
IQ Squared presents Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno on Money, Power and a Call for Radical Change – London, 4th November
, 09/08/2019
The liberal order is under threat. Increasing inequality, the rise of far-right nationalism and the climate emergency pose unprecedented challenges. It’s time for some radical thinking. On November 4th Intelligence Squared is bringing to its stage two of the world’s great radicals – Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister known for his trademark leather jacket, motorbike and […]
On how DiEM25’s Green New Deal differs from the agenda of the European Greens – a debate with Sven Giegold
, 11/06/2019
To read DiEM25’s Green New Deal and join the many, including 18 parties from 13 countries, that have ‘taken the pledge’, click here.
The European Spring in full bloom this Monday at the Bozar Theatre, Brussels. Join us!
, 22/03/2019
In the last week of May European citizens will have their last chance to vote in a European Parliament election that makes a difference. It will be a paneuropean election where we can, perhaps for the last time, oppose both faces of authoritarianism across Europe: (A) The inane authoritarianism of the business-as-usual establishment, and (B) The authoritarianism […]
Utopian science fictions legitimising our current dystopia – 2019 Taylor Lecture, Oxford University
, 19/02/2019
The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford University, kindly invited me to deliver the 2019 Taylor Lecture on 12th February 2019. I chose the topic of Realistic Utopias versus Dystopic Realities – my aim being to highlight the manner in which really-existing capitalism is marketed as a utopian science fiction that has nothing to do with… really-existing capitalism. Behind this elegant utopian […]
Our moment in history, and what must be done. Théâtre du Rond-Point, Paris, Monday 18/2, 20.00
, 11/02/2019
Monday 18 February, 20.00, live from Théâtre du Rond-Point. A discussion between Aude Lancelin and Yanis Varoufakis on politics and philosophy. Follow on @LeMediaTV.
DiEM25’s online art auction: A new way of funding democratic movements and a new relationship between participatory politics and art
, 31/01/2019
DiEM25 is changing the way we do politics and fund our campaigns. From our first day, we declared that we shall not be receiving money from bankers, Brussels, oligarchs and assorted vested interests – that we would struggle with whatever funding our activists could provide from their meagre resources. Today, faced with the uphill struggle of participating […]
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 […]
Realistic Utopias versus Dystopic Realities – Oxford University, Taylor Lecture, 12/2/2019
, 22/12/2018
The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford University, kindly invited me to deliver the 2019 Taylor Lecture on 12th February 2019. In my book was addressed to my daughter regarding the economy I tried to offer her a simple, though not simplistic, account on how capitalism works and how it fails. Critics, correctly, pointed out that the book’s […]
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 […]
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 Europe, Brexit, capitalism, DiEM25 and almost everything in between with Ruth Wishart at the Edinburgh Book Festival, August 18, 2018
, 01/10/2018
2008 and the International New Deal we need for the post-2018 world – OECD Keynote, 14 SEP 2018
, 18/09/2018
2008 marked globalised capitalism’s near death experience. A decade later we have no right to be looking at those events as part of our economic history. The reason? We are still entangled in the crisis that the events of 2008 sparked off. They remain very much at the centre of our present. The […]
Lessons from 2008 for beyond 2018: Keynote this Friday 14th September at the OECD, Paris
, 12/09/2018
Before 2008 we could all see that global trade imbalances were growing inexorably, creating a glut of savings in surplus countries that flowed into deficit countries, causing house price, stock exchange and debt bubbles whose bursting would never end well. What few could see, however, was that, behind the dominant narrative of unfettered competition and […]
Why Germany neither can nor should pay more to save the eurozone – IFO Munich Seminar, 11 June 2018
, 17/07/2018
“I wanted a Germany that was hegemonic and efficient, not authoritarian and caught up in a European Ponzi scheme. That was in 2013.” Excerpt from the Munich Seminar. This CESifo group Munich seminar took place on June 11, 2018 in Ludwig-Maximilian University, in Munich, in the Grosse Aula of the Ludwig-Maximilian University. The euro crisis has highlighted […]
The Globalising Wall: How Globalisation built walls and divisions. By Y. Varoufakis & D. Stratou, in the Architectural Review
, 20/06/2018
Our theme is a wall. A wall that is neither some ordinary physical structure at a specific site, nor a symbolic wall. It takes a material form in sites around the globe while transcending locations and leapfrogging whole continents as if in a strange quest to globalise itself, to infect our supposedly unifying world with […]
Live at ‘Politics and Prose’, Washington DC
, 03/06/2018
Yanis Varoufakis discusses his books, Adults in the Room and Talking to my Daughter About the Economy, at Politics and Prose on 10th May 2018 In his eye-opening memoir, Adults in the Room, Varoufakis, Greece’s former Finance Minister, recounts his frustrating struggle to resolve Greece’s debt crisis without resorting to austerity measures. His book give […]
At the New School, discussing ‘Capitalism and the Present Moment in History’ with Will Milberg – 7 MAY 2018
, 25/05/2018
On the day of this discussion/presentation, students and staff were occupying part of the New School as part of a twin labour dispute: one regarding the cafeteria staff facing dismissal and partial re-employment under worse terns and a second dispute concerning low pay and lack of rights for student workers-TAs. It is in this context […]
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 […]
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 […]