World

The Greek government, under intense pressure from the troika of its lenders (IMF-EU-ECB), is about to give the wheel of depression another, powerful turn. At a time when national income is shrinking at a rate not seen since the Great Depression in any post-feudal society, in an economy where the circuits of credit (not just the banking sector) have been utterly and truly dismantled, and against a background of the greatest fiscal squeeze ever attempted in peacetime, Greece’s creditors are imposing upon the country another fiscal contraction even greater than before.

My depiction as anti-Semitic is a standard tactic devised by supporters of the state of Israel to silence or demonise critics of the state and of the state's policies and actions. By Vincent Browne.

On Tuesday 23 October on TV3's Tonight programme, while reviewing the debate on foreign policy between the two candidates for the US presidency, I remarked on how Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were vying with each other in their support for Israel.

With a neo-Nazi party on the rise in Greece, it seems that even a Weimar-like scenario might be tolerable for EU leaders insisting on further austerity. By Jerome Roos.

UN, international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights organisations do important work in Palestine. But the magic 'national security' argument is always available as a tool for the government of Israel. By Michael Croydon.

Syrian activists who fear for their safety at home have left Syria for Paris in recent months. Malachy Browne met five of them in Paris. (Video below)

Worker co-operative Mondragon has demonstrated impressive resilience in helping keep jobless levels in the Basque region to under half the Spanish national average. By Race Mathews.

Back in the early 1980s, the former Secretary of State for Education in Harold Wilson’s Labour government, Shirley Williams, alerted me to a remarkable instance of regional economic development through employee empowerment, centred on Mondragon in the Basque region of Spain.

Next week, the European Parliament in Strasbourg will vote on a Protocol to the EU-Israel Association Agreement (officially known as the “Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an association between the European Community and its Member States and the State of Israel”).

Helena Sheehan, Professor Emeritus at DCU blogs about her participation in the 24 hour strike organised by trade union in protest at austerity policies in Greece on Thursday. Photo by @damomac.

Below is a translation of an interview with Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, conducted by Eduardo Febbro and originally published in the Argentinian newspaper Página/12 on Wednesday 19 September.

Dutch and German politicians like to blame Greece for refusing to stick to the agreements — but, in truth, the Greeks are doing more than they should. By Ingeborg Beugel.