Austerity

CUNY Workers Say: ‘Resist Austerity!’

December 15, 2017 G. Dunkel , workers.org Organize! Austerity, CUNY, Labor, Workers Rights and Jobs

Holding a huge, electrified banner reading “Resist austerity,” while chanting to the rhythm of a brass band, hundreds of members of the Professional Staff Congress marched from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York to a board of trustees’ meeting at Baruch College on Dec. 4. They were making it clear that they do not want to wait six years for a new contract to get significant pay raises. In particular, the PSC wants adjuncts — the part-time instructors who do over 50 percent of the instruction at CUNY — to get a pay increase to a minimum of $7,000 per class. Currently, the best-paid adjuncts get about $4,500 per class.

Monetary Imperialism

December 1, 2017 Michael Hudson, counterpunch.org Educate! Austerity, Capitalism, Imperialism, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry

By Michael Hudson for Counter Punch - In theory, the global financial system is supposed to help every country gain. Mainstream teaching of international finance, trade and “foreign aid” (defined simply as any government credit) depicts an almost utopian system uplifting all countries, not stripping their assets and imposing austerity. The reality since World War I is that the United States has taken the lead in shaping the international financial system to promote gains for its own bankers, farm exporters, its oil and gas sector, and buyers of foreign resources – and most of all, to collect on debts owed to it. Each time this global system has broken down over the past century, the major destabilizing force has been American over-reach and the drive by its bankers and bondholders for short-term gains. The dollar-centered financial system is leaving more industrial as well as Third World countries debt-strapped. Its three institutional pillars – the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organization – have imposed monetary, fiscal and financial dependency, most recently by the post-Soviet Baltics, Greece and the rest of southern Europe. The resulting strains are now reaching the point where they are breaking apart the arrangements put in place after World War II.

Newsletter – Free Yourself From An Exploitative Culture

November 25, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Amazon, Austerity, Inequality, Net Neutrality, New Economy, Tax Reform, Thanksgiving, Wealth Divide

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Shoppers hit the malls and online stores this week, spending over $3.5 billion online alone on what is called 'Black Friday'. Some people reject the extreme consumerism, calling it 'Buy Nothing Day' and staying home in protest, others take their protests to the streets. Anti-police violence activists in St. Louis, Missouri, demonstrated peacefully at a major shopping mall to say "No Justice, No Profit." True to form, police responded by violently attacking the 100 or so protesters and arresting seven people. Our friends at The Rules remind us that there are many fulfilling things money can't buy, such as community and wisdom. They write that 'Buy Nothing Day' is "an opportunity... to nurture the feeling of sovereignty you get when you step back from mainstream culture and know that it has no hold on you."

Landmark Study Links Tory Austerity To 120,000 Deaths

November 18, 2017 Alex Matthews-King, independent.co.uk Educate! Austerity, New Economy, United Kingdom (UK)

By Alex Matthews-King for Independent - The paper identified that mortality rates in the UK had declined steadily from 2001 to 2010, but this reversed sharply with the death rate growing again after austerity came in. From this reversal the authors identified that 45,368 extra deaths occurred between 2010 and 2014, than would have been expected, although it stops short of calling them "avoidable". Based on those trends it predicted the next five years - from 2015 to 2020 - would account for 152,141 deaths - 100 a day - findings which one of the authors likened to “economic murder”. The Government began relaxing austerity measures this year announcing the end of its cap on public sector pay rises and announcing an extra £1.3bn for social care in the Spring Budget. Over three years the additional funding for social care is expected to reach £2bn, which Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said was “patching up a small part of the damage” wrought by £4.6bn cuts. The study, published in BMJ Open today, estimated that to return death rates to their pre-2010 levels spending would need to increase by £25.3bn. The Department of Health said “firm conclusions” cannot be drawn from this work, and independent academics warned the funding figures were “speculative”. However local councils who have been struggling to fund care with slashed budgets urged the Government to consider the research seriously.

Prosperity Through Keystrokes: Understanding Federal Spending

November 18, 2017 Steve Grumbine, www.popularresistance.org Create! Austerity, Budget Cuts, Money, New Economy, Taxes

By Steve Grumbine. It has long been known that our electoral system and methods of voting are corrupt, untrustworthy, and easily manipulated by less than savvy politicians, state actors, and hackers alike. The answers to many of these issues is the same answer that we would need to push for any progressive reforms to take place in the United States: namely, we need enlightened, fiery, peaceful, and committed activists to propel a movement and ensure that the people rise, face their oppressors, and unify to demand that their needs be met. What is not as well-known, however, is how a movement, the government, and taxes work together to bring about massive changes in programs, new spending, and the always scary “National Debt” .

Thousands Protest Tories And Austerity

October 1, 2017 Staff, www.socialistworker.co.uk Resist! Austerity, Conservative, Labor, United Kingdom (UK)

By Socialist Worker. Manchester, UK - Thousands of demonstrators are gathering at the Castlefield's Arena in Manchester today, Sunday, to protest against Tory austerity. The Tories are beginning their annual conference in the city. The slogan of the protest, called by the People's Assembly, is, "Tories out". There is a sense that after seven years of brutal Tory rule, it's possible to kick them out of office. Jane from Manchester told Socialist Worker, "There's a change going on in people's general attitudes, people can see the affect that inequality is having on their lives.

Newsletter – Greater Austerity Coming Unless We Act

September 30, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Affordable Housing, Austerity, Education, Health Care, Taxes, Wars and Militarism, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. As one of the world's richest nations, the US stands out for having the greatest wealth divide and high levels of poverty. Over the past 40 years, wages have stagnated and, as Lynn points out, "the richest one percent took more than half of all income growth since 1979." Currently, the top 0.1 percent have wealth equal to the bottom 90 percent. It isn't a matter of whether the US has enough money to support basic necessities like health, education and housing, but who has the wealth in the US and where our tax dollars are being spent.

Brazil Paralyzed By Nationwide Strike Against Corruption & Impunity

April 30, 2017 Glenn Greenwald, www.theintercept.com Resist! Anti-Austerity, Austerity, Brazil, Pensions, Retirement, Strike, Workers Rights and Jobs

By Glenn Greenwald for the Intercept. It’s almost impossible to imagine a presidency imploding more completely and rapidly than the unelected one imposed by elites on the Brazilian population in the wake of Dilma’s impeachment. The disgust validly generated by all of these failures finally exploded this week. A nationwide strike, and tumultuous protests in numerous cities, today has paralyzed much of the country, shutting roads, airports and schools. It is the largest strike to hit Brazil in at least two decades. The protests were largely peaceful, but some random violence emerged. The proximate cause of the anger is a set of “reforms” that the Temer government is ushering in that will limit the rights of workers, raise their retirement age by several years, and cut various pension and social security benefits. These austerity measures are being imposed at a time of great suffering, with the unemployment rate rising dramatically and social improvements of the last decade, which raised millions of people out of poverty, unravelling. As the New York Times put it today: “The strike revealed deep fissures in Brazilian society over Mr. Temer’s government and its policies.”

Newsletter – Which Vision For The Future?

March 18, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Budget, Corporatism, Education, National Improved Medicare for All, Privatization, Trump, Wars and Militarism

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. The vision for the future laid out in President Trump's budget is one of large cuts to the federal government for necessary agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and Housing and Urban Development, privatization of services, such as air traffic control, and macho military might. It conjures visions of Nero fiddling as Rome burned. Ralph Nader writes in "'Making America Great' at American's Expense," that "The tower of contradictions, being constructed by Trump and the most extreme Republican Party in its history, won’t be camouflaged or distracted for long." People are rising up and will continue to do so. The corporatist's vision has been pushed for decades in the US and around the world, but there is another vision that is also growing in the hearts and minds of many.

Fight For Medicare For All, Stand Against Militarism And Austerity

March 17, 2017 Bruce A. Dixon, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Austerity, Health Care, Medicare

By Bruce A. Dixon for Black Agenda Report - If politics is the art of the possible, what do supposedly progressive politicians and political organizations fight for after they decide that jobs, justice and peace are impossible? Do they fight for their positions and prerogatives? For the biggest campaign contributions? It's not hard to tell who is on the side of the people. There are after all, bright lines. Last week Physicians for a National Health Care Plan released a press statement declaring the Republican plan to replace Obamacare “a re-branded and far meaner version” of the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act. This ought to raise a pertinent question: If all Republicans have to do is “re-brand” and tweak Obamacare, was it really much good to start with?

Newsletter – This Is What Austerity Looks Like

March 5, 2017 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Drones, health, National Improved Medicare for All, Oil and Gas, Pipelines, Wars and Militarism

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. George Lakey of Waging Nonviolence wrote about the root cause of the recent protests in Sweden - increasing wealth inequality from austerity measures imposed over the past few decades. The media reported that the protests were a response to the police murder of a 69 year-old man, but they were actually due to a growing division between classes that is also fueling racism. Even though the wealth divide is much smaller in Sweden than it is in the United States, it is obvious to Swedes when compared to surrounding countries. In the United States, austerity measures in the form of cuts to social programs, lower wages and tax cuts for the wealthy have also fueled tremendous wealth inequality and economic insecurity. Similar to Sweden, this is the root of civil unrest. Lakey urges people in the US to fight back via nonviolent revolution.

Brazil Senate Approves Austerity Package To Freeze Social Spending For 20 Years

December 15, 2016 Dom Phillips, www.theguardian.com Educate! Austerity, Brazil

By Dom Phillips for The Guardian - Brazil’s senate has passed a controversial spending cap that will limit public spending to inflation for the next 20 years, despite protests across the country against the measure. The spending cap, known as PEC 55, will now be signed off on 15 December. Its approval was seen as vital for the beleaguered government of centrist President Michel Temer who took over from the leftist Dilma Rousseff, after a divisive, eight-month impeachment process was concluded in August. Temer has staked his government’s credibility on measures to reduce public spending...

Newsletter: Elections Expose the Oligarchs

October 9, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Banking and Finance, Big Banks, Big Pharma, Corruption, Democracy, Donald Trump, health insurance industry, Healthcare, Hillary Clinton, Neoliberalism, oligarchy, Sexism, Single payer health care, Tax Evasion, Wikileaks

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance. The 2016 presidential election has shown how the duopoly, the two parties that represent big business interests and the wealthiest, are corrupted in ways that prevent the people’s voices from being heard, their necessities being met and the planet being protected from human greed. During the campaigns, leaks have given people a behind-the-scenes look at how the parties operate and research on the candidates shows their personal failures. They give voters an image of elites who behave as if the law does not apply to them and who put themselves ahead of the public interest. Last Friday was a day of embarrassment for both the Republican and Democratic Parties. A tape showing Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault in lewd ways has gotten the bulk of attention, but Wikileaks also released thousands of pages of The Podesta Emails, 2,060 emails and 170 attachments. John Podesta is the ultimate insider.

Protests Against ‘Colonial’ PROMESA Debt Plan Rock Puerto Rico

September 4, 2016 Staff, www.telesurtv.net Resist! Austerity, Debt, Pensions, Puerto Rico, Wages

By Staff for Telesur. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in San Juan Wednesday to block the first scheduled conference on the installation of a financial control board to remedy Puerto Rico’s crippling debt crisis but slammed by critics as an anti-democratic, neo-colonial policy that will redistribute wealth from the island nation to Wall Street. Demonstrators formed protests lines and blocked roads with rocks and bricks to disrupt the conference at San Juan’s Condado Plaza Hilton. They carried signs and shouted slogans against the federal control board, whose authority will supercede that of Puerto Rico’s democratically-elected governor, effectively handing budgetary decision-making over to unelected appointees, many of them bankers. The U.S. law creating the control board, known by its acronym PROMESA, grants the oversight panel the power to cut pensions, labor contracts with civil servants, and social services, to restructure its US$73 billion debt load. Despite lines of riot police and occasional use of pepper spray, the protests managed to block conference-goers on their way to the venue and forced organizers to re-arrange the meeting agenda, local media reported.

How Globalization Divides Us

July 12, 2016 Kristen Steele, www.localfutures.org Create! Austerity, Brexit, European Union (EU), New Economy

By Kristen Steele for Local Futures. United Kingdom - When I woke up on June 24th and checked the news, I cried. Along with millions of people around the world. I’m a diehard believer in independence, freedom, democracy, and strong local economies. For some, the Brexit result represented those things. If that had been the reality, I would’ve supported it too. But like every other choice offered in the global economy these days, Brexit was a false one. Getting out of Europe does nothing to address the real problems in UK society—or the world. We’re still headed down the same destructive path together, but now more fractious and divided than ever. My colleague Lawrence Bloom[1] summed it up perfectly: the referendum was like choosing between cabins on the Titanic.

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