Memorandum 2022 and Memorandum 2023 (tags)
The Bremen study group on Alternative Economic Policy has been publishing analyses since 1975. Sustainable infrastructure Investments, de-carbonization, environmental safeguards, work protections and welfare regulations are primary as well as resisting profit maximization and environmental destruction.
Fairer Taxes and Inheritance for all! (tags)
A few people own the majority of the wealth, the rest share what remains. Star economist Thomas Piketty wants to change this. He has developed reform proposals that distribute the wealth of our society more fairly and make our lives more democratic. The most important pillars of his reforms are economic co-determination, fairer taxes and a stronger welfare state.
The New NATO Strategic Concept: 6 Articles (tags)
Collective pressure in a broad societal dimension is necessary for a cease-fire - in a viable European security architecture... At the core of a sustainable compromise between Russia, Ukraine and the US could be a guarantee of Ukraine's full sovereignty and military neutrality.
Tax evasion and avoidance and Democracy at a tipping point (tags)
The biggest losses from tax evasion and avoidance are caused by multinational corporations, followed by wealthy individuals. Sums in the triple-digit billions up to one trillion. Euros are evaded annually in the EU. 21-32 trillion US dollars are undeclared via tax havens
The war in Ukraine and the consequences for the world economy (tags)
The Corona pandemic already shows that a rethink of trade policy is needed and that the neoliberal form of globalization is not fit for the future. Large-scale investments in renewable energies and a fair design of trade agreements would be advances that benefit everyone.
For a democratic polarization (tags)
The new world economic crisis has shown yet again that one can't leave it to the market to provide for a strong economy. In any case, it is a truism that a community with a certain quality of life depends to a great extent on resources that the market does not produce.
Unemployment myth and "Migrantization" of precarity (tags)
Involuntary unemployment is afflicted with many prejudices, which impute a supposed lack of motivation and utility to those affected. Although these prejudices are easy to refute, politicians and representatives of the media cling to the neoliberal notion of individual guilt in unemployment. Unemployment has structural causes.
The US election as a turning point (tags)
We seek emancipatory methods of decision-making that organize social life without leaders, command and obedience. We need enlightenment, a free press critical of domination, counter-publics, and social movements that fight for the dignity of all people. We will write history from below
The new normality is characterized by fear, social distancing and increasing state control. Many fear that the current situation could become permanent and that our liberal democratic legal system could be transformed into a dictatorial system of injustice.
Job guarantee for COVID-pandemic victims (tags)
A job guarantee for the long-term unemployed is needed. A sufficient number of jobs must be created. This is where politics is needed. The quality and range of public services can be improved. Long-term unemployment is a market failure.People who want to work cannot find a job.
Europe needs an effective guarantee of youth solidarity (tags)
The Youth Guarantee could create an entry-level job market in the public or non-profit sector - in other words, jobs that serve the common good. It is the austerity policy in the wake of the financial and economic crisis that has delayed the socio- and ecological transformation.
Less is more and Tightening the rules for the unemployed (tags)
Gainful employment is just one form of work alongside others such as care work or voluntary work. Here I would like to endorse the model of the 30-hour week... There is a need to expand investment-based active labor market policy.
More Public Investment is Sensible and Necessary (tags)
Low-interest rates should create possibilities for expansive budgetary policy. Public investments in the infrastructure and education could benefit future generations by helping raise long-term prosperity and well-being. The one-sided narrowing of budgetary possibilities is excessive
Trade War and Zero Deficit Myth (tags)
State debts are often necessary and are not automatically bad economically. Investments are prerequisites of future prosperity. When private parties spend too little, the state must step into the breach.
The Struggle against Aggressive Tax Avoidance (tags)
Experts estimate a fifth of world wealth is hidden from the tax authorities of states and considerable parts of international corporate profits are not taxed. Google and Amazon parked billions in shadow financial centers. Tax avoidance makes a functioning state impossible
Economic Stagnation and its Mastery (tags)
Corporate profits explode while investments stagnate.Social housing declines with privatization. According to neoliberal theory, higher profits lead to grater investments and more jobs. In truth, higher profits lead to more use of tax havens and companies buying back their stock.
US Election as a Turn of an Era (tags)
Karl Marx modified a Hegel quotation that world-historical events always occurred twice, the first time as tragedy and the next time as farce. Since November 9, 2016, we know they can occur as tragedy and farce at once.
Ujnemployment is (not) a Full-time Job (tags)
There are many scandals and injustices, for example that wealth concentration in Austria and the EU is increasing. However, the debate is again about the "unemployed unwilling to work" instead of about the widening gap.
The Social State Benefits All of Us (tags)
The social state can on ly fulfill expectations when financed on a broad and just basis. The social state must be adjusted to do justice to the pressing challenges.."The social state is the greatest cultural achievement in the 20th century"
The Shortwave Report 04/29/16 Listen Globally! (tags)
A weekly 30 minute review of international news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio and the internet. With times, frequencies, and websites for listening at home. 3 files- Highest quality broadcast, regular broadcast, and slow-modem streaming. NHK World Radio Japan, Radio Havana Cuba, Radio Deutsche-Welle, and Sputnik Radio.
This crisis is only another warning shot of the current economic system and offers a window of opportunity to leave behind the neoliberal path of development taken since the end of the 1970s. The root of the problem is the economic model based on growth and exploitation of nature.
Economic Inequality Divides Economics and Society (tags)
An unequal distribution of income paralyzes the whole economy... Redistribution from top to bottom in a national economy ultimately depends on which social groups can enforce their interests more strongly.
Economic Crises as Sicknesses and Catastrophes (tags)
The 2008 financial crisis is often wrongly described as a "state debt crisis" where cause and effect are inverted and economists and the market are released from responsibility. Sickness and catastrophe metaphors dominate discussion
Tax Justice for Social Justice (tags)
Every year states lose billions in tax revenues through the aggressive tax avoidance practices of international corporations. These companies profit from public services whose financing is left to citizens. 1 trillion euros are lost every year from European public budgets.
Tax Flight, Tax Avoidance and the Contribution of the Rich to Society (tags)
Multinational businesses cause the greatest losses through tax flight and tax avoidance. Between $21 and $32 trillion are invested in tax havens. Tax flight is a problem for democracy. Without tax revenues, politics renounces on creative possibilities.
Reviving an Explosive Topic: Reducing Work Hours (tags)
In truth, the introduction of the eight-hour day, the free Saturday and the fifth vacation week (in Austria) did not cause economic crises. Reduced working hours means more distribution justice for the general public and more quality of life for workers.
No Redistribution Without the Social State (tags)
In Austria 30 percent of the gross domestic product is spent on social services (not including education spending)...Since the 1990s social security has been increasingly discussed as a financial burden and less as a social achievement
The State as a Human Cage (tags)
"Personal performance" always depends on the work of past generations and state interventions. The 1% stylize inequality as a motor to innovation, growth and development. Exploding inequality is the end to public spirit and interdependence.
Asset Distribution and the Financial Crisis (tags)
A perverse system arose out of the interaction of deregulation of the financial system and polarization of asset distribution. A reform of the financial system can only be part of the repair of the system. When wages grow again with productivity, an economic balance will be possible
Growth Euphoria and Distribution Reality (tags)
The chasm between poor and rich opens even more. The uncoupling of growth and quality of life on one side and productivity and work volumes on the other side make clear that "business-as-usual" leads to growing problems. German GDP grew 300% with 20% fewer workers.
Universities for Bread & Roses (tags)
A view from the South on the global rebellion against the neo-liberal university.
Suspected Hemorrhagic Pneumonia Outbreak Hits Ukraine (tags)
Ukraine situation may head everywhere
Austria: Crash Instead of Cash (tags)
In 1978 the Bretton Woods system broke down since the US abandoned the key function of the US dollar to print money to finance the Vietnam War.. The liberalization of the financial markets started a mechanism in which the worldwide population loses.
The Shortwave Report 5/11/07 ¡Listen Globally! (tags)
A weekly 30 minute review of news and opinion, recorded from a shortwave radio. With times and freqs for listening at home. 2 files- broadcast and slow-modem streaming. Free to rebroadcast. Netherlands, Cuba, and Russia.
What is good for the economy and what is good for people diverge more and more! Nevertheless the opposite is drummed into people..Capitalism only knows the irrational end-in-itself, making more money out of money until the end of time. Capitalism strikes its own limits.
Basic Income Strengthens Workers' Negotiating Power (tags)
Basic income would be an effective instrument against the growing poverty, a kind of democracy package and a good vehicle for self-determined reduced working hours..Some leftists have a hard time because they follow a certain work fetishism
Spain Betrayed (by the anarchists) (tags)
For the first time in history Anarchists had the possibility of applying their theories on a grand scale. They enjoyed an unparalleled authority in Catalonia, the decisive and most industrialised region in Spain, and had the unconditional support of the overwhelming majority of the proletariat. The truth of a theory, like the efficacy of a remedy, is verified according to experience. What remains of the theories of Bakunin, Kropotkin and Malatesta [131] after the Spanish experience? For decades we Marxists have demonstrated the limited and petit-bourgeois character of Anarchist concepts.
The Unconditional Basic Income (tags)
Alternatives to the work society are necessary. A political movement is only credible today if it positions itself to the changes of the world of work and presents alternatives to the crisis of the work society. Basic income is a first step to freedom.
Short List of "Practical Necessities" (tags)
When interests rise, fewer and fewer investments occur in production and employ-ment, unemployment increases and the economy goes flat. This analysis of the Austrian economy could help the US battle deregulation and corporate enrichment.
Urgent Calls Needed for Peace Activist Kate (Raphael) and.. (tags)
Kimberley Anne Gray Frederick Batzler and Gustav Fridolin. International Womens Peace Service:
FEELS LIKE 1938 ALL OVER AGAIN: AUSTRIA CELEBRATES ANSCHLUSS WITH CALIFORNIA (tags)
After partying the night away, Austrian dignitaries and admirers in Schwarzenegger's home region celebrated his win by claiming him anew as one of their own.
Austria: a year after the FPO crept to power, who benefitted ? (tags)
In Austria, the regime of Haider's laughably named "Freedom" party may serve as an example of what to expect from a corporate state.