15.11.2017
Dear friends,
in 2014, I had occasion to write an article entitled Unity or Separation? – Did the Scots Decide Sensibly? In that year, the Scots were asked in a referendum whether they wanted to secede from the UK, and the majority answered no. This year, 2017, between September and October, three referenda took place that had a roughly similar character: in Catalonia and Iraqi Kurdistan it was on the question of independence, and in two provinces of Italy it was on the issue of more financial autonomy. And we know that in Europe alone, several other regions have their own independence/separatist movements.
It may now be called a trend. It is a bit contradictory, because until a few years ago, almost all European countries wanted to be a member of the EU. At the global level, almost all countries wanted to join the WTO and were prepared to accept restrictions on their freedom. In this article I have tried to indicate the factors involved in this contradictory behavior of the concerned states and regions. It is a tentative explanation. A full explanation will need an elaborate study, which I cannot do at present.
As usual, I have posted the article on my blog-site
www.eco-socialist.blogspot.de
I hope you would find the text interesting and request you to forward it to politically interested people you know. I would be much obliged if you also publish it in your journal.
Yours sincerely
Saral Sarkar
Dear friends,
in 2014, I had occasion to write an article entitled Unity or Separation? – Did the Scots Decide Sensibly? In that year, the Scots were asked in a referendum whether they wanted to secede from the UK, and the majority answered no. This year, 2017, between September and October, three referenda took place that had a roughly similar character: in Catalonia and Iraqi Kurdistan it was on the question of independence, and in two provinces of Italy it was on the issue of more financial autonomy. And we know that in Europe alone, several other regions have their own independence/separatist movements.
It may now be called a trend. It is a bit contradictory, because until a few years ago, almost all European countries wanted to be a member of the EU. At the global level, almost all countries wanted to join the WTO and were prepared to accept restrictions on their freedom. In this article I have tried to indicate the factors involved in this contradictory behavior of the concerned states and regions. It is a tentative explanation. A full explanation will need an elaborate study, which I cannot do at present.
As usual, I have posted the article on my blog-site
www.eco-socialist.blogspot.de
I hope you would find the text interesting and request you to forward it to politically interested people you know. I would be much obliged if you also publish it in your journal.
Yours sincerely
Saral Sarkar
