Austerity

Precarious Democracy

December 22, 2013 Joel Bleifuss, www.inthesetimes.com Educate! Austerity, Corporatism, Democracy, Health Care, Media

Millions of Americans face a precarious financial future, thanks to the democratic institutions that are meant to represent them. In our January 2014 issue, In These Times explores how life has become increasingly precarious for the many Americans who lack job security—a trend that is the predictable result of the ongoing disempowerment of the American worker. But it is not only the corporate system that is impoverishing our citizens. Millions of Americans face a precarious financial future, thanks to the democratic institutions that are meant to represent them. Seniors who rely on Social Security are beset by D.C. budget-cutters bent on reducing cost-of-living increases. The poor go hungry in the wake of congressional cuts to food stamps. Retirees in the public sector face uncertain futures as state and local governments turn away from their pension obligations. Our elected leaders—Democrats and Republicans alike—depend on the largesse of the rich to win re-election. And faith in the idea that government is a source of reform is in deep decline. Case in point: the Obamacare rollout debacle. We hope and trust that the ACA will right itself and constitute a measurable improvement over the status quo. But we are equally confident that Obamacare must ultimately be replaced by a more comprehensive social democratic solution: universal single-payer health insurance. A guarantee of healthcare would improve the bargaining position of workers, raise the expectations of citizens, and embolden seniors, parents, patients and the disabled. This should be a key political objective of the precariat.

Congress Cuts Pensions, Food Stamps & Essentials Increases Israel Funding

December 21, 2013 Staff, www.jewishjournal.com Educate! Austerity, Food and Agriculture, Israel, Pensions

The final version of the congressional defense budget triples the Obama administration’s request for funding for joint U.S.-Israel defense cooperation. The $284 million in the budget released jointly on Dec. 10 by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate budget committees — up from the $96 million requested by the Obama administration — includes funding for the Arrow long-range anti-missile system and the David’s Sling and Iron Dome missile defense systems. The full National Defense Authorization Act for 2014 is virtually assured passage. Defense cooperation fundin

Military Wins Budget Battle; Poor, Unemployed, Vets, Children & Elders Lose

December 20, 2013 Andrew Cockburn, www.latimes.com Educate! Austerity, Wars and Militarism

The hosannas to bipartisanship accompanying the budget deal passed this week should have served as fair warning to the rest of us that we lost this vote. In reality, there was one clear winner: the bipartisan defense lobby, a category that does not apparently include wounded veterans, who must give up some of their pensions for the sake of restoring that public faith, not to mention funding the extra $22 billion for defense that will flow inexorably into the pockets of Lockheed (stock already up 55% this year), Raytheon (up 54%), Northrop (up 64%) and their peers. With the hearty endorsement of both parties, they have emerged triumphant from the budget wars at the expense of old-fashioned special interests such as veterans, the poor, the unemployed, children (57,000 kicked off Head Start) and the aged. Thus, while some sequestered nondefense cuts have theoretically been restored, federal employees get soaked for higher pension contributions, military veterans (including the wounded) lose part of their projected raises, airline passengers have to fork out higher taxes a total of $26 billion. Including the "savings" from not extending unemployment benefits ($25 billion), the nondefense sector suffers a net loss of $20 billion.

Military Spending, Banking, Austerity, TAFTA…Protested

December 20, 2013 Staff, www.euronews.com Resist! Austerity, Brussels, Europe, Finance and the Economy, Germany, Greece, Italy, Video, Wars and Militarism

The EU summit brought hundreds of protesters onto the streets of Brussels over a variety of causes – from austerity to food production and military policy. While European leaders talked about defence and banking rules aimed at protecting taxpayers, demonstrators complained the EU favours vested interests. “They are pursuing policies for big business, the big bosses, whereas we need all that money for the people. If we don’t fight we’ll be adopting the German model, where the situation of young people, having to work for little jobs, will always be precarious,” said Stephane, a student. Traffic was disrupted as some 50 organisations turned out to stage demonstrations. Anger was also directed at cost-cutting by Belgium in its new budget, and by other European governments. “What we see in countries with very strong austerity like in Greece, Portugal or in Spain, is that debt goes up, the deficit goes up, so does unemployment and the number of suicides. It’s economic poison,” said Felipe Van Keirsblick from the CNE trade union representing private sector employees.

Austerity 2014: Is Europe On Verge Of A Popular Uprising?

December 15, 2013 Agence France-Presse, www.rawstory.com Educate! Austerity, Europe, Revolution

Is Europe on the verge of a popular uprising? The question was asked by one of Greece’s most respected newspapers as another year of painful austerity drew to a close. If public anger does explode on the streets, wrote Kathimerini, it will not be provoked by politicians or labour unions, but come from ordinary people who “never imagined themselves doing such a thing”. Desperation is weighing not just on Greece, but on countries across Europe facing the same paradox: despite the end of the Great Recession, people continue to struggle with the daily reality of unemployment and poverty.

Budget Deal Is More “Awesomely Destructive,” Economy-Killing Austerity

December 13, 2013 David Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Educate! Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Worker Rights and Jobs

This new “budget deal,” for example, holds the country in full austerity, with spending lower than even the original “Ryan budget” that shocked everyone. Austerity kills economies and jobs, and they know it. We know it, they know it, everyone knows it. It is obvious in front of our faces, and Republicans continue to force cuts — with many Democrats going along. Now we have a “budget deal” (that even leaves out help for the long-term unemployed and doesn’t replace the “Hunger Cliff” $5 billion Thanksgiving Food Stamp cut, etc…). This is what is missing from the explanations of this budget “deal:” spending will still go way down. This is not a spending increase, it is less of a destructive, devastating cut than the full “sequester” would be next year. But it is still a cut, and it will still cost us jobs and economic growth. It will still be “awesomely destructive.” Key point, Presidents Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton and ‘W’ all increased public hiring to help get us out of recessions. But under Obama and austerity the public sector has lost 703,000 jobs.

Portugal: Anti-Austerity Protesters Occupy Government Ministries

December 1, 2013 Staff, www.euronews.com Resist! Austerity, Human Rights, Portugal

As parliament passed the 2014 budget on Tuesday, paving the way for more cuts, austerity-weary trade unionists occupied four government ministries for several hours in protest. Public sector workers are set to face salary cuts of up to 12 percent as well as reductions to their pensions. “I am nearing retirement and, after 40 years of working, I don’t think I will have enough of a pension to live on. It’s really borderline,” said one elderly woman. Some marched to parliament, denouncing what will be a third straight year of austerity. The government says cuts are “inevitable” as it struggles to reduce the deficit but many on the sharp end are not convinced. “They drive people to despair, suicide and starvation,” said another elderly woman. “It can’t go on like this. This is not what the people wanted.” The opposition has vowed to challenge some measures in the Constitutional Court. But the ruling centre-right coalition is determined to satisfy Portugal’s international lenders and avoid having to ask for a second bailout.

VIDEO: Going Postal!

November 27, 2013 Carl Gibson and Asher Platts, www.acronymtv.wordpress.com Resist! Austerity, Post Office, Video

If you had a great job that paid really well, but your health insurance benefits from that job had to be paid in full for 75 years into the future, it wouldn’t matter how much you got paid because you would always be broke and in debt. The same thing is happening to the United States Postal Service. The USPS is NOT in trouble. Despite the doom and gloom trumpeted by the corporate media, the post office actually posted $700 million in operation profits in the last four years. The USPS is certainly in a crisis, but it doesn’t have anything to do with the post office’s facilities, online commerce or employee salaries. It should come as a surprise to nobody that the USPS’s dire financial situation is a direct result of the callousness and shortsightedness of Congress.

Five Examples Of Civil Disobedience To Remember

November 27, 2013 Richard Seymour, www.theguardian.com Strategize! Austerity

When Spanish mayor Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo recently led farmers on a supermarket sweep, raiding the local shops for food as part of a campaign against austerity, his political immunity as an elected assembly member protected him from arrest. He now asks other local mayors to ignore central government demands for budget cuts and refuse to implement evictions and lay-offs. In this era of austerity, such flagrant disrespect for the law ought to be encouraged. Sometimes, the greatest strength of popular movements is their capacity to disrupt. So here, for the benefit of imaginative indignados, are five examples of civil disobedience.

Austerity In Europe Brings Calls For Decentralized Protests

November 23, 2013 Staff, www.dw.de Resist! Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Germany, Occupy

"We're planning decentralized days of protest across Europe," said Roland Süss of Germany's anti-globalization pressure group,Attac, in addition to the main demonstration at the ECB. As a preventative measure, the Frankfurt police have proposed to meet with the organizers and their associated groups and start a dialogue. They want to avoid scenes like those in the spring, when there were violent clashes between police and demonstrators. In addition to Attac, various leftist groups and unemployment groups from several European countries are also part of the Blockupy movement. The more people fear for the future, the more they join the protests in Spain, Greece, Portugal or France - to Blockupy's benefit. But the core of the protest alliance is still found in economically strong Germany, partly because the ECB is based in Frankfurt, according to Oliver Nachtwey, of the economic sociology department at the University of Trier. In addition, he said, economically strong Germany has backed strict austerity policies

Anti-Austerity Cops Face Off Against Riot Police in Portugal

November 23, 2013 Jon Queally, www.commondreams.org Resist! Austerity, Police abuse

Defending their pensions from the threat of ever-deepening austerity cuts, as many as ten thousand off-duty police officers and state security agents in Portugal found themselves on the other side of the barricades Thursday night as they faced down their on-duty colleagues in riot control gear. With a march through Lisbon that ended at the steps of parliament, the angry police and security union members broke through security fences, and even briefly occupied the entrance to Parliament before the night was over. The proposed cuts in public pensions are being demanded by the nation's creditors in exchange for a government bailout package received in 2011. As Agence France-Presse reports: Thousands of Portuguese police officers, paramilitary police and other security officers took to the streets of the capital to protest the government's latest austerity measures. Police in plain clothes massed outside parliament, where they broke through a security cordon to briefly occupy the steps leading up to the building.

Photos: Anti-Protest Bill & Austerity Cause Mass Protests In Spain

November 23, 2013 Alex Dunham, www.thelocal.es Resist! Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Health Care, Retirement, Worker Rights and Jobs

Draft bill calls for $800,000 fines for protests in Spain's Mass Protests Erupt in Response to Bill, Austerity and Bank Bailouts Unauthorized protesters outside the Spanish Parliament could soon be hit with fines of up to €600,000 ($810,000) while those selling drugs or offering sexual services in front of minors could face a penalty of up to €30,000.The move is part of a new Citizen Security bill drafted by Spain’s ruling Popular Party (PP) which is likely to be approved in Parliament in the near future. Social uproar in the form of harassment or insults will result in hefty fines of up to €600,000 if the PP’s parliamentary majority gives the law the green light. Aside from protesting outside government buildings, other “very serious offences” include publishing images/personal data of policemen online, interrupting public events and carrying out so-called escraches (demonstrations outside the homes and workplaces of political figures). Offences deemed as “serious” on the new bill include insulting or threatening policemen . . . .

Popular Resistance Newsletter – We Need To Know The Truth

November 15, 2013 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org Newsletter Austerity, Climate Change, Corporatism, Criminal Justice and Prisons, TPP, Whistleblowers

Knowledge is essential for popular power. In fact, it is access to knowledge and accurate information that will aid our liberation from this ruthless plutocracy. Even former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski agrees, although he does so as a warning to his fellow elites. In a recent speech, he described the “accelerating social change driven by ‘instant mass communications such as radio, television and the Internet.’” Brzezinski warns his fellow members of the power structure that there is a “rise in worldwide populist activism;” that this “persistent and highly motivated populist resistance . . . has proven to be increasingly difficult to suppress” and that as a result of this “universal awakening of mass political consciousness” they cannot exert “external control” over the masses.

Sudan’s Popular Protest Ignored By International Community

November 12, 2013 Dalia Haj-Omar, opendemocracy.net Resist! Austerity, Popular Protest, Sudan

When news of renewed protests in Sudan started to spread in late September, many in the community of activists who were part of the summer protests of June/July 2012 (dubbed the Sudan Revolts) took the news with a dose of cautious optimism. The Sudan Revolts left us feeling crushed - to say the least. The earlier wave of country-wide protests had been triggered by Khartoum University female students protesting economic austerity measures. The Sudanese government’s swift campaign of arrests led to most of the student leaders, youth movement leaders, and the younger leadership of political parties being held behind bars for up to two months without charges. Many endured physical and psychological torture, including extended periods of solitary confinement.

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