Austerity

Starving Cities And States

April 23, 2020 Eve Ottenberg, Counterpunch. Educate! Austerity, Capitalism, COVID-19, Shock Doctrine

Disaster capitalism is in high gear. The stock market plunged, so Trump, hysterical, whipped out the federal checkbook. The result? Unlimited bailouts of shoddily-run corporations, criminally managed banks and other assorted oligarchs with their hands out. But hey, it got the stock market soaring, because now investors know Washington will rescue them, whatever idiocies they commit. Everybody else is on their own. After they cash that one-time stimulus check, they get to join the rest of the unemployed in the line at the food bank. Meanwhile the lifeline for the 22 million people who have lost their jobs is their unemployment check. For that they turn to their state. And guess what? The Covid-19-caused economic shutdown is bankrupting the states.

Bodies In The Streets: IMF Imposed Measures Have Left Ecuador Unable To Cope With Coronavirus

April 18, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! Austerity, COVID-19, Ecuador, IMF, Lenin Moreno

If you are using one of the many coronavirus incidence trackers, the Pacific country of Ecuador does not seem to be particularly badly affected by COVID-19. Officially, the country has less than 7,500 cases and 333 deaths. But everybody knows this number is nonsense, including President Lenín Moreno, who freely admitted that authorities were collecting over 100 dead bodies a day from Guayaquil city alone, the epicenter of the pandemic tormenting his country. Ecuador’s limited state has essentially collapsed under the strain of COVID-19, with dozens of videos circulating showing dead bodies left in the streets, with no one to collect them. The country has already run out of coffins, so corpses are buried in cardboard boxes or simply left in trucking containers.

Colombians Reject Government Acting Like A Doormat For The United States

April 15, 2020 By Vijay Prashad, Paola Estrada, Ana Maldonado, and Zoe PC, Pressenza. Resist! Austerity, Colombia, Peace, US Imperialism

Last year, on November 21, the Colombian people took to the streets in massive numbers to reject the policies of the government led by President Iván Duque. In particular, the people called on the government to withdraw two policies. First, the people wanted the right-wing government of Duque to advance the 2016 peace accords between the government and the left-wing FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). These accords, negotiated in good faith, would have ended a war that has lasted for six decades; 70 percent of Colombian society has been born during this war. Second, the people wanted to end the harsh austerity policies driven by Duque’s government, which includes cuts to public universities, cuts to the pension system, and cuts against broad social spending.

Wayne State Teachers Protest Mass Firings

March 8, 2020 Jamie McQuaid, Workers World. Resist! Austerity, Higher Education, Teachers, Worker Rights

On Feb. 26, nearly 100 lecturers, graduate instructors, students and allied workers marched through Wayne State University’s main campus in Detroit to protest the mass firing of lecturers, who are nontenured instructors, announced in February. Chanting passionately and carrying protest signs, teachers and their allies marched in the wind and snow through the campus student center and around the main library. Some historically minded lecturers created signs with nothing on them save illustrations of the traditional French guillotine. The march ended in the atrium of the Faculty Administration Building, where the offices of WSU’s president are located. The atmosphere was one of frustration and uncertainty, but also of solidarity and hope. While a representative of the lecturers’ union, the American Association of University Professors-AFT Local 6123, promised further protests at the next Board of Governors meeting, armed campus police assembled in the area.

In New Year’s Address, French President Macron Pledges To Impose Austerity Despite Mass Strike

January 7, 2020 Alex Lantier, Wsws.org Resist! Austerity, Emmanuel Macron, France, Strikes

In a brief, perfunctory speech on New Year’s Eve, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to impose his pension cuts despite mass strikes and overwhelming popular opposition, which he derided as “pessimism” and “motionlessness.” On January 2, the rail and transport strike against Macron’s pension “reform,” at 29 days, became the longest-running continuous national strike in France since the May 1968 general strike. Over two-thirds of the population opposes the pension cuts, and strikes continue to break out affecting wider layers of the working population...

In And Against The European Union?

December 29, 2019 Hilary Wainwright, Transnational Institute. Strategize! Austerity, European Union (EU), Portugal, Socialism

The government of the Portuguese Socialist Party supported and pressured by an alliance with the Communist Party and the Left Bloc have shown that it is possible to implement an effective anti-austerity programme as a member of the EU. This entailed successfully standing up to EU negotiators and facing down their repeated opposition to the government’s measures, leading to tough but ultimately successful negotiations. The result was a reversal of all the austerity measures introduced under the supervision of the Troika by the previous conservative government, while remaining within the EU’s 3% deficit limit. From the Portuguese standpoint, the success of these negotiations depended on a favourable balance of power reinforcing the government’s bargaining position.

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."

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