The present issue is divided into four main sections. The first section contrasts the rising social unrest in Europe with an emerging kind of populist right wing libertarianism in the USA. Thus, in Europe, as a result of the brutal austerity measures implemented by the EU and the IMF on the peripheral countries which have already fallen prey to the ruling elites in Europe and their local counterparts, social unrest in countries like Greece, Spain, Italy and now Britain is rising fast and threatens the kind of ‘stability’ imposed in Europe--a stability which “by coincidence” benefits the privileged social groups against the lower strata in the effort to make the latter pay for the ‘mistakes’ of the former. One important side effect of this unrest is the emergence, in the context of the Spanish general strike, of democratic forms of struggle like the Barcelona assembly, described insightfully by the significant contribution of the Editorial Team of the Catalan I(nclusive) D(emocracy) Group. At the same time, as John Sargis shows, the discourse in the USA is dominated in contrast, by right wing groups, conservative think tanks, tea party organizations, corporate media, etc. who want to fashion government by a privileged elite that will cut social programs, continue financial deregulation and the pursuit of military superiority with the aim “to protect national interests”, namely, market interests. As the author thoughtfully concludes, the real dilemma for the American people is whether they will continue supporting what passes as ‘democracy’ there, which may well end up in a kind of US fascism, or, whether instead, they will fight for genuine firms of democracy, like those emerging in Europe at the moment.

The second section hosts Doug Lain’s podcast long interview with Takis Fotopoulos, first posted a year ago, which covers a lot of ground on many issues of particular interest to libertarian readers (although not only!). Apologies to our readers that this interview, for technical reasons, will not be published immediately but will be published anyway within the next ten days or so.

The third section revisits the de-growth issue, which seems to attract more and more activists of the reformist Left, particularly in Europe, with a debate between Ted Trainer, the well known radical ecologist, and Takis Fotopoulos. The section starts with the latter’s examination of the compatibility between the de-growth project and forms of direct democracy like Inclusive Democracy and concludes that not only de-growth is incompatible with a globalised market economy, but it also gives the impression that it sees democracy as just a procedure, a good way of sorting out problems with as much participation as possible, and not as a politeia, i.e., “a regime aspiring to social and personal autonomy (to set your own rules)”. Then, Ted Trainer painstakingly shows why de-growth cannot be achieved unless its goals are greatly extended to include nothing less than scrapping and replacement of the basic elements in consumer-capitalist society, i.e. both the market and the growth economy. Finally, Takis Fotopoulos, in a general assessment of Ted’s The Simpler Way and de-growth in contrast to Inclusive Democracy, argues that it is historically, theoretically and politically wrong to conclude, as Ted claims, that “the case for radical political transition derives primarily from an understanding of our ecological/sustainability problem”.

The final section consists of a very useful Q&A on economic democracy, as part of an ID. This was based on a questionnaire that was submitted in writing by the ATTAC Academie Workshop (Madeburg, Germany, July, 2010). We hope that it will provide significant food for thought, particularly to all those raising questions on the feasibility of an economic democracy.

Lastly, we would like to wish to all our subscribers a very creative New Year with the promise on our behalf to continue and expand further our analytical work on today’s reality. We hope that, on your part, you will continue offering your invaluable support to the journal, which so much encourages us, particularly in such difficult times.



The Editorial Committee

December 2010
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