• 07 Juli 2016 - 09 Juli 2016
  • Berlin

  • Franz-Mehring-Platz 1
    10243 Berlin

  • Berlin-Seminar

  • State of Affairs in Europe

  • transform! europe and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung invite political scientists and actors to debate the possibilities for common perspectives and action of the Left in Europe in a Berlin-Seminar under the title: “State of Affairs in Europe” in July.

    Against the backdrop of blackmail of SYRIZA government in the negotiations with the institutions, further cuts to pensions and social benefits make the mass protests against these measures as against the implementation of the privatization, the continuation of neoliberal politics, the alarming soar of the far right in numerous countries, but also the introduction of new left leaning government in Portugal, the crumbling of the bi-partisan system in Spain which lead to new elections on 26 June, and after the referendum about Britain’s membership in the EU, we believe that a new determination of the positioning of the Left is necessary.

    For this a number of conferences, seminars and debates have taken place (especially the foundation and conferences of DiEM-25, the conference ‘Building alliances to Fight Austerity and to Reclaim Democracy’ in Athens, the Plan B-conferences and the strategy conference of the RLS). We do not intend to add another event to this sequence but rather try to draw provisional conclusions of these debates also in the view of the forthcoming congress of the EL.

    We want to discuss the following topics:

    • State of the Union
    • State of the Movements
    • State of Politics

    The discussions will be in English.

    Contact:

    Heidi Ambrosch
    transform! europe
    ambrosch@transform-network.net

    Conny Hildebrandt
    Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
    Institut für Gesellschaftsanalyse
    hildebrandt@rosalux.de

Programm

Thursday, 7 July: State of the EU – contradictions, polarisations, scenarios 

 

14:00 – 15:00: Welcome and Introduction

  • Mario Candeias, director of the Institute for Critical Social Analysis of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (IfG, RLF)
  • Walter Baier, coordinator transform! europe

15:00 – 16:30: State of the Union after the UK-referendum – critical scenarios of EU

  • Judith Dellheim, RLF, Institut for Critical social analysis, Senior Research Fellow for Solidarity Economy

16:30 – 17:00: Coffee Break

17:00 – 18.00: Reconstruction of the European legislation and Institutions with consequences for the Left

  • René Jokisch, Senior Research Fellow DIE LINKE

18.00 – 19.30: The new quality of the shift to the right, the new quality of EU-scepticism and nationalism

  • Joachim Bischoff/Bernhard Müller, Redaktion Sozialismus

19:30: Dinner

 

Friday, 8 July: State of the movement- and power relations in Europe

09:00 – 11:00: The new quality of the shift to the right, the new quality of EU-scepticism and nationalism

  • Input and Moderation: Thilo Janssen, Senior Research Fellow , GUE/NGL
  • The case of France: Antoine de Cabanes, Espace Marx
  • CEE-Countries: Joanna Gwiazdecka, RLS Warsaw; Comment: Holger Politt, RLS, Berlin/Warsaw
  • The case of Austria: Hanna Lichtenberger, Aufbruch
  • The case of Germany: Joachim Bischoff/Bernhard Müller 

11:00 – 11:15: Coffee break

11:15 – 12:30: Scotland, UK and the EU – the EU-referendum: change in the society and mobilisation

  • Jan Eichhorn, University of Sussex

12:30 –  13:30: The Situation of the social democrats in Europe

  • Short overview: Conny Hildebrandt, Deputy-director IfG
  • Renzismo in Italy: Giuseppe Caccia, political scientist, former mayor of Venetia, Italy
  • Social democracy in Austria: Hanna Lichtenberger, Aufbruch Austria

13:30 – 14:00: Lunch break

14:00 – 16:00: The social-democrats in Europe: the case Labour-party in the UK

  • Hilary Wainwright, Red Pepper, UK

16:00 – 16:30: Coffee Break

16:30 – 18:00: Mapping of the Left in Europe

  • Dominic Heilig, political scientist, DIE LINKE
  • Jiri Malek,  SPED, Czech Republic
  • Daria Popova/Anton Pechenkin, policial scientist and actors, Ukraine

18:00 – 18:30: Snack

19:00/20:00: Visit of the refugee theatre

 

Saturday, 9 July: Potentials and projects of the radical left in Europe

09:00 – 10:30: Left and Government

  • Example of Greece: Nasos Iliopoulos, SYRIZA, and
  • Elena Papadopoulou, economist, General Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Greece

10:30 – 10:45: Coffee break

10:45 – 12:15: Left and Government

  • Example of Portugal: André Freire,  political scientist, Portugal
  • Example of Spain: Marga Ferré, IU, Spain
  • Comment: Armando Fernandez Steinko, political scientist, Spain 

12:15 – 12:30: Coffee break

12:30 – 13:30: European Migration Policies: A major strategic issue for the European Left

  • Vassiliki  Katrivanou, psychologist, former MP of SYRIZA, former member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, activist in the Human Rights movement
  • Gregory Mauzé, political scientist and activist, Belgium

13:30 – 14:15: Final discussion and outlook

14:15 – 15:00: Lunch Break/snack

  • Author Pictogram

  • Dokumente