Neoliberalism

Five Years Ago In Nicaragua: A Coup Attempt Begins

April 13, 2023 Dan Kovalik and John Perry, Popular Resistance. Educate! Media, Neoliberalism, Nicaragua, US coup, Violence

In the first few months of 2018, Nicaragua hardly appeared to be a strong candidate for an attempted coup. Daniel Ortega’s government had an 80 per cent approval rating in a poll a few months earlier. There had been eight years of continuous economic growth, during which the country achieved 90 per cent food sovereignty and cut hunger by 40 per cent (according to the UN’s global hunger index). In the decade since Ortega had been re-elected to the presidency, his government had rebuilt public health and education services, repaved the country’s roads and established a reliable, virtually nationwide electricity supply, based largely on renewable sources. It was hardly surprising that the Sandinista government had increased its vote share in three successive elections.

Massive Anti-Government Protests Sweep Greece

March 31, 2023 Christos Avramidis, The Real News Network. Resistance Report Greece, Mass Action, Neoliberalism, Railroads, Transportation

On Feb. 28, 2023, two trains traveling along the same track collided in Greece, killing 57 people—many of them students in their teens and 20s returning home from university in Athens. The deaths of 11 workers in the crash sparked two 24-hour strikes from the railway unions, followed by demonstrations across the country that have lasted for weeks and mobilized tens of thousands of people. Workers blame the crash on a lack of properly functioning safety and communication systems, as well as severe understaffing and underfunding of the railways—all originating from “Troika” (EU, IMF, and ECB) structural adjustment imposed on Greece in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

El Alto Bolivia: A History Of Anti-Neoliberal Struggle

March 12, 2023 Kawsachun News, Resumen English. Resist! Bolivia, Indigenous Activism, Neoliberalism, US coup

“El Alto on his feet, never on his knees!” is a slogan that reflects the combative character of the inhabitants of this indigenous Aymara city in Bolivia, which since 2003, has shaped the country’s history. This city led the uprising against the privatization of natural resources in 2003, and then the defense of democracy in the face of the 2019 coup. Both struggles resulted in numerous massacres against those of El Alto who stood up to defend the country. Located at more than 4,000 meters above sea level, it mostly comprises migrants from rural areas between La Paz and the Peruvian border.

Report From Lima, Perú

February 15, 2023 Clau O'Brien Moscoso, Black Agenda Report. Resist! Coups, Neoliberalism, Peru, State Repression

On December 7, 2022 a right-wing coup removed Perú’s President Pedro Castillo Terrones from power. The predominantly poor indigenous rural and Amazonian communities resoundingly and overwhelmingly voted for Castillo, rejecting outright the neoliberal regime installed by the previous governments. Violence not seen since the Alberto Fujimori dictatorship (1990-2000), has been led by the Peruvian Armed Forces, under orders of coup-leader Dina Boluarte, the Fujimorista Fuerza Popular Party, and other political factions. It’s been over 67 days since the parliamentary coup led by the right-wing forces of Fuerza Popular with their puppet Dina Boluarte, now commonly referred to as “usurper assassin,” at the helm.

Ecuador: The Crumbling Of Another Neo-liberal Restoration Project

February 9, 2023 Gustavo A. Maranges, Resumen Latinoamericano English. Educate! Ecuador, Elections, Neoliberalism, Rafael Correa

Last Sunday, regional elections were held in Ecuador. Thirteen million people were called to elect 5,700 (governors, mayors, counselors, and parish board members) and the seven Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control (Citizen Council or CPCCS)’s counselors and their substitutes. In addition, the executive led by Guillermo Lasso submitted eight Constitutional Referendum questions, which were grouped into three topics: security, environment, and the country’s political work. The process took place amid an economic crisis, the highest insecurity levels in the last 30 years, and a president’s approval rate that barely reaches 20%. All these elements played against this neoliberal administration’s odds, although the crushing defeat suggests a much deeper cause beyond the current situation.

Universities Submit To Neoliberalism And Fascism

February 3, 2023 Anthony Ballas, Truthout. Resist! Censorship, Education, Fascism, Neoliberalism, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

We are witnessing the rise of a unique brand of U.S. fascism, which has once again reared its ugly head and has made higher education one of its primary targets. This fascist attack on the university is made possible by the longstanding neoliberal withering of its institutions, which now rely mostly on underpaid contingent workers. The disempowerment of university labor runs hand-in-hand with a right-wing ideological front — rooted in rampant anti-intellectualism and rugged individualism — which seeks to control what knowledge universities can produce and teach. In order to counter this attack on higher education, faculty unions must scale up their organizing efforts against neoliberalism and the rising tide of fascism. It is not surprising that former President Donald Trump accused universities of “radical left indoctrination.”

The Abuse Of The Concept Of ‘Populism’

January 28, 2023 Prabhat Patnaik, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Media, Neoliberalism, Populism

All regimes based on class antagonism require a discourse to legitimise class oppression and this discourse in turn requires a vocabulary of its own. The neoliberal regime too has developed its own discourse and vocabulary and a key concept in this vocabulary is “populism”. This concept is given great currency by the media, which is peopled by members drawn from the upper middle class who have been major beneficiaries of the neo-liberal regime and have therefore developed a vested interest in its continuation. So pervasive is the reach of this concept that even well-meaning and progressive members of the literati have fallen victim to its abuse and employ the term with the pejorative connotation typically imparted to it by the corporate-owned media. The term “populism” of course is not an invention of the neo-liberal intelligentsia.

Brazil’s President Lula Is Back – And Bolsonaro Fled To Florida

January 3, 2023 Ben Norton, Multipolarista. Resistance Report Brazil, Lula da Silva, Neoliberalism, Pink Tide

Lula da Silva has returned as president of Brazil, the world’s sixth-most populous country. This will cause a major geopolitical shift. Meanwhile, far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro fled to Florida, fearing legal consequences for his corruption. Multipolarista spoke with Brazil-based journalist Brian Mier about what Lula’s third government means for Latin America and the world. In his speech before the congress at his January 1 inauguration, Lula he stressed that everyone has the “right to a dignified life, without hunger, with access to employment, health, education.” He said his “life mission” is to guarantee that every Brazilian has three meals a day. As president, Lula said he is a “representative of the working class” who “promotes economic growth in a sustainable way and to the benefit of all, especially those most in need.” He committed himself to the “widest social participation, including workers and the poorest in the budget.”

Community Is Central To Building A Post-Neoliberal Future

December 26, 2022 Luke Gannon and Stacy Mitchell, Institute For Local Self-Reliance. Create! Community, Globalization, Neoliberalism

“What is it that people really want?” Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, posed at an event hosted by the Center for Political Economy, Columbia Law School, and the Financial Times. Humans have survived for millennia based on our ability to work together to serve each other’s needs. “Community,” Stacy posits, “is a deeply held biological and spiritual need.” The event, “Rethinking Globalization, Intermediation, and Efficiency,” gathered journalists, academics, and advocates to explore new paradigms for a post-neoliberal world. Stacy explained how neoliberalism has “actively demeaned and destroyed communities as self-conscious and self-governing places. It has stripped places of their economic and political power and it has rendered them subservient to distant entities,” namely powerful corporations.

The Perils Of Pious Neoliberalism In The Austerity State

December 23, 2022 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Class Struggle, Latin America, Neoliberalism, Worker Rights and Jobs

The International Labour Organisation’s Global Wage Report 2022–23 tracks the horrendous collapse of real wages for billions of people around the planet. The gaping distance between the incomes and wealth of 99% of the world’s population from the incomes and wealth of the billionaires and near-trillionaires who make up the richest 1% is appalling. During the pandemic, when most of the world has experienced a dramatic loss in their livelihoods, the ten richest men in the world have doubled their fortunes. This extreme wealth inequality, now entirely normal in our world, has produced immense and dangerous social consequences. If you take a walk in any city on the planet, not just in the poorer nations, you will find larger and larger clusters of housing that are congested with destitution.

The Volatility Of US Hegemony In Latin America, Part III

December 4, 2022 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Latin America, Neoliberalism, Pink Tide, US Imperialism

US and other western central banks – what Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega calls the “gang of assassins who control the global economy” – maintained low interest rates for much of the last decade which encouraged countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to take out large loans. Starting around 2021, interest rates were slowly raised. Coincident, the pandemic hit and developing countries were forced to go further into debt to fund Covid measures and cushion the effects of the economic dislocation. In these volatile times, the value of the US dollar has increased on international markets. For developing nations, this has meant higher interest payments coupled with capital flight to US financial markets in particular.

The Volatility Of US Hegemony In Latin America, Part I

December 2, 2022 Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. Educate! Latin America, Neoliberalism, Pink Tide, US Imperialism

Latin America and the Caribbean have again began to take on a becoming pink complexion, all the more so with June’s historic electoral victory in Colombia over the country’s long-dominant US-backed rightwing and a similar reverse in Brazil in October. These electoral rejections of the rightwing followed left victories last year in Peru, Honduras, and Chile. And those, in turn, came after similar routs in Bolivia in 2020, Argentina in 2019, and Mexico in 2018. This electoral wave, according to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, speaking at the Climate Summit in November, “open[s] a new geopolitical age to Latin America.” This “Pink Tide” challenges US hemispheric hegemony, whose pedigree dates back to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine.

Indigenous Resistance And The Roots Of Ecuador’s National Strike

November 17, 2022 Ashley Bishop, The Real News Network. Strategize! Ecuador, Indigenous Rights, National Strike, Neoliberalism

“He was my uncle. They killed him during the strike in the center of Puyo, here in Ecuador. He was my uncle, he was Oldemar Guatatoca Vargas.” Yolanda Vargas, a Shuar woman in her mid-30s, sits in her parked car in the remote jungle outpost of Palora, located within the province of Morona Santiago. She drove out there so she could get a cell phone signal to talk to me. The ride from her community takes roughly an hour over the dirt roads winding a narrow path through the Amazon. With everyone else in the community, besides her elderly and sick mother, in the capital of Quito taking part in El Paro Nacional—the National Strike—she’s had to bring her school-aged children with her, smooshed shoulder-to-shoulder in the front and back seats.

For African/Black Working Class And Colonized Peoples, Midterm Elections Offer No Relief

November 12, 2022 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Black America, Democratic Party, Elections, Neoliberalism

The agenda was set with the Lewis Powell Memorandum in 1971. Written at the request of the United States Chamber of Commerce, probably the most influential structure of capitalist rule at the time, the concern for the Chamber was the need to find a more coherent counter-offensive to the attacks against the system over the previous years. At the center of the anti-system attacks during the 1960s was, of course, the Black Liberation Movement and the Anti-War movement. Powell made the argument that the capitalist class had to recognize that their very survival was at stake and that meant capitalists had to understand that as a class their interests transcended their individual enterprises.

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