The EU and the Left in Times of Crisis - Left Strategy between the Symplegades of National and International Political Arenas

Seminar V
The EU and the Left in Times of Crisis - Left Strategy between the Symplegades of National and International Political Arenas
Por Vagia Lysikatou | 02 Jul 12 | Posted under: Estrategias transformadoras
A three-day international seminar designed by the NPI and organized by the transform!europe network in collaboration with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation took place from 16-18 July prior to the Summer University by transform! and the European Left in Greece, this summer.
The goal of the seminar, which was held in Portaria (Pelion), was to examine the recent developments in European politics as well as the political consequences of the crisis for the parties of the European Left. The seminar took place in the context of transform!’s current programme regarding the strategic perspectives of the European left parties.
In the two plenary sessions of the first day, “Searching for a Left Response to the Crisis: the Dialectic Tension between National and European Level” and “Saving Democracy in Europe: Left Parties and Movements against Austerity and Repression”, Frank Deppe, Catherine Samary, Gabriele Michalitsch and Michalis Spourdalakis participated. The issues tackled in their particularly interesting contributions included the history of European integration, the left responses to the predicaments arising from the rift between the domestic and international political arenas as well as the dangers for democracy from the transformation of the incumbent economic crisis into a political one.
In the plenary sessions of the second day, “Classes and Class Struggle during the Crisis: New Challenges for the European Left” and “EU: Dissolution or Authoritarian Integration? Old and New Strategies of the European Left”, participants included Zoe Georgiou, Armando Steinko, Costas Douzinas, and Ozlem Onaran. The focus here was mainly on the way by which the current crisis redrew the political map of class struggle.
Each plenary session was followed by a presentation of case studies focusing, mainly, on the issues posed by the preceding theoretical discussions.
On the last day, Walter Baier, Cornelia Hildebrandt, Elisabeth Gauthier and Haris Golemis not only summed up the seminar but also undertook a synthesis between the theoretical discussions developed on the previous days concerning the new political landscape that had emerged after the recent elections in various European countries. The title of this session was “A Tectonic Upheaval after Recent Elections in Europe? Consequences for European Politics”.
The contributions from the theoretical sessions as well as the case studies, which were presented in the seminar, will form the contents of an electronic edition of the same title, which will be available from the new website of transform! europe.