Europe Follow

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, admitted last week that Britain is probably now in recession. It joins a long list of economies which are now experiencing a downturn, including the US, Japan and the European Union.

The European anti-war movement is calling for mass protests at next year’s Nato summit in Strasbourg, France, including an international demonstration and a counter-summit.

The Strasbourg protest will begin with a counter-summit bringing together anti-war activists, writers and politicians from around the world. It will start on Thursday 2 April.

Greece Greece is still in the grip of a growing strike wave in opposition to the right wing government’s attempts to pass the costs of the economic crisis onto working people.

Suddenly Europe is aflame. There are mass demonstrations of workers on the streets, students in revolt in the colleges and schools, and pensioners are joining a movement to defend the welfare state they created.

The crash of 2008 is forcing governments to make previously unimaginable inroads into the private sector. Pumping capital into the banks by partly nationalising them – the key measure announced by the New Labour government in Britain last week – looks set to spread to the US and Europe.

Initially many establishment figures in continental Europe thought they could ride the global financial crisis out. This was, they said, a problem generated by "Anglo-Saxon" free market capitalism that had nothing to do with the well-regulated economies of the euro-zone.

Gordon brown and Alistair Darling are not alone in throwing good public money after bad private debts.

Alan Milburn, Health Secretary from 1998 to 2003 Alan Milburn is listed in his declaration of members’ interests at the House of Commons as a director of Covidien, which describes itself as "a $10bn global healthcare products leader". He is also a member of Lloydspharmacy’s Healthcare Advisory Panel. Milburn is an advisor to the European advisory panel of leading private equity firm Bridgepoint, which specialises in healthcare investments. Milburn declares his income from these senior appointments as over £30,000 a year from Bridgepoint; over £25,000 from Lloydspharmacy; nothing listed for Covidien; and a further over £20,000 as

A packed fringe meeting organised by the RMT transport workers’ union saw Tony Benn, Unite's Irish regional secretary Jimmy Kelly and the RMT’s Bob Crow speak against the neoliberal drive in the European Union (EU).

Every year around 17,000 visas are granted to people from countries outside the European Union to come to Britain as domestic workers. The majority are women, carrying out jobs such as caring for children or other family members, cooking and cleaning.

Internationally the war is a big blow for the US, at least in Central Europe and the Caucasus. It has suddenly shown that the influence and control of the sole superpower is limited. There are situations when the superpower cannot protect its client states such as Georgia.