Globalisation

Capitalism gives rise to an attitude that dehumanises us, because it turns us into competitive animals. We fail to realise that capitalism is an inherently exploitative system, where most of the power will always reside in the hands of the rich. But there is a way around this…

In an interview with GEJ, Hungarian sociologist Agnes Gagyi explains why struggles differ from East to West, and why the educated middle class has become so prominent in today’s movements.

Instead of bringing regional officials to Brussels, the EU needs to bring Brussels to the regions. Local and regional bodies need to debate EU issues at home. Heather Grabbe and Stefan Lehne propose a solution to narrow the distance between the EU and the individual.

If the Green movement is to change the status quo, it will have to change too. The interrelationship between the plundering of the earth and the exploitation of people requires a much more principled and more consistent struggle against the capitalist system than we have seen in recent decades.

Climate change represents a unique opportunity for Europe’s green parties to “lead the way” by developing a sound strategy for “greening” Europe’s foreign and security policy – and in the process revamping this stagnant dimension of European integration.

Medication and water bottles have numerous advantages in a crisis situation, but it’s quite sure that they cannot be used to stop ISIS. The greatest dilemmas of European Greens are rooted in a conflict of values, as well as in the difficulty of reconciling theory and practice. To overcome them, Greens need to work on a political solution.

Over the past decade, an ongoing reshuffle in the balance of global power has seen China change scale from regional to world actor, Russia reassert its ambition to be treated like a major player, and calls emerging for Europe to play a more active role in world politics.

In spite of the similarities between their constitutional and social welfare institutions, Brazil receives little consideration from the EU as a mediator between the global North and the global South. It is time for a re-think.

Secretive changes to the London Court of International Arbitration will make the current EU-US Trade Deal even more damaging for democracy. This makes it even more urgent that citizens in the UK and across Europe oppose such a worrying trade deal and the Investor-State Dispute Settlement that goes with it. This trade deal will turn Europe into a real-life game of Monopoly – where the rich can snap up anything they want.

“L’Europe, C’est Nous” (Europe is Us), by Edouard Gaudot and Benjamin Joyeux, invites us to consider the “real Europe” – a daily reality made up of exchanges, networks, mobility and cultural dialogue – in the face of huge challenges. The worrying results of the May elections mean we must look beyond the present and, above all, not despair. A review by Pierre Jonckheer.