Over 70 Myanmar CSOs express their concerns over the EU-Myanmar Investment agreement in the below letter to European Trade Commissioner De Gucht.

Activists share the urgency to build a pan-European response to the crisis; one that puts democracy above austerity.

Austerity policies in Europe are telling people two things: that they are guilty for the crisis because they have been living beyond their means and that they need to pay for it.

We call for a European permanent mobilization to support the fights against the crisis and build a future for everyone in Europe and in the world.

Only if we tackle corporate power at the heart of the EU, do we have a chance to stop Austerity Europe.

The EU focus on fiscal deficit is completely mistaken. They are the result of the crisis, not the cause.

Despite the strong and growing resistance in Greece and other European countries to the direction of EU policy responses to the crisis, the process for this new treaty has unfolded with disquieting speed: initiated in November, an agreement was already reached by end of January among the EU25. This comes at the expense of stifling democratic debate and, indeed, shortcutting the normal consultative procedures in the treaty process through legal manoeuvres.

In a podcast debate, four activist researchers debate why the European Union is wedlocked to economic policies that will only worsen the crisis and further undermine democratic control of public budget.

Middle East scholars join TNI fellows in a unique and fascinating discussion of the context of the democracy uprisings in the Middle East and the way it may shape the region for future generations.

The economic elites are turning to a neoliberal Keynesianism to save the crisis of capitalism, which is doomed to fail because it does not address its root causes.

"The banks are ours!" Public money was used to bail out the banks, and now they are lending back to the public at interest, while governments ignore the social and environmental crises that confront society. It is time to demand real solutions that will work not only for the sake of the economy but for the lives and conditions of people on whom it depends.

Susan George appeared on the major French radio network France Inter to debate the financial crisis and regulation. Her most recent book "Their Crises, Our Solutions" has been published in French ("Leurs Crises, Nos Solutions"); the English version is due to be published in September.

Call to all the social networks and organisations, trades unions, political forces and civil society movements to join the Peoples' Alternative Summit in defense of peoples' sovereignty, human rights, participatory democracy, labour rights, the rights of women and indigenous peoples, social justice, the defense of the environment in the face of climate change, and the establishment of peace.

The international free trade and investment policies and the related WTO agreements played a major role in undermining so many developing countries' economies. The proponents of tese policies, including the EU, are now urging the govenrments of the world to end their resistance to such policies within the WTO.