<nettime> towards Frankfurt - "Europe in line for catastrophe"

[claudia bernardi <clod.zeta@gmail.com>]

Dear all,
in Italy some social centre, students' network, unions, occupied theatre
and cinemas, associations* launched "Blockupy Frankfurt" on 10th of
February, at Occupied Valle Theatre in Rome*, with comrades from Germany,
Spain and several est-european countries.

Since that date we carried on meetings with comrades from Germany and
debates about Europe to enlarge italian participation to Frankfurt.
Here you find the launch of a seminar about Europe organized by the Study
Centre Common Alternative.. if you are around take the chance to join us at
Sala Vittorio Arrigoni in San Lorenzo!

best and see u soon

claudia
*****

21-22 April,
at the ex Cinema Palazzo/sala Vittorio Arrigoni
(P. dei Sanniti, San Lorenzo - Rome)

*Centro studi per l'Alternativa comune*
(with *Ass. Lavoro e Libert?)*

*Europe in line for catastrophe*

With the arrival of Monti on the scene, approval of the Fiscal Compact and
the second tranche of aid for Greece the storm sweeping Europe since the
spring of 2010 and the most indebted countries, the so-called PIIGS
(Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) appeared to have abated.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The danger focused on insolvency
for Greece, still deferring the certainty of default, shifted to Portugal
and Spain and persistent warnings are continuing to keep Italy on guard as
well. The reason is simple: austerity policy enforced by the Bundesbank and
the ECB which can do nothing other than lead to strong recession crises.
Was it possible to avert a second great crash, following the one of 1929,
from exploding beginning in August 2007 by applying procycle deflationary
fiscal policies? Evidently not, and the data prove this in unequivocal
terms. The Fiscal Compact, in the absence of expansionary monetary policies
and the construction of a new EU welfare community, has done nothing other
than expand the sovereign debt crisis to such countries as France and
Germany, which appeared rock solid. That the euro is still at risk is
underscored by such authoritative figures as George Soros who, for years,
has been betting on the demise of the euro along with other American hedge
fund managers. Is this a self-fulfilling prophesy? Probably. But the point
is that Europe is not doing anything to distance the disaster. In addition
to short-sighted economic policy comes the crisis of democracy. There are
no democratic European institutions, only the inter-governmental Europe
totally dominated by the currency Europe, the Bundesbank and the ECB. In
spite of the 2000 Charter of Nice, there is no Europe of fundamental rights
and welfare and while the Europe of citizens was set forth in some way in
the Treaty of Lisbon, Citizens? Initiatives allowing citizens from across
the EU Member States to submit proposals directly to the European
Commission still carry no weight in the management of the economic crisis.
And while austerity has been the guideline chosen for the budgets of the
European states, lack of job security has taken over more-or-less
everywhere. Since the painful Red-Green Hartz reforms in Germany and the
labor market reforms laid out by Rajoy and Monti, the right to work has
been shattered in the name of the business interests which are woven into
and distinguish the social policies of all the European governments. Fewer
rights, greater job insecurity and, above all, lower wages. The attack on
real earnings, along with deferred welfare spending, is a process which is
bringing an entire generation to its knees, determining sudden destitution.
The European social model, a model based on rights and welfare, inclusion
and citizenship, is being thrown radically into doubt by neo-liberal
recipes, recipes which use the gasoline deployed at the end of the 1920s to
put out flames already high. Building a European movement capable of
opposing all this heads the agenda of the day for those who are unwilling
to succumb to the axe of neo-liberal policy. Redefining the blueprints of
critical thinking in a way to face this challenge, on the terrain of
analyses as well, is the purpose of the seminar set up by the *Centro studi
per l'Alternativa comune* (Study Center for a Common Alternative) in
cooperation with the *Associazione Lavoro e Libert**?* (Labor and Liberty
Association). All this with an view to mobilization for May 17 to 19 in
Frankfurt where a wide range of movements of forces, German labor and
political representatives, are promoting a highly visible protest against
the austerity policies enacted by the ECB.


21.04 h 10
Introduction:

Francesco Raparelli


21.04 h 10:15
*1. **The Euro Under Attack*

Introduction:
Luca Casarini

Lectures:

Christian Marazzi
Klaus Busch
Riccardo Bellofiore


21.04 h 14:30
*2. **Work Without Rights and Basic Income *

Introduction:
Gianni Rinaldini

Lectures:

Francesco Garibaldo
Antonio Lettieri
Papi Bronzini


22.04 h 10
*3. **Democracy, Fundamental Rights and the European Social Model*

Introduction:
Roberto Musacchio

Lectures:

Richard Hyman
Anna Simone
Federica Giardini


22.04 h 12:30
*To conclude: from Frankfurt to "ICE" on Basic Income*


Intervention: Shendi Veli (*Anomalia Sapienza/UniCommon*);
Lorenzo Marsili (*European Alternatives*)



*Info: **www.alternativacomune.eu* <http://www.alternativacomune.eu/>
*Streaming: **www.globalproject.info* <http://www.globalproject.info/>


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