Welfare and Social Issues

Every opportunity that comes up is used by mega-project promoters and their allies to stigmatise resistance movements.

An interview with the philosopher, writer and activist, Lieven De Cauter.

What happened after the Gezi protests ended? Ever since the barricades were dismantled, the burnt out buses removed, and the world’s attention moved on to protests and unrest elsewhere, Istanbul seems to have become quiet.

The proposed airport project at Notre-Dame-des-Landes has become a landmark in the fight against useless mega projects. The so called “zadists”, who are fighting to defend the territory, became a symbol of those in search of another, fairer and humane world. Utopians with their feet on the ground.

The effective grassroots campaigning of Scottish communities, who have fought the Scottish government and unconventional gas companies, is an inspiring story for those across the UK and the rest of Europe.

Eldorado Gold now owns all gold-mining projects in Greece. The company is harming the environment and avoiding taxes; and the way Greece deals with this problem can determine some important developments in Europe.

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.

Introduction by the Editorial Board

Prohibiting cannabis has been a failure. The number of consumers is constantly high, cannabis is available for everyone everywhere. In Germany, over 2.3 million adults are using cannabis. Twenty-two per cent of teenagers aged 15 to 16 are known to have already used the substance. In response, the German Greens have designed an alternative plan to regulate and control the cannabis market.

The left is ideologically exhausted. But this is just as true for the right, no matter where you’re looking, whether it’s at the buzzwords of the FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria), at UKIP, the Front National or the radical-primitive opposition of the Tea Party in the United States.