Global power and resistance
New Rules Proposed under the Guise of “E-Commerce”8 July 2020, Washington, DC ― A new paper new paper written by Deborah James of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and published by Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung examines how “big tech” corporations work to use “trade” rules to rig the rules of the global digital economy to collect more data, exercise more control over people’s lives and over their workers, and amass ever more profit. It looks at what the potential impacts of these rules would be on workers,...
Read More "New Paper Exposes Big Tech’s Plans for New WTO Rules over Data Access and Control"
Read More "New Paper Exposes Big Tech’s Plans for New WTO Rules over Data Access and Control"
A disastrous new constitution for the global economy written by and for Big Tech The largest corporations in the history of the world – Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft – are seeking to use ‘trade’ rules to rig the rules of the global (digital) economy to enable them to collect more data, exercise more control over our lives and their workers, and amass ever more profit. More than 80 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are currently negotiating a new agreement on digital trade based on these proposals. This paper seeks to explain how these...
Read More "Digital Trade Rules"
Read More "Digital Trade Rules"
Comments on Germany's upcoming EU Council Presidency against the backdrop of the planned EU-MERCOSUR trade agreementRed apricots In his latest novel, Serotonin, French writer Michel Houellebecq focuses on love and agriculture. The novel's first-person narrator, Florent-Claude Labrouste, leaves his girlfriend, quits his job as an advisor to the French Ministry of Agriculture and embarks on a road trip into his past. His journey leads him to his old college friend Aymeric, the only one in his class who decided to actually become a farmer after studying agricultural...
Read More "Of humans and cattle"
Read More "Of humans and cattle"
Crafting Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation for Arms CompaniesThe international legal systems deployed to restrain the arms industry in the face of violations of human rights and humanitarian law are demonstrably weak. In certain areas, collective action has attempted to address this. Union workers in Italy refused to load generators onto boats laden with arms and bound for Saudi Arabia; diverse coalitions of demonstrators protested arms fairs in the UK; and Google employees refused to continue the corporation’s work on developing AI technology that could be...
Read More "Regulating the Arms Industry"
Read More "Regulating the Arms Industry"
Impact of a Financial Transaction Tax on economic recovery and financial stabilityThe Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is an internationally operating, left non-profit organisation for civic education affiliated with Germany’s Left Party. Active since 1990, the foundation has been committed to the analysis of social and political processes and developments worldwide. We work in favour of a more just world system based on international solidarity. Background & objectives Internationally, the coronavirus pandemic has prompted policymakers to seek new sources of revenue in order to cover...
Read More "Call for Offers"
Read More "Call for Offers"
27.04.2020 – The reportage “The brutal side of the Côte d’Azur” will be published on next April the 30th on the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung website. The on-the-ground research was carried out on the Southern Italian-French border, a militarized area inside the European Union where France still pushes back thousands of migrants, in violation of human rights and international agreements. "If you oppose no resistance, cops will take your data and let you go. Otherwise, they'll insult you and beat you up". With these words a Sudanese man...
Read More "Press Release: The brutal side of the Côte d’Azur"
Read More "Press Release: The brutal side of the Côte d’Azur"
The coronavirus crisis is demonstrating the failure of existing trade policy. Goods that are in particular demand during the pandemic – such as protective masks, medicines and medical equipment – are being hijacked, immediately after coming off a plane, by cowboys on the wild-west global market or squirrelled away by rogue elements. This wild-west mentality is particularly evident in the current crisis, but it also forms part of an international commercial framework geared towards free trade, where policy, dressed up in ideological terms, is tailored to the...
Read More "The coronavirus free-trade crisis"
Read More "The coronavirus free-trade crisis"
In light of the coronavirus crisis and the expected economic consequences, a number of European countries (including those most severely affected at the time of writing) have again called for the introduction of Eurobonds. Of course, this time they are going by the name 'coronabonds', but the idea and intended effect are the same. The aim is to raise capital, through issuing common European sovereign bonds, that will then help crisis-hit countries to stabilise their economies or get them back on their feet. Furthermore, unlike national...
Read More "German obstinacy and the end of the European Union"
Read More "German obstinacy and the end of the European Union"
Promoting coordinated action by European working-class organisationsThe Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung is an internationally operating non-profit organisation for civic education affiliated with Germany’s Left Party. It is a discussion forum for progressive political alternatives and a centre for critical thinking and research both in Germany and throughout the world. The Brussels Office operates as a think tank reflecting on European and international issues affecting contemporary society. Objectives The tender is for a service to produce...
Read More "Call for Tenders: Brochure on International Production Chains"
Read More "Call for Tenders: Brochure on International Production Chains"
How global imbalances are threatening peace, justice and democracyAbout the brochure Like the 1930s or the 1970s, the 2010s are a pivotal period. At first, it seemed like neoliberal globalisation had absorbed the shock waves of the major 2008 financial and economic crisis. The rise of the G20 and the main powers’ commitment to pursuing free trade buoyed hopes that globalisation had a future. At the dawn of the 2020s, it is clear that it does not. When Donald Trump and his protectionist agenda arrived in the White House, a trend reversal already apparent in international trade...
Read More "Against Trade Wars"
Read More "Against Trade Wars"