Politics and Economics

Two days ago, something extraordinary happened. Something that has never happened before in the history of capitalism. In Britain, the news came out that the economy had suffered its greatest slump ever – more than 22% down during the first 7 months of 2020. Remarkably, on the same day, the London Stock Exchange, the FTSE100 index, rose by more than 2%. On the same day, during a time America has ground to a halt and is beginning to look like not just as an economy in deep trouble but also, ominously, as a failed state, Wall Street’s SP500 index hit an all-time record.

Deeply proud of DiEM25’s intervention to avert tensions in the E. Mediterranean. Proving there is no clash between nations, DiEM25’s organisations in Germany, Greece & Turkey issued a manifesto for splendid Peace & Shared Green Prosperity in our region:

The perpetrators of war, the profiteers of the fossil fuel industry and political leaders wedded to an unsustainable economic system are, today, escalating tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean — especially between Greece and Turkey.

On 15th July, Ben Arc published in Bitcoin Magazine an open letter addressed to me in a bid to convince me that I should re-assess my rejection of Bitcoin as a force for good; as a bulwark for democratising capitalism and paving the ground for socialism. Here is my reply:

Dear Ben Arc,

Thank you for your open letter and your efforts to bring a socialist perspective to bear upon my assessment of Bitcoin.

What did you think when the Euro-group elected its new leader last week? At least this was not the outcome Frau Merkel had wished?

“Strengthening the solidarity of Europe’s oligarchs is not a good strategy for empowering Europe’s majority. Quite the contrary. Any “recovery” based on such a formula will short-change almost all Europeans and push the majority into deeper despair.”

The pandemic is not the first crisis (if we can say so) that hit capitalism all over the world. what is the difference between this one and the previous crisis? 

Europe never was the battlefield on which the frugal North clashed with the profligate South. Instead, every European country has been the battlefield where a vicious class war is fought by a transnational oligarchy-without-frontiers training its armour against the weaker residents of every country, every region, every community. Covid-19, and the European Union’s response to it, only magnifies the human costs of this unremitting class war.

Julian called me a little earlier on, at 14.22 London time to be precise. From Belmarsh High Security Prison of course. This is not the first time but, as you can imagine, every time I hear his voice I feel honoured and moved that he should dial my number when he has such few and far between opportunities to place calls.