Translation of an article by Manuel Castells, originally published in La Vanguardia, 21st January 2012.
The indignados movement that burst forth in 2011 in Spain, Europe and the United States is a breath of fresh air in a world that smells rotten. They set out in social networks and in acampadas what many people think: that it was banks [...]

The beginning of 2012 is a suitable moment to assess China’s economic prospects for the year and coming period. This overall perspective is clear - China will grow strongly, remaining the world’s fastest growing major economy, and will continue to substantially outperform Western pessimist predictions. This is the same fundamental analysis maintained by the author over the [...]

The full scale of the difference in economic performance of China compared to the US, Europe and Japan during the international financial crisis is shown in Figure 1. It is summarised in the following figures:

In the four years to the latest available data, for the 3rd quarter of 2011, China’s [...]

Attempts to assess current prospects for the world economy have primarily focused on deceleration  in US and European GDP growth. But world trade is clearly also indicating negative trends.
Trade is a particularly sensitive indicator as its fluctuations have had a greater magnitude than those for GDP but have moved in the same direction. Trade data is [...]

As many are no doubt aware this Sunday will see demonstrations in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick in solidarity with the Real Democracy Now movement across Europe. June 19th or J19 is the day that the people of Europe will demand that the Euro Pact is not implemented. They say that the Euro Pact, [...]

Calling all friends and supports of Irish democracy and sovereignty.
On Monday 9th the Peoples Movement will be holding a picket on the Dail to show our opposition to the planned  special sitting of the Dail to mark what the European Unions calls “Europe Day”.
The picket will be from 12-30pm - 2-00pm outside the Dail on [...]

The following is an extract from the ISN pamphlet A Force for Progress? Five Myths About the European Union. which was launched earlier on this week by Harry Browne at Connolly Books.
The European Union has divided opinion on the Left. Some people see it as a bulwark against the power of multi-national corporations that [...]

Okay, so there is an election on Friday for the local councils, The European Parliament, to get a TD elected in Dublin North Central and to complete George Lee’s transformation from a right-wing economic commentator to a right-wing politician in Dublin South.
I realise that we haven’t exactly done lots to help get out the left [...]

In two superb essays published in the London Review of Books recently, Perry Anderson describes the politics of Italy’s Second Republic in the context of the consolidation of power by Silvio Berlusconi and the recent history of the Italian Left, respectively. These are worth reading by anyone interested in politics and contempory European history in [...]