Austerity

Austerity Is Still A Political Choice

November 30, 2020 Grace Blakely, Tribune Magazine. Strategize! Austerity, COVID-19, United Kingdom (UK), Working Class

When Rishi Sunak delivered the spending review earlier this week, the coverage focused predictably on levels of government borrowing. With GDP set to contract by more than 11% in 2020 – the largest fall in three centuries – and unemployment expected to reach 7.5%, government spending is the only thing standing between the UK economy and complete economic meltdown. As a result, we’re forecast to see the highest levels of public borrowing since the Second World War. In this context, Sunak felt the need to balance some new spending pledges...

Massive Protests In Guatemala Against President And The Congress

November 23, 2020 La Izquierda Diario Argentina, Left Voice. Resist! Austerity, Budget, Government, Guatemala

At least 10,000 people rallied in the central square of the country’s capital, in front of the seat of government, to express their dissatisfaction after 10 months of President Alejandro Giammattei’s administration and the approval of the 2021 budget — the largest budget in the country’s history. These latest events are part of rising discontent in the country in response to the policies of Giammeattei’s government and the right-wing party he represents, Vamos, as well as the deteriorating economic situation in Guatemala, which has been devastated by the pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes this fall.

Communities Of Color Hurt The Most By Postal Service Attack

October 21, 2020 Taryn MacKinney, the Union of Concerned Scientists. Educate! 2020 Elections, Austerity, Black America, US Postal Service

With just weeks until the 2020 election, the USPS is racing to prepare for a historic surge in mail-in voting. Our recent analysis of USPS records, which we received via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, suggests that the number of mail-delivery complaints has risen since March, especially in communities of color. For nearly 250 years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has been a cherished giant of public life. Its reach is immense: In 2019, postal workers traveled 1.34 billion miles to deliver nearly 143 billion pieces of mail around the globe.

IMF Seizes On Pandemic For Privatization In 81 Countries

October 16, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Austerity, COVID-19, IMF, Privatization

The enormous economic dislocation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to fundamentally alter the structure of society, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if using the crisis to implement near-permanent austerity measures across the world. 76 of the 91 loans it has negotiated with 81 nations since the beginning of the worldwide pandemic in March have come attached with demands that countries adopt measures such as deep cuts to public services and pensions — measures that will undoubtedly entail privatization, wage freezes or cuts, or the firing of public sector workers like doctors, nurses, teachers and firefighters.

How Residents Rallied To Get Their Post Office Back

October 3, 2020 Jessica Kutz, North Country News. Resist! Arizona, Austerity, US Postal Service

On an otherwise typical summer day, rumors started spreading in the small rural mountain community of Munds Park in northern Arizona: The local post office had been shuttered. As the chatter and gossip grew on social media, Allison Tiffany, a seasonal resident, drove down to check. She found a suspension notice taped to the building’s glass door. “It was so shocking that you had to find out for yourself,” she said. “Sure enough, the doors were locked.” The closure was “extraordinarily disruptive,” said Tiffany, who became the de facto organizer of the community’s response.

Pledge Of Resistance: Stop Austerity This Fall

September 25, 2020 People's Strike. Resist! 2020 Elections, Austerity, Democracy, Strikes

We are living in tumultuous times. The core capitalist countries are rapidly abandoning any pretense of democracy and advancing toward war. We, the oppressed peoples and working class people of the world, must take decisive action to stop the advance of authoritarianism and the potential restoration of the neo-liberal fragmentation and austerity which delivered us to this moment. The United States is now a powder-keg. Right-wing forces are threatening and assaulting progressive forces with deadly intent and outcomes all over the country.

Racialized Austerity: The Case Of CUNY

August 28, 2020 By Michael Fabricant and Steve Brier, Gotham Gazette. Create! Austerity, Higher Education, New York City (NYC), Systemic Racism

In the aftermath of the covid outbreak and in a moment of Black Lives Matter national organizing in response to police brutality the issue of racial justice has lit up cities and towns across the country. Racist policing practices have had a huge impact on public opinion, with polling data showing that even more white suburban voters favor policy reforms. The shift has been public, sudden, and potentially electorally-decisive during this political season. What remains less visible are racialized and racist choices to deepen state disinvestment in institutions critical to the health and welfare of Black and brown communities, what we term racialized austerity.

Without Federal Aid To State And Local Governments, Millions Will Lose Their Jobs

July 28, 2020 Josh Bivens and David Cooper, Economic Policy Institute. Educate! Austerity, Debt, Recession, State budgets

Because a weakening economy undercuts state and local tax revenues, and because states operate under balanced budget constraints, the coming months will see intense downward pressure on state and local spending. Reductions in this spending will in turn significantly slow recovery from the current economic crisis. This is not an abstract concern—the historically slow recovery in state and local spending following the Great Recession by itself delayed a recovery in unemployment to pre-crisis levels by four full years.

COVID19 Brings American Decline Out In The Open

July 1, 2020 Noah Smith, Bloomberg. Educate! Austerity, COVID-19, Infrastructure, Recession

The U.S.’s decline started with little things that people got used to. Americans drove past empty construction sites and didn’t even think about why the workers weren’t working, then wondered why roads and buildings took so long to finish. They got used to avoiding hospitals because of the unpredictable and enormous bills they’d receive. They paid 6% real-estate commissions, never realizing that Australians were paying 2%. They grumbled about high taxes and high health-insurance premiums and potholed roads, but rarely imagined what it would be like to live in a system that worked better. When writers speak of American decline, they’re usually talking about international power -- the rise of China and the waning of U.S. hegemony and moral authority.

Protest At Rutgers Against Austerity Response To Pandemic

June 23, 2020 By Sarah Jaffe, Dissent Magazine. Resist! Austerity, COVID-19, New Jersey (NJ), Workers Rights and Jobs

Two months into the pandemic-induced crisis at Rutgers University in New Jersey, the unions representing 20,000 of the university’s workers came together and held a car caravan to the university president’s house to protest layoffs. Protest signs reading #WeRNotDisposable and calling on the university to “protect the most vulnerable” decorated car windows; inside the cars, union members and their supporters wore red and their face masks. The coalition of unions includes AAUP-AFT, the Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, AFSCME Local 888, and the Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT; together, the unions have proposed a work-sharing program where some workers would accept furloughs, allowing them to replace their income with CARES-Act mandated expanded unemployment benefits, in order to prevent layoffs. But so far, the workers say, the university hasn’t listened.

Neoliberalism Is In Critical Condition

June 17, 2020 Riccardo Mastini, The Ecologist. Strategize! Austerity, Capitalism, COVID-19, Neoliberalis, Privatization

Now is the moment to transition away from an economic system that thrives on exploitation. The Covid-19 pandemic is tearing the neoliberal playbook apart as politicians and citizens realise that, in times of pandemic, markets won’t save the day. The privatisation-deregulation-austerity recipe is becoming obsolete, leaving ways for a diversity of interventionist policies. Meanwhile, outside of markets, solidarity initiatives are blooming, creating the experiential and affective base for a paradigm shift away from self-interested individualism. This is an opportunity for a long-awaited transition away from an economic system that thrives on the exploitation of the vulnerable, from precarious workers to animals and ecosystems.

Schools Are Feeding Millions Of Children

May 27, 2020 By Chuck Abbott, The Fern. Educate! Austerity, COVID-19, Food and Agriculture, Public schools

Public schools served tens of millions of emergency meals in April to low-income children after coronavirus closures ended cafeteria service, said a survey released on Monday. But with roughly half of the 1,894 districts taking part in the School Nutrition Association survey reporting a drop-off of at least 50 percent in meals served, losses are expected to balloon this year. School food directors put the median loss at $200,000, meaning half of all schools will lose more money, and half less. Among large districts, the median loss could be $2.5 million. SNA president Gay Anderson said schools would be hobbled in feeding students in the new school year if they lose large amounts of money during this school year, which ends in a few weeks.

Ecuador Persecutes Opponents As COVID-19 Crisis Exposes Neoliberal War On Public Sector

May 13, 2020 Denis Rogatyuk, The Grayzone. Educate! Austerity, COVID-19, Ecuador, Neoliberalism

Up to the end of April, the number of infected and deceased caused by the COVID19 pandemic had spiraled out of control, nearly collapsing the country’s public healthcare sector, already struggling with the cuts and austerity due to the Moreno government’s IMF deal. The official figures tracking the number of infected finally began demonstrating the more accurate picture of the catastrophe, with the total number of infected and dead reaching 7,161 and 297 on April 10 — an increase of 30 percent within 24 hours. By the end of the month, the official figure for the infected stood at 24,934 infected and around 900 dead. These numbers have been widely disputed by the citizenry, the international media and the medical staff on the ground, who have reportedly been terrorized and silenced about what they have witnessed.

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