The key question of left-wing thinking is the critical attitude towards capitalism. The author says that the road to socialism may lead to a continuous and comprehensive extension of social rights. Therefore supporting the programme of the social Europe is a necessary, but not sufficient condition of the left-wing project.

The Parliament will have to modify the law on abortion by the Summer of 2000, according to a decision of the Constitutional Court. A ..solution" that violates human rights may well emerge, although the current regulation could also be challenged from this perspective.

In the EU, thousands of women coming from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are forced to engage in prostitution. This phenomenon that became overwhelming after the fall of the Berlin Wall, is explained by the rapid impoverishment of the population. A report from Le Monde Diplomatique provides a close view.

The article summarizes the experience of two decades of experiments with employee stock ownership programs in the United States. The author was an active participant of the movement for ESOPs. In his view, the programs did not fulfil the early hopes. The ESOP companies can be found on the periphery of the US economy, and suffer from capital shortage. (First published in Dollars and Sense, US.)

Mitbestimmung, or co-determination, was a major novelty of workplace democracy in post-war Germany. It used to be criticized for its function in eliminating class struggle and increasing the divisions within the working class. The new critics, however, come from the right, and intend to reform this mechanism for the purposes of neo-liberal streamlining.