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Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The Dangerous Farce

Yesterday the 34th Israeli government has been declared and the gushing wound that has become Israel has finally been aired and exposed inside Israeli society. Israel has many issues from the outside, but its most pressing problem is its domestic unrest and bubbling hate among its parts; given the rein of terror since the assassination of PM Rabin and the rise of the Netanyahu, this is not surprising. What it is is alarming. More than even, Israel has been rapidly molded on the hate of the other for the past two decades, and its politicians continue to bank on hate instead of co-existence. This new Israeli government would be laughable had it been so sad, and mainly, so dangerous; inside and out. A Country founded on a religion that believes it is also a nationality and a people can't get anywhere good to begin with. A country that is founded on religion that believes it is also a nationality and a people that is shrouded in victimhood and war can get somewhere scary. And Israel is heading that way in free fall. The multiplicity of groups in Israel and their aversion to each other leaves very few innocent. And they all hate each other with a vengeance. Right/left, white/black, Jewish/Muslim, religious/secular, Ashkenazi/Sephardi, immigrants/natives, police/citizens, Israeli-Jews/Israeli-Arabs, druz/Arab, periphery/urban centers, and the list goes on and on and on. Everyone is motivated by hate of the other, hate of the different. And all are maneuvered by visible fist of the Israeli government and their sponsors; a money-power connection that is an iron fist. I grew up in a "split" household; my mother is second generation to the holocaust from Poland and my father came to Israel as a baby from Morocco. I am half Ashkenazi and half Sephardic. So many of my friends were 'mutts', but as a child and a teenager I never noticed the ground rumbling underneath me. I thought the stories my father told me from his days as a 'Mizrahi' (the term for north African Jews in Hebrew) and how he was called names for being Moroccan have been long gone. I was wrong. Very wrong. The rift is now wider and more full of hate as ever, and is mainly surrounding the right/left divide that goes hand in hand with religion/secularism and racism/anti-racism. It started with the summer war on Gaza when numerous businesses in Israel decided to not only fire or not employ Israeli-Arabs, but refused to serve them. Continued with ongoing attack on the freedom of speech from a growing right extremist movement on the left that objected the war and racism, and from left wing elitist and highly educated 'Ahskenazis' against 'Sephardics' based on their intelligence, and reached new heights when PM Netanyahu went on YouTube on election day to call to action all Israeli-Jews to go vote because Arabs are being brought on busses by the Israeli left to vote. It now reached a whole new peak with Netanyahu presenting a narrow rightist, self-interested and racist government. It was a hard government to build; each and every member of it blackmailed a title, a role, a budget, a promise, a car, or a secretary. Whatever it is they wanted it and everything was up for grabs. Not a single one of them cared about the time spent, the dysfunctional government they are building, the obvious inability it will have in passing anything significant or important, and certainly not one cared about the funds they are wasting on themselves taking away from a growing lower class and poor-class in Israel. They didn't care about anyone or anything that had to do with society building, or public service. The only service they cared about is the services they will get themselves, fighting over the big titles to get more and more and more. For themselves. And we all sat and watched. Some blind to the abuse, yet others appalled and with growing anger. It is crystal clear that this right wing extremist government coalition will not only ignore the needs of the weak population in Israel, but will also continue to galvanize the same populations to forget about their miserable state and continue to vote on hate. This new "coalition" has already approved expanding the number of ministers, costing Israelis citizens millions more, just to drive fancier cars, have secretaries and get a title; 'Minister'. In his speech yesterday, after barely making it and trading and dealing to the very last minute, Netanyahu said he will be the Prime Minister of all the citizens of Israel and will continue to work towards peace. And it was exhilarating to see how one by one the Arab members of Knesset objected loudly and left the floor. It was, with all the sadness and shame I feel about Israel, a moment of pure happiness; a moment where Benjamin Netanyahu had to stand there unable to defend his legacy. But his legacy is not only his. Every single member of this new coalition should be tried for treason. It is moments like this that I struggle with my objection to the death penalty. You can say it is extreme, but I am sick and tired of the worldly trend of governments shamelessly using scare tactics and blatant self-interest to lie and betray their people just so they can get fat. I tried hard to stay 'human', to be full of love and understanding. To work from a place of peace and progress, but frankly I am no longer interested, nor do I think any of those places will help. When a respectable journalist in Israel makes the comment that she is sure the first lady would not have and is not happy with certain appointments in the government, which is an utterly absurd thing to even say, and when another states that it is not respectable for the Arab party to cut Netanyahu's speech off, when the person who disrespects us all for over a decade is Netanyahu himself, and everyone thinks those are normal remarks, you just know things have lost all control and abandoned all logic. I think Israel needs a revolution. I think Israelis need to freak out, blow a gasket, wig out, and stop being blinded by the sheer idiocy of hate and power. It is time to start acting like the Greeks and Italians and be brave. I think it is time to burn. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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World Press View: Greek Cry For Help Going Unheeded

Greece may be - as its Eurovision entry song puts it, be down to its last breath - as talks with international lenders linger. The post World Press View: Greek Cry For Help Going Unheeded appeared first on The National Herald.


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7 Ideas to Build Better Migration Policies for Europe

In a few years, the Mediterranean sea has become the deadliest crossing for migrants in the world. Last Year 3000 lost their lifes, almost 22 000 since 2000, and the early part of this year appears even more dangerous, since 2000 of them have already died. They are Syrians, Libyans, Eritreans, Sudanese, Somalis, Nigerians.., women, men, children, to flee at the risk of their lives their countries affected by war, civil war, by the chaos, or by a political dictatorship, and the most extreme poverty. And there is no reason to expect that the year 2015 will be a year of return to stability and peace for them. Quite the contrary, Frontex estimated that 500,000 to 1 million migrants or asylum seekers attempt to cross the Mediterranean sea this year. Faced with these tragedies, with their inexorable rise, the European Union and the Member States must decide to act together, to develop a coherent and long term strategy. To finally implement a migration and asylum policy! Here I propose that we move around a few principles and strong ideas. First principle: what is happening today in Italy, Greece or Malta, it is everyone's business and not only of these few countries. The vast majority of migrants and refugees arrive in these three countries, simply because geography has placed them at the gates of Europe, and they are approaching the current areas of conflict. Second idea: the Member States and the EU must assume a shared responsibility regarding the surveillance of their external borders, maritime, and land borders. Europe must finally develop a European coastguard, in charge of surveillance of its borders, with appropriate and consistent means of surveillance, reconnaissance planes, boats and helicopters aircraft. Third idea: Europe and the international community must be involved resolutely in tracking down smugglers, these traffickers, guilty of crimes against humanity, dismantle their networks, and bring the culprits to justice. In this regard, the mandate sought by the EU to the United Nations so that the fleet of the voluntary Member States can cruise the Libyan coast to board the boats of smugglers and to dismantle their networks closer to the spot goes in the right direction. Fourth idea: administrative and judicial asylum procedures must be harmonized to treat in the same rules any application for asylum in the Union, and within the same timelines. The indicative time limit of 6 months provides too many exceptions. And the inviolable principle of the first host country to treat the asylum seekers file leads to overload the border countries. Reflection should be opened on this point. Fifth idea: key transit countries must be better associated with the fighting against the smugglers and traffickers and must benefit a support from the EU for the security of their borders, and the reception of migrants in their countries. Sixth idea: the return directive is dated from 2008 and should be revised. The decision of escorting them back to the borders are rarely performed and this legal limbo for migrants to remain on the territory of the EU, while they benefit nor refugee status, nor residence or work permit, is a source of incomprehension for our fellow citizens and injustice for migrants who comply with the law. Seventh idea: for economic immigration, there is a need to have quotas for legal labour immigration, country by country on the basis of migratory agreements concluded by the Member States, coordinated by the European Commission. Of course, the causes of migration are numerous, poverty, wars, ethnic conflicts, persecution, discrimination, climate disruption, dictatorships, humanitarian disasters. These are the reasons that drive more and more, men, women and children, to leave their land, their country, to survive. And it is obviously on these causes that action is required. This is a long term job, very long term job. The eradication of poverty around the world, the end of dictatorial regimes, the stabilization of countries in conflict, peace where there is war, all these objectives must be on the roadmap of the international community, and Europe. We must intensify efforts to restore peace and stability of the countries of origin and transit of migrants. And support all the initiatives that will be taken under the auspices of the United Nations to rebuild a State in Libya, or in Iraq. Finally, Europe, and the international community must rethink their development policy in particular for Africa. The emergency requires more than ever to create a global environment suitable to the development of the poorest countries. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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SYRIZA Dissenters Rev Up Pressure On Tsipras

Three senior members of Greece's governing SYRIZA party late May 19 urged the government to halt bailout repayments — and prepare the country for a possible euro exit to keep campaign promises even it means Greece goes broke. The post SYRIZA Dissenters Rev Up Pressure On Tsipras appeared first on The National Herald.


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Schaeuble’s moment: Large part of Greek population is suffering but the Gov’t does nothing to end this suffering

I have a … moment, right now. I’m deeply touched by Schaeuble’s compassion  towards the suffering Greeks. Hear saying over hear saying, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble reportedly told his Christian Democrat buddies in Parliament: “We know that a large part of the Greek population is suffering but the Greek […]


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Euro plunges as Greek talks drag on (GREK)

Four months into negotiations there is still no Greek deal, although the country's labor minister is maintaining that Athens will soon conclude an ...


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First Ever Greek-Russian Book on Ancient Greek Myths

ancient-greek-myths A bilingual (Greek-Russian) book featuring 279 illustrations of ancient Greek myths was published for the first time in Russia.


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Varoufakis: Our goal is a final and comprehensive solution

The Greek government's goal in the negotiations was to convince its partners to finally shift away from a mistaken economic policy, something that they were unable to admit for political reasons  and find a lasting solution to the country's problems, ...


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Top EU officials eye deal by end-May as technical-level talks make gradual progress

As Greek government officials expressed their confidence that a deal with the country’s creditors is close, top European officials indicated Tuesday that although there has been progress in negotiations, an agreement is unlikely before the end of the month.


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Greek markets rise on hope for bailout deal with creditors by end of May

ATHENS, Greece — Market anxiety eased in Greece on Tuesday after the country's finance minister said he was confident of reaching a deal with ...


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Greek rumours dominate the sentiment – DB

“The commissioner cited Greece's value added tax system in particular, which according to Greek press Ekathimerini the Greek government yesterday ...


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Greek PM speaks to SYRIZA MPs amid worry about talks

SYRIZA's political secretariat is due to meet on Wednesday at lunchtime as the deliberations within the leftist party gather pace ahead of a possible deal with lenders, which some MPs and members have indicated they may reject.


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Greek bonds performing well amid optimism for deal

Greek bonds are the best performing sovereign securities tracked by Bloomberg’s World Bond Indexes in the last month amid optimism an agreement may be within reach.


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Russia mulls embargo exemption for Greece, Cyprus, Hungary

Russia may allow around 20 firms from Greece, Cyprus and Hungary to return to its market after it orders the lifting of an embargo on European Union food imports, Interfax news agency quoted a senior official as saying on Tuesday.


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New Democracy reserves judgement on potential lenders' deal

New Democracy officials agreed on Tuesday that the party should not adopt a position yet on whether it will support or oppose any deal reached between the government and Greece’s creditors until the content of the agreement is known.


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Julius says Grexit would be no new Lehman Brothers

Former Bank of England policymaker DeAnne Julius said a Greek exit from the euro area probably wouldn’t mean a financial fallout such as that in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.


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'Henry Hoover ate my pay packet!' Brexit nightmares in tabloid headlines

For years the tabloids have been feeding us scare stories about the interfering EU. But how would they react to the fallout from a European exit if it meant filthy beaches, even more toxic smog and an influx of knock-off pork pies?Well, that settles it. By re-electing David Cameron, the UK has committed itself to a referendum on whether we should leave the European Union. It will be held, the prime minister says, no later than the end of 2017, and perhaps as early as next year.Nothing like a British exit – or Brexit – has ever happened before. It would mean the complete wrenching away of the third-largest national economy in the EU. For the UK, the legal changes alone would be bewildering and profound. “This is uncharted territory,” says Mark Paulson of the Law Society, “and no one knows for sure how it would pan out.” A recent German study suggested that the most benign Brexit they could imagine, in which Britain turned serenely into a giant Switzerland, would still cut 2% off the country’s GDP. Something painful, on the other hand, might reduce it by an utterly crippling 14%. That’s a Greek-scale catastrophe. Continue reading...


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Greece presents proposal on stopping illicit trade of cultural goods at UNESCO meeting

Greek Alternate Minister for Culture Nikos Xydakis on Tuesday expressed Greece’s full support for the directives issued by UNESCO on the national policies to combat illicit trading of cultural goods, during his speech at the Third Meeting of ...


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Tsipras chairs marathon meeting of Syriza MPs to discuss ongoing negotiations

A marathon meeting of ruling Syriza MPs, chaired by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, ended late on Tuesday after talks lasting more than five hours. The meeting had focused mainly on the progress in the ongoing negotiations between the Greek ...


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ECB ensnared in politics as it faces vote on Bank of Greece loans

The haircuts were lowered last year after Greece returned to capital markets. The council is considering returning to the levels applied before the ...


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Greece: Dissenters rev up pressure on government

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Three senior members of Greece's governing Syriza party late Monday urged the government to halt bailout repayments — and prepare the country for a possible euro exit.


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Greece, Creditors Said to Disagree on Sales Tax Proposals

Greece's proposed tax overhaul isn't passing muster with the nation's creditors because it wouldn't do enough to help the country's budget, people ...


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American Eagle continues global expansion in South Korea, Singapore, Greece

American Eagle Outfitters has signed license agreements to put stores in South Korea, Singapore and Greece, a move that continues the South ...


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Greek leaders say an agreement with creditors is 'close' but doubts remain

Greek leaders claim a deal to unlock critical bailout funds is imminent but many of the obstacles that have prevented a breakthrough for the country's ...


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Newport News Greek Festival coming up May 28-31

Ellinopoula, a greek word meaning "Greek kids," entertains at the annual Newport News Greek Festival. The costumed folk dancers, ages 13 to 18, ...


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Russia may allow food imports from three EU states after ban lifted

Russia may allow around 20 firms from Hungary, Cyprus and Greece to return to its market after it orders the lifting of an embargo on food imports from the European Union, Interfax news agency quoted a senior official as saying on Tuesday. Russia banned foods from the 28-nation EU last year in response to Western sanctions imposed on it for its role in the Ukraine crisis, shutting out a vast range of goods from French and Irish cheese to Spanish fruit and ham.


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Greece "cautiously optimistic" of a deal with EU lenders

A deal between Greece and its EU partners could have been sealed earlier if there was political will on the side of the country’s lenders, but even so, the government is "cautiously optimistic" that the two sides are ...


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Wary brokers cut back Greek share dealing due to cash crunch

By Lionel Laurent and George Georgiopoulos LONDON/ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's cash crunch has pushed several European brokers to cut back on Greek share trading or restrict approval of new positions in case Athens imposes capital controls, industry sources told Reuters. The measures vary from broker to broker, rather than reflecting industry-wide moves. Trading sources in Athens said global banks were still routing Greek trades, while the Athens stock market operator said the proportion of turnover involving foreigners was little changed last month from a year earlier.


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Morning MoneyBeat Europe: Gains Expected As Wall Street Jumps, but Watch Greece

Then there's Greece. Many investors and commentators now feel its debt wrangling with European partners must be close to an endgame, even if no ...


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FTSE up on ECB comments as Coca-Cola Bottling boosted by Russia hopes

Leading shares lifted by hopes of acceleration of European bond buyingComments from the European Central Bank that it would boost its bond buying programme during May and June to avoid the summer lull sent the euro lower and boosted stock markets.The FTSE 100 finished up 26.23 points or 0.38% at 6995.10, with European markets also higher, especially the export-led German Dax, up 2.23%. Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said:It’s likely not a coincidence that the ECB is upping the ante on its bond-buying following a major bond-market sell-off especially with Greece’s debt negotiations going to the wire.We could see a reduction in both companies’ adjusted debt/EBITDA ratios by about 0.2 times if the rouble remains at its current level for the rest of the year. Although this is a modest improvement and part of the benefits might be absorbed during the year, it removes some of the pressure on their ratings, which are weakly positioned within their current levels.The early signs of gradual underlying improvement in many of CCH’s markets, €44m of self-help in 2015, and an abating foreign exchange headwind have provided some recent support to the stock. However, the shares now trade on a 2015 PE of 24.6 times . With questions on the sustainability of the pick-up in growth, we believe the risk/reward is still evenly balanced.While 2015 prelims were towards the top end of the guidance range and free cash flow generation was very strong, the main news [was] the £338m acquisition of the Butagaz LPG business in France, which will be significantly earnings per share accretive.Importantly, this also means DCC can continue on its M&A strategy for the foreseeable future with the acquisition establishing a strong platform in continental Europe and reflecting DCC’s ambition to grow the business further. This was confirmed in a call we had with the chief executive earlier today, who said there will be more opportunities in the next few years.Improved trends continue into the first quarter: sales were flat, a fourth consecutive quarter of sequential improvement. Profits have been maintained, after increased investment in marketing. Categories are improving a bit and Premier Foods continues to take share. The pension deficit has shrunk, again. We expect the 2016 consensus to hold. Worries?: pricing is set to be brutal and there are tougher comps to come. But the foundations continue to firm. Continue reading...


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ECB Said to Be Unlikely to Cut Greece Loose

But, despite having little patience remaining with the behavior of leaders of Greece's leftist government, the central bank's policy makers are not likely ...


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Greek Finances to Stagger On Longer Than You Think

Greece will probably struggle through June before finally running out of money in early July. That's the assessment of economists at Bloomberg ...


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The hidden cry for help in Greece's Eurovision song

And now it's the turn of Greece: Could the debt-raddled country be trying to smuggle an appeal to other Europeans via its Eurovision Song Contest ...


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Germany's Schaeuble says negotiations with Greece too slow

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that negotiations with Greece were going too slowly, according to two participants at a meeting of conservative politicians. While Schaeuble praised the Greeks for making some progress in "sub-areas", he said discussions with Athens remained slow overall and there had not yet been a breakthrough, the participants told Reuters.


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Merkel Gives Greece 12 Days to Reach Financing Accord

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande gave Greece until the end of May to reach a deal on its aid program, ...


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Plenary small talks in Strasbourg

Member of the European Parliaments (MEPs) gathered in a sunny Strasbourg on Monday (May 18) to address big issues like migration, Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán’s visit to Strasbourg and minerals coming from countries at war. But other topics raised irritations – or irony –, such as the so-called EU better regulation, the never ending Greek […]


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IMF's Lagarde sees 'some progress' in talks with Greece

There has been "some progress" in talks between Greece and its international creditors, said Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, on Tuesday. Greece has been locked in a negotiation impasse with the European Commission, the ...


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Dijsselbloem: Greece bailout talks 'progressing'

"Intensive talks on a loan deal with debt-strapped Greece are "making progress," Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Tuesday.


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IMF Chief: Greek Bailout Talks Making Some Progress

Bailout talks with Greece and its creditors are making some progress, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said, but there are still challenges as Athens seeks to overhaul lending terms.


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Dijsselbloem: Greece deal unlikely at Riga summit

Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Tuesday it was unlikely Greece would reach a deal with its lenders when European leaders meet for a summit in Riga, Latvia, this week. Dijsselbloem, who is also Dutch finance minister, said a ...


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Full transcript of Yanis Varoufakis interview to enikos.gr

This is the full transcript of Monday's TV interview of the Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis to Nikos Chatzinikolaou, on "ston eniko", Star TV.   Read here the whole transcript   


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Syriza appeals for solidarity from the European Left

Syriza has sent a letter to the European parties of the Left asking them to provide support and assistance to the Greek government during its negotiation with the partners. The letter, which was also addressed to trade unions and ...


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The End of Representative Politics?

The following notes on the future of democratic representation were inspired by Simon Tormey’s The end of representative politics (2015), launched at a Gleebooks event organised by the Sydney Democracy Network (SDN), May 15th 2015. Camping in Barcelona, 21 May 2011 Julien Lagarde Whatever is happening in the field of party politics within the old parliamentary democracies? Why is mass membership of political parties a thing of the past? How come politicians are so disrespected, turnout rates volatile and elections often treated as pay-back moments by angry citizens? A handful of clues is provided by the 2015 UK General Election, whose dynamics and results have attracted great global attention and floods of commentary on such matters as the break-up of Britain, the possible exit of Britain from the European Union and the dismal failure of the Labour Party to win over those parts of the middle class convinced there’s no alternative to the mean clampdown politics of austerity. The 2015 election was undoubtedly a media event extraordinaire. For a few days, it even featured robust debate about the failings of a first-past-the-post electoral system that awarded only one seat each to UKIP, which won 3.8 million votes, and to the Greens, who won 1.1 million votes. Voter Turnout, United Kingdom General Elections (1950 - 2015) UK Political Info By contrast, media assessments of the ocean of public disaffection on which the ship of Westminster and its parliamentary elections are now floating have been rare. During the days following the election, for instance, I rummaged in vain to find within the British press commentaries on the steady decline of voter turnout since 1950 (the United Kingdom now ranks 76th in world turnout rankings). I also couldn’t find any analysis of the number of citizens who actually voted for the return of a Tory government now blessed (thanks to the electoral system) with a thumping absolute majority in the House of Commons. I was forced to do my own calculations, to discover that a mere 24.4% of adult citizens actually cast their vote for the new Conservative government. Journalists and public commentators wilfully or blindly ignored such figures and long-term trends. Some did lament the way television broadcasters successfully managed to push ‘horse-race’ coverage, for instance by emphasising just how close the contest was between the Conservatives and Labour, why a Labour/SNP coalition government was a real possibility, and whether or not such a government could handle the fragile economy. Other commentators chose instead to bang on about the surprise result, and why it happened. Or they noted the end of Duverger’s Law, which states that first-past-the-post systems typically produce two-party systems. Missing in these reports was any sense of the several ways, slowly but surely, parliamentary democracy in Britain is drifting backwards, heading towards a 21st-century version of late 18th-century politics. By this provocative analogy I mean to highlight the way present-day parliamentary politics is coming to be dominated by such 18th-century facts as the capture of government by the rich, the weakening of independent parliamentary powers and the near-collapse of mass political party organisations. The regressive trend includes as well cuts to welfare support for permanently poor people (1 in 5 of the UK population, 13 million people, now live below the official poverty line). Elections that bear more than a passing resemblance to pork-barrel plebiscites, widespread public mockery and disaffection with politics on high and tough law-and-order measures designed to spy on and control ‘harmful activities’ are also part of the same backsliding. Rough Music Politics These are mere tendencies, yes. But they’re to be found within many other parliamentary democracies, and that is why, to extend the 18th-century simile, ‘rough music’ politics is everywhere returning to their streets, parks and fields. In practically every existing parliamentary democracy, the disaffected and excluded are expressing their annoyance in unconventional ways. Once upon a time, as Edward Thompson famously pointed out, the 18th-century poor and powerless and pissed off expressed their indignation through ritual, revelry and riot. Raucous ear-shattering noise, unpitying laughter and the mimicking of obscenities were the weapons of the weak. In France, such practices were called charivari (Italians spoke of scampanate; the Germans Katzenmusik), while in late eighteenth-century Britain the protests paraded under such strangely obsolete names as ‘shallals’, ‘riding the stang’ and ‘skimmingtons’, rowdy parades expressing moral disapproval featuring effigies of the proxy victims. William Hogarth’s depiction of rough music during a skimmington ride Baldwin & Craddock, 1822. The end of representative politics Today, in the much-changed, media-saturated circumstances of the 21st-century, rough music assumes different forms, as Simon Tormey convincingly shows in his newly-published work, The end of representative politics. The book is a precious gem. A genuinely original contribution to the field, it’s a beautifully crafted slim essay with a big thesis: we are living through the end of an aura, says Tormey, the slow but sure decline of legitimacy and vibrancy of party politics and representative government. ‘We are moving, remorselessly, away from representation and representative politics towards styles and modes of politics that engage us immediately, directly, now.’ Symptomatic is the world-wide flourishing of what Tormey calls ‘immediate or non-mediated politics’: flash protests, occupations, hacking, boycotts, Facebook- and Twitter-led campaigns, circles, pinging and micro-parties. Concerned active citizens, he says, are no longer patiently prepared to wait until election time to express their concerns. Harnessing state-of-the-art media ‘they seek to make their views, anger, displeasure, known immediately, now.’ Simon Tormey (2013) Tormey examines the causes of the declining aura of representative politics. He’s right to say that the peccadilloes of politicians and the politics of enforced austerity are not the principal drivers of the trend. There are multiple deep causes, including such peculiarly modern factors as the collapse of old collective identities, like belonging to a working class community, individualisation and the spread of globalised capitalism. The weakening of parliaments by the massive expansion of executive state powers and the outsourcing of political decisions to corporate and cross-border bodies might have been added to the list. A more thorough analysis of the rapid contemporary growth of communicative abundance would have been helpful as well. But these oversights are minor blemishes in an outstanding book that most definitely is on to something of epochal political importance. Its potent analysis naturally prompts the curly question of whether, as the title suggests, we’re living through times that count as the end game of representative politics. ‘It’s the end of the paradigm, the “metanarrative”’, answers Tormey. ‘Much of the enthusiasm has gone for the classical model of representative politics and all the paraphernalia that went with it: a belief in the essentially benevolent or well-intentioned motives of those who would represent; a belief that our deepest needs and interests are best off in some other person’s hands than our own; a belief that joining a traditional mass party will prove the best use of our time and energies as engaged citizens. The props fall away; but the superstructure is still intact.’ History matters The words are wonderful and the core thesis of The end of representative politics is both daring and consequential. The book offers important insights and prompts intellectual and political questions; it also triggers doubts, as every adventurous book does. We should thank Tormey for forcing us to ask after the book’s wobbly sense of history. From when dates the collapse of the paradigm of representative politics, we may ask? Through the examples he cites, Tormey leads us to think of the collapse as a pretty recent phenomenon, one that stretches back no more than a couple of decades. There’s admittedly mention of the Zapatistas and the World Social Forum as instances of the end of representative politics, but by and large the book depends upon very recent examples of what he calls DIY politics: the M-15 movement in Spain, Occupy Wall Street, Tahrir Square and the 5-Star Beppe Grillo phenomenon in Italy. They’re all good and interesting examples, to be sure; but they have the effect of obscuring the fact that since 1945 every major public issue, from civil rights and nuclear weapons to feminism, environment and disability, has been activated, publicised and pressed home by civic initiatives, networks and movements outside the zones of formal parliamentary politics. The point is historical, and it’s important, if only because it reminds us that those who neglect or misunderstand the past are prone to misrecognise the present. The point is this: politicians, governments, parliaments and political parties have been under pressure for much longer than this book implies. The decline of representative politics has been coming for a generation, which implies the need to see the sea change noted by Tormey as connected to the near-collapse of parliamentary politics during the first half of the 20th century (a point developed at length in The Life and Death of Democracy) and the birth, during the 1940s, of a brand new form of democracy that I call monitory democracy. Do Political Parties Have a Future? This long-term transformation of democracy that began in the 1940s has decentred and de-territorialised elections, politicians and parliaments. The trend has naturally posed challenges to political parties, and raised questions about their fate. Do political parties have a future? On this point, Tormey is ambivalent. He mostly sides with the ¡Democracia Real YA! position that ‘the democracy of the representatives has come to be regarded by many as not only a rather pale imitation of the real thing, but a mechanism for preventing ordinary citizens exercising greater control over their own lives.’ But there are moments when Tormey admits that the party isn’t over. At one point he says that contemporary politics resonates with ‘the sound of anti-political politics, anti-representational representation’. In saying this, he has Podemos, Syriza and the SNP in mind: ‘Recent initiatives’, he notes, ‘suggest that even the most horizontal of activists now see that under representative or post-representative conditions the “horizontal” may need to be combined with the “vertical” to leverage alternatives for citizens during elections, to provide a focus for specific campaigns and demands.’ ¡Democracia Real YA! (‘Real Democracy Now’) poster by the Mexican art collective Lapiztola Stencil Rosario Martínez Llaguno and Roberto Vega Jiménez In these and other passages, it’s as if Tormey is neither for nor against representative politics, but just the reverse. His vexed ambivalence is entirely understandable, especially because a straightforward return to mass-membership political parties seems most improbable. During their heyday, as Robert Michels famously pointed out in his classic Political Parties (1911), political parties were powerful patronage machines. They offered paid-up members and supporters significant benefits: jobs, financial support, literacy, promises of one-person one-vote and access to state power and its resources. Parties today are ghostly silhouettes of their former selves, which raises the question: since for the foreseeable future political parties will remain indispensable conduits of access to such state resources as taxation revenues, law-making powers and policing and military force, which kind of political party has the greatest chances of success in getting out the vote, attracting the support of citizens? Are slimmed-down and flatter political parties using multi-media tactics and Google-type algorithms to turn heads, inspire hearts and to mobilise the vote viable alternatives to the old mass-membership party analysed by Michels? Or might party forms of the 21st century instead come to resemble an accountancy parties (let’s call them). Might there in future be more of what we have now, so that organised parties resemble firms of well-advertised accountants and tax advisors hungry for business? Firms that nose-pinching citizens conveniently hook up with from time to time, when the need arises (elections), to do what they have to do (deal with the state), to submit their returns (by casting their votes), then to resume their everyday lives, at a distance from the party system, all the while complaining about the performance of politicians and poking fun and spinning crabbed jokes about the sad and boring rituals of all parties, including the party for which they’ve just voted? Hobbes and Rousseau Tormey doesn’t declare his hand on this point. In part, I suspect, this is not just because the task of building distinctively 21st-century parties is very much unfinished, speculative and highly challenging business; or because his whole approach (as he puts it) is ‘weakly normative’. Something else is at work here: it’s called gut contempt for representation. It’s a pity the book doesn’t attempt a fine-grained genealogy of the plural meanings of representation, but enough is said to confirm that Tormey typically understands representation in its originally Hobbesian sense of substitution. In plain English, representation for Tormey is a con. It’s a deceptively ideological practice whereby those who exercise power over others falsely claim themselves to be identical with those whom they rule. Put abstractly, representation (‘Trust and respect me, I am your representative’) is supposed likeness, matching and direct correspondence. It is unity through identification, congruity, alleged similarity. The representative claims to be the self-same or twin of the represented, a Doppelgänger, a facsimile or carbon copy of the represented, a chip off the old block. From Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil (1651) Tormey’s provocative image of representation as illegitimate ruling, as a vertical relationship between leaders who lead by claiming falsely that they have the interests of the led at heart, helps to explain his repeated insistence that representation is the opposite of ‘horizontal’ citizen participation, and that the task of radical politics is ‘to connect rather than represent’. Inspired by Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778), who despite their substantial differences were agreed that representation is ruling others, Tormey strikingly concludes that 20th-century Communist Parties were ‘a quintessentially representative discourse and representative form of politics’. The Principle of Disappointment To my mind, this understanding of representation as unification through ruling is one-sided. It downplays the way the brand new idea and practice of representative democracy, as it emerged at the end of the 18th century, contained within it the principle of popular rejection and rotation of leaders. When measured by the ancient Greek standards of democracy as self-government by the people, for the people, representative democracy was of course a defective form of government. That was Rousseau’s strong objection. Government under conditions of representative democracy nevertheless rested, ideally speaking, on the premise that ‘the people’ are ultimately ‘sovereign’. It followed from this formulation that while perfect accord between representatives and the represented couldn’t ever be achieved, steps towards self-correction could and should always be taken. In the lonely hour of the last instance, ‘the people’ must always have the final say in determining who governs. Vox populi, vox dei. But in striving for mimesis - a closure of the gap between citizens and their representatives - representative democracy, according to its own standards, constantly chased after the unattainable. Its self-inscribed, openly declared lack of perfection stemmed from the fact that it embraced the principle of disappointment: the recognition that representatives and citizens are ultimately not identical. In the life and times of modern representative democracy, the disappointment principle was often seen as its fundamental weakness, as proof of its reactionary incoherence. Defenders of representative democracy (from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Dahl) consistently saw this principle as its greatest strength, certainly in comparison to tyrannical regimes that boss and bully their subjects into submission. They hailed representative democracy as a practical new method of publicly admitting differences of opinion and apportioning blame for the poor political performance of leaders. It was seen as a brand new way of enabling citizens to complain publicly and to let off steam about their leaders and, thus, to chastise them with threatened or actual rotation of leadership, guided by such criteria as merit, performance, responsiveness and humility. Put differently: from the end of the 18th century, champions of representative democracy thought of it as a new and livelier form of humble government. It was seen as a novel way of creating space to enable not only individuals but also groups and dissenting political minorities to defend their interests legitimately, and to control those who governed them by means of an open competition for power that enabled elected representatives to test their political competence and leadership skills, in the presence of others equipped with the power to trip them up and throw them out of office, if and when they failed, as surely they would in the end. Hanna Pitkin (1931 -) The founding principle of representative democracy was both original and powerful: ‘the people’ do not govern but they do make periodic appearances in elections in order to judge, sometimes harshly, the performance of their representatives. Electors are entitled to throw the idiots out. That is how, from time to time, they solve what Hanna Pitkin famously called ‘the paradox of representation’: that citizens have to be absent in order to be re-presented but also present in order to be re-presented. Seen in terms of the deep tension that is inherent in the process of representation, this is the whole point of elections: they are weapons for periodically cheering up the disappointed. If representatives were always virtuous, impartial, competent and fully responsive to the wishes of the represented, elections would lose their purpose. The represented would be identical with their representatives; representation would lose its meaning; the animating disjunction between what ‘is’ and what ‘can be’ or ‘ought to be’ would consequently collapse. However, since representatives are rarely (if ever) like this, and since, in the eyes of the represented, they never quite get things right and are never so worthy and persuasive, often behaving like idiots who get things badly wrong, elections function as a vital means of disciplining representatives for having let down their electors. Through elections, the friends of representative democracy concluded, electors get their chance to throw harsh words and paper rocks at their representatives – to chuck them out of office and replace them with popularly elected substitutes. The Changing Ecology of Representation Well, that’s the old orthodox theory. In our times, for the variety of reasons outlined in this wonderful book, ideals are being crushed by practice. Tormey makes a stimulating and persuasive case for a new democratic politics pitted against mainstream political parties. In opposition to felt injustices and mounting inequality, he is right to champion new forms of public clamour. He calls for a ‘politics of resonance’, a renewal of the sense that democracy has been kidnapped, and that it needs to be reclaimed, and lived anew within everyday life. Trouble is that the new ‘immediate or non-mediated politics’ forms of democratic politics he has in mind are everywhere, and without exception, instances of representative politics. Their lack of structure and formal leadership and avowed rejection of representation (‘United, the people do not need parties’ was the cry of protesters from Madrid’s Puerta del Sol, five years ago) are only apparent. Their reliance upon mechanisms of representation is too often disguised, or denied. Truth is they rely upon mechanisms of representation, if by that word is meant what the earliest champions of representative democracy meant: acting on behalf of others, in their name, subject to their consent. Michael Saward and others have recently pointed out that in this sense all politics involves claim making on behalf of others, and it therefore follows from this wider definition that in the age of monitory democracy the politics of representation is not confined to elections and parties and parliaments, that is, formal parliamentary politics in the narrow sense. Often in opposition to mainstream political parties, unelected and non-party representative politics is flourishing. That’s a key reason why mainstream political parties are feeling the pinch. They increasingly find themselves competing in fields of power with other bodies claiming to be representative of their constituencies. The fundamental point is that we’re not witnessing the end of representative politics but, rather, we’re living through times in which the ecology of representation is changing, becoming more complex, and ever more dispersed. Tormey agrees, and that’s the principal insight of his excellent book: within human affairs, the central political struggle is no longer, or primarily, the battle for one person, one vote. In the age of monitory democracy, the central struggle is to establish the principle of one person, many votes, multiple representatives, wherever power is exercised. Seen in this way, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Oxfam and Greenpeace are just as politically important as any political party on our planet. So, too, are citizens’ efforts to blow the whistle on institutionalised racism, or to extend rights of representation to indigenous peoples, disabled citizens and the poor. Which is to say that rather than witnessing the end of representative politics, we’re now living in times faced by a double democratic challenge: the challenge of breathing life back into political parties as trusted representatives of the wishes and needs of citizens considered as equals, and the difficult, potentially complementary struggle to extend the principles of representation into every field of power where arbitrary rule currently mangles the lives of people and their environment. Simon Tormey (centre), Geoff Gallop (left) and John Keane (right), Gleebooks, May 15th 2015 Lindy Baker/SDN/University of Sydney DisclosureJohn Keane receives funding from the Australian Research Council


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Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande: ‘Talks With Greece Must Pick Up Speed’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande, taking part at a news conference on climate change in Berlin on Tuesday, said that the negotiation talks between Greece and its European creditors must pick up speed to give the opportunity to Greece to accept further financial aid. During her meeting with the French President, Merkel stated: “I would say the talks need to speed up, rather than that they are going too fast, and we hope the relevant forum – the Brussels Group – can make clear progress because the agreement in February was that a program should be set up by the end of May.” And Hollande added: “We all have the same stance, which is that Greece must stay in the Eurozone.” The two leaders admitted they will attend a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at an EU summit in Riga, Latvia, this week.


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Here's the brutal reality for ordinary Greeks if the government defaults

Despite repeated assurances from the Greek government that it's nearing a bailout deal, cash is running extremely low, and every day without one increases the chance that the government defaults on its debt repayments. But what happens to ordinary Greeks in that situation?  Currently, the European Central Bank (ECB) has the Greek banking sector on life support in the form of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA). That's meant to be a short-term method to prevent a crisis of liquidity (as the name suggests). It's not a long-term prop for the system, and the ECB may not continue providing the funds if the country becomes even more obviously insolvent. Gilles Moec from Bank of America explained this in a recent note: By controlling Greek banks’ access to liquidity via ELA, the ECB is in a crucial position. Were the central bank to “turn the tap off”, then mechanically the Greek banking sector would go bust, since resident credit institutions could no longer deal with the deposit outflows. So a default could easily mean capital controls, with a lockdown not unlike the one brought in by Cyprus in 2013. Initially at least, some banks were only able to distribute €100 (£72, $112) per day from a bank account. Anyone trying to leave the country with more than €10,000 (£7,188, $11,153) could have it seized, and companies looking to buy and sell large amounts abroad were subject to checks. According to the Guardian, Greek institutions are concerned about extreme social unrest. Some officials are worried that if Greece tried to bring in the sort of bank deposit tax that happened in Cyprus, there would be open violence: “People are taking more or less everything they have got out of their accounts for fear that the government will be dipping into them next,” said an official talking on condition of anonymity at the Bank of Greece... “We would see the revolt that this crisis has not yet produced. There would be blood in the streets. The Greeks are not like the Cypriots,” added the Bank of Greece official. Cyprus' bank deposit tax was brought in parallel to an international bailout, hitting any holdings worth more than €100,000 (£71,840, $111,480) with a 10% levy — one might seem appealing to the Greek government once investors were no longer able to pile out. Euromoney has also previously suggested that fear of such a tax has been driving big withdrawals. According to Gabriel Sterne at Oxford Economics, it would bring in a "further deep recession" — Greece's economy is already in a pretty dire position, but the inability to get money in and out of banks would be a massive headache for businesses and investors. Berenberg's analysts go further: "Even if the financial system is managed as well as possible under the circumstances, we expect the cash drought and capital controls to set off a sharp recession in Greece. GDP may decline by another 5-10%." For context, 10% is equal to the sort of slump Greece recorded at the very worst points of the euro crisis. Unemployment would rise from its already eye-watering levels, and such an event would leave the country's economy about two thirds of the size it was before the financial crisis. There would be other strange events in the lives of ordinary Greeks. For example, IOUs might begin to surface in place of currency. The government can't pay its creditors in a parallel currency, but it could pay pensioners, contractors and public servants. The cash alternative would hold value in the same way that any other modern money holds value — because it's backed by the government. Although in this case, while euros are backed by a European institution (the ECB), the IOUs would be backed by the Greek government alone, and would likely be worth very little outside of the country. Here's how Capital Economics think that would play out: Shopkeepers (and other economic agents) would find themselves obliged to accept these IOUs as payment (whether or not they were declared as legal tender). But they would not be obliged to accept them on equal terms with euros proper, and they surely would not want to. A dual pricing system would develop; a good (or service) would cost 100 euros but, say, 110 IOUs. Of course, anyone being paid in IOUs would then demand a pay rise. A parallel market would likely open up too, with holders of the IOUs bidding for euros. You can imagine what that would do for the public's faith in the new monetary scheme. It's easy to see how hard it would be for Greece to get back into the eurozone properly after this (without controls) — but a Grexit scenario would likely mean even more social unrest, spiking inflation and financial outflows. The halfway house of a frozen banking system and a strange shadow currency might actually be the best option in that case.   In this scenario almost everything depends on how the ECB behaves. If it's willing to turn a blind eye to a technical default and keep holding the banking system up, thing could keep going as they are — but if it isn't, Greece's situation could get much worse, and quickly.Join the conversation about this story » NOW WATCH: Here's how Floyd Mayweather spends his millions


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Lost in 6.5%-18%: Varoufakis’ overhaul of V.A.T system may skyrocket food & utility prices

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said it clearly Monday night on political program on private STAR TV. There will be a flat Value Added Tax of 18% for cash-transactions and a 3% discount – ie. 15% V.A.T. –  for payments with credit or debit card. He assured that “the low […]


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Pressure on Greece rises as Varoufakis says deal near

Greece hints a deal is close, but a closer look suggests the factors that have prevented a breakthrough for the last few months are still in place.


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Russia may ease food import ban for three EU states: Interfax

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia may exempt around 20 firms in Hungary, Greece and Cyprus from its embargo on food imports from the European Union, Interfax news agency quoted a senior official as saying on Tuesday.


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Is Greece close to Grexit?

Is Greece close to Grexit?


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Merkel, Hollande urge Greek talks accelerate for end-May deal

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said that efforts to resolve the standoff over Greek financing need to speed up.


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