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Discussion event on nationalism

patti — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 20:42:52 +0000

In the last years, nationalism in many European countries is on the rise, differently manifested in each of them. In Greece, a supposed threat from neighbouring countries has replaced to a great extent the concern about the real economic disaster caused in the last decade by the Greek and foreign elites. In many countries, including the Netherlands, refugees and immigrants especially from the Middle East are used as a threat or as scapegoats for the problems that their citizens face due to hard austerity measures and growing unemployment.
Nationalism is no longer a monopoly of the extreme right but is embraced by more parties of the political spectrum. Its ability to penetrate wider parts of society has significantly grown.

Which are the large-scale geopolitical conflicts nowadays and how are they linked to the rise of nationalism? Is nationalism a temporary phenomenon? How does it affect working people (either existing workers or migrant ones)? What should the movement do?

ReInform, an anticapitalist political group of Greeks in the Netherlands, invites you to discuss together all these matters on Sunday 2 December in NieuwLand (Peter Nieuwlandstraat 93, 1098XN, Amsterdam). After our discussion we will enjoy some traditional Mediterranean and Eastern sounds and tastes.

Program:
16.30-18.30 | Short introductory talks by Manos from ReInform and Max from Internationale Socialisten
From 18.30 onwards | Culinary and music Mediterranean and Eastern exchanges with the open collective Aman Molli

Housing: Right or Commodity

patti — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:31:06 +0000

ReInform is organising an event about housing that will take place on Saturday 24th of March, at 15:00, at LAB111 (Arie Biemondstraat 111, Amsterdam).

You are invited to join our discussion about housing which is not considered a basic human right any more but rather a commodity very difficult to obtain. We will also talk about how our cities and neighbourhoods are now shaped to serve the market trends and not the needs of the society.

Our speakers will be Tonia Katerini (architect and member of Solidarity4All), Bart Stuart (activist and artist) and Menno Grootveld (publisher, writer, translator and journalist) who are both members of the group Fair City Movement, and a member of ReInform. The documentary “Ekümenopolis: City Without Limits” which focuses on the urbanization of Istanbul will be screened as well.

This event is the first of a series that ReInform will organise against the T.I.N.A. dogma (There Is No Alternative): One of the biggest weapons of modern capitalism is to promote the notion that even if things are bad, there is no better alternative, so what is left for us to do is to accept the current situation without protest. The scope of these events is to show how different and seemingly unconnected social issues are directly related to the current financial system and initiate discussions about the way we can fight towards a solution to these issues.

ReINFORM – The crisis must be paid by those who created it

dimitriswright — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 17:08:06 +0000

On Wednesday, February 11th, the negotiations between the Greek government and the Eurogroup began. The Greek government entered the negotiations by asserting a part of Greek people’s demands who protested on the streets for years. They essentially ask for what goes without saying: the handling of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Greece. Such a handling can only be achieved by stopping the disastrous policies of the last 4 years.

However, even these minimal demands made by the Greek side seems to be not easily accepted by the rest of the EU governments. They insist that the current government honor the promises of the previous government and comply with the memoranda. EU leaders, even though some of them come
from socialdemocratic parties, try to apply the toughest neoliberal measures people have ever seen not only to Greece but to the whole of Europe. At the same time, they try to convince us that those measures are successful.

Yet the only thing those measures brought to Greece was the disaster of its economy and the penury of the people’s majority: unemployment rose to 25% and 3 million people have no access to medical insurance. The only achievement of those measures -and essentially what they only soughtwas
rescuing European banks from bankruptcy as well as rescuing the profiteers who rise to wealth through the Greek debt.

The experiment that the EU, the IMF and the ECB applied to Greece in cooperation with the corrupted Greek governments will go down in history as the most cruel and inhumane one within the European Union. Analogous measures (pay cuts, abolishment of the social state and abolishment of
work rights) are applied to all European countries as they are in the Netherlands too by Rutte’s cabinet. In every case, the outcome is the increase of unemployment and poverty, while multiplying the profits of big companies and the incomes of the richest 1% of the population.

EU’s attitude towards the Greek people proves its real face. The European Union operates as a brutal executioner of the Greek people and overtly defends the interests of the Greek and the European elite which benefits from the crisis on the Greek people’s shoulders.

The Greek people have already lost a lot and will not draw back. The European Union must accept the Greek people’s decision to reverse the policies towards Greece. The Greek government has no right to withdraw from the Greek people’s decision. The people’s right to live in decency, to democracy and to access to health, education and social care is not negotiable. Greece’s public debt was not created by the people and must not be paid by the people. The more the Greek people are forced to pay that debt the more every policy change will essentially remain impossible. That is why we demand its erasure!

We ask for the support of the Dutch people as well as that of the rest peoples of Europe. Every victory of the Greek people’s demands against the Eurogroup will also be a victory of European people against the policy of cuts and the abolishment of the social state and work rights.

We do not compromise, we do not retreat.

The crisis must be paid by those who created it.

ReINFORM

Solidarity with the people in Greece! No to the blackmail of the EU! – Press Release

dimitriswright — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 12:58:55 +0000

Rectificatie

Geachte pers,

Gisteren hebben wij als medeorganisatoren deelgenomen aan de demonstratie in de Dam Amsterdam met het thema GIVE GREECE A CHANCE, SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE IN GREECE! NO TO THE BLACKMAIL OF THE EU!

In de uitnodiging stond: “We nodigen iedereen uit om samen met de Griekse bevolking te demonstreren tegen de eis van de Eurogroep om de wurgcontracten in Griekenland te handhaven. We willen ook de nieuwe coalitieregering van SYRIZA dwingen om niet aan de chantage van de EU toe te geven, maar het verzoek en de behoeften van het Griekse volk te steunen.”

Echter, in de berichtgeving van veel media ging het alleen over het steunen van de Griekse regering en dat alleen een paar honderd mensen (bij sommige een paar tientallen) hebben deelgenomen. Dat vinden we te kort door de bocht. Het doel van de demonstratie was de Europese regeringsleiders te dwingen om te stoppen met de chantage en de nieuwe regering van Griekenland te verzoeken om haar beloften aan de kiezers na te komen. Bovendien hebben ongeveer 1500 mensen aan de demonstratie en de optocht deelgenomen.

In de vele demonstraties die in Griekenland en veel Europese landen deze dagen hebben plaatsgevonden, stonden de actieve verzoeken van de burgers centraal. Zij willen niet langer de rol hebben van het passief wel of niet steunen van hun regering. Dit is een cruciale breuk met het verleden, waar de (Griekse) media haar berichtgeving nog aan moet aanpassen. Door een simplistisch kader zoals ‘volgers van een regering’ los te laten, wordt de berichtgeving meer objectief en nauwkeurig.

We zien graag een rectificatie van uw berichtgeving tegemoet.

Met vriendelijke groet,
ReINFORM

The Resolution of Dam Square – 15/2/2015

dimitriswright — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 00:43:01 +0000

We the people of Dam Square, we demand

- the write off of the debt

- the end of the austerity policies in Greece and in the Netherlands.

We fight

- so that we don’t allow the banks to lead our lives

- for the right of the people to make their own destiny.

Venceremos

Nikos Romanos brought the government to its knees!

filippos — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:53:03 +0000

After 31 days of hunger strike for his right to education, anarchist prisoner N. Romanos won. He and all the people who showed their solidarity during the last month and especially during the climactic last days with a lot of demonstrations in Athens and all over Greece forced the government to surrender and step back from their relentless attack against anyone who stands up against them for their rights.

After 31 days of hunger strike N. Romanos will be granted the educational leaves to be able to follow his studies with the use of an electronic position surveillance device under the condition that he will follow 1/3 of the courses of the first semester via internet.

After 31 days of hunger strike the state had to kneel down in front of the struggle for freedom. This is not only a victory of one person against the state, but a breath of freedom for everyone who is standing up against this totalitarian regime.

10/12/2014
ReINFORM

Source of featured image: omniatv.com (NIKHTHΣ means WINNER)

Saturday, October 4at 3:00pm, Amsterdam. The fake ‘success story’ of austerity. Crisis in Greece and in the EU: winners and losers

dimitriswright — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 08:00:46 +0000

The Dutch media, the EU officials and the Greek government cheer about a supposed success of austerity policies in Greece. They present that after 4 harsh years, the economy is going back in track and that the state is now functional to support the people. Similar stories flood occasionally the media on other austerity-hit countries such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland. In the Netherlands, similar austerity measures in health care and welfare are presented as a necessity to avoid the destructive pathway of countries of the South. The participation in the austerity-driven EU and Eurozone are presented as the only possible way. This ‘success story’ is challenged by hard numbers that indicate that austerity-hit economies are in free fall and by the worsening situation of hundreds of thousands of people that cannot make ends meet due to these policies. In reality, people in Southern Europe are experiencing a wave of radical neoliberal policies that go much further than austerity: labour relations return to the 19th century, people are deprived from access to public goods such as basic health care and education, public property is offered as gift to large corporations while massive house evictions are high in the agenda. In northern Europe, although the tempo and the harshness of the ‘reforms’ are lower, people – and especially the those in need of support – experience a similar reality.

In this event, we want to go further than just challenging the media propaganda. The roots but also the aims of austerity and reform policies will be discussed. Who are the winners of these policies? What will the economy and the political system look like after their full implementation? What was the role of the participation of Greece to the EU and the euro for the development of the crisis as the crisis in the Eurozone started from Greece?

Three critical scholars will provide their contribution to the discussion:

Kees van der Pijl, emeritus professor at the University of Sussex, will give the broader context of the issue from an international perspective and will present the Dutch context as well.
Yiorgos Vassalos, political scientist in Brussels, will evaluate the 30-year long participation of Greece to the EU.
Dimitris Pavlopoulos, assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, will talk about the winners and losers of the austerity policies in Greece

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/275719382636460

Demonstration for Palestine – Amsterdam 20/7/14

dimitriswright — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 19:18:59 +0000

Demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Den Haag

dimitriswright — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 16:46:32 +0000

Pictures from Saturday’s demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinian people, Den Haag

ReINFORM intervenes in a talk by member of the EU Task Force for Greece, Tom de Bruijn, on “Democracy in Greece, from the cradle to the grave?

dimitriswright — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 18:56:58 +0000

Since the first bailout to Greece, in 2010, the Troika has been blackmailing Greek people with the dilemma “Memoranda or Bankruptcy”. Ever since, Greek people have experienced both: a total social bankruptcy that the adoption of Memoranda caused. “If you don’t say yes to the Memoranda, you will have no gasoline for your cars, no food on the supermarket shelves, no medication in your drugstores, salaries and pensions will no longer be paid,” the politicians and the media supporting the European Union’s policies were threatening. By now, we know very well what all this was about: Rescuing the banks and throwing the people in a sea of despair.

Only in Athens homeless people exceed 20.000 while the Troika has ordered the confiscation of 200.000 primary residences from people who have no money to pay off their housing loan. More than one million people are unemployed with no access to health insurance and pension schemes. Life expectancy has dropped by 3 years, suicides have increased by 45%, young women give birth to dead babies as they have no access to prenatal controls. Children cannot get their vaccinations and old diseases such as tuberculosis come back. People die from diabetes or blood pressure because they cannot afford their medication and form long queues for some food at the common meals. Pensions and salaries are repeatedly cut and even more layoffs are on the way in critical social sectors such as health and education.

This social collapse is a direct or indirect result of laws voted in the Parliament in the name of democracy and collective will. While at the same time, thousands of citizens protesting outside the Parliament were suffering police brutality on an unprecedented scale.

So yes, democracy in Greece has been buried alive – under the Troika’s constant surveillance and pressure. Its grave was made by those who use democratic institutions to rescue the banks and serve the economic interests of the Greek and European elites. By those who ban collective bargaining, set the basic salary to 586 euros, demand mass layoffs. By those who do not hesitate to miscalculate when it comes to the advantages that their reforms supposedly have but avoid numbers when they refer to the humanitarian crisis that these reforms have created. By those who institutionalize corruption by selling out public companies to businessmen whose business affairs are totally obscure, while they do nothing to find the politicians and businessmen responsible for the Siemens bribery scandal. Democracy’s grave has been made by those who call “vested interests” the cleaners and teachers who fight against their layoffs and order police to beat and spray with tear gas the citizens who struggle for real democracy, health care, employment, education, social justice. By those who rule society through fear and treat citizens like objects.

Since July 2011 that the Task Force was formed, it became the locomotive for the implementation of the aforementioned policies that have brought Greek society to despair and have turned democracy into the despotism of the markets and the banks.

It is on this situation that we, Greeks living in the Netherlands, would like to hear Mr. Tom de Bruijn’s comments and views.

Do you consider the role of the Task Force successful in Greece Mr. de Bruijn?

ReINFORM