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Why does Greece not simply default?

Source: TeleSUR English

History has shown that countries that refuse to pay their debts fall harder but recover faster than those that do not. So why does Greece’s left-led government not simply get it over with?

As the Greek debt drama finally comes to a head these weeks, with the Syriza-led government quietly warning the U.S. Treasury Secretary and the chief of the International Monetary Fund that its last-remaining cash reserves are now all but depleted and the government will not be paying the Fund if it does not receive an infusion of new cash before early June, a critical question arises: why do the radical leftists not simply get it over with and declare a default on the outstanding debt? What do they care about their creditors? read more

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Celebrating Romani Resistance Day

Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

A growing movement among Roma activists looks to celebrate their ancestors’ resistance to persecution — and to pick up where they left off.

On May 16, 1944, the Nazis scheduled the extermination of the Roma in the Auschwitz II-Birkenau’s Zigeunerlager. But the transfer of the Roma to the gas chamber met with vigorous resistance. Approximately 6,000, Roma alerted to the Nazis’ extermination plans, barricaded themselves in the Zigeunerlager buildings and prepared to fight back against the German SS. The guards withdrew in the face of this uprising. read more

Benjamin Dangl

Dr. Benjamin Dangl is the editor of Toward Freedom and a journalist focusing global politics and Latin American social movements. He has worked widely throughout Latin America as a reporter, and is the author of the books The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia (AK Press, 2007) and Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America (AK Press, 2010). He has reported for a variety of publications including The Nation, The Guardian, The Progressive, Vice, and Al Jazeera. He teaches journalism at Champlain College and has a PhD in history from McGill University. Email: BenDangl(at)gmail(dot)com read more