Europe

As debate continues to flare in the European Union Government on whose responsibility it is to manage the flow of recent North African immigrants to Italy and their subsequent migration to other regions in Europe, one point remains clear: Immigrants can benefit the Italian economy and contribute much-needed workers to the labour market in Italy.

The call for Real Democracy Now led to campsites being formed in the largest squares of the largest cities of Spain with the name the “M-15 Movement” calling for a new democracy, political transparency and reform of the electoral law. Now the movement takes to the roads building a momentum of activism that will converge on Madrid on the 23rd of June.

The second day at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn and a continuously rising temperature. After the first panels on the opening day and exchanging cards with journalists from all over the world, the second day gave us vibrant meetings and high emotional intensity. Women were the protagonists.

In a moment in which new forms of media and diffusion of news are challenging the old established forms and the news agenda of the day can be suddenly altered by a fragment of video taken on a mobile phone, the Global Media Forum convened today to consider the challenge for the Media in the field of Human Rights in a Globalized World.

Speaking at the 4th Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, this year focusing on the role of the media in the defense of human rights, Pia Figueroa, Director of Pressenza attacked multinational media corporation for their selective approach to defending human rights and spoke about the role of the media in attacks on human rights in Latin America.

On June 19th in Madrid, as in many other places, people gather to denounce and express their rejection of the many situations of economic violence they are being subjected to: the euro accord, cuts in health and education, corruption … The demonstration was cheerful and enthusiastic like all other multitudinous events of the 15M movement.

The resounding victory of “yes” to the referendum to repeal the privatization of water, the nuclear plants and a shameful law “ad personam” which would allow Berlusconi to not present himself at trials against him under the guise of a “legal impediment” was an act of civil disobedience, which involved 27 million Italians.

Here we publish a summary of the measures repealed by great majority during the Italian referendum.

Nuclear:

The repeal of the rules on nuclear power has prevented the installation of new plants in Italy, preventing a return to a kind of energy that had already been rejected in the referendum of 1987, shortly after the Chernobyl accident.

In a referendum vote held on last Monday, 95 percent of Italians voted in favor of blocking a nuclear power revival in Italy. The vote comes less than a month after Germany announced it would phase out nuclear power over the next decade. Italians also voted against water privatization and against Belusconi’s special privileges.

Reflecting profound concerns of developing countries, a new report – ‘Catalysing Catastrophic Climate Change’ – has strongly criticized the World Bank group for promoting false solutions to climate change, such as carbon trading, mega-dams, agro-fuels and industrial mono-culture tree plantations.

Article by Jutta Wolf