Democracy

Yearbook

    Russia: The Illusion of Accord – The Reality of Confrontation
  • An objective critical and constructive analysis of Russian reality is typically impeded by widespread myths. Most notably, there is the myth of the totalitarian sole dictator – the omnipotent Russian president. The demonic image of Vladimir Putin is also inextricably linked to the notion of the...
    Europe – Nations: The Missing People and the Crisis of Legitimacy
  • What I would like to discuss here is the possibility of resolving the crisis of Europe in a European way – in my opinion this is the only conceivable solution if the crisis is to be truly resolved, given the impossibility of returning to national and therefore nationalistic economic-political...
    Democracy in Times of Crisis
  • The capitalist social formation finds itself in one of its major crises. The economic and financial crisis has primarily struck the centres of capitalism.
    What Science for What Democracy?
  • The expression “science and democracy” has been spreading. Its meaning, consequently, is becoming polysemous. Is there, on the one hand, an eternal “science” (more or less fantasised) and, on the other, a “democracy” that has to be “administered” to that science with a view to “improving” it? Or,...
    Economic Democracy – An Alternative for Europe?
  • Updating considerations of economic democracy does not happen by mere coincidence, but represents historically specific attempts1 to provide answers to fundamental processes of transformation in times of crisis (Castel 2011) accompanied by massive failures of political control. In crises in which...
    Democracy in Crisis
  • Let me begin this article with an initial claim. The current crisis does not pertain solely to the performance of economic indicators and to the functioning of economic institutions. Rather it is also a crisis of meaning, values and consciousness. We are compelled, therefore, to pose once again the...
    From Oligarchy to the New Challenge of Global Politics
  • Most analysts and citizens of Western society suppose that we live in a democracy. But is it really democracy – a system where the people rule and its representatives carry out the popular will? Or, do we live in an oligarchy disguised as democracy? Oligarchy: in others words, a system where a...
    New Challenges Confronting the Progressive Governments of South America
  • In the course of a seminar organised by the São Paulo Forum from June 30 to July 2 at Rio, which brought together ministers, political leaders and research workers from about ten Latin American countries (eight of which were in South America) headed by left governments the Research Institute for...
    Workers’ Self-management in Yugoslavia – An Ambivalent Experience
  • In the discussion of an alternative economic order the terms “producers’ democracy” and “workers’ self-management” are inseparably bound up with the “Yugoslav experiment”. The “Third Way” of Yugoslav socialism acted as an important point of reference in the debates of the international left. When...
    Egypt - After the Revolution is Before the Revolution
  • Sure, we were all happy. And of course we celebrated. The whole world was watching Egypt. We were enormously proud. But then? The Egyptians have returned to daily life, which has become much more difficult than before, because the economy is suffering. With the lack of tourists some sectors make...
    Citizenship: A Fundamental Issue for Democracy
  • When I was elected to the European Parliament in June, 2009, I wanted to continue to fight as I always have for human rights and citizenship, which are not separate issues, as well as for popular education, in the widest sense of the term, and for a social economy. For me, all these battles...
    Economic Democracy: A Crisis Alternative
  • On June 22, 2009, at the initiative of Espaces Marx (transform!) and the regional government of the Île de France, labour leaders, elected officials, scholars and representatives of civil society met to discuss economic democracy as an alternative to the political crisis. Democracy and business ...
    On Economic Democracy
  • Throughout the world there is consensus around the idea of democracy as the one and only viable concept of a good order. However, that consensual view remains restricted to the realm of politics. A good society today is conceived as a mix of political democracy and … a capitalist market economy.

Focus

    Challenges for the European Left Party in 2020 — Five Theses
  • The Party of the European Left (PEL) — alongside the European United Left-Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) in the European Parliament (EP) — is one of the European left’s most prominent transnational organizations. What challenges does it face? What are ist potentials for future developments? On the...
    A Question of True Democracy
  • Images depicting the severe brutality of the Spanish police clashing with voters at the October 1st referendum in Catalonia spilled across social media and TVs around the world. Faced with these images, many asked: What is happening in Catalonia?

Blog

    The Last Winter of Gas in Europe
  • We should not stand idly by as governments across the political spectrum repeatedly choose the path of collapse and ongoing social and economic crises to save the fossil fuel industry.
    Defend Women Who Fight for Women
  • Poland, 14 March 2023. Justyna Wydrzyńska, a women's rights defender, has been sentenced to eight months' community service for helping a woman in need to obtain an abortion. Read the reactions of Left MEPs María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop (Podemos, Spain) and Malin Björk (Swedish Left Party) to this dangerous precedent in the EU and beyond.
    Call for Solidarity Actions With Anti-war Activists in Russia
  • For over a decade, Russian antifascists have commemorated January 19 as their day of solidarity. This is the date when in 2009, in the center of Moscow, the human rights and leftist activist Stanislav Markelov and the journalist and anarchist Anastasia Baburova were gunned down by neo-Nazis.
    Peace in Rome
  • On 5 November, a protest march organised by trade unions, left movements, Catholic groups, and other civil society actors took place in Rome. The giant demonstration for peace with more than a hundred thousand people is an event of enormous importance.
    For the New Constitution in Chile
  • On 4 September, the people of Chile will decide: default to Pinochet´s constitution, or found a new Chile with a constitution that guarantees the rights to health, housing, education, and a habitable planet. Join the numerous activists who write to congratulate Chile´s Constitutional Convention on the completion of a new Political Constitution.
    Sconfinate frontier – Riace, l’eccezione che ha rifiutato la regola
  • The particular experience of democratic self-management of migration developed in Riace, Calabria, is an interesting case study of the possible evolution of the migration phenomenon in the context of three particular aspects of the policies of the last governments that succeeded each other in Italy, all of European and international relevance.
    Declaration of the International Kurdish Solidarity Collective
  • With support from NATO, the regime of the dictatorial Turkish president Erdoğan is not only continuing its war against the Kurdish people and their allies inside Turkey’s borders but is expanding it to Syria and Iraq, Sweden and Finland. The International Kurdish Solidarity Collective issued following Declaration regarding the latest attacks.
    Expanding Democratic Control
  • Contribution to the seminar Expanding Democratic Control: Employment, Energy and Environment, organised by the Party of the European Left (7/11/2021) in the framework of the Peoples‘ Summit (COP26 Coalition).
    Shortlist Unveiled for 2020 GUE/NGL Award for Whistleblowers & Journalists
  • Dedicated to individuals or groups who have been intimidated and/or persecuted for uncovering the truth and exposing it to the public, this year’s award of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left group in the European Parliament is once again named in honour of the late Maltese journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia.
    A call for a new European social contract
  • Call for a new progressive and democratic front in Europe. A statement of intellectuals and academics initiated by, amongst others, Costas Douzinas, President of the Nicos Poulantzas Institute, a transform! europe member organization.
    Political Earthquake in Slovakia: Government is Formed by Right-Wing Populists
  • The leitmotif of the parliamentary elections was the question of whether the opposition would be able to remove Smer-SD and its chairman Robert Fico from government. Although coalition negotiations are still ongoing, it is clear that Fico is going into opposition and his former coalition partners are outside parliament
    Economic Democracy and Self-Governance in Enterprises
  • The conference “Economic democracy and self-governance in enterprise: history, theories, perspectives” can be considered as one of the main arrival points of the project “Democracy as self-government” in 2019, proposed to Transform!Europe by Sinistra XXI, Italian leftist think tank.
    Vladimir Putin’s January Constitutional Coup
  • The constitutional reform that Vladimir Putin presented on 15th January 2020 was a surprise, especially for those who are not following Russia’s domestic political developments. The possibility of a significant transfer of powers from the president to the Duma (parliament) has been discussed repeatedly over the course of the past year.
    The Situation in Catalonia
  • Because of the call for next October 1st to carry out a referendum for independence in Catalonia and due to the repressive and authoritarian reaction of the Government of Spain, Izquierda Unida states:
    In Defence of Democratic Rights
  • In Catalonia an important process of independence is taking place against Spain. At the request of the Popular Party (PP), the Spanish Constitutional Court declared the Catalan Statute of 2010, unconstitutional. This statute was negotiated between the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and later endorsed by the Spanish Parliament.
    DiEM and Co.
  • The European Crisis is leading to rampant chauvinism, racism, and disintegration. Driven by this dynamic Europe is governed by state-of-emergency politics. Austerity, an intensified dismantling of labour and social rights and an inhuman, militarized border regime are being implemented in authoritarian ways, while asylum law is being whittled away.
    #TalkRealYanis – Democracy in Europe
  • Here you can watch the livestream of the special edition of the political webshow TalkReal on 8 February, one day before the launch of the new movement DiEM25 by Yanis Varoufakis.
    The global post-democratic order
  • In the era of globalisation, the steady removal of decision-making from democratic chambers by EU elites is serving as a blueprint for post-democratic governance around the world. Progressives must be ambitious and start putting forward ideas for a democratic world government as a viable alternative.
    Democracy, power and sovereignty in today’s Europe
  • In a wide-ranging interview, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, argues that the nation-state is dead and democracy in the EU has been replaced by a toxic algorithmic depoliticisation that, if it is not confronted, will lead to depression, disintegration and possibly war in Europe. He calls for a launch of a pan-European movement to democratise Europe, to save it before it is too late.
    Radical Community Manager Seminar in Amsterdam
  • Spanish collective Xnet that helped arrest the former Managing Director of the IMF came to Amsterdam to share their skills, tools and strategies with social movements, civil society organisations from all over Europe.

Publication

    Democratic Control for Access to Land
  • The Catalan member organization of transform! europe, Fundació l'Alternativa has released a guide for Municipalities on democratic control for access to land.

Calendar

    Authoritarian Responses to New Forms of Protest
  • The right to protest is at the core of democracy. In recent years, authoritarian responses and the criminalisation of social protest have spread around the world. This event will present two reports (funded by The Left) analysing this situation.
    Peace Initiatives Across Europe
  • Hundreds of demonstrations, conferences and other activities to stop the war and build peace are taking place across Europe. See below for a list of Europe-wide peace initiatives on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.
    Neoliberal Reforms and the Political System in Albania
  • The Institute for Critique and Social Emancipation Tirana (ICSE), a partner organisation of transform! europe, is hosting a lecture followed by a discussion on Albanian economic policy during the transition from a centralised economy to an opposite economic policy extreme.
    The Two Approaches on the State
  • The Institute for Critique and Social Emancipation Tirana (ICSE), a partner organisation of transform! europe, is hosting a lecture followed by a discussion on the theory of the state.
    Student Movements in Contemporary History
  • The Institute for Critique and Social Emancipation Tirana (ICSE), a partner organisation of transform! europe, is hosting a lecture followed by a discussion on retrospective reflections on student movements from the late 1960s to today.
    «The Crisis and Future of Democracy»
  • The Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, partner organisation of transform! europe, presents its new anthology "The Crisis and Future of Democracy" and kindly invites you to a panel discussion with the authors of the volume and Marisa Matias, MEP, exhibition and evening reception.
    The Post-Pandemic European Union
  • transform! europe's Spanish observer organisation Fundación Instituto 25M organises this seminar to reflect on the impact of the pandemic on the democratic governance of the European Union.

Webinars