Yanis Varoufakis's Blog, page 94

DiEM25 will contest the European Parliament elections in Italy – Press Conference announcement, Rome, 26th OCT 2018

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are here because Italy is being torn by two destructive forces: Brussels and Salvini. By the failed establishment of Renzi-Merkel-Juncker-Moscovici and by the reckless, racist anti-European Salvini project.

Tragically, Brussels and Salvini are working very well together against the interests of Italians in particular and of Europeans in general.

Salvini is Brussels’ greatest supporter. Juncker, Merkel, Macron et al are hanging on to power with the argument: “Whatever mistakes we have made, après nous… ”
Brussels is Salvini’s greatest supporter. By imposing on Italy rules that guarantee Italy’s stagnation and falling income and prospects for a majority of Italians, they enable Salvini’s sortie into xenophobic populism.

ON THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT BUDGET

Both Brussels and the Lega-5S government are profoundly, and intentionally, wrong.

Brussels is wrong to impose on Italy fiscal and banking rules that guarantee Italy’s stagnation – rules that were agreed to by the, now, collapsing Italian establishment. The EU’s revamped fiscal rules are analytically baseless. They are forcing Rome to introduce new austerity at a time when growth has fallen to zero – on the false assumption that it is possible to compute Italy’s growth-neutral structural deficit. If the Italian government were to reduce the deficit to 0.8% (as the rules specify), Italy’s debt-to-GDP ratio would rise, not fall, as the result of the certain fall in GDP that would follow.
The Lega-5S government is wrong too. Its budget will not boost growth sufficiently to make a difference to most people, the result being a deficit overshoot without much benefit. Cutting the top tax rates will not boost growth: When the rich receive a tax reduction they either save it or send it to… Luxembourg, Switzerland etc.

Even worse, both Brussels and the Lega-5S government know that they are profoundly wrong. Brussels is choosing to be wrong because they are more interested in maintaining a semblance of control over our countries than they are in shared prosperity across Europe. And the Lega-5S government is choosing to be wrong because Salvini and Di Maio are more interested in maintaining their precarious alliance that in the prosperity of the Italian people.

OUR PRESENT MOMENT

So, here we are:

Italy stagnates because its centrist establishment agreed to EU rules that choked Italy, causing its own political demise and paving the ground for Salvini.

The ancient regime (including Renzi and his patrons in Brussels) and the Lega-5S government are two faces of the same debased coin. Brussels and Salvini will continue to reinforce each other while Italy sinks, while Europe disintegrates.
The oligarchic establishment (PD, Forza Italia etc.) caused the problem and cannot pretend to be offering the solution. Renzi et al lack the ideas, the credibility and the integrity to make a difference.
Salvini is exploiting the establishment’s fragmentation and logical incoherence to bring, via his rabid xenophobia, a new Fascist Moment in Italy.
5S is increasingly discredited as a crutch on which Salvini is leaning to take over government completely.

WE MUST ACT. NOW!

Italy has an urgent need for a new progressive alternative to the implicit but destructive alliance between the oligarchic establishment and Salvini’s nationalism.

Italy, however, does not need yet another sad leftist alliance of the usual suspects. Italy does not need another Frankenstein list that stitches together dead parts of what used to be Italy’s glorious left. The last thing Italians need is another list of leftist candidates lacking a coherent program of change and united only by a desperation to get elected on the basis of vague promises, wishful thinking and high-minded rhetoric.

No, what Italian voters need, and deserve, is a progressive list with a single, coherent, credible program that everyone agrees has genuine, implementable answers to the problems keeping people up at night and making them fear for their children, for their future, for the future of Italy and Europe.

This is why we are here today. To announce such a list and such a single, coherent, credible program.

WHO ARE WE?

Last March, colleagues from DiEM25, myself, comrades from Poland, Denmark, Portugal, Benoit Hamon from France, we met in Napoli under the auspices of my friend Luigi de Magistris, Napoli’s Mayor, and announced that we are beginning. That we are constructing a single paneuropean list with a single program for Italy, for Greece, for France, for the whole of Europe – a program that we will put to the people of Europe in May 2019 in the European Parliament elections. This program is now complete, after many months of very hard work. It is the progressive, ecological, feminist, humanist, rational program of the paneuropean coalition that we now call EUROPEAN SPRING.

WHAT DO WE PROPOSE viz. THE ITALIAN BUDGET?

Today the Italian budget is in everyone’s mind. So, here is what we propose. Here is the only pro-Italy, pro-Europe solution that we propose. A European solution that work for Italy and an Italian solution that help Italians and Europeans in equal measure:

Continue with the introduce of a guaranteed minimum income and, in fact, speed it up
Scrap Salvini’s top tax rate cut and the tax amnesties (including those to owners of illegally built housing): When you give handouts to the rich, they either save it or take it to Switzerland, Luxembourg etc.
Use the money saved from Salvini’s tax cuts (about 8 billion euros) to fund a growth-enhancing green investment. To this sum add another 12 billion euros, taking the deficit to the Maastricht limit of 3%. The total public investment of 20 billion euros would then be spent on: (a) Industrial and ecological transition; e.g. to address problems such as ILVA in Taranto and the offshoring of low-added-value manufacturing; (b) Environmental safety, including a plan for earthquake preparedness; (c) Investment in infrastructure, to avoid a repetition of the Genoa disaster and to invest in sustainable transport.
Call a EU Council Summit to propose that any reduction in deficits from 3% to the limits of the enhanced fiscal compact be conditional on a Green Investment New Deal for the Eurozone, amounting to 5% of Eurozone GDP. In short, the Italian government’s 20 billion investment fund (see above) can be replaced by the European Green New Deal funding, allowing Italy to reduce its deficit to 0.8%, as per the prevailing fiscal rules. How will the European Green New Deal be funded? The EU Council gives the green light to the European Investment Bank to issue bonds of 500 billion euros each year for five years, with the European Central Bank ready to buy those in the secondary market if these bonds’ yields rise above a threshold.
Until and unless the EU Council approves the European Green New Deal, Italy will unilaterally fund its public investment by boosting government deficit to 3%.

WHAT DO WE PROPOSE FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION?

DiEM25 has helped produce the EUROPEAN SPRING’s comprehensive New Deal for Europe program that we shall present it to European voters across Europe in May 2019.

OUR DUTY

Ladies and gentlemen,

Austerity for the many and socialism for the bankers has given rise to the present Fascist Moment in Italy, to the collapse of the political centre everywhere, to the reactionary, divided Europe that Donald Trump was hoping for.

Today, here in Rome, we are saying: Enough! We are saying: Another Italy, another Europe, is not only possible. It is here in the form of our transnational movement with a SINGLE COHERENT PROGRAM that people can believe in – because it makes sense and because it can be implemented.

Today, we are here to announce that DiEM25 is moving ahead on the basis of the only rational plan for Italy, the only rational plan for Europe. The Brussels-Salvini duet is wasting no time to wreck Italy, to disintegrate Europe. There is no more time to wait for our partners to complete never-ending internal deliberations. So, DiEM25 is moving ahead.

During November we will stage three large events across Italy to announce our list and begin our primaries. By 1st December we shall begin collecting the signatures necessary to contest the May 2019 European Parliament election.

The DiEM25 Italia train is leaving the station, slowly and with its doors wide open for our partners to jump in. We invite them to do so.

CONCLUSION

The European Parliament elections are only a start. They give us an opportunity to have this debate. We shall use the May elections to transcend the fake conflict between Brussels and Salvini, between the authoritarian incompetent establishment and the misanthropic Nationalist International.

DiEM25 Italia is here. With an economic agenda. But also as a political force.

We are here to bring to the people of Italy a scent of next May’s European Spring.

Italian progressives are no longer alone.

Συνέντευξη εφ’ όλης της ύλης με τον Γιώργο Σαχίνη, στον 984: Παπαντωνίου, χωρικά ύδατα, η σύγκρουση Σαλβίνι-Βρυξελλών και οι προτάσεις του ΜέΡΑ25 για την Ελλάδα και την Ευρώπη

Video answers to young Germans’ questions about the future, the Left and Europe – Jung & Naiv, Episode 381, filmed in Berlin 17th OCT 2018

On Europe’s austerity drive and DiEM25 – an OECD podcast

One country that symbolised the crisis of the last 10 years was Greece. Its insolvency embarked the country on a long regime of bail-outs and austerity. This August, Greece officially emerged from the crisis, with the OECD forecasting GDP growth again. So, did the austerity work? The former Greek finance minister and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM) remains unconvinced. Mr Varoufakis was a guest at the OECD’s “10 years after the crisis” conference where he delivered a keynote under the title: 2008 and the International New Deal we need for the post-2018 world

Η αλήθεια και τα ψέματα για τις τράπεζες – ΕφΣυν, 13 Οκτωβρίου 2018

Το 2008 οι ελληνικές τράπεζες χρεοκόπησαν. Για μια δεκαετία η πικρή αλήθεια κουκουλώνεται. Πώς; Με όλο και περισσότερα χρήματα που (άμεσα ή έμμεσα) παρέχουν στις τράπεζες (χωρίς βέβαια να έχουν ερωτηθεί ποτέ) οι χειμαζόμενοι πολίτες. Και με μια ακολουθία ψεμάτων που τα ΜΜΕ και το Μνημονιακό Τόξο επαναλαμβάνουν ολοένα και επιθετικότερα – μέσα στην αγωνία τους ότι η αλήθεια για τις τράπεζες-ζόμπι (που τους στηρίζουν) θα αποκαλυφθεί. Την προπερασμένη Τετάρτη οι μετοχές των τραπεζών έπεσαν τόσο που κάποιοι την κατέγραψαν ως «Μαύρη Τετάρτη». Ξάφνου όλοι άρχισαν να ψάχνουν την αιτία, λες και χρειάζεται να είναι κανείς ειδήμων για να καταλάβει γιατί η μετοχή μιας χρεοκοπημένης τράπεζας κάποια στιγμή θα πέσει. (Το μόνο ενδιαφέρον ερώτημα θα ήταν: «Γιατί δεν έπεφτε τόσο καιρό;») Βέβαια, η προσποίηση της «έκπληξης» δεν είναι αποτέλεσμα αθώας ασχετοσύνης αλλά λογική συνέχεια της ακολουθίας των ψεμάτων πίσω από την οποία κρύβει το κατεστημένο τη γύμνια του.

Μια ανασκόπηση των τριών από τα πολλά ψέματα του Μνημονιακού Τόξου για τις τράπεζες ρίχνει χρήσιμο φως στο πρόσφατο χρηματιστηριακό κραχ και σε αυτά που μας συμβαίνουν δέκα χρόνια τώρα.

1ο ψέμα: Ολα θα πήγαιναν καλά (σύμφωνα με την κυβέρνηση) αν δεν χτυπούσαν οι κερδοσκόποι ή (σύμφωνα με τη Ν.Δ.) αν δεν ήταν ανίκανη η κυβέρνηση.

Πρόκειται για τις δύο όψεις του ίδιου ψέματος. Η κυβέρνηση ανακάλυψε ότι στα χρηματιστήρια υπάρχουν… κερδοσκόποι. (Σε λίγο θα ανακαλύψει ότι η θάλασσα περιέχει αλάτι, ψάρια, αχιβάδες…) Η Ν.Δ., από την άλλη, ισχυρίζεται ότι όλα θα έβαιναν καλώς αν είχε εκείνη τα οφίτσια.

Η αλήθεια είναι πιο απλή: Ολοι γνώριζαν το πόρισμα της Ευρωπαϊκής Κεντρικής Τράπεζας (ΕΚΤ) σύμφωνα με το οποίο λείπουν περί τα 15 δισ. ευρώ ιδίων κεφαλαίων από τις ελληνικές τράπεζες. (Σημ. Δικά τους κεφάλαια, όχι καταθέσεις πελατών.) Αυτό το γνώριζαν, πρώτοι και καλύτεροι, οι κερδοσκόποι των χρηματιστηρίων που, έως πρόσφατα, κέρδιζαν αγοράζοντας υπερτιμημένες μετοχές περιμένοντας το πράσινο φως για να τις ξεφορτωθούν πριν τις ξεφορτωθούν τα «κορόιδα». Αυτό που συνέβη λοιπόν είναι ότι τη «Μαύρη Τετάρτη» το πράσινο φως άναψε και… τις ξεφορτώθηκαν.

Πώς προέκυψε το πράσινο φως; Στις ΗΠΑ, μετά από δήλωση του υπουργού Οικονομικών, αυξήθηκαν τα επιτόκια του αμερικανικού δημόσιου χρέους φοβίζοντας τους κερδοσκόπους. Για 24 ώρες η ρευστότητα μειώθηκε παγκοσμίως. Ως συνέπεια, στην Ευρώπη, οι ιταλικές τράπεζες απέτυχαν να αντλήσουν από τους κερδοσκόπους δάνεια και κεφάλαια που είχαν άμεση ανάγκη. Ολα αυτά συνέπεσαν με την υποχρέωση της Πειραιώς στην ΕΚΤ να αντλήσει 1 δισ. Αυτό ήταν το σύνθετο πράσινο φως που οδήγησε τους κερδοσκόπους να «ξεσκαρτάρουν» τις μετοχές των ελληνικών τραπεζών που πάντα σκόπευαν να ξεφορτωθούν. Τα περί συνωμοσίας κερδοσκόπων ή ανικανότητας της κυβέρνησης είναι, απλά, ανοησίες.

2ο ψέμα: Οι τράπεζες μπορεί να ανακάμψουν εντός του 4ου Μνημονίου (2018-2032) με αυτή ή με άλλη κυβέρνηση.

Το αν μια τράπεζα είναι φερέγγυα ή όχι δεν σχετίζεται με το ύψος των καταθέσεών της αλλά με το πόσο «καθαρό» είναι το ενεργητικό της – πόσα «κόκκινα» δάνεια το «μαγαρίζουν». Τράπεζες, όπως ο ελληνικές, με το μισό τους ενεργητικό στο κόκκινο είναι αφερέγγυες. Τελεία και παύλα.

Και τι κάνουν τώρα με τα «κόκκινα» δάνεια; Η ΕΚΤ επιβάλλει στις τράπεζες να τα πουλάνε σε ταμεία-αρπακτικά σε τιμές ευκαιρίας (π.χ. ένα δάνειο των 100 χιλ. «σκοτώνεται» προς 8 χιλ. ευρώ). Η πώληση καθαρίζει μεν το ενεργητικό αλλά καταστρέφει την περιουσία των τραπεζών.

Υπό τον πανικό της «Μαύρης Τετάρτης», συζητήθηκε η χρήση μέρους από το μαξιλάρι δανείων με το οποίο προίκισε η τρόικα την κυβέρνηση (περί τα 15 δισ. – δεν είναι τυχαίο το νούμερο, βλ. πιο πάνω) για να παράσχει εγγυήσεις στις τράπεζες που πουλούν τα κόκκινα δάνεια σε ταμεία-αρπακτικά. Ομως αυτό το σύστημα δοκιμάστηκε στην Ιταλία και απέτυχε παταγωδώς, καθώς η ΕΚΤ απαιτεί οι τράπεζες να αγοράζουν από την κυβέρνηση τις εγγυήσεις αυτές σε τιμές απαγορευτικές (και ανάλογες των CDS τους, για όποιον θυμάται αυτά τα τοξικά παράγωγα).

Ανάκαμψη δεν θα υπάρξει παρά μόνο αν η κυβέρνηση παρέμβει για να εκκαθαρίσει μεγάλο μέρος των «κόκκινων» δανείων. Μόνο που τόσο το 3ο όσο και το 4ο Μνημόνιο απαγορεύουν μια τέτοια κίνηση από οποιαδήποτε ελληνική κυβέρνηση. Αρα, έχουμε μια απλή επιλογή: Την υποταγή στη μόνιμη κρίση που πρεσβεύει το Μνημονιακό Τόξο ή την επιλογή της μονομερούς νομοθέτησης της Δημόσιας Εταιρείας Διαχείρισης Ιδιωτικών Χρεών που πρεσβεύει το ΜέΡΑ25.

3ο ψέμα: Φταίει η σύγκρουση με την τρόικα το 2015 (Κόστος Βαρουφάκη).

Οι τράπεζες με πολλά «κόκκινα» δάνεια θυμίζουν τρύπιες κατσαρόλες. Οσο νερό (κεφάλαια) και να τους προσθέσεις, αν η τρύπα στον πάτο τους είναι μεγάλη (τα «κόκκινα» δάνεια), θα χαθεί.

Οταν κερδίσαμε τις εκλογές τον Γενάρη του 2015, από τα 41 δισ. τραπεζικών κεφαλαίων που τους είχαν δώσει οι πολίτες το 2012-13, είχαν ήδη χαθεί 15 δισ. Ηταν αναπόφευκτο ότι, εφόσον δεν τερματιζόταν η λιτότητα η οποία γεννούσε όλο και πιο πολλά «κόκκινα» δάνεια, θα χάνονταν και τα υπόλοιπα κεφάλαια, όποιος κι αν ήταν στην κυβέρνηση.

Ο μόνος τρόπος να είχε αποφευχθεί η τρίτη ανακεφαλαιοποίηση ήταν να αποφευχθούν το 3ο Μνημόνιο και η νέα απάνθρωπη λιτότητα που γέννησε νέα «κόκκινα» δάνεια. Αλλά για να αποφευχθεί το 3ο Μνημόνιο έπρεπε να υποστηρίξει ο κ. Τσίπρας την απαίτησή μου, μέχρι τελικής ρήξης με τους δανειστές, για σοβαρή αναδιάρθρωση του δημόσιου χρέους.

Την 3η Φεβρουαρίου του 2015 η εξής είδηση έκανε τον γύρο του κόσμου: «Οι ελληνικές μετοχές ανεβαίνουν τρελά. Το Χρηματιστήριο Αθηνών εκτοξεύτηκε 11,2% και οι μετοχές των ελληνικών τραπεζών εκτινάχθηκαν 22% πάνω».
Στην αμέσως επόμενη παράγραφο τα ειδησεογραφικά πρακτορεία εξήγησαν τι είχε συμβεί: Το προηγούμενο βράδυ είχα συναντήσει στο Σίτι του Λονδίνου πάνω από 200 εκπροσώπους διεθνών κερδοσκόπων, τραπεζών κ.λπ., στους οποίους ανέπτυξα πώς πρότεινα να αναδιαρθρωθούν τα «κόκκινα» δάνεια και το δημόσιο χρέος.
Προφανώς, οι κερδοσκόποι θεώρησαν σοβαρές τις προτάσεις εκείνες. Ομως, με το που ανέβηκαν οι τραπεζικές μετοχές, ήρθε η ΕΚΤ, την 4η Φεβρουαρίου, να κλείσει την κάνουλα ρευστότητας στις ελληνικές τράπεζες, γκρεμίζοντας ό,τι είχα χτίσει την προηγουμένη. Πρώτη φορά στην ιστορία των κεντρικών τραπεζών, κεντρική τράπεζα κινήθηκε ώστε να καταστρέψει την επιτυχία υπουργού Οικονομικών να πείσει τους κερδοσκόπους να στηρίξουν το τραπεζικό σύστημα που η κεντρική τράπεζα ιδρύθηκε για να στηρίξει.
Πρόκειται για υπενθύμιση ότι καμία ανάκαμψη δεν θα έρθει χωρίς την υπεύθυνη ανυπακοή (τη μονομερή, βαθιά, αλλά από τεχνικής πλευράς άρτια, αναδιάρθρωση του χρέους) που σήμερα μόνο το ΜέΡΑ25 πρεσβεύει.

*γραμματέας του ΜέΡΑ25

http://www.efsyn.gr/arthro/i-alitheia...

The new Italian government is continuing the Renzi Spoilt Brat tactic, instead of demanding a re-think of the Eurozone’s silly ‘rules’ – On Bloomberg

Art and Class War – Introducing DiEM25’s Art & Culture Policy Agenda. At Central St Martin’s, 10th October 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 authority are terrified of good art. “When I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver”, opined Herman Goering. And how right he was! “The purpose of painting is not to decorate. It is an instrument of war!” Thus said Picasso, offering an explanation of why Goering was right: Authoritarians, whether of the establishment or the anti-establishment variety, have much to fear from a people equipped with means of artistic expression.
Those who control culture shape society. And those who control wealth shape cultural production. In class societies the privileged are the ones who weaponise art; who use it is an instrument of class war. They commission, or simply buy, art. They control the galleries, the museums, popular culture production via the media. Everything they do is a bid simultaneously to reproduce their wealth and spread their dominance over the realm of the aesthetic. To democratise society, we need to disrupt the two-way relationship between cultural and wealth production.
Sotheby’s was Banksy-ed last week. Bansky’s stunt was a brilliant individual act of subversive disruption. But it was also proof that the most subversive act ends up enriching the already rich when confined to the realm of the rich – within a Sotheby’s auction. Even the most subversive individualism ends up being co-opted by the art market, with the self-destructing commodity giving rise to a new, higher order,… commodity.
To democratise society, to turn art into an instrument of defending the victims of the class war, we need to transcend individualist disruptions. We need our interventions to take place on the streets, in the neighbourhoods, in deprived state schools, in the communities. We need to produce our own progressive culture, a 21st century version of what Antonio Gramsci prescribed:  a hegemonic, progressive cultural production program. That’s the only way by which to oppose the ruling class’ power to mould our environment so that their interests begin to be perceived as general, natural and inevitable.
Michael Young once said that if the soil creates castes the machine manufactures classes. To that I wish to add that platform-capitalism, aided and abetted by AI and automation, is about to take us back (or is it forward?) to a postmodern rendition of the caste system. This is our generation’s war.
DiEM Voice, with our event here at Central St Martin’s tonight, is inviting everyone to debate DiEM25’s art and culture policy agenda; the agenda best able to help us win this war. A policy agenda on its own is, of course, useless. But, a progressive movement needs a policy agenda to be inspired, to inspire and to have as a guide of what we want to do once powerful enough to do something significant.
But, let art as an instrument of war not be the last image we leave this theatre with. For a satisfying peace must be this struggle’s aim. In the words of William Morris, “art, using that word in its widest and due signification, is not a mere adjunct of life which free and happy people can do without, but the necessary expression and indispensable instruments of human happiness.” That’s the kind of un-alienated human life that only a capacity to play as adults (i.e. a capacity to explore the world via our varied artistic, individual, potential) can enable.
Let’s leave this theatre with our minds immersed in visions of the good society. Allow me to share some random thoughts of mine regarding that vision. I want to live in a society where people do not work until they drop because they must, or because they have been wound up to think they are loving it. I do not want a society in which people are stressed either because of too much or too little alienating work. I demand the right to live in a society in which people don’t feel compelled to go to work while sick or get sick while working. I want working people not to have to be afraid. I want white women and black men to walk the streets with the same fearlessness as pale men. I want to live in a society where every tortured soul is valued as much as an eccentric genius. Where the worst artist is more respected than the most successful financier.
We must persist. We must create this society. We must create it before we can believe it is possible. For the hell of it. After all the only reason good art is ever produced is for the hell of it. One work at a time. One election at the time. One victory for working people at a time. Tomorrow is another world. Carpe DiEM25!

The above speech was delivered in the context of DiEM25’s event HERE AND NOW!, that took place on 10th October 2018 at Central St Martin’s School of Art and Design, the purpose of which was to present DiEM25’s Art and Culture Policy Agenda, and to invite everyone to contribute to its writing. To join DiEM25, click here. If interested to participate in our Art & Culture Policy Paper, see below:

Vision for Culture | Questions/Topics (PDF) – Forum Discussion – Guidelines (PDF)

Contact: voicecc@diem25.org

Ραδιοφωνική συνέντευξη: Οι θέσεις του ΜέΡΑ25 για τα κόκκινα δάνεια και το ελληνικό τραπεζικό σύστημα

Ραδιοφωνική συνέντευξη στο Πρώτο Θέμα, με τους Μπάμπη Κούτρα και Θανάση Τσεκούρα. Ο Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης μιλά για το ΜέΡΑ25, τα κόκκινα δάνεια και το ελληνικό τραπεζικό σύστημα.

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

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, and across the web. If these conflicts present real dangers, they also present opportunities to reach people that have disconnected from traditional forms of politics – and to hear their voices in response. With a range of performance, presentation, and discussion, the event will invite citizens to help shape a new politics of culture – in Europe and beyond.
On October 10, “Here and Now: A Creative Vision for Europe” will bring together Brian Eno, Srećko Horvat, Danae Stratou, Yanis Varoufakis, Bobby Gillespie and Rosemary Bechler at the Platform Theatre of Central Saint Martins to consider the role of culture in the fight for the future of Europe. With a range of performance, presentation, and discussion, the event will invite citizens to help shape a new politics of culture – in Europe and beyond.
The event will start with an aerial straps piece by Kit Hill which sees her indicate that perhaps the dystopian future already exists in the present and that the two might in fact be a mirror image of one another.
The event will be moderated by Mary Fitzgerald who is Editor-in-Chief of Open Democracy. Representing the DiEM Voice team, Igor Stokfiszewski will be presenting the cultural policy paper process.
The event is organised by DiEM25 + DiEM Voice, and supported by Creative Unions, a CSM initiative supporting artistic collaboration across borders.
Event details and tickets:

https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/central-saint-martins/whats-on-at-csm/platform-theatre

Support a Creative Vision for Europe

https://internal.diem25.org/donations/to/csm_event

DiEM Voice

From its beginning, DiEM25 has placed arts and culture at the heart of its vision of a democratic Europe. DiEM Voice takes this mission forward – dedicated to developing a new vision for culture in Europe and providing a platform for its expression.

Our Conversation

The fight for a democratic culture must address the key assumptions that define Europe’s current cultural regime.

The first is that culture actually means high culture: arts, theatre, opera, film, music that appear inaccessible to the vast majority of Europeans. Works produced at the grassroots, by social movements, and through neighbourhood associations are often dismissed or delegitimized.

The second is that the most appropriate model for sustainable culture is industry:  from film and music to art auctions and private collections. Subordination to the market simultaneously cheapens culture — and makes it exorbitantly expensive.

The third: culture is not work. Europe’s cultural space remains highly precarious, both within institutions and outside of them. Artists in Europe are poor and powerless, with little to no social securities or pension support.

Fourth: there’s nothing worse for culture than democracy. Culture is individualistic, it’s irrational, it’s arbitrary. This assumption results in resistance to democratic governance within cultural institutions and organisations — as well as the tight control of cultural production by those with extensive resources.

How to overthrow those barriers? Which other barriers prevent the emergence of a genuinely democratic European culture?

To stimulate further discussion, we have formulated 10 questions that we present to DiEM25 members, experts, and the general public to reflect on the state of the culture war in Europe and what kind of solutions we can put forward to drive the democratisation of the continent.

We believe the above questionnaire can inspire a fruitful discussion on the future of culture and democracy in Europe. If the cultural conflicts on the street, in our homes, and across the internet present real dangers, they also present opportunities to reach people that have disengaged from traditional forms of politics – and to hear their voices in response.

Do you want to be informed of DiEM25’s actions? Sign up here.

The 5S-Lega Italian government is continuing the failed Renzi strategy of demanding the right to bend the fiscal rules without demanding a re-assessment of the fiscal rules – interviewed for AGI by Arcangelo Rociola

This is the English language (original) interview with Arcangelo Rociola, published on the AGI site in Italian, on the Italian government’s clash with Brussels over its budget deficit, the plans for a flat tax (that is not flat) and a universal income (that will never be universal), the 5S Movement’s claim to the mantle of the Italian Left, and my pronouncement that Mr Salvini has brought a Fascist Moment into Italy and into Europe.

The Italian government decided to take on Bruxelles deciding for a budget act that enlarges consistently the deficit/gdp ratio (2,4%). What is your opinion about it? Could it be enough to revitalize the Italian economy?

It won’t be enough to revitalize the Italian economy. For that to happen there has to be a major change at the level of the Eurozone, including a large scale investment program and a complete revision of the Fiscal Compact. What the government’s fiscal policy will do, besides igniting a confrontation with Brussels, is slightly to boost aggregate demand and (depending on how much of that deficit spending will be directed to poor families) arrest the decline in real average incomes.

The government is going to approve a budget act in which some of the previous austerity measures are going to be deleted (e.g. the pension reform), while a peculiar form of ‘basic income’ and a sort of flat-tax will be introduced. Some weeks ago you said the Italian economy isn’t supportable anymore. Are these the reforms the Italian economy needs in order to change the situation?

The Italian economy is sophisticated, export-oriented and potentially strong. What I did say, and I am repeating here, is that the Italian economy is not sustainable within the existing Eurozone architecture and economic policies (i.e. the fiscal compact, the policy on bank resolution and reductions in non-performing loans etc.). Turning now to the policies of the government, let us first be frank about the facts: There is no proposal for either a universal basic income or a flat tax. These terms are used for propaganda purposes and have no basis in the reality of what is being proposed. 5S is proposing a minimum guaranteed income (that already exists in most northern European countries) while the Lega is proposing not a flat tax but a major tax rate reduction for those paying the higher rate and the abolition of a medium rate. Are these ‘reforms’ what the Italian economy needs? While the minimum guaranteed income is necessary for many poor families, and will help to some extent boost the economy, the tax cuts for the rich will enhance inequality without doing much to boost spending significantly. In short, the new government’s policies will do some good, a little harm but not have a substantial impact on Italy’s problems within a Eurozone whose rules and policies are not allowing your country to breathe.

 Among Italian ministers many say their goal isn’t to undo the EU but to change it from the inside: from Euro to bureaucracy, but also migrants and sovereignty. Does your idea of change for the EU match with that of our government?

No, it does not. If the government wanted to help the EU change in a manner that is beneficial to Italians as well as to other Europeans, it would not be repeating Renzi’s ridiculous mistake. You will recall that Renzi too demanded that Italy be allowed to bend the rules of the Fiscal Compact without having the courage to call upon the EU Council, as the Italian Prime Minister had a right and an obligation, to convene in order to discuss a radical change of the Compact. This government is adopting Renzi’s spoilt-child strategy: Without proposing different rules, a new Compact, it is demanding that Italy is allowed to break the current rules.

As for migration and sovereignty, I am very much afraid that what Mr Salvini is doing – by treating flesh and blood fellow humans floating on the Mediterranean as bargaining chips against Brussels – is to promote strategic misanthropy as a legitimate negotiating tactic within Europe. This Italian government is, to put it bluntly, a clear and present danger for European civilisation.

In your latest book you write about what happened in Greece during the debt crisis describing Greece as an ‘evil experiment’ set up by Bruxelles. Do you see the same risk for Italy in the next years?

No, thankfully. While there are similarities, the differences are larger. Italy is too large to put into a troika-like program or to threaten with expulsion from the eurozone (since such a threat would end the eurozone itself).

Do you think that the Greek debt crisis is ended? Which lesson can we learn from it?

 Of course it has not. The Greek state, the Greek banks, most Greek families and companies are bankrupt. Everyone owes money that they can never repay. All the EU authorities have done is to suspend repayments, until 2032, while imposing austerity that will ensure negligible growth in the incomes that must rise substantially for the debts to be repaid. The reason this is tragic is that, meanwhile, the best and brightest leave the country – a loss of irreplaceable human capital. As for the lesson, it is simple and sad: The EU is nowhere near even having the discussion we must have on how to render our common currency area sustainable.

Are there any Italian political parties which are ideologically close to your Diem25? 

 There are millions of Italians that are close to DiEM25 ideologically and programmatically. We learn this every day, up and down Italy, in the many DiEM25 events across the country. There are also many parties and movements that we talk with – and who are, indeed, close to DiEM25 politically and ideologically. However, we also learn that the Italian people are sick and tired of small parties of the left ‘uniting’ without a comprehensive, a coherent program that makes sense to them. This is why DiEM25 is working to create authentic unity on the basis of a common paneuropean program, rather than a sad attempt to get elected without one.

According to many Italian columnist The 5 Star Movement is the “new left” in Italy, as the Democratic Party is facing a deep crisis. Do you agree with this view? 

 That 5S has captured many politically homeless leftwing voters, there is no doubt. But, unfortunately, 5S is using those votes to deliver power to Mr Salvini who is bringing a new fascist moment in Italy and in Europe. From this perspective, 5S will go down in history as a reactionary party.

Do you think that Europe will be different after the next European election? How do you imagine it? 

Europe is changing anyway, with or without us. Without us, left to the clueless establishment on the one hand and the racist nationalists on the other hand, Europe will fragment and become a reactionary, impotent Europe exactly as Donald Trump wants Europe to be. DiEM25 is active for the purpose of revitalising a humanist Europe that rejects both the austerian establishment and the xenophobic right.