Blogposts by Tag: US elections

  • Barack jam for Obama

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    Rating: 4/5 with 8 votes

    Published Friday, August 29, 2008 at 10:46
    by Editor in Debate (277 views and 5 comments)

    PES activists in Hungary are showing their support for Barack Obama by preparing apricot jam for the Democrat candidate to the US Presidency.

    In fact, "Barack" means apricot in Hungarian so activists meeting in the Hungarian city Tallya decided to produce and sell this jam labelled "Barack for Obama". The funds collected were given to local organizations that fight child poverty.

    As Matyas Gati, one of the organizers, put it “This is a fun way of making a serious point. Barack Obama is very popular in Hungary because he is so charismatic and because he offers a real alternative to the Republicans who have made such a mess of things in America and abroad. We also wanted to show that we PES activists share the same democratic values and aspirations as Mr Obama. He embodies the principles and values we want to promote as PES activists. We support his ideas for change and the attitude of his politics.” Check the video with a shorter version of the interview.

    And don't miss PES activists video showing how activists prepared the whole thing!

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    Tags: campaign, US elections

  • Yourspace goes to the States: Protecting workers jobs and workers money

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    Rating: 4.7/5 with 7 votes

    Published Friday, February 8, 2008 at 16:40
    by Editor in EU in the world (873 views and 0 comments)

    The PES delegation in the US have found strong agreement with Democrats on the need to do something about international financial markets, especially hedge and private equity funds.

    These privately-owned funds are often exempt from the transparency and tax rules that apply to all other players in the financial markets! They are often involved in ‘leveraged buy outs’ where healthy companies are bought with borrowed money, the company is saddled with high debts and workers are laid off – or given worse working conditions - in a hunt for bigger profits. There is consensus on both sides of the Atlantic – at least between the PES and senior Democrats – that the lack of information about the activities of these funds is damaging for the stability of financial markets – and more importantly, on the pensions and savings of working families. Moreover it is clear that leveraged buy outs can be bad news for jobs and working conditions. With pension funds increasingly investing in private equity and hedge funds you have the absurd situation of workers’ money being used to buy companies and make workers redundant!

    What Democrats and the PES agreed in Washington this week was to push this agenda forward in two different ways: first, to get pension funds on both sides of the Atlantic talking about... read more

    Tags: investment, PES, US elections, USA

  • Yourspace goes to the States: free trade seen through American eyes

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    Rating: 4.7/5 with 3 votes

    Published Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 17:18
    by Editor in EU in the world (746 views and 0 comments)

    Some European social democrats are shocked at US Democrats apparent hostility to free trade. Europeans fear US Democrats are becoming protectionist. But American workers blame NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement – for the factory closures and job losses that have devastated US communities. And don’t forget many Americans lose healthcare when they lose their job! Americans point to the number of companies that have moved manufacturing to Mexico and other NAFTA countries with lower wages, lower safety standards and fewer workers rights.

    US Democrats talk instead of wanting ‘fair trade’ with basic labour standards and trade union rights as part of future trade agreements. This is in tune with PES ambitions to put ‘decent work’ on the agenda of the World Trade Organisation. It might take some serious talking to reach a good way forward but it could offer an opportunity to link free trade with better living and working conditions for all. read more

    Tags: decent work, fair trade, trade, US elections, USA

  • Yourspace goes to the States: the end of the conservative era in America?

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    Rating: 4.5/5 with 4 votes

    Published Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at 15:06
    by Editor in EU in the world (639 views and 1 comments)

    PES president Poul Nyrup Rasmussen is in New York and shares his impressions from SuperTuesday – right after the close of polls yesterday:

    "I see a new pride in being progressive. The Democrats are attracting a new generation into politics. The numbers taking part in Democratic primaries is massively up, while the numbers involved in Republican primaries is down."

    "Whoever wins the Democratic nomination still has a fight to beat the Republicans but I sense a hunger for change."

    Read the full press release here read more

    Tags: US elections, USA

  • Yourspace goes to the States: Europe should listen to the American healthcare debate

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    Rating: 4.8/5 with 5 votes

    Published Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 23:45
    by Editor in EU in the world (845 views and 0 comments)

    It’s tempting to think we Europeans have nothing to learn from the American debate about healthcare – after all, we have had more-or-less universal healthcare for years. But we should be smarter than that; it’s more than the US catching up with us.

    The significance for us of the healthcare debate is that the Democrats – and American voters – are standing up for social protection. There is a growing confidence in being progressive. The Democrats are energized and mobilizing people who have never been engaged in politics before.

    One consequence of universal healthcare would be that workers would not be dependent on the diminishing number of employers providing health insurance – making them more willing to move jobs. So by providing universal healthcare working families would be less nervous of change – and more able to cope with globalization.

    The Democrats also see a bigger role for the public sector – which is why they need to roll back tax cuts for the wealthy. The Democrats are creating – and responding to - a growing hunger for basic decency for all in living and working conditions.

    We in Europe can be inspired by this. We socialists and social democrats know that a society that provides good social protection, and helps everyone to participate in society, will also be a more economically competitive society. We know this from European social democracies like Sweden. But... read more

    Tags: health, public services, US elections, USA

  • Yourspace goes to the States: it's still the economy stupid!

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    Rating: 4/5 with 6 votes

    Published Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 09:42
    by Editor in EU in the world (724 views and 0 comments)

    Almost four in ten Americans say the economy and jobs is the number one issue in the presidential campaign - up ten per cent in the last three weeks and now twice as many as cite Iraq as the top issue.

    Six in ten Americans believe the US economy is in recession. And Europe is in the same boat.... economic gloom in the USA is matched in Europe with estimates of an economic slowdown. The interesting thing - a small silver lining to the cloud of threatening recession - is that Americans are talking about investing in growth, like the PES has been saying for years, and in contrast to the prevailing conservative economic view that says the market will sort itself out without intervention.

    Democrats want to invest not in tax cuts for the rich but in health care and renewable energies. Together Democrats in the US and social democrats in Europe can make new thinking about creating in jobs and growth. It's a chance to change the prevailing leave-it-all to-the-market orthodoxy.

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    Tags: investment, US elections, USA

  • Yourspace goes to the States: Yourspace has landed!

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    Rating: 4.6/5 with 5 votes

    Published Monday, February 4, 2008 at 17:11
    by Editor in EU in the world (923 views and 1 comments)

    America is gripped by SuperTuesday. And so they should be.

    Two years ago it would have been impossible to imagine that the main contenders for the President of the USA would be a woman and a black man. Today all America is talking about Clinton versus Obama.

    The Republican race is simply not stirring the same excitement, although the fact that many conservatives are saying that McCain is not conservative enough is evidence that American politics is moving back to the centre. Polls suggest that John McCain may be confirmed as the Republican candidate after SuperTuesday. No such likelihood for the Democrats....

    Both Clinton and Obama represent huge change from the Bush era. And this is what excites European socialists too. But the focus State-side is not really on policy - both Democratic candidates agree on ending the war in Iraq, extending health care to the millions who go without, and getting America's act together on climate change. The thrill is in the narrowing gap between the two contenders, the fact that Obama is an almost total newcomer to national politics, and the fact that Hillary is a Clinton - with everything that people love or hate about Bill and Hillary herself. It's a fascinating race that fills progressives with hope.

    In the next few days Yourspace will be...

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    Tags: PES, US elections, USA

  • Next week Yourspace goes to the States

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    Rating: 4.6/5 with 5 votes

    Published Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 15:35
    by Editor in EU in the world (1006 views and 4 comments)

    From Monday February 4 to Friday February 8 PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen leads a European Socialist delegation to Washington and New York to meet leading US Democrats.

    He will be there on ‘SuperTuesday’ when 22 states choose between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards for their candidate for the Presidential elections.

    Next week might be a turning point in American history – and you’ll be in front row for news! Yourspace will be blogging from the delegation and answering your questions. What is on the Democrats’ policy agenda – and what will it mean for the PES and our manifesto for the 2009 European elections? What are the prospects for the PES and US Democrats to make the world a better place? Yourspace will put your questions to members of the delegation, and report back on issues you raise – just put your question in a comment to this post.

    The PES President will be joined by Romanian Social Democrat Leader Mircea Geoana, former Swedish Finance Minister Par Nuder, Norwegian ViceFinance Minister Geir Axlesen, Norwegian Secretary of State for Defence Espen Barth Eide and Socialist Members of the European Parliament including Pervenche Beres, Harlem Desir, Ieke van den Burg, Jan Marinus Wiersma, Stavros Lambrinidis and Lapo Pistelli. read more

    Tags: PES, US elections, USA