Europe

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Here we publish a summary of the measures repealed by great majority during the Italian referendum.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

Last Sunday, **los Indignados** who remained in the most representative camp of the 15M movement, simply because of being there first, agreed to dismantle the Sol camp after debating the proposal to postpone it until the 15th and turn it into an itinerant camp. A reconstruction party is planned with an orderly work plan which includes removing the camps and cleaning up

Over fifty million Italian citizens are voting in the referendum over the use of nuclear energy, privatization of water and immunity for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Despite the government’s attempts to thwart the referendum by all means, it was approved last Tuesday by the Italian Supreme Court and is taking place this Sunday.

In Italy, on June 12th and 13th, the population will vote in four simultaneous referendums: one which will allow magistrates to proceed with their investigations against the Prime Minister, the second and the third which aims to keep water in public rather than private hands and, the fourth regards the return to a nuclear energy program in Italy.

When 151 ministers of United Nations’ atomic energy agency gather in Vienna on June 20, for 4 days, they will be dealing with a world that has changed in the aftermath of Fukushima nuclear disaster, the third after serious accidents in Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, thus imposing a global review of the regulations governing nuclear safety.

By Ronald Joshua

A new study is warning highly touted efforts at nuclear disarmament are being canceled out by parallel investments in new nuclear weapons systems. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says more than 5,000 nuclear weapons are deployed and ready for use around the world, including 2,000 kept in a state of high alert.