Europe

By KATE PICKETT and RICHARD WILKINSON for openDemocracy Inequality creates the social and political divisions that isolate us from each other. When people are asked what matters most for their happiness and wellbeing, they tend to talk about the importance of their…

In 2013, a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) on Universal and Unconditional Basic Income (UBI)[1] was carried out, but the one million signatures required were not collected and for some activists the action was a failure. The truth is that, back…

Once again, several thousands of people protested Hungary’s government in Budapest on Friday night.  The series of protests were sparked by the two laws passed by Parliament last Wednesday on the scandalous session characterised by the whistles and sirens coming…

For more than three years now, children’s days have taken place in the Mikebuda Park of Study and Reflection more or less regularly. In December of this year Kriszta Horváth worked with the children on up-cycling various old photos. At…

SIAN NORRIS 19 December 2018 for openDemocracy 100 years since (some) women won the right to vote, they’re still marginalised in corridors of our power – and facing a backlash there too. Visitors at Westminster Hall are now welcomed into…

Today people from all over the UK stood in solidarity with the Stansted 15, demanding an end to the hostile environment, an end to detention and an end to all forms of deportation. Over 50,000 people have signed the petition demanding…

Nieves Perez-Solorzano, University of Bristol for The Conversation As the December European Council drew to an end, EU leaders must have felt that they were living their own Brexit Groundhog Day. As has become the norm since the Brexit negotiations…

GRACIE BRADLEY 11 December 2018 for openDemocracy We should cherish dissenters trying to stop human rights abuses – not imprison them under anti-terrorism laws designed to prevent further Lockerbie bombings.  In March 2017, fifteen people tried to stop a secretive…

Today will see the third consecutive day of anti-government protests in Budapest. People are  expressing their anger on the street over the Overtime Act (often dubbed “slave law” passed by Parliament on Wednesday’s chaotic parliamentary session along with the law establishing…

In what amounts to be the biggest scandal of Hungary’s Parliament since the regime change, the Parliament passed the Overtime Act, often called the Slavery Act by the opposition, effective as of 1 January 2019. This new amendment to the Labour Act…