We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, November 15, 2010

Growing signs of renewed debt crisis in Europe

by Stefan Steinberg from World Socialist Web Site
The rapidly developing European economic crisis is the consequence of a deliberate policy on the part of the European political elite to ensure that the broad masses of the population pay the price for the massive bail-out of the banks following the crash of 2008. Having poured hundreds of billions of euros into the vaults of the banks, European governments are now in the process of imposing vicious austerity policies across the continent, plunging millions into unemployment and poverty.
See also this for latest coverage on the European debt crisis.