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Austerity

The Left Wins Presidential Election In Sri Lanka

September 23, 2024 Atul Chandra and Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
On September 22, 2024, the Sri Lankan election authority announced that Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) alliance won the presidential election. Dissanayake, who has been the leader of the left-wing JVP since 2014, defeated thirty-seven other candidates, including the incumbent president Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party (UNP) and his closest challenger Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegava. The traditional parties that dominated Sri Lankan politics – such as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the UNP – are now on the backfoot, although they dominate the Sri Lankan parliament (the SLPP has 105 out of 225 seats, while the UNP has 3 seats).

The Country Of The Rust Belt And The Broken Road

July 26, 2024 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. , , ,
In his inaugural presidential address on 20 January 2017, Donald Trump used a powerful phrase to describe the situation in the United States: ‘American carnage’. In 1941, seventy-six years before this speech, Henry Luce wrote an article in Life magazine about the ‘American century’ and the promise of US leadership to be ‘the dynamic centre of ever-widening spheres of enterprise’. During the period between these two proclamations, the United States went through an immense expansion known as the ‘Golden Age’ and then a remarkable decline. That theme of decline has returned in Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.

How To Start Participatory Budgeting In Your City

July 23, 2024 Lerner Hadden, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , ,
Has your city been making cuts to schools, libraries, firefighters, and social services that you are not happy with? Think you could do a better job managing the budget? There is a way in which you can have that opportunity through a process called “participatory budgeting (PB).” Currently, residents of over 7,000 cities around the world are deciding how to spend their taxpayer dollars, and you could follow their lead by starting PB in your city. What Is Participatory Budgeting? In 1989, the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre developed a new model of democratic participation, which has become known internationally as participatory budgeting (PB). Through this process, community members directly decide how to spend a portion of a public budget.

How Kenya’s Youth, Middle Classes And Working Poor Joined Forces

July 10, 2024 Caroline Kimeu, Portside. , , , ,
I remember Kenya’s June 25 protests like they were yesterday. The energy on the streets of Nairobi was frenetic, filled with the sound of whistles, motorcycle honks, vuvuzelas (long horns used to cheer in soccer games) and loud blasts of teargas. “We are tired,” chanted the thousands of demonstrators who had turned out to oppose government plans to introduce wide-ranging tax hikes, on what would become the bloodiest day of the protests. Hoisting up Kenyan flags, they marched through one of the city’s main avenues, which was colored pink from water cannon spray, dodging rounds of rubber bullets and teargas.

Ecuadorians Call For An End To Noboa’s Austerity Measures

July 4, 2024 Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Ecuadorian trade union the Unitary Workers’ Front (FUT), has called for a national mobilization on July 4 against the increase in gasoline prices in the country. On June 26, through Executive Decree 308, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa ordered the elimination of gasoline subsidies in accordance with the provisions of the International Monetary Fund. The government has already reached agreements with some transportation unions to prevent them from joining future protests. According to the government, these unions will receive monthly compensation for the increase in gasoline costs. This agreement has been seen by some social leaders as an act of betrayal against the rest of the political and labor organizations.

Europe’s Shift To The Right Must Be Countered With Mass Mobilization

June 12, 2024 Giuliano Granato, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
The composition of the new European Parliament will more or less trace the outgoing one. Much ado about nothing? Not really. It’s not just a question of how many votes and seats you get—the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) increased their share by 10 seats, and the ultra-right parties Identity and Democracy and European Conservatives and Reformists by 13—but also where and how. The ultra-right is the leading force in two key countries such as France and Italy, where it won around 30% of votes (40% if we add the votes of Zemmours Reconquuête in France and Salvinis Lega in Italy).

Argentine Student Movement Erupts Against Milei’s Adjustment

April 25, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
“We do not want them to take away our dreams. Our future does not belong to them,” said the president of the Argentine University Federation (FUA), Piera Fernández de Piccolini, to an overflowing Plaza de Mayo during the march in defense of public universities on April 23. The protest organized by student groups and educators unions was also supported by labor unions and left parties. At the Plaza, hundreds of thousands chanted: “The country is not for sale!” “Education is a fundamental human right because it reduces inequality,” added Piccolini, who read the closing declaration of the mobilization.

US Higher Education Is Being Gutted, But We Can Fight Back

February 29, 2024 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. , , , ,
In January 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis overhauled the Board of Trustees of the New College of Florida, replacing several members with conservative activists, including Christopher Rufo. New College of Florida was known as a hippie college, a queer college, but Rufo aimed to change all that, saying, “We will be shutting down low-performing, ideologically-captured academic departments and hiring new faculty.” He added, “The student body will be recomposed over time: some current students will self-select out, others will graduate; we’ll recruit new students who are mission-aligned.”

Thousands Take To The Streets In Argentina

December 21, 2023 Gabriel Vera Lopes, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
Thousands of Argentines demonstrated, this Wednesday December 20, “against the economic austerity measures” implemented by Javier Milei’s government. The day was marked by high tension early on, following a major police operation carried out at the main entrances to the city of Buenos Aires. The Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, announced that she would debut her “anti-picketing protocol”, presented last Friday December 15, and threatened that they would not allow the demonstration to take place. However, the call to mobilization managed to overcome the fear that the government tried to install.

Argentina: The Milei Moment Has Arrived

December 16, 2023 Luis Alberto Quevedo, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
Yesterday, Javier Milei’s intense life as a panelist came to an end and his new life as president of the nation begins. Now his words and diagnoses will have to become government actions. For this reason, his first speech in front of the Legislative Assembly, at the very moment this mutation was taking place, aroused so much interest. The first surprise was that he did not address the deputies and senators who were constituted as representatives of the people: the two assembled chambers embody the always heterogeneous preferences of our society. Milei preferred instead the esplanade and to speak to his followers, not to the people as a whole but to his own close followers.

European Trade Unions March To Protest The EU-Imposed Austerity

December 15, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
On December 12, trade unionists, political parties, and other working-class sections from around 30 countries participated in a major demonstration led by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) protesting the EU-imposed austerity in the region. The march was organized against the backdrop of the summit of EU leaders in Brussels on December 14 and 15 to find a consensus over a controversial reform of the EU’s economic governance rules called the ‘Stability and Growth Pact.’ Around 15,000 people marched in Brussels behind the banner Together Against Austerity sending a clear message to leaders that there must be no return to austerity.

Public Need Versus The Business Of War

September 16, 2023 Christian Sorenson, Substack. , , ,
The American public is hurting. The bare necessities—clean water, nutritious food, and affordable housing—are hard to come by. Tap water is contaminated with lead, PFAS, and other pollutants. The water systems that serve cities and towns suffer additional stressors, including drought, overuse, and a failure to incorporate greywater systems. And, like many necessities, you have to pay for it in the United States: Water utility prices continue to go up and up. Hunger is a severe problem. Insufficient money and/or access means that millions of families regularly go hungry. Massive corporations dominate what is available in a grocery store, and much of what they produce is innutritious.

What’s Behind The US-Driven Reforms Coming To The World Bank?

June 14, 2023 Conor Gallagher, Naked Capitalism. , , , , ,
Change is coming to the World Bank. While not expected to be formalized until October, it looks like the two big shifts will involve climate change and a bigger emphasis on middle income countries. It’s difficult to predict exactly how the new mission will play out, but one thing is clear: the efforts are being driven by the desire to counter/thwart Beijing’s expanding global influence. Both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan devoted chunks of their big China speeches in April to the subject. And it looks like the reforms will go hand in hand with pushing the debunked narrative that Chinese lending is a debt trap while also trying to relegate China to the backseat in the growing number of distressed countries.

‘A War-Like Situation’: Britain’s NHS Workers Strike Continues

May 17, 2023 Ross Domoney, The Real News Network. , , , , ,
In England on May Day tens of thousands of nurses went on strike and walked out from their work at the NHS. In London alone there were over a dozen picket lines as anger, despair and the struggle for a better wage were shouted out on the streets. The government offered the nurses a 5% pay increase which some union members accepted. However, with the inflation continuing to rise in the UK this offer was turned down by many union members too. Nurses, who are highly skilled workers are burnt out and some are leaving the job for better wages. The striking nurses say the situation has gotten so bad within the NHS, that they are not only striking for better pay but for the safety of their patients.

Sudan’s Crisis And The Hidden Hands Of The IMF

May 12, 2023 Dian Maria Blandina, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Sudan is experiencing its fourth week of conflict between two military factions, which has caused the death of over 700 people. Sudanese civilians have fled the capital and the country altogether while the fighting continues with no end in sight. Commentators have so far focused on the military factions and ethnic conflicts. A reductive explanation has been given for the food crisis in Sudan, such as economic crisis, climate change, and the Ukraine war. The significance of macroeconomic policies and the institutions that promote them at the root of these crises tend to be overlooked. Toppling over the breadbasket The IMF imposed liberalization in Sudan, particularly in the agricultural sector, to promote exports.
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