Austerity

Another Europe Is Possible

November 12, 2019 By Yanis Varoufakis, Greattransition.org Strategize! Austerity, Europe, Nationalism

I went into politics because of the financial crisis of 2008. Had financial capitalism not imploded, I would have happily continued my quite obscure academic work at some university. The chain reaction of economic crises, financial bailouts, and the rise of what I call the Nationalist International that almost broke financial capitalism, and brought Greece severe hardship, had a profound impact on me. In the early to mid-2000s, I was beginning to feel that a crash was approaching. I could see that global financial imbalances were growing exponentially and that our generation or the next would be hampered by a systemic crisis.

Lebanon’s ‘October Revolution’ Must Go On!

October 29, 2019 Rima Majed, Opendemocracy.net Resist! Austerity, Class Struggle, Inequality, Lebanon, Protests, Uprising

The ‘streets’ of Lebanon have exploded in massive protests since October 17th. Following months of austerity and dire economic conditions, a shortage of US dollars that caused a serious threat of devaluation of the Lebanese currency resulting in a potential crisis of gasoline and bread, the continuing power and water outages, and a catastrophic week with wildfires ravaging the country and exposing the ruling class, the government met on Thursday and agreed to impose new taxes on the people, including a tax on Whatsapp calls!

Chileans Have Launched A General Strike Against Austerity

October 25, 2019 Felipe Lagos-Rojas and Francisca Gomez-Baeza, Jacobinmag.com Organize! Austerity, Chile, Class Struggle, Electoral Politics, General Strike, Latin America

In Chile’s main cities, armed forces and tanks are filling the streets. But civilians are holding their ground, refusing to abandon public space. Official reports indicate eleven fatalities so far, though there are indications that the number is higher. The president has taken to national television to announce that the country is “at war with a powerful enemy who is willing to use violence without any limits.” There are blackouts all across the country. This is October 2019, but it could just as easily be 1973, when socialist president Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup, replaced with dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Chile And Its Night Of Witches

October 20, 2019 Paul Walder, Internationalist 360. Resist! Austerity, Chile, Neoliberalism

Perhaps October 18 will be recorded as a moment of popular uprising. Or perhaps it will be followed by other moments of greater intensity. But without a doubt, from this day on, something changed in Chile. The neoliberal model, today administered by Sebastián Piñera but loved from Ricardo Lagos to Michelle Bachelet, is mortally wounded. The president’s declaration of a state of emergency, which empowers the army to restore order in Santiago, does not solve the problem but only aggravates it. It is no coincidence that a little more than a week after the end of the protests in Ecuador, which forced Lenín Moreno to step back on the rise in fuel prices, Santiago de Chile is experiencing similar incidents and demonstrations.

Uprising Spreads In Chile—Military Occupations And Curfews

October 20, 2019 Pauline Lipstein and Rico Gutstein, Chitown and Chile Blog. Resist! Austerity, Chile, Education, health

Today, October 19, the crisis in Chile escalated with rebellions breaking out in Concepción, Punto Arenas in the South, Valparaíso, and elsewhere. Despite the state of emergency and military with tanks and armored vehicles patrolling the streets, people were out continuing to protest. Santiago continues to be a war zone. By 3:15 pm 16 buses were burned. At 4 PM, tanks rolled into Plaza Italia, one of the city’s central plazas. More metro stations were consumed by fire. By 6 pm there were fires and barricades in Concepción, the third largest city. The government seems to be on the defensive. About 6 PM Piñera came on TV to say “I have heard the voice of my compatriots.” He said he would suspend the fare increase (that would be a victory) and next week host a roundtable to discuss the issues.

Ecuadorians Protest Neo-liberal Austerity And Win

October 15, 2019 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast Austerity, Ecuador, IMF, Indigenous Peoples, Lenin Moreno

President Lenin Moreno restored neo-liberalism to Ecuador, accepting a $4.2 billion dollar loan from the US-dominated International Monetary Fund that required measures call 'structural adjustments'. These included putting austerity in place in order to repay the loan. When Moreno announced Decree 883, or "The [Austerity] Package," on October 4, the country erupted in a general strike with mass protests in many cities. Moreno imposed a national emergency, fled to the coast and sent police and troops to repress the protests. At least ten people died and thousands were injured. We speak with Wellington Echegaray, an Ecuadorian living in the United States, about the protests and about the history of political instability and difficult living conditions that led to this uprising.

Ecuador: Moreno’s Government Sacrifices The Poor To Satisfy The IMF

October 13, 2019 Wilma Salgado, Council on Hemispheric Affairs. Educate! Austerity, Ecuador, IMF, Lenin Moreno

Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno has been cutting government spending since signing an Extended Fund Facility (EFF) agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in February of this year. This policy has benefited multinational corporations, the banks, and in general, powerful economic groups at the expense of the middle and working classes, who are being pushed toward poverty and extreme poverty. In the context of the IMF negotiations, the administration issued a law ironically called “the Organic Law to Foster Productivity, Attract Investment, and Create Jobs, Stability, and a Balanced Budget,” which has been in force since August of 2018. The law brought neoliberalism back to the country by instituting a policy to reduce the budget deficit and national debt, which have now become the top priorities.

Ecuador: Indigenous Groups, Workers Continue Protests

October 6, 2019 Al Jazeera. Resist! Austerity, Ecuador, IMF, Lenin Moreno

Indigenous organisations and workers' groups in Ecuador have vowed to continue protests against President Lenin Moreno's scrapping of decades-long fuel subsidies. The pledge on Saturday came a day after Moreno, who took office in 2017, refused to back down over the austerity policy, imposed under a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that doubled the price of fuel overnight and sharply raised gasoline prices. The measure, which came into effect on Thursday, prompted two days of unrest, with transport unions calling a strike and protesters clashing with police and blocking roads with tires, stones and branches. Authorities have arrested more than 350 people and Moreno, who declared a two-month state of emergency, told reporters: "Listen clearly. I am not going to change the measure. The subsidy is finished."

Drop The Term “Austerity” – It’s The Race To The Bottom

September 26, 2019 Glen Ford, Blackagendareport.com Educate! Austerity, Exploitation, Ideology

Let’s get straight to the point. The striking General Motors workers are locked in an epochal struggle against the global corporate drive to reduce the entirety of the world’s working class to a state of abject desperation, leaving the great mass of people -- from Detroit to Bangladesh -- with no options but to accept whatever wages and conditions of labor the bosses offer. This is the essential, global imperative of today’s late stage capitalism, and the tie that binds the money-men that control both U.S. governing parties, their counterparts in Europe, and billionaires the world over.

Puerto Rico Revolts Against Corruption And Austerity

July 22, 2019 José Hernandez, Marx21us.org Resist! Austerity, Class Struggle, Corruption, Protests, Puerto Rico

As of this writing, the people of Puerto Rico have been protesting for seven days straight on the streets of San Juan, and in ever growing numbers. The fury unleashed by the scandals exposing the corruption and political intrigue of the governor Ricardo Rosselló shows no signs of abating. Adding to that, was the total mismanagement of the recovery following in the wake of Hurricane Maria. A combination of colonialism, the racism of the Trump administration, the neoliberal agenda of the Financial Oversight and Management Board (aka “la Junta”), and the incompetence of Rosselló’s administration...

How Ending Austerity Built Economic Growth In Portugal

January 27, 2019 Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead, Occupy.com. Create! Austerity, Ecology, Portugal, Socialism

Since Britain voted to leave the E.U. in 2016, the country has witnessed an alarming spike in rightwing hate crime. Many are now warning that the “febrile” atmosphere escalating around Brexit as leaders struggle to come to an agreement could be further exploited by far-right extremists. Though it’s not just Britain that is seeing a surge in far-right populism. Rightwing protests fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment are hounding Germany’s streets. Sweden’s once fringe far-right party, the Sweden Democrats, are rising in popularity threatening to stop asylum seekers coming into the country. Hungary, Poland, Austria and Finland are all experiencing a reactionary surge.

Unions Bring Argentina to a Standstill As Macri Meets Bankers

September 28, 2018 Telesur. Resist! Argentina, Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Labor

On Tuesday at midnight, Argentina’s General Confederation of Workers (CGT) began its 24-hour general strike against Mauricio Macri’s austerity policies. On Monday, the Argentine Workers’ Central Union (CTA) launched a parallel 36-hour strike with the support of several smaller unions, neighborhood associations, and social movements to reject the government’s social and economic policies. Macri has faced massive protests and four national strikes. In June, shortly after the government agreed on a US$50 billion emergency loan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the CGT and several other unions paralyzed the country to reject the agreement and the austerity measures that accompany IMF loans.

The Evidence Is In, And Austerity Is Declared A Loser

August 21, 2018 Jacob Sugarman, Truthdig.com Educate! Austerity, Capitalism, Europe, New Economy

In 2014, Portugal stood on the brink. Its economy had collapsed amid Europe’s debt crisis, and unemployment had doubled. As part of a bailout program with the International Monetary Fund, which had lent the country 78 billion euros ($90 billion) in 2011, its government imposed drastic cuts to wages, pensions and social security. But then something remarkable happened. Rather than bow to the demands of its European debtors, the Portuguese government elected to reinvest in its public sector, restoring salaries and benefits to their pre-crisis levels. Four years later, the results speak for themselves. “The government’s U-turn, and willingness to spend, had a powerful effect,” writes The New York Times’ Liz Alderman. “Creditors railed against the move, but the gloom that had gripped the nation through years of belt-tightening began to lift. Business confidence rebounded. Production and exports began to take off.”

Greece At A Stand Still As Thousands Strike Against Austerity

June 1, 2018 Patrick Strickland, Aljazeera.com Resist! Austerity, Greece, Strikes

Athens, Greece - Flags and banners fluttered above a steady stream of protesters, who chanted anti-austerity slogans as they marched through the streets of the Greek capital. On Wednesday, thousands of Greek workers, union members, migrant labourers, students, pensioners and unemployed people flooded Athen's city centre to hold a general strike against the government's ongoing austerity regime. Organised by labour unions, the 24-hour nationwide strike paralysed public transportation in much of the country, disrupted flight schedules and prevented many ships from setting sail. Subways and metros were halted, and several flights were grounded. Shops, restaurants, offices and schools were shuttered throughout the capital, and public services were paused for the day.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources