Austerity

Newsletter – Austerity Is A Weapon

July 12, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Banking, Climate Change, Greece, Neoliberalism, TISA, TPP, TTIP

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - Austerity, decreased spending by government on necessary programs, is a type of economic sanction like the ones that are often imposed by one country upon another country as a form of punishment. Financial elites and their institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) force austerity measures on countries that have been driven into debt in order to extract every ounce of wealth from them and weaken the populace's ability to resist.Austerity Unite Against Austerity Austerity is a fundamental tool in the neo-liberal agenda that is spreading around the world to monetize and privatize everything. It is fundamental to our success in resisting this agenda and preserving a livable future that we understand austerity amounts to sanctions against the people. We hope Greece, and the rest of the world, begins to pursue a new economy rather than kow-towing to bankster criminals.

Greece Not Alone: 22 Countries In Debt Crisis; 71 Could Be Soon

July 12, 2015 Staff, www.jubileedebt.org.uk Educate! Austerity, Banking, Debt, Finance and the Economy

By Staff for Jubilee Debt Campaign -- This report finds that the level of such debts owed between countries has risen from $11.3 trillion in 2011 to $13.8 trillion in 2014, and predicts that in 2015 they will increase further to $14.7 trillion. Major global debtors, including the US, UK, France, India and Italy, have been increasing their debts with the rest of the world, whilst Germany, Japan and Russia have been increasing their surpluses. Debts owed by low income countries are also increasing rapidly, with Mozambique the most indebted country – public and private sector – in the world as a proportion of GDP. Lending to low income countries has trebled since 2008, driven initially by borrowing by countries to cope with the impacts of the global financial crisis. This has been followed by an increase in ‘aid’ being given as loans, including through multilateral institutions such as the World Bank.

Those Who Lead Greece To Surrender Should Be Opposed

July 12, 2015 Stathis Kouvelakis, www.jacobinmag.com Educate! Austerity, European Union (EU), Finance and Economy, Greece

By Stathis Kouvelakis for Jacobin - A simple conclusion emerges from all this: with the moves it has made in the last week, the government has achieved nothing other than a full return to previous entrapment, from a much more unfavorable position, under the pressure of even more relentless economic asphyxiation. It has managed to squander the powerful injection of political capital from the referendum in record time, following at all points the line of those who had opposed it and who have every reason to feel vindicated, despite being trounced at the ballot box. But the referendum happened. It wasn’t a hallucination from which everyone has now recovered. Yesterday, late in the evening, it sent to all members of parliament (MPs) a hastily written, twelve-page text, written in English by experts sent by the French government and based on Tsakalotos’ request for a €50 billion loan to the ESM. This is nothing but a new austerity package — actually, a “copy and paste” of the Juncker plan rejected by the electorate a few days ago. Its core is all too familiar: primary surpluses, cuts in pensions, increase in the VAT and other taxes, and a handful of measures to give it a slight flavor of “social justice” (e.g., an increase in the corporate tax rate by two points).

Greek Debt Crisis: MPs Approve Bailout Plan, Some Syriza MPs Rebel

July 11, 2015 Graeme Wearden and Nick Fletcher, www.theguardian.com Educate! Austerity, Greece, Syriza

By Graeme Wearden and Nick Fletcher in The Guardian - Alexis Tsipras has won crucial approval from the Greek parliament for the €13bn of austerity measures he is proposing to creditors, to obtain a third bailout programme. After a late-night debate, 250 MPs out of 300 voted to give Tsipras, and finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos, a mandate to negotiate this weekend. But, two Syriza MPs voted no, eight abstained, and seven were absent, potentially undermining the PM’s authority at a critical time. Before the vote, Alexis Tsipras described the last few months as a war in which difficult battles were fought and some were lost.

Budget 2015: 100s Of People Launching Protest Outside Parliament

July 11, 2015 Ben Glaze, www.mirror.co.uk Resist! Austerity, Occupy, Student Activism, United Kingdom (UK), Youth

By Ben Glaze in Mirror - Campaigners will try to pitch tents in Parliament Square tomorrow as they launch an Occupy-style protest. Hundreds of young activists are expected to arrive in Westminster, demonstrating against billions of pounds of cuts announced by Chancellor George Osborne . Youth Fight for Jobs spokesman Ian Pattison said: “Osborne’s Budget represents a declaration of war on young people. “The abolition of student maintenance grants, removal of housing benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds and exclusion of under-25s from the so-called ‘living wage’ all add up to a bleak picture for our generation. “This grim outlook of increasing hardship stands in stark contrast with Osborne’s treatment of the rich.

4 Lessons From Iceland & Greece For Movements Fighting Austerity

July 10, 2015 George Lakey, www.wagingnonviolence.org Strategize! Austerity, Europe, IMF

By George Lakey in Waging Nonviolence - After dining on cod on July 7, European leaders representing the economic elites went back to work figuring out how to run over the Greek majority in Europe’s first democracy. The serving of cod, presumably from Iceland, is ironic considering that it was the Icelanders who six years ago defied European investors — and by doing so saved their economy and bolstered their well-being. Movements for justice around the world have much to learn from keeping in mind both of these national dramas. When Iceland’s 1 percent brought the economy to its historic crisis in 2008, Icelanders could not get any money from their ATMs. It was the worst economic collapse in Europe since World War II.

UK Campaigners Take Inspiration From Greek Vote

July 8, 2015 Matthew Weaver, www.theguardian.com Resist! Austerity, Europe, Greece, Hope, United Kingdom (UK)

By Matthew Weaver in The Guardian - Buoyed by the no vote in the Greek referendum, anti-austerity campaigners across Britain are to stage “Oxi to Osborne” protests on Wednesday against cuts the UK chancellor is expected to announce in his budget. Organisers from the People’s Assembly group said interest in about 40 planned protests had soared since Sunday’s overwhelming no vote to austerity in Greece. The UK protests include a mass “die-in” outside parliament to protest at the impact of welfare cuts. Speakers are expected to include Marina Prentoulis, a British-based Greek academic and member of the radical Greek governing party Syriza, and Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn, who welcomed the Greek vote. Campaigners from Disabled People Against Cuts, who tried to storm parliament last month over the scrapping of the Independent Living Fund are also planning to take part.

VIDEO: Solidarity To Greece By European Parliament Left

July 6, 2015 SYRIZA European Parliament, www.popularresistance.org Organize! Austerity, European Parliament, Greece, Solidarity

By SYRIZA European Parliament. Brussels - On Wednesday, July 1, 2015, during Greek negotiations with the Troika and in advance of the vote on the Greek referendum, members of the European Parliament on the Left gave statements of support for the people of Greece. They held signs that said "Solidarity with Greece" and "No to austerity" and Greek flags. The members of Parliament were with the GUE/NGL which stands for the United European Left and the Nordic Green Left. The statements by eleven members of Parliament representing nine political parties are in English.

Greece – What You Are Not Being Told By The Media

July 6, 2015 Chris Kanthan, www.nationofchange.org Educate! Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Greece

By Chris Kanthan in Nation of Change - Every single mainstream media has the following narrative for the economic crisis in Greece: the government spent too much money and went broke; the generous banks gave them money, but Greece still can’t pay the bills because it mismanaged the money that was given. It sounds quite reasonable, right? Except that it is a big fat lie … not only about Greece, but about other European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland who are all experiencing various degrees of austerity. It was also the same big, fat lie that was used by banks and corporations to exploit many Latin American, Asian and African countries for many decades. Greece did not fail on its own. It was made to fail.

Landslide Victory For ‘No’ Vote In Greece, Rejects Troika

July 5, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Austerity, Democracy, Europe, European Union (EU), Greece, Syriza, Troika

By Staff for Popular Resistance. Today, the people of Greece voted in a landslide to refuse to accept the demands of austerity by the troika by a vote of 61.31% to 38.69%. The vote, along with an IMF report critical of the austerity plan, should open a new round of negotiations in the upcoming week. Syriza is now in a slightly stronger bargaining position and the EU now has to decide whether democracy matters. The people of Greece celebrated the vote despite the unclear and difficult paths ahead. There is a lot of confusion and unpredictable paths ahead. The simpliest path is a better deal from the troika with less austerity and restructured or even forgiven Greek debt, but some of the comments by EU and German finance leaders indicate that is unlikely. A more difficult path with lots of unpredictable repersussions is a Greek exit from the EU and the return to the Greek drachma currency. The choices are difficult, let's hope that the vote today is the beginning of a fresh start and much greater fairness and common sense from the troika.

Greek Villagers’ Secret Weapon

July 5, 2015 Gregory Katz, www.ap.org Create! Austerity, European Union (EU), Food and Agriculture, Greece, IMF

By Gregory Katz in AP. KARITAINA, Greece (AP) — Ilias Mathes has protection against bank closures, capital controls and the slashing of his pension: 10 goats, some hens and a vegetable patch. If Greece's financial crisis deepens, as many believe it must, he can feed his children and grandchildren with the bounty of the land in this proud village high in the mountains of the Arcadia Peloponnese. "I have my lettuce, my onions, I have my hens, my birds, I will manage," he said, even though he can no longer access his full pension payment because of government controls imposed six days ago. "We will manage for a period of time, I don't know, two months, maybe three months, because I also want to give to our relatives. If they are suffering, I cannot leave them like this, isn't that so?"

The IMF Defaulted On Greece A Long Time Ago

July 2, 2015 Jerome Roos, www.roarmag.org Educate! Austerity, Debt, Europe, Greece, IMF

By Jerome Roos in RoarMag - Tuesday marked the deadline for Greece to transfer a 1.6 billion euro debt repayment to the IMF. The country’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had already announced that his government could not — and would not — pay. And so, at 6pm Washington-time, 1am locally, Greece officially defaulted on the IMF. The default is an unprecedented event in the history of finance: never before has a developed country fallen into arrears on a loan from the Fund. Unsurprisingly, the international press is already conjuring up unflattering comparisons with notorious failed states like Zimbabwe and Somalia, which are among the few countries to have gone down the same path of utter financial ignominy.

‘No’ With Dignity, Greek Decline Under Troika Dicates

July 1, 2015 Leonidas Oikonomakis, www.roarmag.org Resist! Austerity, Debt, Europe, Greece

By Leonidas Oikonomakis in Roarmag - The then-Prime Minister Giorgakis Papandreou (son of Andreas and grandson of Giorgos) appeared on state television to send his televised message to the Greek people from the harbor of Kastelorizo: “Our ship is sinking,” he said, “and we have to turn to our partners, the IMF and the EU, who will provide us with a safe harbor where we can rebuild it.” As the saying has it: “a ship is safe in harbor — but that’s not what ships are for.” However, this is how Greece’s self-destructive dance with the Troika began. At the time, the country’s public debt was at 120% of GDP, the unemployment rate at 12%, the youth unemployment rate at around 30%, and suicide rates were an unfamiliar concept.

Anti-Bailout Protests As Greece Rows With EU

June 30, 2015 Sky News, www.news.sky.com Resist! Austerity, Europe, Greece

By Sky News - Some 17,000 demonstrators have gathered on the streets of Greece to protest against the latest bailout deal - accusing its international creditors of blackmail. Many support Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras and said they would heed his call to vote against the latest deal in a referendum on Sunday - despite the risks the country might then go crashing out of the eurozone. "The people of Greece have made many sacrifices. What interests me is not the euro but guaranteeing a dignified way of life for the next generations," said Vanguelis Tseres, 50, who has been unemployed since the start of the debt crisis in 2010, in Syntagma square in Athens.

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