Transform! 07/2010 [antikvár]

y^ear reader, The focus of the current issue of Transform is the crisis of the capitalist economy and of the whole reproduction process it governs. It is far from being overcome, as the mass media would have us believe. In fact, the shifting of the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working population has, especially in Europe, just begun. In some countries there has been, and there is, massive resistance to it; in other countries massive austerity measures are being pushed through without large protest actions. This issue's Essays section contains fundamental analytical articles on the character of the crisis and its consequences. They deal, on the one hand, with the stubborn persistence of the current crisis phenomena in the EU and world economies, and, on the other, with the systematic cutbacks in the reproductive conditions of the working population, which threaten to lead to a new phase of national-position competitiveness. One of the bases for the underlying over-accumulation of capital is the increasing precarisation of an ever greater number of workers. In "Modern Times" Karola Boger, Thomas Händel and Frank Puskarev uncover the underlying conditions of this development as related to working-time regimes in Europe. Aspects of the crisis are also featured in the contributions in our Focus section. In the ESF/WSF section, there is an assessment of the development of the European Social Forum, which needs more initiative and engagement,