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Austerity

Who’s Fighting Back (And Not) Against Cuts in Veteran’s Administration

March 7, 2025 Steve Early and Suzanne Gordon, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
Among the Republican voters experiencing buyer’s remorse are more than a few military veterans who chose Trump over Harris by a margin of 65 to 34%, according to some exit polls. Their shock and dismay surfaced in DC this month during the legislative conference of the reliably conservative and hawkish Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), which has 1.4 million members. In the run-up to that annual event, VFW national commander Al Lipphardt, urged his members to “march forth” and “engage with lawmakers” to “stop the bleeding” at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

What Are European Leaders Going To Choose: People Or War?

March 3, 2025 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
Europe’s militarization has been accelerating long before Donald Trump’s return to the White House. In the past three years, Poland has increased its military spending to nearly 4% of GDP, French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to “transform” the French military for a new era, and most recently, Britain’s Labour government announced plans to slash international aid to fund a “generational” boost in defense spending. This renewed focus on expanding arsenals is growing while the region remains subordinated to US interests.

Health Workers, Patients, Activists Unite Against Milei’s Healthcare Cuts

March 1, 2025 Ana Vracar, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Over 100 workers’ collectives, health groups, and organizations mobilized across Argentina on Thursday, February 27, in protest against President Javier Milei’s devastating policies. A central march took place in Buenos Aires, denouncing the purposeful underfunding of the health system, deteriorating working conditions, and pressures on public hospitals. Among the demonstrators were health workers, patients, and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. “Health is a fundamental human right, and defending it is the responsibility of all society,” organizers declared ahead of the protest.

A Federal Worker Speaks Out: ‘Many Jobs And Services Will Disappear’

February 24, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , ,
In the first month of the new Trump administration, there has been a widespread assault on federal workers led by billionaire Elon Musk and his new 'agency' called DOGE. Thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs, funding for government programs has been suspended and technocrats under Musk have entered agencies and demanded access to privileged data. Clearing the FOG speaks with a current federal worker, John, who is being kept anonymous for protection, about what is happening within federal agencies, the legality of the attacks and how workers are organizing and fighting back. John warns that most federal workers are going to be fired and services are going to be cut without a plan for protecting and serving the public. 

Trump And Musk’s Next Target: Social Security

February 22, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
The world’s richest man has shown his determination to use his unelected position within the Trump presidency to wage war on the working class in the United States. Elon Musk’s latest accusation of widespread fraud within the Social Security system in the US could represent yet another major offensive against workers, who nearly universally rely on the country’s largest social service for current and future retirement plans. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an invention of the Trump administration that has pursued broad cuts to federal departments and regulations, has pursued access to sensitive information of millions of people in the US, held by the Social Security Administration.

Federal Workers Can Defeat Musk’s Coup

February 11, 2025 Eric Blanc, Labor Politics. , , ,
Who can stop Elon Musk? Even though it’s illegal for him to seize control of federal agency finances to slash the workforce, a Republican Congress is unlikely to assert its legally mandated prerogatives. Nor has any serious opposition emerged from the Democratic Party. And while the courts have paused some of this power grab, there’s no guarantee that our hyper-conservative Supreme Court will seriously oppose it. Moreover, Musk’s wrecking crew can impose a huge number of cuts while legal proceedings wind their way through the courts.

Democratic Party Collusion, Race Baiting, And Death By Austerity

February 8, 2025 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
“You’re watching the Super Bowl next week. Wait till Trump’s tariffs raise your pizza prices.” - Senator Chuck Schumer , leader of the Democratic Party opposition President Donald Trump is certainly a man of his authoritarian word. As he promised on the campaign trail he is very serious about changing the nature of the U.S. government, the U.S. role in the world, and promoting white nationalist sentiment. While he carries out unconstitutional and possibly illegal acts, Democratic Party leaders have been AWOL, stunned into silence as Trump has thus far chosen not to utilize the back room deal making they are accustomed to and moves ahead unilaterally with budget cuts, personnel cuts, and the elimination of entire agencies, circumventing congressional prerogatives as he goes.

Nigerian President Enforced Violent Crackdown On Hunger Protests

December 3, 2024 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
Extrajudicial executions, mass arrests, custodial torture and charges of treason were among the methods used by the Nigerian government to crack down on protests this August against rising hunger and economic hardships. Nigerian civil society, demanding a reversal of President Bola Tinubu’s aggressive implementation of IMF policies that brought about this cost of living crisis on Africa’s largest population, led these protests for 10 days at the beginning of August. In a report released on November 28, titled “Bloody August,” Amnesty International (AI) documented 24 killings, while “scores of additional cases reported by activists and journalists” are yet to be verified.

Workers In Greece Mobilize Against Austerity

October 27, 2024 Ana Vračar, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Strikes swept through Greece in the week of October 21 as workers protested austerity measures imposed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government. Workers demanded wage increases, strengthened collective agreements, and the reversal of public service reforms, especially in healthcare and education. Actions across sectors—including in hospitality, metalwork, transport, logistics, and education—built momentum for the November 20 general strike, anticipated to demonstrate the public’s frustration over deteriorating work and living conditions. Throughout the strikes, workers appealed to the community to support them.

Chris Hedges Report: The Secret History Of Neoliberalism

October 10, 2024 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , , ,
Neoliberalism is a stealth ideology, one that at once dominates our lives, but exists in relative anonymity. Its effects have radically reconfigured western societies through deindustrialization, austerity, the privatization of utilities, postal services, schools, hospitals, prisons, intelligence gathering, police, parts of the military and railroads, along with spawning wage stagnation and debt peonage. It has deformed a tax system and gutted regulations to funnel wealth upwards, creating an income inequality that rivals pharaonic Egypt. Yet neoliberalism remains largely unmentioned and unexamined, especially by academia and a media that has been captured by a ruling class that profits from neoliberal doctrine.

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.
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