The absence of Europe on any agenda - as an object of critique, a space of solidarity, or a target of reform - seemed to suggest that, while London may be a global city, it is not, politically at least, a European one. Is this really the case?
In a study of Europe’s “subterranean politics,” Mary Kaldor’s team at the London School of Economics and Political Science, working with partners across Europe, has examined both new political parties and public protests, finding that all of these phenomena share not only opposition to austerity,
The demand for politics over markets, a key message in the Occupy and Indignados movements, is also key here. A considerable drop in trust is clear: trust in all national institutions and political actors (parliament, parties, and trade unions).
Confrontation takes creative and alternative forms in the street demonstrations, which may appear, at first sight, contradictory – one week anti-government, pro-European, the next week pro-government, anti-EU.
The Pirate Party does not stand for certain policies, but for a new way of doing politics that challenges established notions of parliamentary democracy with new modes of decision-making.
The ECI is the first transnational direct democratic tool in history. But as we speak the dream of a ‘Europe of Citizens’ is being replaced by a (for some, already nightmarish) Europe divided between lenders and debtors.
On September 15 in Madrid, over one hundred thousand people answered the unions’ call to demand a referendum on austerity. In both its aims and its format, this action confirmed that the trade unions have been influenced by the 15M movement.
People across Europe are critiquing the morality of the political and economic system. Globalisation has helped to engineer an empty democracy, with political-economic processes depoliticised and decisions made by experts. And what of the European dream? “Whoever can understand it, that is ‘the mo
Occupy is part of a wide range of subterranean movements that explore ways to complement representative democracy and empower citizenship. Some citizens want to build stronger democratic institutions: others don’t trust elected representatives any more and promote a change that starts at a local l
The political culture that supported global and European civil society activism in the 1999-2007 period - challenging neoliberal economic and financial power in the form of governments, EU and global institutions – has appeared irrelevant at the very moment when it could have emerged as a credible
