BRAVE NEW EUROPE is Three!

For three years now we have been building a European economic and political educational forum to tackle topics such as neo-liberalism, climate change, inequality, and the deterioration of democracy in Europe. We and our contributors offer solutions – and now the archive of BRAVE NEW EUROPE contains a treasure trove of three years of radical thinking, analyses, and proposals for change.

Our authors extend over a wide spectrum of experts and activists, from university professors to taxi drivers and bicycle couriers. Although our focus is on Europe, our regular viewers are distributed throughout the globe.

We remain at the cutting edge of progressive ideas, often disseminating new thinking long before it gets recognised in the mainstream: the Green New Deal and Modern Monetary Theory being the most prominent. Our Gig Economy Project, led by Ben Wray and made possible by generous support from the Lipman-Miliband Trust, has become a key hub for gig economy organisers, workers, and researchers to share ideas and information .

BRAVE NEW EUROPE is an educational website and project. We have organised a series of talks in Berlin hosting many of the leading European progressive thinkers, and posting them on the internet. These include Ann Pettifor, Steve Keen, Daniela Gabor, Branko Milanović, Frances Coppola, Jason Hickel, Grace Blakeley, Warren Mosler, Adam Tooze. – to name just a few. We even moved these talks into bars to reach a broader public – drawing an audience of over 300. Due to coronavirus these are now taking place online. Having begun with Bill Mitchell, with Emma Clancy, Hillary Wainwright, and David Whyte scheduled. We have only been able to do this with support from the Helle Panke Foundation and heterodox student group Netzwerk Plurale Ökonomik, for which we are extremely grateful.

Defending democracy means actively supporting important democratic causes in Europe for us,  be it the trial of Julian Assange, women’s right to equality, the right of Catalans and Basques to self-determination, the university strikes in Britain, supporting gig economy workers in their struggle to ensure their rights and organise themselves in unions, refugees seeking protection in Europe, stopping EU trade deals that do inestimable damage to the rights of EU citizens, not to mention the environment. The list goes on.

There is much more to be done, such as pursuing the topic of monopolies and cartels in the EU, which we are preparing. We have two major projects for which we are applying for funding. Our readership has been growing steadily over the past three years: during the corona lock down we have had as many as 20,000 readers a week. With more resources, we would have done more to promote crucial proposals, such as including climate change in the economic recovery programmes, which has been ignored. For this reason we have applied for grants to allow us to create structures to avoid this happening again. With the support of the Lipman-Miliband Trust we were able to launch the pilot project The Gig Economy. As we wrote above, this has become an important component of BRAVE NEW EUROPE. We have applied for financing to continue the project. Even if we are fortunate to receive these grants, they do not help us with the day to day running of the website.

Which brings us to you. BRAVE NEW EUROPE had been running on a shoestring – well, half of one. The funds we have received do not yet cover our basic costs for maintaining the website. We have said from the beginning that ours is a non-profit, egalitarian project, with no paywall, no advertisements and no paid content.

We are really starting to make a difference. Now, more than ever, we appeal to you to support BRAVE NEW EUROPE, to help us fulfil our (and your!) potential:

To donate, please go here

Mathew D. Rose

Nick Shaxson

David Shirreff

Ben Wray