Unemployment

The ongoing crisis, caused by excessive global debt, saw only financial institutions being protected. For life to come before debt we need to build an alternative to this out-of-control financial system.

The idea of degrowth has always been a strain Green thought, but what exactly would degrowth mean for our economy, society and relationship with the planet? Does degrowth provide the answer to the social and ecological crisis?

Now that Merkel has triumphed in the German elections, one of the opposition’s main aims – the establishment of a national minimum wage – is likely to miss the boat and be left behind. Prospects are bleak for the growing numbers of working poor.

5 years after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and the beginning of the worst economic crisis in decades, the EU has not delivered on promises of strong regulation of the financial sector. A swift overhaul is needed.

It is more vital than ever to transform the porous structure of the EU into a stable, federal house. A key instrument for this is the budget of the EU, through which European problem-solving capacities can be enhanced.

What use is the EU’s “free movement of people” if it is a right that only the elite can avail of? And how ‘free’ is it if the economic crisis is forcing young people to leave their country in search of work?

While Poland presents itself to the outside world as a country untouched by the economic crisis, the reality is far different for an entire generation of Polish people. Rather than face up to the structural difficulties in the job market, the Government ignores the problem and remains committed to the doctrines of the neoliberal model.

Austerity in Britain has a face. That face is female. That face is a mother of a dependent child. A mother with a job – although a job she may well lose in the next couple of years through no fault of her own. A very poor paying, part-time job, renting at high cost in the private sector, in a home that’s poorly insulated and expensive to heat.

Austerity or growth, austerity for growth, and maybe for a different kind of growth? In 2012, this debate is on the top of the European agenda. But what should we do if growth is no longer possible?