CONTENTS

THE EU FOR PEDESTRIANS: ..."Have you got a grandpa, then send him to Europa"...
• From the European Coal and Steel Community to the EU  A chronology of Treaties
• The EU Constitutional Treaty of Lisbon - in effect since 1.12.2009.   Download pdf file (1.3MB)
  Easy to read summary by the Robert Schuman Foundation: Download pdf file (266kB)
• Euroland - Federation of Retarded Acceleration  [04.07.2012]
• SWIFT, the EU, and the data-greedy N(U)SA   [06.02.2010-13.02.2010]

GERMANY:
• Cabaret artist Volker Pispers on the political conditions in Germany over the last 30-40 years (pdf file).
• Freedom of the Press being strengthened - Germany 2010
• Data   storage - use - access
• Tax evasion
• Stirring social conflict
• The state health scheme - Germany [planned]

CHRONIC TIMES:
• The Chronic Times No 2 from January 2010 {Google, China}
• The Chronic Times No 1 November 2009 {Germany; financial crisis, jobs retention}

External Links and Literature

EU & INTERNATIONAL:
• EU Portal: EU information site
• Eurostat: EU statistics office
• RAPEX: EU Rapid Alert System for dangerous Products. Rapid exchange of information on products posing a serious risk to the health and safety. Not covered: food, pharmaceutical and medical devices.


• FRA: European Agency for Fundamental Rights


• Statewatch: Critical site on European politics focussing on civil liberties


• Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO): A research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making
• LobbyControl [german]: A non-profit organization, informing on power structures and influencing-strategies in Germany and the EU (focus: transparency, democratic control, clear limits to influencing politics and the public)
• Lobbyplag: Monitoring the verbatim inclusion of text passages from lobbyists in the submissions of EU Parliament members


• Finance Watch: A public interest association dedicated to making finance work for the good of society. Mission is to strengthen the voice of society in the reform of financial regulation by conducting advocacy and presenting public interest arguments to lawmakers and the public as a counterweight to the private interest lobbying of the financial industry


• IPSA: The International Political Science Association.
  Via the IPSA portal to the "top 300 political science sites", libraries, etc.

GERMANY:
• Bundestag/Presse: Official information site of the German Parliament [english]
  Notified political party donations.    Notified extra income of MPs  ('Stufe3' means > €7000)
• Research journal New Social Movements [german] Themes: democratization, social movement research, political sociology. In close cooperation with the working group Social Movements of the German Association for Political Science DVPW (academic, member-oriented). [german]
• Campaign forum: campact.de, 'Demokratie in Aktion'. Since 2004: NGO modeled on the US platform MoveOn.org, sharing platform for focussing protest emails or telephone calls to political decision makers.
• Critical site on german politics [german]: Nachdenk Seiten, of the „Initiative to improve the quality of the formation of public opinion in the area of politics (non-profit organization)“. Since 2003. Publishers/editors: Albrecht Müller & Dr. Wolfgang Lieb


• BCC [german] Homepage of the Business Crime Control - an independent organization of civil & human rights activists investigating in the area of corruption and business criminality, founded 1991, active mainly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland. See also: BCC [wiki] [german]
• whistleblower-net [german] Homepage of the german Whistleblower Network.
  Whistleblower wiki

UK:
• Official Homepage of the UK Parliament: The UK Parliament

RUSSIA:
• Official Homepage of the Russian President: [english] [russian]
• Memorial: Organization for historical enlightenment and human rights.
  Memorial [english]  |  Memorial [russian]  |  Memorial wiki

CHINA:
• Official Homepage of the People's Republic of China [english]: The Government of China

USA:
• Official Homepage of the US White House: The White House
• Center for American Progress CAP Founded 2003. "Help shape the national debate, expose the hollowness of conservative governing philosophy, and challenge the media to cover the issues that truly matter"
  CAP report Jan 2010 "The three faces of work-family conflict":  Download pdf file (exec summary 0.5MB)
• MoveOn.org - 'Democracy in Action'. Since 1998. A community to create and participate in campaigns for progressive change in a political arena where big money and corporate lobbyists wield too much influence. Since 1998.
• PRwatch.org Center for media and democracy: monitoring PR and propaganda; furthering open content media

OFF-LINE DIVERSIONS:
• Michael Lüders, "Wer den Wind sät - Was westliche Politik im Orient anrichtet"
  [If you sow wind - The havoc wreaked in the Orient by Western politics] (2015)
  A concise and accurate account of the Middle East politics of the West conducted since WW II to this day as the biggest single cause of the current situation
• George Orwell, "1984". Text available under george-orwell.org (1949)
• George Orwell, "Animal Farm". Text available under george-orwell.org (1945)
• Max Weber, "Economy and Society. Volume 4: Social authority", (~1920)