Farooque Chowdhury's Diary

Bankers Fiddle While Athens Burns

2012-02-14T22:05:00.000+06:00

Athens was in flames. But, stock markets felt relieved. The Greek bank-friendly elites denied to recognize people’s plight and “honorably” embraced humiliating conditions to honor debt.

People in Greece are in anger and anguish. Within 10 hours, about half a hundred buildings were set ablaze in the Greek capital, an act of desperation that germinates as public space is encroached by banks, as democracy in a society is dictated and distorted by global finance capital, and people lose breathing space. Broader section of people was protesting peacefully and violent scenes raged the capital while the Greek parliament was passing a bank-dictated austerity plan to make banks happy. The fact got exposed: bankers pushing for austerity, market welcoming austerity, people standing against austerity, and, bankers standing against people. And, austerity is, in actual sense, pressing down labor, robbing labor.

As the Greek parliament passed the austerity measures demanded by its lenders stock markets rallied. In Athens, shares in Greek banks leaped by 10%. The FTSE 100 went high, Germany’s Dax climbed, in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose up, the French Cac was up, the Italian MIB bought a higher position, and the euro took upward journey before taking a shallow dip. In the secondary bond markets, 10-year securities issued by Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Spain felt strong. In London, Lloyds Banking Group led the upward jump. The creditors felt assured that their debtor, Greece, is an obedient honorable soul that stands by promise. The Greek government will express their irreversible written assurance within days to avoid bankruptcy. A high moral standing in creditor-debtor relationship where creditor has all the rights to rob and dictate debtor!

The EU welcomed the Athenian parliamentary practice as EC Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Olli Rehn called the vote a show of Greece’s determination to address its finances. And, he condemned the violence. However, the disciplined Greek MPs’ yeah votes were not enough to make bank bosses fully happy. It failed to ensure delivery of second rescue package to Greece. A banker, according to Bloomberg TV, reminded Greece to maintain its credibility with its international partners. It was an exercise with democracy: financiers telling people’s representatives what to table and how to vote!

But that democratic practice was not enough. Athens have to initiate “Additional measures” – more cuts worth 325m euro. Germany has warned: The vote is not enough to guarantee that Greece receives its bailout money. The Bundestag, the German parliament, will take the final decision on Greece. A report on Greece from the Troika – the IMF, EU, ECB – must reach the Bundestag before it decides whether to approve the bailout fund. Moreover, the euro group finance ministers will observe Greece’s compliance with the terms, and there should be conclusive understanding with private creditors over debt restructuring. Legislature of a country supervises legislative doings and wrong doings of another country! It is financiers’ global capital-sovereign practice.

To rationalize passing of the austerity bill, the Greek prime minister Papademos warned that banks would collapse and schools and hospitals would be left without funds unless the bill passed. He straightened fact partially while a partial fact was ignored. Without the austerity measures finance capital would feel uneasy. But Greek schools and hospitals, as main stream media report regularly, are passing through problems for long.

Financial problems, in usual manner, crept into Greek politics. With appointment of unelected ministers under the premiership of unelected Papademos, a banker turned academic turned politician, in the reshuffled cabinet the Athenian bankruptcy-bail out comedy has generated a neo-democratic model in Greece. Parliament members standing against the austerity bill have been expelled. Earlier, before tabling the bill, MPs were warned of not to oppose the austerity bill. The next crisis, as conservative New Democracy party head Samaras told parliament, is likely to come with the coming election within months. He likes to renegotiate the agreements with the troika following the elections. His signing of the pledge to bankers is uncertain although he voted for the bill. Vassilis Korkidis, the head of the National Confederation of Greek Commerce, said in a statement: The country’s political system is failing.

Along with democracy-drama in Greece two interviews carried by German press revealed interesting observations by powerful actors on the world stage. George Soros in an interview has criticized German chancellor Merkel for “leading Europe in the wrong direction”. He warned of another great depression unless funds are not pumped now instead of cutting spending. He was frank. Profit margins will be under pressure, he said. Soros admitted: Markets do not correct their own excesses. He told point blank: Germany was among the first countries to break the euro-zone rules. The Germans were not exactly innocent. Everybody broke the Stability Pact rules. Germany has mishandled the rescue operation by providing the bailout at penal interest rates, which then led to an increase in the indebtedness of Greece. It is only a policy failure on the part of Europe and particularly of Germany, because Germany is in charge. That is why today Greece is beyond rescue. Soros added: People like German finance minister Schäuble don’t seem to understand that the heavily indebted countries are now at a severe disadvantage, because they have basically become heavily indebted in a foreign currency, the euro. Soros tried to identify the root: The euro crisis is a direct continuation or consequence of the 2008 crash. This crisis isn’t over yet and we will have to spend more state money in order to stop the skidding. Otherwise we will repeat the mistakes that plunged America into the Great Depression in 1929. Angela Merkel simply doesn’t understand that. He told in a simple voice: I am concerned about my own interests. Nevertheless, I think that I perhaps understand the financial system better than some of the people who are in charge. In the interview conducted by Georg Mascolo, Gregor Peter Schmitz and Martin Hesse Soros expressed his ambitious intention: I am trying to change [Angela Merkel’s] mind.

More talks are there. Guido Westerwelle, the German foreign minister, in an interview said: Germany occasionally shows a tendency to boast. He was concerned with the attitude. Westerwelle wants a European Germany. He said: We should not believe that we will always be the strong man of Europe. Westerwelle expressed his dissatisfaction with the political impasse in Greece in recent weeks. The German minister told: Greece’s future is in the hands of the Greeks. However he advised the Greeks: [The Greeks] have to demonstrate that they are serious. It isn’t enough to adopt reform programs. Instead, [those] have to be implemented without delay – not at some point in the future, but now. In the interview conducted by Konstantin von Hammerstein and Ralf Neukirch the German minister reminded Greece in a stern voice: There will be no more advance payments. Only actions count now.

Greece, its elites, has to discipline itself, in the manner bank capital likes. But, there is another voice, the voice of the people. Graffiti on Athens walls said: “No IMF-no new [austerity] measures”, “No more IMF! Stop the intervention in Greek sovereignty. If you don’t give democracy a chance, you should expect US!”, “Bosses are killers of the people”. This voice will complicate finance capital’s democratic politics in Greece.

Capital's Globe Wide Risks

2012-01-25T20:59:00.000+06:00

Under the darkening shadow of capital's crisis hundreds of world capital bosses are meeting in Davos, a snow covered Swiss mountain village. On the eve of this annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), capital's salvation-searching convention, the Global Risk 2012 report “reveals a constellation of fiscal, demographic and societal risks signalling a dystopian future”, George Soros apprehends possibilities of riots and violence in the center of the center of the world capitalist system, and forecasters apprehend a lost decade for the UK . While about 1.1 billion people worldwide were either unemployed or living in poverty, as the ILO's latest Global Employment Trends report claims, capitalism is being questioned by its proponents. Prof Klaus Schwab, the founder of the WEF, said: “Capitalism in its current form no longer fits the world around us.” ( “ Davos 2012: Has capitalism got a future?”, BBC , Jan. 24, 2012 ) All these developments and pronouncements unerringly show capital's inherent incapacity in resolving its own crises that are disproportionate to its capacity.

The Global Risk 2012, insight report ( GR ) identified five risks: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological. Based on a survey of corporate leaders the most frequently chosen Centres of Gravity, the risks of greatest systemic importance, in today's world are: chronic fiscal imbalances, GHG emissions, global governance failure, unsustainable population growth, and critical systems failure.

“Analysis of the 2012 Global Risk Map”, the GR said, “reveals four risks as playing significant roles in connecting the Centres of Gravity to each other. These four Critical Connectors […] are: severe income disparity; major systemic financial failure; unforeseen negative consequences of regulation; extreme volatility in energy and agriculture prices.” “The signs already exist that the world is becoming more fragmented, inconsistent and mistrustful; the question is the extent to which these developments could lead to a global dystopia”, said the report.

Global governance failure, the GR mentioned, is the most interconnected of the 50 global risks having a direct connection with 75% of the risks covered in the report. The GR said: “[D]ominant issues of concern emerged from the Arab Spring, the ‘Occupy' movements worldwide and recent similar incidents of civil discontent: the growing frustration among citizens with the political and economic establishment [….] In developed economies, such as those of Western Europe, North America and Japan, the social contract that has in recent decades been taken for granted is in danger of being destroyed.”

Almost-similarly, the Edelman Trust Barometer , a global survey, suggests there has been a sharp decline in public trust, not only in business, but in governments around the world also.

Experts, the GR said, anticipate that high unemployment rates will increasingly co-exist with employers' unmet demands for skilled labor.

There are, the GR said, important factors of concern with unknown consequences that are emerging. It admits combination of chronic labor market imbalances, chronic fiscal imbalances and severe income disparity amplified by extreme demographic pressures that could lead to “the emergence of a new type of critical fragile states – formerly wealthy countries that descend into a spiral of decay as they become increasingly unable to meet their social and fiscal obligations.”

Young and old of the world, the report said, could face an income gap and a skills gap so wide that threaten social and political stability. “In the absence of viable alternatives, this could precipitate a downward spiral of the global economy […]”, said the report.

Significant questions for stakeholders were raised by the GR : (1) How can countries collaborate more effectively to correct chronic labor imbalances? (2) What will “social contracts” be like in 2022? (3) What steps can be taken to reduce income disparity? (4) How can fostering entrepreneurship prevent the seeds of dystopia from taking root? (5) How can leaders break the pattern of crises? (6) How can appropriate regulations be developed so that firms will undertake effective safeguards? (7) How can businesses and governments prevent a rapid breakdown in trust following the emergence of a new widespread risk? (8) How can business, government and civil society work together to improve resilience against unforeseen risks?

At the same time another warning came from the IMF: The world's economy is “deeply into the danger zone” because of risks from the euro zone. The escalating euro zone debt crisis could derail the global economic recovery, the international lending agency said in its latest World Economic Outlook report. The IMF hacked its 2012 global growth forecast warning the outlook had devolved in most regions. With the same tone, the IMF chief warned: The global economy could fall into an economic spiral reminiscent of the 1930s unless action was taken on the euro zone crisis. She has called on Europe to construct a wall against financial contagion. Echoing the warning, the IMF chief economist said: “The world could be plunged into another recession.”

The euro zone is set for a “mild recession” in 2012, the IMF predicts. Italy and Spain could be the first cases. Growth estimates have been reduced for the main euro zone countries including Germany , the euro zone powerhouse, and France . Central and eastern Europe and Asia could also be hit by the euro zone crisis. A sharp slowdown in the pace of growth in emerging and developing countries has been predicted by the IMF. It reduced Asia 's growth outlook for 2012.

The IMF cut its projection for Japan , and said: the US and other advanced economies would likely not escape unharmed if Europe 's crisis widened further. Moreover, the advanced economies “have homegrown challenges [...] including overcoming political obstacles”, the lending agency said. The EU economic affairs commissioner is also apprehending a “moderate recession” across Europe in the first half of this year.

News from the UK is not good. There are increasing concerns that the credit crunch will ultimately result in a “Lost Decade” for the UK . Many fear the UK is already experiencing the early stages of a lost decade. (“Could Britain Be Facing A ‘Lost Decade'?”, Sky News , Jan. 22, 2012 )

The UK government debt, as BBC reported, has risen to a record £1 trillion. The current net debt total is 64.2% of the UK GDP, and number of its unemployed citizens rose to 2.69 million. The unemployment rate rose to 8.4%, the highest since January 1996. The number of persons claiming Jobseeker's Allowance in December rose by 1,200 to 1.6 million. The number of young persons looking for work reached a record height: 1.043m. Citing the Office for National Statistics BBC informed these figures on Jan. 18, 2012 .

The world unemployment reality is also discouraging. The ILO report said: The number of “discouraged workers”, persons stopped looking for work because they think they are unlikely to find a job, is 29 million. With this number of discouraged workers, the global unemployment rate jumps to 6.9% from 6%, and the number reaches to about 225 million persons worldwide, the report said. “Judging by the present course, there is little hope for a substantial improvement in their near-term employment prospects”, said the ILO's Employment Trends report. The outlook for the world labor market has worsened from last year, the ILO said.

This capitalist reality does not make George Soros, one of the most cunning investors in the world, hopeful. According to two US media outlets including Newsweek , Soros perceives: “The euro must survive because the alternative — a breakup — would cause a meltdown that Europe , the world, can't afford.” “At times like these, survival is the most important thing,” he said. Soros doesn't just mean it's time to protect assets. Rather, he signals: it's time to stave off disaster. The world, Soros feels, faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history — a period of “evil.” A strange pronouncement indeed; as in Reaganspeak, “evil empire”, the Soviet Union , is no more on the world map. It is capitalism only that now dominates the globe. Soros has more perceptions: Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict. In the US , he apprehends riots leading to a brutal clampdown and dramatic curtailment of civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether as Soros predicts. “The situation is about as serious and difficult as I've experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek . “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.” (“George Soros on the Coming U.S. Class War”, Jan. 23, 2012 )

The almost self-explanatory facts cited above and conveyed by mainstream media tell some truths, bitter for it: (1) crises-ridden condition of the world capitalism; (2) the way the system has generated its crises, one after another, one gravitating the other, one influencing another; (3) width, globe-wide, and magnitude of the crises; (4) the system's worshippers' confused intellectual condition; (5) its extent of power that cannot control itself; (6) its need for a huge reserve army of labor to keep labor press down to dust, to bargain favorably, and at the same time, it cannot escape the possibility of facing force of labor pent up in reserve labor; (7) its ulterior motive: preparing ground for an onslaught on labor. While capital continues waging its class war against the working people it raises hue and cry as if it is being targeted. The only salvation path capital can find is: create havoc in social reality, in mass-mindset, burden down masses with the pressure of hardship and hunger, name of which is “austerity”. Not only is the system's economy facing danger. Its governing system, capital's dictatorship, is losing credibility and coming under question. The mainstream admits this, one of the primary condition for a retreat. A significant admission, indeed!

A Ruling Class Alliance In An Agitating Egypt: One Year After Mubarak’s Ouster

2012-01-12T22:12:00.000+06:00

Class collaboration between the Egyptian military junta and their neo-political allies, the Muslim Brotherhood, now confront the people standing for democracy. One year ago, the matrix of collusion was not evident to many. One year ago, the actors on the Egyptian political stage had different robes.

Mass protests for 18 days in the most populous Arab country brought Mubarak’s three decades of autocratic rule to its end on Feb. 11, 2011. To many, it was part of a spring sweeping the Arab jaahaan. But in countries of the region, it turned a cold, reactionary winter.

With a new ruling class alliance and deployed extra soldiers and tanks by the generals Egypt now is fomenting with protests. On the opposite, there are plans for waves of strikes aimed at forcing out the generals from power. The generals’ council, the protesting forces claim, stands opposite to democracy, social justice and individual freedoms. The planned strikes show confronting position of liberal and leftist social forces and the alliance of the generals, Islamist politicians and religious leaders. The strike planners say: The “people must show duty to the nation and spare its tattered economy fresh damage.” On the contrary, the religious authorities have called on to scrap the planned strike. The first strike planned from Saturday, Mubarak’s overthrow anniversary, would close universities and factories, cancel trains and stop public services. A statement by 39 youth groups said: “The strike is just a beginning to carry the revolutionary battle forward, to link political and democratic demands with social and economic ones.” The Muslim Brotherhood has refused to back the strike. Mahmoud Hussein, general secretary of the MB, said in a statement: “This call is very dangerous […]”

“I appeal to you”, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb, Grand Imam of Egypt’s highest Islamic authority Al-Azhar, said in a message, “not to disrupt work even for one hour.” “Civil disobedience”, Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III said in a statement, “is not accepted by religion and the state does not accept it and there are many verses in the Holy Book that talk of following the ruler.”

Protest and violence regularly overshadow Egypt. Last December experienced protests as military police assaulted demonstrators challenging military rule, and in turn, protesters hurled Molotov cocktails at the parliament building. There was violence around ballot-counting that compelled hundreds of judges monitoring the parliamentary elections to announce threat to quit over.

The parliament is acting as subordinate to generals, employees on the payroll of people. The legislature now holds a promissory note given by the generals to turn over power to the people, the generals’ employer, by the end of June 2012, after the ratification of a new constitution and the election of a president. There are basic and burning problems in today’s Egypt.

The hulking problems

Dire economic reality with springing up frustrations over poverty overwhelms every aspect of life in the country. Inflation climbed to 9% in November, a 2% rise over the previous month. Food and beverages prices jumped further. With spiraling prices of staples the rising living cost comes as an increasing number of people are struggling to find work. Foreign exchange reserves have fallen down to around $18 billion in January from $36 billion. There is a drop in state income. The tourism industry, one of main sources of revenue generating about 10% of GDP, has taken a downturn with revenue for the year stood at $8.8 billion. In 2010, it was $12.5 billion. Standard and Poor’s has downgraded the country’s creditworthiness to B+, four levels below investment grade. This will increase borrowing costs. (Oxford Business Group, “Egypt: Facing economic challenges”, Jan. 30, 2012)

A stagnating economic growth under the shadow of a financial crisis and virtually dried up foreign investment have coupled with an annoying 12% official unemployment rate. The youth unemployment rate is at least double that official figure. Heavily pressurized exchange rate for the currency and mounting debts has increased the worrying load. A further devaluation will increase food prices stimulating already smoldering grievances. The legion of jobless and underemployed reinvigorates legitimate grievances that can renew social unrest. The government has announced plans to cut down about $4 billion from the deficit of more than $30 billion. Energy subsidy is being cut as negotiations with the IMF over the terms of a $3.2 billion loan have been reopened.

The great divide – the rich-poor – is there. Intact is the illogical distribution system that feeds and fattens only the rich, who are also powerful. The new masters at the helms will not address these problems. Their class interest can’t allow them to move into that territory.

The volte-face

The Muslim Brotherhood, the ruling class alliance component, after denouncing Western colonialism for decades, now supports free markets, an inefficient, undemocratic tool in efficient hands of capital to hook people. The political actor also feels the urgency of subsidy reform, and is befriending the IMF. Now, the MB is also having an understanding with the Empire, its old arch enemy. Political alignments for unhindered raging of neo-liberal compact are thus being ensured. Wealth distribution question is being ignored.

The standard bearers of “democracy” and the generals have united in a compromise on a legal system no more Islamic than the earlier one. The compromise is assuring for major internal and external stakeholders in Egypt. The MB and the military negotiated, and the MB is finding out ways to help the generals to exit with immunity.

In November, the MB was assuring public that they would challenge the military over its right to continue appointing the prime minister and the cabinet until a constitution is ratified and a president is elected. Weeks later, the great giver of assurance said it would leave the military-appointed government until June. A number of MB leaders said the constitution should be drafted on the military’s preferred timetable, before the election of a president. Till then, the generals will retain control of the government. “We will cooperate with everyone, the people, the Parliament, the cabinet and military council”, Essam el-Erian, a MB leader, said. He said the group was putting off a confrontation with military rulers, and hoped that the US would continue to support the country financially. With the biggest share in the parliament, it is giving confusing and contradictory signals there.

At the same time, MB is standing opposed to the people demanding ouster of the generals, who have no mandate. The MB prevented hundreds of protesters from reaching parliament on Jan. 31. The protesters were demanding the end to military rule. An AFP news report quoted an MB member: “We are standing here as a human shield, because if the protesters go any further, they will clash with the police.” The report quoted an anti military protester: “The Muslim Brotherhood youth are blocking all roads to the parliament, preventing the anti-military protesters... They are […] standing […] like militias.” The march to parliament was called to press the newly-elected parliament to implement the goals of the popular upsurge.

Protesters accuse the Islamists colluding with the generals: “Badie, you are selling the revolution!” they chanted, in reference to Mohammed Badie, the Islamist movement’s supreme guide. On the first anniversary of the anti-Mubarak upheaval, political activists accused the Muslim Brotherhood of a deep compromise with the generals. Their slogans said: “You sold out the revolution.” It is a deal with common interest.

While the protesters were calling on the generals to quit immediately the MB tried to keep the anniversary demonstration upbeat, US press reports said. After getting surrounded by protesters in a Cairo demonstration the MB “speakers attempted to join the crowd by leading chants of ‘the people want the fall of the regime’ and ‘down with military rule’. But the protesters appeared unconvinced. The speakers retreated [.…T]he crowd […] began chanting, ‘Get off! Get off!’ to Brotherhood officials on the stage. Another sound system […] in the square boomed: ‘No Brotherhood, no officers! Down, down with military rule!’”

The military

Now, a year after the popular upheaval, Egypt is still under martial law. The 19 generals leading back-to-past staggering continue cracking down on pro-democracy activists. Thousands of democracy activists are being sent before military tribunals and jailed. A brutal crackdown left at least 40 demonstrators dead on the eve of the first round of parliamentary elections.

The parliament remains subordinate to the generals. Jimmy Carter holds not much hope. After discussions with the generls including Field Marshal Tantawi, Carter doubted the general shaaheebs would fully submit to the elected authority the rulers with batons had promised to install. Armed with all encompassing police power they deploy draconian measures to silence critics, ban strikes, and are accused of human rights abuses. The generals find foreign interference behind demonstrations for democracy.

The US-dependent generals, part of the ruling elites, wore a mask on their face. The smiling sober mask created a non-political assumption: they would help install a democratic government. Political novices kept their belief: it is a secular shield against Islamists. Islamists rightly banked on it to secure their dominance. Basing on class allegiance it ultimately secures the Empire’s interests in home and in the region as $1.3 billion flows in annually in military aid to Cairo from Washington. And, the elites’ alliance depends on the Empire’s world system.

The Empire

Reversing its position the US has forged closer ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. A complex geo-strategic equation for the Empire!

The US financing of NGOs to promote its agenda is an old tale. But it took a new turn with the generals’ tactical move. In late 2011, an investigation into foreign financing of a number of NGOs, and police raids into offices of four NGOs including the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute that promotes US agenda made the scene tricky. US citizens including Sam Lahood, local director of the IRI and son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood were banned from leaving Egypt. The NDI and IRI activists took refuge in the US embassy. The situation enraged a number of Congress members and the US State Department. But actually the general’s stroke against the NGOs was aimed at Egyptian people, not the Empire. To cast away confusion, Egyptian officials went to the US, and met military officials and congress members there.

Not a defeat

After appeasement and compromises by the same class elements, to some, last year’s Egyptian uprising appears a defeat. But in a broader socio-historical perspective, it’s not a defeat, rather, part of a longer process. Despite prospects of temporary failure, initiatives of resistance and rejuvenation are getting organized.

The Egypt Revolutionaries' Alliance demands Tantawi, the de facto ruler, and El-Ganzouri, the interim prime minister, to step down. The political alliance and students are planning to start civil disobedience against military rule on February 11, the one-year anniversary of autocrat Mubarak’s ouster.

The ERA, umbrella of over 50 political groups, workers and students, has made seven demands. The principal demand is the immediate handover of power from the generals to a civilian administration in the People's Assembly, the lower house of the parliament. Other demands include: Immediate dismantling of the incumbent interim government, and appointment of a national salvation government, whose members to be selected by the People's Assembly; immediate holding of presidential elections; forming an investigation committee to investigate all crimes and massacres committed by the ruling authorities; establishing “revolutionary tribunals” to try all former regime figures found guilty of involvement in crimes committed after the January uprising; immediate dismissal of the prosecutor general; and purge and overhaul of the Ministry of Interior. In a statement, the ERA asserted that civil disobedience “has become a valid means for expressing […] demand for the handover of power to a civilian administration in light of the recent deterioration of domestic circumstances. […The generals have] failed to live up to its promises and Egypt continues to suffer a chronic security vacuum.”

There are other acts of protests by broader populace in Egypt that signify journey for democracy by the undaunted Egyptian people, which may be long, painstaking and complex with possibilities of set backs as there is weakness in grassroots organization. But ultimately it will move as the dominating class alliance is failing and will fail to fulfill people’s demands that go against the interests of the ruling class alliance.

A German Satire On A Greek Stage

2012-01-12T22:10:00.000+06:00

Germany is staging a satire in burning Greece. While school children there go unfed and homeless increases in number bankers punish the exhausted Republic by imposing harsh, humiliating conditions to take last cents away from the bankrupt capitalist state in Europe.

“Socialist” Koutsoukos, the Greek deputy labor minister resigning in protest to the EC, ECB and IMF dictated package, accused the troika of “shameless extortion” in its policies towards Athens while Karatzaferis, the extreme right leader and coalition partner, spoke of national humiliation and Greece “under the German boot”. Samaras, the New Democracy leader, said “Today we are in danger of losing our freedom and independence.” With the power of trampling sovereignty bank capital unites “socialists” and far-right in humiliation, subservience and anguish. A satire with a German lead role it seems.

As riot police clashed with protesters on Athens streets five ministers resigned in protest at the scale of the spending cuts and police ringed the parliament building to secure it from citizens’ wrath. Finance minister Venizelos said an unruly default would take the country to the brink of civil war and the country would be bought under colonial terms. He was scared of “total dissolution of the economic, social and institutional web of the country.” This led prime minister Papademos and former prime minister socialist Papandreou to sell out their right and left hearts! The price is a new support package, a haircut of debt, and a population’s plight.

But the rescue cash is not at sight. Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, demands more. Days back, Merkel, the German Chancellor, turned impatient with her Greek debtors. It is time, she said during a joint press conference with Sarkozy, the French president, for Athens to accept the tough austerity measures being demanded as a condition for a second bailout package. Should Greece reject the demands, she almost threatened, insolvency and an exit from the euro zone could come quickly. Sarkozy lent his tough voice: “They have no choice.” The bank bosses told bluntly: No new bailout unless there are further budget cuts, on top of the already promised austerity measures. Otherwise, Greece will go bankrupt. The Greek government agreed.

On the austerity program, EU demands signed, irreversible, binding pledge from the three coalition partners, regardless of winner in the next election. The austerity-pledge includes chopping out 150,000 public sector jobs, cutting down the minimum wage by 22%, and reducing pensions. It is, in summary, people are to pay, pay for plunder and wrong doings of elites, pay for inefficiency and accounting corruption of dominating interests.

With an emerging underclass, the Orthodox Church feeding 250,000 people a day, 20.9% unemployment, 48% youth unemployment, all Greek families hit by joblessness, 20,000 shelter less citizens, more than 10,000 on Athens pavements, park benches, in metro stations and shopping arcades, doorways and cars, 25% “new homeless” – evicted from home, 27.7% of Greek citizens staying on the brink of poverty and social exclusion, and hard-hit middle class having no savings an acute social crisis is brewing up. Among social groups, Crete Gazette reports, pensioners suffer most from low income and high cost of living while 33% of poor are over 65. Almost 60% of Greeks are afraid of falling into the poverty trap in the next few years. According to the Hellenic Statistical Authority the country’s manufacturing output contracted by 15.5% in December from a year earlier and industrial output fell 11.3%.

Press reports say “[e]ducated professionals, too shamefaced to want to speak, now stand in line with immigrants from developing countries waiting for food handouts from the town hall.” Citing relevant source McClatchy said: In the relief organization Doctors of the World’s Perama clinic more than 80 patients seek help three days a week. To cope with demand, the DW plans to operate the clinic seven days a week. The number in the clinic has quadrupled in the past two years. Eight in 10 patients now are Greeks, four times what it had been. The Greek chapter chief of the DW told McClatchy “The state doesn’t know who’s poor or who’s vulnerable. People used to be able to get money and find a doctor. Now everything is breaking down.” Citing a teacher BBC said: “In schools we didn’t have books up to the middle of the school year and not only that - we have children that do not really care about the lessons, because of all the problems at home.” The narratives, it seems, are from Third World or from any failed state. Helena Smith in a report in The Guardian describes a desperate, unhappy father, life in mess, deep in debt, owing money to butcher, baker and grocer “took the decision to put in an official request for three of his boys and one daughter to be taken into care.” “The crisis had killed us. I am ashamed to say, but it had got to the point where I couldn’t even afford the two euros needed to buy bread,” the father said. The local Deputy Mayor and director of social works said: “Requests for support have shot up. Last year, we sent food to 400 families [..] This year, 1,200 asked for help and they weren’t […] low-income people. Many had good jobs until this year when their shops and businesses closed, but to be asked to take children away was something new.” The deputy mayor visited the poor father’s home and “saw the situation […] the third-world conditions, the poverty and filth, [that they] couldn’t believe […]” Charities, doctors and unions suggest this is not a single case. […] “People are going hungry, families are breaking up, instances are mounting of mothers and fathers no longer being able to bring up their own kids,” said […] general secretary of the civil servants’ union ADEDY. “Until now, there has been a conspiracy of silence around the tragic effects of the austerity measures the IMF and EU are asking us to take.” From cases of newborn babies wrapped in swaddling and dumped on the doorsteps of clinics, to children being offloaded on charities and put in foster care, the nation’s struggle to pay off its debts is assuming dramatic proportions […] (“Poverty in Greece forcing parents to give up their children”)

Archbishop Ieronymos, the country’s spiritual leader, in a letter to the prime minister, a rare public intervention, said: “Homelessness and even hunger […] have reached nightmare proportions. The medicine we are taking has proved fatal for the nation.”

The situation is breeding protest, even from part of the ruling machine. A Bloomberg report said: The Greek Police union called for arrest warrants to be issued for EU, ECB and IMF officials negotiating austerity measures. In an open letter to the troika the police union said: “[W]e warn you that you cannot make us fight against our brothers. […W]e will issue arrest warrants for […] legal violations [including] blackmail, covert abolition or erosion of democracy and national sovereignty.” Mighty bank capital demolishes all barriers and unites all including priest, police and people. Athens braced a 48-hour strike fringed with violent protest, petrol bombs. It’s not only an economic crisis. It’s also a social and political crisis, a crisis in democracy a republic practiced with its dominating class mooring. The dominating interest is now passing over its burden of failure on the people.

In response to these human sufferings the dominating interests now have two memorandum agreements made between the Greek government and the troika, or imposed on the Greek people in a finance-democratic way: The 51-page Greece — Memorandum of Understanding on Specific Economic Policy Conditionality, Feb. 9, 2012, and the 31-page Greece — Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies, Feb. 9, 2012. Still there will be fresh conditions from financers that Greek people and their elected representatives have to meet before the bail-out is endorsed. Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister and head of the euro group, did not find “all necessary elements on the table to take decisions […] In short: no disbursement before implementation.” The ECB, as Mario Draghi, the bank’s boss, feels, would not step in to ease Greece’s burdens through a tricky debt swap with private creditors. The Greek republic now has to negotiate a debt relief agreement with private creditors worth 100 bn euro if it is to receive the EU-IMF aid package. If not, Greece could default as early as next month, when 14.5 bn euro in Greek government bonds turn due. The financers are demanding greater sacrifices from Greece, ultimately the people.

The Greek government has urged the ECB to forego profits on its Greek bond holdings. The bank’s governing council discussed the issue. But the ECB sustaining any loss has been ruled out. Profits on Greek bonds would have to pass on to governments when they are realized. The financial bosses are concerned with the issues of “tensions in euro area debt markets and their potential spillover to the euro area real economy.” It is their problem.

In fifth straight year of recession in Greece, a Reuters report said: Protesters compared Greece’s plight to its seven years under military dictatorship. Then, the fact comes to light: money is not less mighty than military, and domination is not only made with weapons; there are mighty arms of money and market to dominate and stomp down democracy, even money’s system of governance.

Death Of Dinesh Das, A Third Or Fourth World Journalist

2012-01-09T09:57:00.000+06:00

Again there is another death on a Dhaka street. The latest victim is Dinesh Das, a Third or Fourth World journalist. And, it is almost the same tale of a Third or Fourth World city, its traffic management system, and of a part of a society with its indifference, brutality and callousness.

The accident-account is the same old story: an indifferent bigger vehicle’s wheels crushed a smaller one, the smaller vehicle rider was the unfortunate guy, a wrong time and a wrong place for the lone rider, brutal high speed and hapless slow speed, and an ill-managed traffic system in an illogical city. What’s the output of the irrational equation? Last journey of a life.

The story turns unbearable as one gathers information from press: the journalist was without job, without money, without the capacity to enroll his small daughter in school, was failing to pay monthly house rent. The brutal facts are bared before a citizenry: a brutal system – you have to work and work, you have to run and run in a nasty rat race simply for keeping your nose afloat, you have to pass each and every day throughout your life of uncertainty, you have to be faithful to the system, you have to serve the system, and there will be brutal wheels waiting and running for you to crush, to send your spouse to the same circle without any escape route. And, then, all after this “kind” arrangement of the system, you, a journalist, you a teacher, you all have to be diligent to work, be faithful to duty designed by meager salary, be incorrupt, and be the mirror of honesty. And, your knowledge will allow you to be aware of the intricacies of plundering tricks, but your knowledge of alertness will tell you not to tell the tricky plundering truths. Nice punishment sticks are in the wings if you deviate, if you fail to serve faithfully, if you turn rude, if you nourish audacity deep in your bosom. What happens if you turn a renegade to the system? You will be punished, punished with uncertainty, unemployment, grinding poverty, will be pressed to the dust.

In the case of Dinesh, arguments and counter-arguments can be devised and thrown around. To some, he was rude, unscrupulous, disobedient. Thread bare analysis of his character will provide arguments for his character assassination. To many, he was a kind-hearted, honest professional, uncompromising, faithful to humanity, profession and family, a person keeping head high. Different perspectives provide comparative arguments. An individual is a product of the individual’s time and space, a product of social reality. This piece is neither to denounce Dinesh nor to eulogize the dead. Friends and colleagues of Dinesh will carry on the task. Whatever he was, that does not allow anyone to take away his life, does not permit anyone to push his family to den of uncertain days.

This piece is simply to once again tell the vulnerability of life in this city. How fragile life is in this city! How many journalists, students, poor pedestrians have paid with their lives in this city dominated by wheels? A few days back, Nikhil Bhadra encountered a brute fact in this indifferent city. The journalist lost his leg in the city street. Rest of his life? Who knows?

What happens to the families of these victims? Does the society that tries its best to expand informal sector have devised any arrangement for the victims and their families other than begging mercy and help? An inglorious path for mere survival! The social division of labor ensures smooth revolving of wheels of the society, ensures pressed life every day, presents gloomy days throughout life for millions. It ensures this guy shall be a peddler, that fellow will be a journalist, that person will be a policeman, this man shall be a teacher, that woman will be a nurse. Then it demands dutifulness and honesty of millions. Dinesh was only one of those faceless millions. Nikhil is another. Other journalist pressed under wheels months back was another. No social security, no established medical facilities for these victims! Yes, there are mercy and benevolence.

But, doesn’t the society manage bigger affairs and events with bigger money? Doesn’t the society organize bigger arrangements? Yes, there are all those but social security of Dinesh, a jobless journalist who had to rely on the last savings of his wife, only Taka one hundred and fifty or about two dollars diligently saved over months in an earthen pot, in the last day of his life.

Does the society lack that money resource that can ensure social security of journalists, of other working people? The level of surplus labor produced in the society and appropriated and robbed are evident in private celebrations, luxuries, vehicles in the capital city and villas now coming up around. Does logic tell that all after all these huge surplus labor produced working people have to languish in uncertain life, a crushed journalist’s wife has to face uncertain future waiting for mercy and benevolence? Should there be lack of resource to organize a safer traffic management system in the capital city and all over the country? And, for how long shall this state of business move on? Journalists, somebody identifies them as kalam saineek, soldiers of truth armed with pen, now aggrieved and tormented with the painful death of Dinesh Das shall search answers to the questions, the questions of livable, safer city, of a safer traffic management system, social security, and of a decent, dignified life for all journalists, for all working people.

2011, A Year Replete With Revolts, Uprisings And Occupation

2011-12-19T12:42:00.000+06:00

Uprisings, revolts and occupation are keeping their undeniable marks on 2011. In recent times, a year with so much and so wide protests from periphery to world metropolis are rare. In this crises-ridden period, the competition-charged, tumultuous year saw status quo questioned and challenged. In recent times, capitalism with its fundamental contradictions of capital accumulation has never encountered so vigorous and wide social criticism and rejection.

The globe eclipsing status quo has created conditions for protest and uprising, and also trammeled these. With these contradictory acts, status quo has illegitimated itself, and has provided legitimacy to protest and uprising against institutions for coercion and ideological hegemony that capital builds up to dominate public life. As captive of income- and opportunity-inequalities, people in countries are giving tongue to their dissatisfaction with the status quo, its philosophy, policies, politics and economy. As democratic practice, people are dissenting, disapproving and denouncing dominating power’s contempt of life and liberty. People are declining to acquiesce to the destruction of peace on the earth.

People in countries were passing days while corporate personhood was taking control of peoples’ life and bare minimum spaces essential for people’s existence. It was capital’s indifferent campaign to destruct all life on the earth.

The prevailing system with its all its brutality – poverty, unemployment, wars, intervention, and indifferent elites indulging in luxury and speculation – has provided logic to protest in countries. Working people are being deprived of their rights. Narrowed down space for dissent and curtailed rights have ignited revolts. In 2011, people began resisting mainly through nonviolent protest marches and occupation. Internet based social networking has turned into a tool to communicate and propagate. In 2011, with industrial action, by striking valiantly, labor in scores of countries heroically stood in front of capital. In Third, Second and First Worlds, student activism, their protests and marches, occupations of educational institutions and media centers unmasked the dominating system that does not hide its profit motive in the area of public instruction. In 2011, riot and anarchic acts, only a few in numbers and only in a few countries, reflect dire living condition, and encroached democratic space. These are initiatives by an impatient section to ensure jobs, homes, security and freedom from the tyranny of capital.

The Arab Spring and the Occupy Movement are two key moments in the worldwide protest process in 2011. These are junctures. In terms of magnitude and force, these two surpassed the Seattle Uprising in 1999, the Prague Anti-globalization Protests in 2000 and the Iraq War Protest in 2003. In terms of significance, these two influenced and will influence societies and politics at regional and world levels.

Tyrants, Empire-allies, caricature characters in politics, financial and political institutions, coercive apparatus, all had to face protests by people from Australia to Middle East, from North Africa to North America, from Wukan, a China village, to the US cities, from a mining giant headquarter to ports and auction house. Tunisia, Italy, Malaysia, Morocco, Russia, Bahrain, Greece, France, the UK, backward, conservative societies and advanced capitalist countries, all came under questioning by its citizens. Madrid, Athens, San Francisco, Paris, Philadelphia, London, Leeds, Los Angeles, and hundreds of cities and towns saw protest marches. Election thievery sparked protests, sometimes violent. In 2011, tens of thousands of “mass incidents”, huge demonstrations and protests, reflected undercurrents in today’s Chinese society. Striking oil workers occupied the main square in Zhanaozen, a Kazakhstan town, for more than six months. In the last days in 2011, police firing on the protesting Kazakh oil workers killed at least 10 people. During the last days of the year, protesting people continue making supreme sacrifices in Egypt, a geostrategically important area, where an alliance between retrogressive forces and imperialism has been completed. In Lens Creek Mountain, West Virginia, USA, people marched more than 50 miles to save ecology and a glorious history.

Occupy Wall Street, the Occupy Movement that began on September 17 with a few thousand protesters in New York to condemn greed and capitalism has become a political expression in the entire US, and broadly, a worldwide approach with broad coalitions. In France, Marseille Chamber of Commerce was occupied. In Kerala, India, a soft drink plant was occupied. And, 2011 saw similar many more.

Within days, the Occupy Movement became a world symbol with the universal slogan “We are the 99%”. Jobless and homeless, union members and priests, nurses, teachers and students stood in protest, peacefully marched down streets, built camps with libraries in parks and city squares, tried to make their stand in the face of forced evictions. But capital’s dictatorial force prevailed. Occupy Movement protesters have been arrested, their camps bulldozed.

Occupy Movement campaigned to move homeless people into buildings foreclosed by banks, stood by labor’s struggle, and has tried to widen its support-base. Defying cold, rain, snow falls and evictions in countries, Occupy Movement protesters are still undaunted, and hope to re-occupy public spaces.

Now, it is Occupy Everywhere. It’s a new discourse and dynamics of political action. It is not an isolated act of protest. Rather, it is now a worldwide process, an expression of revolt against capitalist economy and politics.

Labor, either in unions or defying status quoed union leadership, in countries has joined the waves of uprising, and in countries has determined pace of politics for a period, may be for a short one. Labor worldwide is trying to assert its position. In 2011, labor made strikes at Australian coal mines and walked outs at giant Grasberg mine in Indonesia. Chile’s state-owned copper giant, African gold producers, and scores of mine owners in countries had to face labor action in the year.
At least in a country, a new law banning street protest has been enacted. At least a country now plans to use its political power to detain its citizens for indefinite period. Police reportedly went undercover at an Occupy camp to find out protesters’ intentions. Police spies infiltrated protest groups at least in a country. In countries, public servants, hardly a few thousands in number, are wielding the power to define limits of “democracy” for millions, and in actual sense, billions. The year 2011 once again exposed these truths.

In 2011, by violating fundamental rights of people, and even by violating bourgeois democratic norms, ruling classes in respective societies have quashed its claims to rule, have confirmed its void moral standing, and have provided people the logic to reclaim fundamental features of bourgeois democracy and public spaces. In 2011, ruling machines in countries are breaking its laws the machines are committed to safeguard, and breeding contempt of the laws enacted to secure existing property relations and perpetuate dominance over people. In countries, honesty is an abandoned concept within forces of and institutions for hegemony. So, the logic to reclaim comes from Abraham Lincoln. In 1858, Abraham Lincoln said while debating Stephen Douglas: “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

In 2011, capital’s “holy” alliance is being exposed. States with their inherent inefficiency and incompetence continue to stand as inefficient and incompetent. With their monopoly of coercion states are attaining mistrust of its citizens.

In 2011, main stream media got exposed as a tool of capital. MSM’s acts appeared deep rooted conspiracy, often a conspiracy of silence, to the protesting people. It tried to keep silent on the Occupy Movement. Its “shrewd” tact to ignore people’s struggles ultimately breached its credibility, and to regain credibility, it had to provide information, sometimes disinformation or misinformation.

In 2011, the dominating economy’s incapability is being exposed as it continues to snatch away social safety arrangements, as it fails to provide bare minimum livelihood space to citizens, and as it fails to balance its competing interests. In a continent, dominating capital stands on the brink of falling apart as its powerful parts fail to resolve fatal competition.

In 2011, like past years, states, huge in number, continue to serve their masters – capitals, monopoly finance capital, speculator capital, ecocide capital, war capital. With demagoguery and outright falsehood, with a state of war or a threat of war, with justification to torture and murder, states fomented protests, revolts and occupation in 2011.

Status quo is engaged with full force in stopping peoples’ legitimate claims on economy and politics. In 2011, societies are on the border of bankruptcy, societies are faltering with burden of seemingly endless mal-governance, lumpenocracy, immense corruption and hopelessness. Dominating classes’ historical role has brought the societies to this limit. The dominating classes have initiated the process of destruction of these societies. In countries, people found no other way but protest and revolt in 2011 as speculators and bankers shape economy and trample sovereignty, polluters define limits of livable environment, and tyranny encroach public spaces. All Tyranny depends on deception, hypocrisy, economic and political power, and compels people to resort to revolt. The year, as a reaction, demonstrates force and power of revolt. The year is witnessing unimaginable riches and military might, but finds it imprisoned to the desire to use the power in the interests of absolute minority section in societies. People find them encountering tyranny and oppression in the guise of status quo in 2011.

“No nation”, as James Madison said in Political Observations in 1795, “can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.” But, the world is experiencing continual war waged by dominating capital. The year 2011 with pain and tears is going through this war. It is war for resources and cheap labor being waged in lands around the globe, it is war for thievery, it is wars declared and undeclared, and it is age-old war waged by a minority class against the majority classes. Under the endless sky, it is being waged in politics, in diplomacy, in economy, in propaganda, in ideology and education. It is being waged in the squares of the cities, in slums, on waste dumping grounds, with public properties being sold in market, in factories and workshops, in ports and offices, in degraded educational institutions and hospitals without any ribbon of hope, in all public spaces.

In countries, people are now no more wandering, no more having aimless moves in 2011. In countries, people are now striving to transform politics, taking initiatives in politics with limitations imposed by a period and respective societies. Despite the fact, protesting people, revolting people, not individuals, have initiated a process to reclaim their space, their land, to reiterate
This land is your land,
This land is my land
This land is our land.

Democratic Struggle And The Struggle For The Environment Are Tied Together

2011-11-26T14:28:00.000+06:00

By Fred Magdoff & Farooque Chowdhury

Interview of Professor Fred Magdoff by Farooque Chowdhury on climate crisis

“People's democratic struggle and the struggle for the environment should be intimately tied together. If the environmental issues are brought front and center within the people's struggles it might even result in more support for change”, said Fred Magdoff , co-author of What Every Environmentalist Needs To Know about Capitalism, A Citizen's Guide to Capitalism and the Environment (with John Bellamy Foster. MR Press). I n an interview, first carried by MRzine , Fred Magdoff, professor emeritus of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont and adjunct professor of crop and soil science at Cornell University said: “We should oppose all ‘market oriented' so-called ‘solutions'. They are not actually solutions, but rather just a new way to make money.” Prof. Magdoff writes frequently on political economy. His most recent books are The Great Financial Crisis (written with John Bellamy Foster, MR Press) and Agriculture and Food in Crisis (edited with Brian Tokar, MR Press).

In the backdrop of climate crisis threatening millions of people around the world and their struggle for democratic life, and the coming climate talks in Durban, CoP 17, Fred Magdoff ( FM ) was interviewed in late-November, 2011 on climate crisis by Farooque Chowdhury ( FC ), a Dhaka-based freelancer. Following is the text of the interview:

FC: We know CoP 17 is going to begin in Durban . What issues should the most affected/vulnerable countries raise in the conference?

FM: The most affected and vulnerable countries are clearly concerned about the lack of urgency felt by the wealthy countries. The crux of the issue is to get a commitment from the United States , Europe, and Japan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is some indication that China is beginning to move in that direction, although its rapid pace of growth may outweigh efforts to reduce emissions. Although effects are already felt in the U.S. and Europe , the most difficult results of climate change have been felt in the poorer countries and among vulnerable people. The sea level rise along with warming is necessitating the transfer of Alaskan villages away from the coast. Seawater intrusion in Vietnam 's Mekong Delta region is causing salinity to develop in some of the rice soils, reducing their productivity. The melting of the Andean glaciers has already resulted in water shortages during the dry season.

FC: There is the debt crisis in Europe . The Great Financial Crisis has not retreated to its den. What will be the probable impact of these on the CoP 17?

FM: The theme that is commonly expressed by those wishing to do nothing is that a movement to restrict greenhouse gas emission would cost jobs. Fewer coal miners, less electricity generated (if coal powered electric generating plants were closed down), and so on. So they say that this is not the time to do something that would cost jobs. Of course, it is just an excuse. If a transition was planned and done well many jobs could be created. Also, what kind of society and economy do we have that would say that we need to continue polluting so people can work? This is not only an irrational economic/social/political system but also a dangerous one.

FC: In the backdrop of conflicting interests of major polluters, which is essentially conflict of interest of related capitals for their accumulation, what should be the negotiating strategy of most vulnerable countries in CoP 17?

FM: Far be it from me to give advice to the most vulnerable countries. They seem to be very well aware of the political problems. They have previously tried a number of innovative strategies and I am sure that they will continue to do so.

FC: Is there any change in the climate crisis negotiation scenario since the CoP 16 in Cancun ?

FM: The position of the wealthy countries has if anything solidified and hardened. There is an Guardian (UK) article of November 20, 2011 that is titled “ Rich nations 'give up' on new climate treaty until 2020” and has as its subtitle: “ Ahead of critical talks and despite pledge for new treaty by 2012, biggest economies privately admit likelihood of long delay.” This, of course, has been greeted by the most vulnerable with dismay and anger.

FC: As a participant, you presented a key note paper in the Mother Earth conference in Bolivia . There is the Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth in Bolivia . A ministry in the country looks after these rights. Have the deliberations and call of the conference, and the step by Bolivia made any impact in today's discourse on climate crisis?

FM: I think that Bolivia played a very important role following the failure of Copenhagen meetings in December of 2009. Just bringing so many people together in Cochabamba , Bolivia in April of 2010 was quite a feat. The discussion was very good as was the final declaration of the conference. One of small things that happened was the exposure to the large group of how the United States was using a money offer in order to get Bolivia and Ecuador to sign on to the Copenhagen statement drafted mainly by the wealthy countries. A cabinet minister from Ecuador said that she was authorized to tell the assembled people that Ecuador refused the money but was prepared to offer the United States the same amount of money if it would agree to sign the Kyoto protocols. Needless to say, there was plenty of laughter after that statement.

FC: Is there any conflict, but not articulated, between the dominating economic interests and people's interests in the position emerging economies have taken in climate crisis negotiation?

FM: YES! The main conflict is one of the interests of capitalism as a system and of its most powerful representatives. Since at the heart of the issue is the normal way capitalism functions — it has to continue growing or else it's in crisis and has no other goal other than the accumulation of more and more capital. It would take a VERY enlightened leader of one of the leading rich capitalist countries to even attempt to take on the vested interests that are perfectly happy with the way things are.

FC: If “yes”, how to resolve this contradiction or what program should be there from people's perspective in the emerging economies?

FM: This is certainly a very difficult question to answer. Perhaps an equivalent of “direct action” activism is needed by the most vulnerable. Maybe disrupting the workings of the UN or other world organizations might get some positive results.

FC: A portion of capital is now-a-days active to make a climate deal as climate crisis threatens its domain. At the same time, to a section of capital, climate crisis appears a potential market. How to ensure people's interests in this market that is making climate crisis a commodity?

FM: I think that we should oppose all “market oriented” so-called “solutions.” They are not actually solutions, but rather just a new way to make money. They give the appearance of accomplishing something, although they are rife with fraud and do not solve the problem even if well carried out.

FC: What role can people's organizations play in respective countries/societies that can impact climate crisis negotiation? Should these only be confined in raising demands, organizing demonstrations, etc. or along with these, widen public space through mobilizing people in positive, locally practicable approaches?

FM: It is up to the creativity and energy of the people to develop new approaches to the negotiations. It is not clear to me how to negotiate when one group is not really interested. This is something like what is happening in the U.S. Congress where the Republican Party has absolutely no interest in negotiations, whatever the consequences.

FC: Can participatory climate assessment at local level be a tool, a better one than mere forming human chains, etc. for a shorter period, to make people actively aware and to actively mobilize them on the climate crisis issue?

FM: Using a participatory assessment to make people aware of their climate and the implications of changes that are occurring can certainly be useful. It is also important to start discussions and even planning at the local level for sea level rise, droughts, floods, hot weather, etc. — whatever is most relevant to the local or regional situation. There are low-tech ways of lessening some of the detrimental effects.

FC: Will not climate crisis negatively impact people's democratic struggle?

FM: I think that the people' democratic struggle and the struggle for the environment should be intimately tied together. The climate crisis, as well as the other environmental crises that are occurring, should make it clearer to people that these are crises of the system itself. And the only meaningful way to deal with social as well as environmental problems is to organize a new society based on equality, democracy, and care for the environment. So the issue itself provides another argument against the capitalist system.

FC: Should the crisis be viewed as a potential threat to people's struggle for a decent, democratic life?

FM: The way I view it, while making things more difficult for people, climate changes provide another argument against the capitalist system and provides more urgency to seek systemic changes. If the environmental issues are brought front and center within the people's struggles it might even result in more support for change.

FC: Is not there the need to include climate demands in the program for democratic struggle, targeting the global and local climate criminal capitals that are snatching away atmospheric space from people?

FM: Absolutely. This must become a central part of the struggle. And I would broaden the issue to other types of environmental degradation — chemical pollution of air, water, and food; overfishing by factory-size boats causing depletion of fish stocks; soil erosion and degradation; depletion of fresh water supplies; etc.

FC: Can organizing climate crime tribunals at respective levels be a forum for active mobilization and protest by climate-poor?

FM: Yes. I think that this is one of the ways that more attention can be focused on the issues and on the intransigence of the wealthy countries.

FC: Thank you, for the interview.

Europe’s Lost Decade!

2011-11-13T14:25:00.000+06:00

It is Europe, neither Italy nor Greece, that is now having a tragic appearance. The “attributes” of tragedy are now in Europe’s economy, politics, institutions, diplomacy, and “democratic” practice, in essence, autocracy of bank capital. Finance and political leaders’ HardTalks are revealing the bitter fact, a fact that bares the heart and brain of capitalism.

The world is going to have a lost decade. The IMF chief has made the warning on November 8. George Soros warned a few days back: Europe may experience a lost decade.

Japan’s and Latin America’s lost decades are old stories. Of Africa? Of the poor? Who knows? Probably, it is lost centuries.

Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief said: “The world runs the risk of a downward spiral of uncertainty.” She has warned that the global economy is at risk of being plunged into a “lost decade”.

Amid fear of the escalating euro zone debt crisis making impact on the world economy the IMF chief said: The crisis has resulted in an uncertain outlook for the global economy. “We could run the risk of what some commentators are already calling the lost decade,” she added.

She forecasts: “There are clearly clouds on the […] horizon, particularly in the advanced economies and particularly so in the European Union and the US.”

Only a few days ago, George Soros, the billionaire financier, warned the EU faces an economic “lost decade”, or more. Citing a combination of a bank crisis and a sovereign debt crisis he expressed fear: “Europe is in […] a very serious crisis.” The crisis, he apprehends, “is a political crisis. The euro is in the process of undermining the political cohesion of the European Union.” “This will lead to a long-term economic depression. When you look at similar situations [like Latin America in the early 80s and Japan slightly later] you had a lost decade... I am afraid that this is the outlook for Europe this is the unfortunate reality”, he concluded.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has warned: The EU was in its “deepest ever crisis”. In an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung Barroso said that national governments can’t be trusted to take determined action. Setting rules for a stable euro zone could not only be left to the member states. He has suggested: the EU’s institutions need to be strengthened to stabilize the euro zone. He called for more power for the EU's institutions, arguing that it was an “illusion” to think that the euro zone’s economic policy could be coordinated just by the European Council.

Alistair Darling, the former UK chancellor, has said: The economic crisis facing Europe has become far worse than the banking crisis of 2008 and will see the break-up of the euro if it is not resolved by Christmas. “In 2008 we were facing a banking crisis. Now we are facing an economic crisis, and if it gets worse it will turn into a banking crisis that will worsen the crisis”, he said.

He told the Guardian: The G20 summit in Cannes was “a disaster”. The G20 leaders “appeared to gather on a wet Friday, appear mesmerized by Greece and then were away by 3.30, as soon as they possibly could get out of the place. Sometimes it is better to have no summit than a failed summit”.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said in her weekly podcast: It would take a decade before the euro zone is in a better position.

Joseph Stiglitz suspects that “we’re going to see a lot of volatility. Whether at the end the euro zone will emerge intact or not, it’s hard at this point to say.” “It all depends on the politics. […T]he political process in some ways is not in tune with the economics. The problems are deep.
I think there is a reasonably good chance that a year from now you would find the euro zone smaller than what it is today”, he added. (“Austerity not the way to go for Europe”)

The macro-scene is grim. Europe’s slow down will bring down exports from the US. Similar fate looms over Asia. The US and the euro zone are the biggest markets for Asian goods. Suffering economies of the US and Europe are slowing down demand for Asian goods. China has already begun experiencing this. A slowdown of Asia’s export oriented economies will have greater negative impact on the global economy.

Not only Asia’s export oriented economies, a few of Europe’s economies are also experiencing the chill. Economists and the Danske Bank are warning that Denmark may be on the brink of a new recession as exports are being affected by the slowdown in Denmark’s traditional trading partners. Danske Bank has reduced its growth forecast for this year to 0.7% from its previous forecast in October of 1.1. The 2012 forecast has also been downgraded to 1.0% from 1.6%. Italy’s financial crisis has yet not showed signs of improvement despite Silvio Berlusconi’s pledge to resign once Parliament passes austerity measures. Markets does not know its reactions to Italian political drama.

Many analyses, ideas and suggestions are now floating on the finance-politics stage. There are talks of hyper-deflation, “kick-starting” the economy, turbo-capitalism that dislikes any regulation inhibiting financial markets’ growth, turbo-Keynesianism, turbo-capitalism’s more accommodating twin, etc. Bankers are encroaching sovereign space of states. Democratic practice is being infringed by bank capital. Suggestions for immediately recapitalizing Europe’s banks are there. The mainstream assumption that financial markets are capable of taking care of all their “good” work now stands wrong. That was an imagination without any roots in reality.

The specter of crisis, “financial crisis”, “economic crisis”, “banking crisis”, and other crises – political crisis, interstate crisis”, institutional crisis, crisis in formation of state, crisis in visualization of EU founding fathers – are now haunting the continent overwhelmed with advanced capitalist economies. Euro, according to Soros, is “an incomplete currency: it had a central bank but no central treasury.” (“The European Union’s Catalogue of Failures”, July 18, 2011) European leaders, Stiglitz said, “didn’t do anything in the 10 years before there was a crisis.” (op. cit.) There are now many similar ideas and concepts in the market of mainstream discourse.

But, what are the roots of the crisis? The MSM simply skips the answer. The MSM constantly declines to look at the base of the crises. As the causes creating these crises the MSM finds “leaders’ lack of farsightedness”, “institutional weakness”, “stubbornness or weakness of this leader or that leader”, etc. But does a leader act according to own choice or preference or whim or knack? Can a leader act on own wishes and can an institution play role on the basis of its own wisdom? Where from the wishes and wisdom enter into head or decision making process? On these, and similar other questions, the MSM stands on a void base, an absolute void.

The MSM has to provide answer to the burning questions: why lost decade visits this country and that continent? Why their wisdom and analytical prowess visit them always after a crisis calls in, and why they fail to identify root cause of all the crises?

The MSM is concerned with securing banks, finance, credit-credibility. Why it fails to put people, their suffering before finance, etc.?

Stiglitz finds politics will determine the euro zone’s shape. No, capitals shaping politics will determine euro zone’s shape. Capitals’ contradictions within itself will determine its accommodating/co-opting capacity and power. Its conflicting interests will shape euro zone, euro zone’s institutions, and politics, democracy and sovereignty in countries in the zone.

Because of limitations imposed by interests of capitals involved in the crisis the dominating capitals will stand against people in respective countries, and as a whole in the entire zone, and squeeze their life to squeeze out all the surplus peoples in these countries are capable of generating. This will sharpen contradiction between the peoples and the capitals in the crisis dominated zone influencing politics in the zone. The sharpening contradictions pose a burning question to the peoples in the continent: will the coming days bring only suffering to them or struggle along with suffering? Answer to the question and actions by them will influence politics of bank capital in the zone.

Dance: Language Of Protest

2011-11-07T11:37:00.000+06:00

Protest has its own language. And, protest has its many languages. Silence sometimes speaks as protest. Dance also. In countries, protesters, in group or individually, have danced as protest.

In Chile, student demonstrators took to the streets of Santiago. They danced as protest in June, 2011. Dressed as goblins and ghouls from Michael Jackson’s iconic “Thriller” video they protested, as they described, the country’s “rotten” and “dead” education system. The protesting students re-created Jackson’s moves in front of presidential palace. They said: the zombie motif was an appropriate metaphor for the country’s education system.

One student said: “Public education is dying so we took this Michael Jackson creation and we united to this movement that is dying, the zombies.”

A 72-year-old woman on the floor of a George Washington University dance studio, a 39-year-old Maryland woman in her apartment, a 38-year-old dancer in Charlottesville, and many others danced to draw attention to refugees, particularly the Iraq and Afghan wars refugees. They, the 31 solo dancers, took humanity’s problems seriously while millions turned busy with New Year celebrations. (Washington Post, “31 Dance Performances Protest Results of Wars”, Jan. 2, 2009)

The Maryland woman danced for 24 hours. “It’s not about being radical for the sake of being radical,” said the dancer before commencing her in-home performance.

One of the dancers “chastised the United Nations in particular for maintaining its ‘impressive composure’ in a world soiled by ‘war, starvation, refugees, pornography, slavery, you name it.’” Others planned to bring to notice the “plight of Iraqi refugees, the bombing of Gaza and the scourge of war in general”. One of the dance-protest participants said: “You know you want to do something. You become like an antenna for an idea, and an antenna for a value system. … It’s saying, ‘Hey, let’s think, let’s move, let’s consider.’ It’s a lot about tapping into basic human things like compassion and memory”.

The plight-protest-project was conceptualized by New Yorker Miguel Gutierrez. Miguel described it as an “endurance-based action”. “It was either art, depending on your view of such things, or a political protest, or both.” The idea was of having dancers around the country to “make a social-justice statement for the new year by wearing blindfolds and earplugs, denying themselves food and letting the world watch their improvisational performances via the Internet.”

In 2008, a group of persons gathered at the Jefferson Memorial to dance in silence. They were dispersed and one woman was arrested on misdemeanor charges. A year later, a judge affirmed a ban on dancing at the memorial, “in order to maintain an atmosphere of calm, tranquility, and reverence.” The charge against the arrested was demonstrating without a permit.

Reports across the internet inform, on a late-May afternoon, five protesters were arrested by US Park Police in the Jefferson Memorial for dancing in silence. Titled as “civil danceobedience”, the dancers were there protesting the court decision in early-May that upheld a ban on dancing within the memorial.

Dance Anywhere, an annual, conceptual public art performance, invites people to stop and dance on a specific date and time. By co-opting art into daily public spaces and demonstrating audiences to dance, DA “transforms perceptions of where and how art can occur, demonstrating that art does not need to be exhibited in a gallery, and dance does not need to be performed on a stage.” The initiator, a professional dancer, conceptual artist and printmaker exhibiting nationwide for 30 years, is “committed to changing the world through community service and art.”

DA is an open invitation for people to stop and dance at a specific time around the world. Participants are encouraged to document their experience through photography and video, which is shared on the DA website. In 2010, it was March 26.

DA tries to engage people, many in number, in a global public art performance, to build community and change the world through dance and art, inspire audiences to reconsider art, public space, and community, make art accessible to all by bringing dance to public spaces.

Why do people dance? At certain age, under 16, Dr. Peter Lovatt says, “dancing is for fun.” At other stages, “dance has different meaning and motive, drive and desire.” Dr. Lovatt, principal lecturer in psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and known around the campus as Dr. Dance, found reasons behind dancing is related to age, gender and genetic makeup. He has completed a research into dance, analyzing 13,700 people’s responses to issues related to dancing. Lovatt says: “Some dance because they are told they have to, and it has been used to show strength and fearlessness”. (Guardian, “Why do people dance? And what makes some more confident than others? Dr Dance has the answers”, mid-Dec. 2009)

Many ethnic groups, studies have found, use dance in their regular activities as a way to keep communities and larger population together. Dancing help societies keep younger generations within guidelines. But, dance cannot transcend socioeconomic condition in the society it performs. It reflects the divide that economy imposes on society. Under-classes fail to accept dances of upper-classes. To the under-classes, dances of upper-classes that tell stories of only the upper-classes appear abstract. Dance also turns into tool of the upper-classes to perpetuate their hegemony. Then, people, depending on their level of learning, develop their own domain of dance. Hegemony doesn’t allow people to have their own dance. This leads hegemony to narrow down people’s space for their dancing. That’s done by lengthening people’s working hour, increasing hardship in life, and by making language of dance imperceptible by people.

Dance “may reflect or challenge the social, cultural, even religious traditions and values of their root cultures.” (Michael Crabb, “Why People Dance, Dance & Dancing: Just Doing What Comes Naturally”)

Why do people protest? Science provides the answer. Luxury of arrogance or indulgence with ignorance or denial of undeniable rights produces protest. Is it possible to torpedo the reasons behind protest? It is also science that provides the answer. It is a nay, an emphatic no. Protests look for language within limits of reality. Protest denies power. Protest disobeys authority. But it can’t deny reality. Dance with delicate steps, with complex expressions extends parameter of protests. But it can’t restrain reality. These, dance and protest, live within reality, evolve within reality. Pace and speed of dance and protest depends on reality. That’s its strength.

A Drama In Disarray: G20 Summit In Cannes

2011-11-06T11:35:00.000+06:00

The G20 summit in Cannes has concluded in disarray and without details in “agreements”. Leaders were unable to agree upon financing the IMF to help advanced capitalist countries in distress. No G20 state is willing to participate in the euro zone bailout fund.

However, one “achievement” is there instead of a total failure: interventions in two democracies – Greece and Italy – appeared close to coup although a G20 leader disagreed. So, all should agree with the leader: These are not coups de grace, but a mere attempt to change government or press government to listen to interventionists for the sake of markets. Italy and Greece have been made to submit to creditors’ dictation.

The Cannes Crisis Festival, considered a flop by some commentators, saw little progress on resolving Europe’s debt crisis. The leaders, as Angela Merkel acknowledged, had failed to interest any of the G20 state in investing in a new initiative. From her statement it appeared that China and Russia bargained a bit. Russia and China demand IMF to secure their investments. A strange symptom within a world structured along a NATO-WB-IMF-WTO design.

But Cannes summit has failed to raise market confidence. Stock markets in New York, Frankfurt and Paris initially expressed their reaction by moving down.

The continuing eurozone debt crisis dominated summit had the hope to increase IMF resources by $250bn to more than $1tn. But the hope has not touched this material world. The hope has been kept suspended for G20 finance ministers with the hope to be materialized in next February.

The summit communiqué made commitment to move “more rapidly” towards greater exchange rate flexibility, agreed to give IMF more money, welcomed Italy’s “wisdom” to invite the IMF to monitor its reforms, and called on countries with strong public finances to take steps to boost domestic demand.

“Dark clouds, Ban Ki-moon warned at an event with main stream labor leaders in Cannes, “have gathered once again over the global economy. […M]any people cannot even see the light at the end of a long, long tunnel.” With a similar mood, David Cameron said the crisis was having a “chilling effect” on his country’s economy. He hinted at worse to come, describing this as only “a stage of the global crisis”. The UK leader felt that in the interest of his country the eurozone crisis should be sorted out as rapidly as possible.

For playing down failure to make progress on major issues Nicolas Sarkozy tried to appear as a warrior for the cause of Robin Hood tax. Sarkozy expressed his willingness to “fight to defend Europe and the euro” as he said in a post-summit press conference.

Sarkozy said: We cannot accept the explosion of the euro, which would mean the explosion of Europe. He has assured that the G20 had agreed to boost the IMF. He made a forecast: G20 would agree by February. The French leader denied the demands on Silvio Berlusconi represented almost an IMF coup: “We never wanted to change governments, either in Greece or in Italy. That is not our role; that is not our idea of democracy.” However, he said that George Papandreou’s decision not to tell fellow EU leaders about plans to hold a referendum was “shocking”. Barack Obama reminded Greek and Italian parliaments to take decisive action. The US leader praised increased scrutiny of Italy as a step in the right direction.

The summit deliberations showed Britain’s inability to take burden. Cameron admitted that the G20 summit had failed to resolve the eurozone debt crisis. He went on: “I’m not going to pretend all of the problems in the eurozone have been fixed, they haven’t.” Cameron feels, “[t]he problem is that not all of the details... have been put in place.” He assured British taxpayers that increasing UK contributions to the IMF would not put their “money at risk”, and the money would not support a eurozone bailout. He revealed a fact: Contributing money to support the IMF was, as a trading nation, “in our interests”. He also suggested that the issue of increasing contribution to the IMF would not be put on a vote in the Commons. It appears that UK capital does not have interest in euro bail out, but in expansion of global business.

The Greek drama annoyed the Cannes festival as Papandreou announced to hold a referendum on austerity package being pushed through Greece’s throat. The political move panicked markets around the world and the G20 leaders. But dominating capital’s dictation made Papandreou step back. He threw away referendum plan to seek people’s mandate on the austerity plan that includes sell-off of public property. The Papandreou government sought confidence in parliament after alleged horse trading and survived a confidence vote.

Italy with its near-nonexistent growth was an amazing player in the Cannes show. Rome now threatens to carry Europe’s debt crisis up to a level that can fall on the entire earth’s capitalist economy, and make it spin listlessly. Italy’s borrowing rates are rising to the levels that forced the PIG to seek bailout “benevolence” in all its crudeness. With a $2.5 trillion debt Italy has agreed to let the IMF monitor its implementation of austerity program.

But, as a Reuter’s story described, the “fierce pressure from financial markets and European peers” was not a humiliation for Berlusconi as he agreed to have the IMF and the EU monitors. It was reported that Berlusconi “was summoned to a late-night hotel meeting with Merkel, Sarkozy, the IMF director general Christine Lagarde and Obama, where he was instructed to bring Italy under […] IMF surveillance to ensure he implements […] measures, including changes to the labor market, […] the sell-off of state assets.” However, Berlusconi tried to minimize the satiric-political impact of the decision, saying that it had been requested by Italy rather than imposed by world leaders. He boasted: He had invited the IMF to offer advice; he had rejected an offer of IMF funds. He claimed that his country was more solid than France or the UK. “Italian restaurants and vacation spots are always full. Nobody has the sense the country is in a crisis”, said the scandal-ridden Italian leader.

The IMF bosses will audit Italy’s books of accounts to make sure the austerity measures are implemented with brute force. An EC team will also supervise. Moreover, the Media Mughal of Italy with a history of not standing by promises had to make a new promise to European leaders in Cannes, the famous film festival place that sees attractive film figures: a confidence motion within 15 days in Roman Senate. These developments achieved by external and Italian finance elites impacted Italian politics. Desertions from coalition government of Berlusconi have made its life uncertain.

Shall there be horse trading in the country’s political market dominated by the rich? Shall the trade be called democratic distribution of patronage by one of the richest men of Italy? All, from Catholic Church to business, want Berlusconi’s exit. But the democratic warrior knows well that Italy is not Libya. This perception has led him to brush aside the desire of powerful interests. He has already found traitors to the country as he described party rebels. Have ghosts of fallen dictators overshadowed the character of Italian comedy in a Roman Holiday? However, there are all the possibilities of Berlusconi’s Mubarak Moment.

The world now is a bit different whatever the Italian leader claims. The IMF bosses do not only dictate the poor in the South. They are now showing muscles in advanced capitalist countries. Now, after Greek Tragedy and Italy Incident, the ruling elites, many of them are pure robbers and plunderers, of IMF-dictated-poor countries should get “rid” of sense of shame. The founding fathers of the Bretton Woods institutions had not imagined that one day in future their institutions designed to subdue the poor world would discipline advanced capitalist countries. Even, Marx had not imagined. Has something rotten down in the core of capitalism? The IMF is disciplining Ireland, Portugal and Greece, “dignified” capitalist countries not “shameless” like the poor countries.

Russia made a major advance in the summit as the country will be allowed into the WTO, “the biggest step in world trade liberalization since China joined a decade ago.” The step will have implication on present major players in the world trade club. China’s increasing power was evident in the summit as the country resisted calls to allow its currency to appreciate. It now appears that these two countries are making their voices heard in the gathering of the powerful and aspiring-powerful.

The disarrayed drama, the unwillingness to fund IMF, the flexing of power reaching close to coup in advanced capitalist countries, the humiliations, etc. raise a few fundamental questions related to capitalist world system that was in euphoria with a brute onslaught named globalization a few years back.

November 2: General Strike In Oakland

2011-10-31T11:41:00.000+06:00

Oakland is going to observe a general strike on November 2. The strike will be “against the growing gap between the rich and everybody else,” said the website of Occupy Oakland. “The whole world is watching Oakland,” OO said in a statement. “Let’s show [the world] what is possible.” The OO announced on its website that it is planning a march to the Port of Oakland, the US’ fifth busiest, to “shut it down.” New agency reported that tens of thousands of people are expected to participate in the general strike. It was also reported that organized labor will extend support. These are signs of growing discontent.

The decision for city-wide general strike was passed by Occupy Oakland General Assembly by a 96.9% majority. The OO has urged other groups nationwide to organize similar events.

The OO statement said: “We […] propose that on […] November 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1%. We propose a city wide general strike.” Now, Oakland is getting prepared for a general strike that in 1946 also observed a general strike

The OO has invited all students to walk out of school. “Instead of workers going to work […] the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city.” The statement said: “All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them.”

The OO has also called on people “for much more. People who organize out of their neighborhoods, schools, community organizations, affinity groups, workplaces and families are encouraged to self organize in a way that allows them to participate in shutting down the city in whatever manner they are comfortable with and capable of.” On November 2, marches have been planned at 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m., so that as many people as possible can participate.

The decision for the general strike came out as a result of an incident related to Scott Olsen, 24, former Marine and Iraq War veteran. Olsen sustained a skull fracture after being shot in the head on October 25 with a police projectile while peacefully participating in an Occupy Oakland protest. The images of Olsen standing peacefully in the Oakland protest frontline, next to a Navy vet holding a “Veterans for Peace” flag, and the images from moments later of Olsen lying on the ground wounded have shocked all. The atrocity sparked anger leading to a call for the general strike. Olsen has become a rallying cry for the USwide Occupy movement.

Olsen served two tours of duty in Iraq before being discharged in 2010. After leaving the Marines, he was working as a system administrator for a software firm. He joined the Oakland protests with members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group raising issues of homelessness and unemployment among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. “It’s ironic that days after Obama’s announcement of the end of the Iraq War, Scott faced a veritable war zone in the streets of Oakland […]”, The IVAW said in a statement.

John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Capital Times writes: “We Are All Scott Olsen!” was the message of solidarity vigils, rallies and marches held in cities across the US and around the world in answer to a call from IVAW and Occupy Oakland for recognizing Olsen. Thousands attended a candlelight vigil in Oakland. In Las Vegas, an image of Olsen was projected at the site of the Occupy encampment. In New York, Occupy Wall Street activist took to the streets chanting “New York is Oakland, Oakland is New York.” In London, images of Olsen were displayed at gatherings. The buzz about the wounding of the veteran was everywhere, and was best summed up by activist protesting at Wisconsin’s state Capitol with Olsen in February. It read: “He could be any one of us.” (The Nation, Oct. 28, 2011)

The Oakland Occupy protests that began October 11 have witnessed more than 100 arrests and a violent confrontation last week between protesters and police. According to press reports, the conflict came after police dismantled the protesters’ camp for more than two weeks. Police fired tear gas over a three-hour period clearing out the camp on October 25.

Only Oakland is not experiencing steps by authorities. Steps against the protesters are being escalated as people are protesting in US cities. On October 30, about 30 anti-Wall Street protesters were arrested in Portland, Ore., after they refused to leave a park. Later they have been freed. In Nashville, demonstrators raised slogans in defiance of an official curfew: “Whose plaza? Our plaza.” State troopers began enforcing the curfew on October 27 night, three weeks after protests began. In Phoenix, a Councilman suggested charging demonstrators the costs of the city in overtime for police, and others since the protests began October 14. The cost was calculated: $204,162. Probably, it is the fee for protest in a democracy!

The issue of cost is not sarcasm with democratic rights, but the real face of a democracy that spends trillions of dollars to help its absolute minority, the finance-elites, and fails to help the suffering millions, the absolute majority. This has plainly been told by Monthly Review editor John Bellamy Foster in his speech in Occupy Eugene rally on October 15, 2011: “US society has become fundamentally unequal.”

In this society, John B Foster said, “between 1950 and 1970, for every additional dollar made by those in the bottom 90 percent of income earners, those in the top one hundredth of one percent received $162 dollars. But that was back when things were more equal! Between 1990 and 2002 for every added dollar made by those in the bottom 90 percent of the population, those in the top one hundredth of one percent made an additional $18,000. […] In the United States 400 individuals […] own as much wealth as the bottom half of the US population, some 150 million people. […] The top 1 percent of the population in the United States owns four times as much financial wealth (excluding houses) as the bottom 80 percent of the population. […W]e live in a plutocracy rather than a democracy, where money outvotes public opinion at every point in the political process. […U]nions are on the defensive in this country. [T]hey have been smashed by unfair legislation. [T]hey are struggling to find a way to fight back. […E]lementary and secondary education system in the United States is being privatized and destroyed. […A]ll of this is related to the system of economic power, to a society that believes in the Wall Street principle, “greed is good,” the signature of capitalism.” (“Why We Occupy, What We Know”)

The worldwide monopoly-finance capital’s tricks are many, and it has to depend on its political machine. Attempts are made to avoid public scrutiny, which expose the real face of democracy and accountability. Actual amount of bail out is much more than the widely cited amount. Citing an audit by the US General Accounting Office, John Bellamy Foster said, the Fed provided more than $16 trillion in financial assistance in the latest financial crisis to the largest corporations in the US and the world. “The rich were bailed out while the majority of the population was made to pay the cost! And we are still paying!”, he said.

The present financial crisis that has built up the background of today’s occupy movement should be understood in proper perspective. The crisis has not cropped up from housing bubble, etc. that are widely being mentioned. Rather it is a terminal stagnation in the economy that Paul Sweezy and his fellow-travelers told decades back. Pointing out this Foster said: “[T]here is no real economic recovery; […] we are in a period of economic stagnation, where only the rich are prospering. That economic growth in the United States has been slowing down in each successive decade since the 1960s and is now virtually stagnant.”

Today’s worldwide movement has the painful experience of blood and tears, an inevitable output of imperialism. The Monthly Review editor said: “United States and its allies have been engaged recently in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. […A]n intervention is being planned for Iran, and possibly Venezuela. […US] military bases dot the entire globe and are increasing in numbers. […US] spends around a half a billion dollars officially on the military each year, and in reality a trillion dollars a year.”

Today’s worldwide Occupy Movement is historically significant in this world of seven billion people. “We know that we are the necessary, last defense of humanity. That we are the world’s 99%. That we will not ‘thin out’ when the weather gets bad. That we are not a mob. That we are the earth, we are democracy, we are the future. The world has been occupied too long by a tiny minority. It is time for the people to reoccupy it. To take it back”, Foster said. [Emphasis added.]

Resistance and revolts in societies have respective trajectories determined by historical and socioeconomic condition. “[…A] Great Revolt from Below was likely in the United States today, given a deep and lasting economic stagnation. But that we might have to wait three or four years, just as in the great depression, for it to get off the ground, and for the people to ignite. That, just as in the Great Depression, the revolt would not materialize until people had learned that the promise of economic recovery was false, that they had been lied to and systematically robbed. Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Eugene, Occupy the United States is the Great Revolt from Below in our time. […] Everywhere people are uniting in struggle”, said the Monthly Review editor.

Today’s movement in the US is significant. “The reason is that we in the United States live in ‘Fortress America’, the heart of a world empire. Revolts are not supposed to happen here! If a break in the wall appears, if massive protests occur, here, ‘Inside the Monster’, as José Martí called it, the whole world is suddenly uplifted and encouraged to resist. Because then they know that the empire is crumbling. Our struggles here are opening up space for resistance for all the people of the world”, John Belly Foster said.

But, it should not be expected that these public protests and the general strike are the US’ Tahrir Time. Still a critical mass of labor, and, broadly, people are in the waiting. Without their active participation the Tahrir Time will not touch ground. A general strike, part of democracy people can practice, turns political, broadly and specifically. A general strike for political rights, and based on democratic principles trains people with politics. It facilitates activate passive part of populace, and raises essential and functional political questions, which are essential parts to move forward. The plebeians’ general strikes, secessio plebis, ultimately made the patrician creditors bow down – adoptions of the Twelve Tables and the Lex Hortensia. But, it took more than two hundred years in Rome.

The Opaque Brussels Deal Shows Germany’s Upper Hand

2011-10-30T23:49:00.000+06:00

German capital’s bold face and private bankers’ negotiating power are evident in the Brussels deal the euro-leaders have made on October 27. The summit made Italy, the “brave” warrior in Libya, a caricature while the UK, the Empire’s faithful friend, stood on the sideline. The deal now keeps hope on China. There are yet knots to untie, and the task has been kept for future that signals significant changes on the world stage.

The deal, essentially with private bankers, came out after long wrangling as the power game was with the private creditors. The summit had to negotiate with interests of private banks, represented by the Institute of International Finance (IIF). The EU communiqué sets out a 10-point program for an inner EU institution. Policing of euro is preferred by the euro-leaders, and a police baton will be carried by the EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner. Capital needs disciplining. It cannot always free wheel.

Despite vague in detail the deal is not totally empty. It made the French president feel a sense of relief. “If there was no accord […],” Nicolas Sarkozy said, “it’s not just Europe that would face catastrophe, but the whole world.” Now the leaders are keeping hope on investment by China, Russia and Japan.

But the leaders failed to succeed in making a comprehensive package they were trying for. Two of the key elements of the deal are the recapitalization of European banks, and leveraging the EFSF, increasing its potential available capital to about $1.4 trillion. They hope that it will be capable of financing big countries like Spain and Italy.
Cutting down sovereignty of Greece and Italy is one of the achievements of the summit. Bosses will now check all tax and spending decisions, and ensure implementation of austerity plans in Greece. Athens will be virtually controlled by Brussels bureaucrats, as Rome by Berlin.

Private creditors hold about two-third of Greek debt, which is 360bn euro in total. The leaders have banked on voluntary commitment of private banks. They hope that the private creditors will write off Greece’s 50% of debt, and this act of mercy will reduce the mauled country’s debt to 120% of its annual income, down from the present 180%.
A ray of hope is there for the tormented country: additional financial help from the IMF and the EU. This benevolence will enable Greece to pay its bills until 2014.
The Greek tragedy heroes are now going to land on heavily indebted and slowly growing Italian capital’s domain with its diminishing sovereignty. Italy with $2.6 trillion in sovereign debt outstanding, the fourth-largest debt in the world after the US, Japan and Germany, will now be dictated. Rome will be assigned to carry out this job and that task within a time frame. This is the democratic face of global capital that knows no frontier. It’s capital’s bold, but tragic journey.

Italy’s Libya expedition friends, France and Germany, pressured Rome. Italy publicly turned a caricature. Later, Berlusconi assured in an interview that Merkel had apologized to him, but immediately after, in a statement the German government denied the Italian leader’s assertion that made the Italian comedy much more laughable.
Italy has agreed to reduce its debt level over the next three years from a current level of 120% to 113% of GDP. Rome will also increase retirement age from 65 to 67. In August, Berlusconi promised ambitious reforms to get the ECB to buy Italian debt. But he failed to accomplish any of those.

Berlusconi, who, by his count, has survived 577 police interrogations and 2,500 court appearances related to political and saucy scandals, again had to make pledge to the EU, actually to Angela Merkel and Sarkozy. Probably it was not befitting for a powerful player in the NATO’s Libya Conquer play. After all, the Italian prime minister was close ally of the French power in the expedition, and as a genuine NATO warrior he boldly disregarded calls for help from his former friend Gaddafi. The Italian warrior, however, had no other way but to agree to the pressure mounted on him by the two European powers as French banks have the biggest exposure to Italian sovereign debt, more than $500 billion, and Italy is too big to bail out.

After “sweet” encounter with French and German friends, the billionaire prime minister of Italy will have to face Italian labor now. That will not be an easy game not only for Berlusconi, but also for the entire Italian fuel thirsty elite. Italy’s labor unions are angry with the Italian leader’s pledge. The Roman elites have now pledged to their European friends, philosophers and guides – the German and the French – to allow capital to put burden on shoulder of labor, make cutting down of labor easier for capital. Promise has been made to legalize the drive against labor by next May. The sovereign savior of capital has also pledged to sale assets, public assets. The Italian labor will now find no other way but to respond boldly and widely. A number of lawmakers from Berlusconi’s coalition have signed a letter asking him to stand down.

With one of the worst interest rates among eurozone members and sitting at the top of a list of defaulters Italy’s, the world’s eighth-largest economy, debt rating has recently been down graded by Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s. They have warned of more in future.

Europe now seeks help from China as the Brussels Deal expressed its desire. The continent hopes that the emerging giant will contribute to Europe’s Special Purpose Investment Vehicle, one of the two proposed ways of increasing the firepower of the EFSF. But there are unresolved problems.

There is the already-known opposite pulls. Germany will not allow the ECB to provide unlimited funds in case of a domino effect from the Greek write down impacting Italy or Spain. France likes the ECB to provide the ultimate backstop so that investors are assured that no eurozone country would bust. The opposite views have respective deep interests.

The Brussels deal is the German chancellor’s success story. Merkel dreams of revision of the union treaties and imposition of German political discipline on the Greek public sector. Then, shall that be on a wider domain? She is now competing with Sarkozy for dominant position. The Deal made it clear that France has been forced to give up a few of its position it clutched for the last few months. Germany seems got upper hand. It is competition of fragmented capital united in its global expedition.

There are significant questions related to China’s investment in Europe, and Germany’s bold face. Already, the debt crisis has taken character of political problem with roots deep in areas of capital and society.

Toward Sino-Russian Comprehensive Strategic Relationship

2011-10-14T18:25:00.000+06:00

Russia and China are in a chorusafter their recent Libya experience. The old foes turned friends are movingtoward, as Chinese president Hu Jintao said, a “comprehensive strategicrelationship.” Putin, the Russian leader, found no problem “in the politicaland humanitarian fields at all.”

Putin is not happy with the US. The former KGB boss with thedream of a new empire tried to make a sweeping stroke at US monetary policy,but the Empire. Was that a tactical restrain? To him, dollar’s dominance isparasitic. “The US is not a parasite for the world economy, but the US dollar’smonopoly is a parasite”, Putin said in an interview with Chinese state media.

Almost at the same time, as an initial response to the CurrencyExchange Rate Oversight Act that the US Senate passed, and that till nowverbally threatens to punish China for undervaluing its currency, Chinacondemned the US.

The condemnation, essentially a political reaction, shows thatChina now stands for free trade, stands for WTO, an essential arrangement foralmost global capital. Capital in its voyages to expansion required “free”trade. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said: The bill is essentiallytrade protectionism, a serious violation of WTO rules. The Chinese commerceministry and the People’s Bank of China had no reason to react differently.With a $273bn trade surplus with the US in 2010 China warned of triggering atrade war. Beijing will retaliate in case the bill turns into a law by taxingUS multinationals in China.

China, however, still prefers to avoid confrontation with theUS. The Chinese leadership’s choice is a win-win situation. The capital there,not entirely Chinese, still needs time and space. The Chinese, the former Maofollowers, now, like to depoliticize economy. The Chinese foreign ministryspokesperson said: “We should […] resist politicization of economic and tradeissues, and safeguard the healthy development of Sino-US relations.” A dreamindeed! Economic and trade issues in modern world is fully politicized.

Led by conservatives and Democratic liberals the US bill withthin possibility of turning into a law is actually a political tact, targetingown electorate, on the part of a section of the US capital. Another sectiondislikes even the tact. Echoing the section, Economics professor at Long IslandUniversity Panos Mourdoukoutas wrote in Forbes: Major US multinationals with alarge presence in China will be particularly vulnerable.

Many multinational companies oppose the US legislativeinitiative, which is still now a political posture. John Boehner, the HouseSpeaker, also dislikes the legislation. To him, the legislative action is likedictating another country. He apprehends that dictating another country’scurrency policies would be dangerous. House Republican leaders agree with manybusiness groups that action against China could result in a trade war. TheObama government prefers diplomacy instead of the legislation that mightviolate international trade rules. Critics warn that it will provoke Chineseretaliation and hurt Americans in one of their fastest-growing markets.

Capital in the US is in a multidimensional problem with itself.It is failing to create jobs in home. But the jobless rate is a threat to itspolitics. It cannot hurt its part in home. It has to make the part competitive.It cannot also hurt its other part operating from the soil of China using cheapChina labor. That part, not totally “communist” capital, has to be keptprofitable. That part needs the US market. Even, cheaper commodities from“friendly” capitals will enter the US market and engage into competition ifChinese commodities are pushed away with the power of legislation. Market isreally difficult! “Free” market is much more! Profit reigns there. This compelscapital to dictate market for making market “free”. It is capital’sdictatorship, not even capital’s democracy. It is dictatorship of a free,democratic capital.

This Sino-US trade tension provided a partial background to Putin’s Chinavisit, an annual diplomatic ritual. The diplomatic act commemorated the 10thanniversary of Russia-China treaty of “Good-Neighborliness, Friendship andCooperation”.

China-Russia strategic partnership is passing a decade and ahalf. Now, China, as premier Wen Jiabao told reporters after meeting Putin,wanted to strengthen the strategic partnership into a comprehensive strategicpartnership. The process was initiated months ago. In June 2011, Hu andMedvedev, the Russian president, confirmed the strategic goal while the Chinesepresident was visiting Russia: comprehensive strategic partnership.

Putin has an imperial target in view – Eurasian Union – that heunveiled in an article in Izvestia, the Moscow daily, about a week ago. Hisdreamed Eurasian Union, a counterweight to the EU and the US, will be aconfederation of former Soviet republics. He has proposed for “creating apowerful supra-national union capable of becoming a pole in the modern world,and at the same time an effective bridge between Europe and the dynamicAsia-Pacific Region”.

Russia’s learning with the EU and NATO close-ship is not ahappy one. NATO troops are training at the Russian border, in Georgia. It’sNATO’s first military training center in the Caucasus. With a vigorous postureFrance is trying to take an active role in the area. Ukraine and Georgia aremoving closer to NATO. A chain of NATO missile defense systems stretches alongthe Russian border, from Turkey through Romania and Poland to Norway. The USand Romania signed an agreement on deployment of US missile defense system by2015 at a Romanian Air Force Base. A few hundred US military personnel will bestationed there also. A few elements of EUROPRO system will be installed inTurkey. Everything indicates that the US military machine and NATO areencircling Russia.

The East appears brighter to Russia. The country likes to builda pipeline through North Korea to South Korea.

Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, and China, theworld’s top energy consumer, are expanding cooperation in areas of energy andmilitary technology. The former rivals, and now occasional partners indiplomacy, have already resolved their boundary conflict. They have held a numberof joint military exercises over the years. They are in BRICS and the SCO,emerging counterweights to NATO.

Replacing Germany China became Russia’s top trading partner in2010 with commercial turnover of $59 bn. This year, it may exceed $70 bn. Thepartners want to increase trade to $100 bn by 2015 and to $200 bn in 2020.Immediately before Putin’s arrival in China the two countries made 16 economicand trade deals worth over $7 bn that include China’s investment of $1.5 bn ina Siberian aluminum smelter and $1 bn into a joint investment fund.

Russia wants more Chinese investment. The energy giant begansupplying oil to China through the 1,000 km Skovorodino-Daqing pipeline onJanuary 1, 2011 boosting China’s energy security and entering a reliable energymarket.

These deals, partnership, will impact regions. Russia and Chinawill not be lone actors in these regions. Ruling elites in the region havevarying types of relations with geopolitical giants. South Asia will not be afar away idyllic place.

Army General Nikolay Makarov, Russia’s chief of general staff,a few weeks ago said: Russia’s military must be ready to the worst possiblescenarios as the political situation in the world is taking complicated andunexpected turns. At a Moscow press conference Makarov said: The worldsituation especially in North Africa and the Middle East is constantlychanging. “What happened in these regions was difficult to predict and theevents developed at a tremendous speed. No one can tell now what will happenthere. However, this is a signal for all states. We, the military, must beready for the worst scenarios”, said the Russian general.

Pawns and lackeys in the Third and Fourth Worlds will, iftricky enough, find opportunities to have a better prize from masters in thisincreasing rivalry. Faction(s) of ruling classes in these societies will enterinto deals with the geopolitical actors. A few of them may have scope, at leasttemporarily, to withstand masters’ pressures. In turn, masters will find outtrusted lackeys to replace disobedient friends. Lackeys will appear on stagewith masks of civility, democracy, poverty alleviation, etc. only to ensuremasters’ interests. Political strife and upheaval in some of these societies isin the waiting. Countries in south-east and south Asia are vulnerable to thischanging balance of power.

Gradually increasing competition for market and source of rawmaterials leading to rivalry will influence democratic movement in Third andFourth World societies. Identifying friend and foe in democratic struggle,struggle for building up a peaceful, happy life, will turn into a complex job.An informed and aware people make the task easy that can also thwart design toinstall new pawn.

It’s Now, Occupy World Wide

2011-10-10T18:23:00.000+06:00

Across oceans and covering continentspeople around the world are struggling. There are protest marches,demonstrations, occupations. It’s now global, a globalization of struggle fordemocracy, for a decent life. It is One Earth One Humanity One Loved, as aplacard in the Occupy Wall Street Movement announces.

It stands opposed to capital’s globalization that is going forcenturies but that has failed to make this world livable. All around the globe,capitalism, its ideology and political systems in all variations are beingquestioned, criticized, condemned, and rejected. Even, political leaders cannotnow ignore the broad message people are trying to articulate in their own ways.The leaders have to admit, even as tact to win over electorate, the rightfulclaims made by people.

Even, main stream media cannot now ignore the people’sstruggles, sometimes sporadic, isolated, unorganized and immature, sometimeslacking clear vision, and sometimes lacking mooring in proper perspective andpolitics. But all are great, great in terms of goals, dreams and aspirations,great in terms of common journey. They, collectively, own a power, a power thatis exerting pressure on status quo. Status quo, its politics and politicians,its arrangements and facades, its tricks and theatrical moves, its demagoguesand democracy, is feeling existence of the movement, and is getting exposed.Its recent pronouncements and practices revel these.

Struggles appearing small and insignificant carry promises oflofty goal: a peaceful, mutually tolerant, decent life free from greed. Thestruggles, small and smaller, big and bigger, are, as a whole, creating forcefor gaining momentum for bringing in change in this planet, for a livable,beautiful planet.

Now, the facts:

Barack Obama, told reporters: “I think people are frustratedand [...] the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustrationabout how our financial system works.”

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has spoken out in support ofthe Occupy Wall Street movement. She said on ABC’s “This Week”: “I support themessage to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the politicalestablishment and the rest, that change has to happen”, Pelosi said. “We cannotcontinue in a way that is not relevant to their lives.” She added that the bankbailout has fuelled animosity towards Wall Street as the benefits have not beenfelt by ordinary Americans. “The thought was that when we did that [pass thebailout], there would be capital available and Main Street would benefit fromthe resources that went largely to Wall Street”, said Pelosi. “That didn’thappen. People are angry.”

Eric Cantor, House Majority leader, a top Republican, referredto the OWS movement participants “growing mobs” that are trying to divide thecountry.

Two Republican presidential candidates accused the protestersof carrying out “class warfare”.

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain told CBS’ “Face theNation” that the protests are designed to draw away attention from PresidentObama and labeled them “anti-American”. “The proof is quite simply the bankersand the people on Wall Street didn’t write these failed policies of the Obamaadministration,” he said. “They didn’t spend a trillion dollars that didn’twork. The administration and the Democrats spent a trillion dollars.”

Newt Gingrich, another Presidential candidate, told CBS that heagreed that the protests are “a natural product of Obama’s class warfare.” “Wehave had a strain of hostility to free enterprise. And frankly a strain ofhostility to classic America starting in our academic institutions andspreading across this country.”

Michael Bloomberg, New York mayor, said the protesters are“trying to destroy jobs of working people in this city.” In his weekly radioaddress, Bloomberg said: “They’re trying to take away the tax base we have,because none of this is good for tourism.” “If the jobs they’re trying to getrid of in the city - the people that work in finance, which is a big part ofour economy - go away, we’re not going to have any money to pay our municipalemployees or clean the parks or anything else”, he said.

Richard Fisher, Dallas Fed president said: “I am somewhatsympathetic - that will shock you. We have too many people out of work for toolong. We have a very frustrated people, and I can understand theirfrustration.”

Michael Neal, head of GE Capital, the finance arm of GeneralElectric Co, said that he was sympathetic to the OWS movement. “If I wereunemployed now, I’d be really angry too. There are a lot of unhappy peopleright now and there’s not a lot going on that gives you much reason to beinspired”, said Neal.

The pronouncements/observations tell respectiveeconomic-political position. But, the fact is: at least for now, and till arightist onslaught begins, it is not possible to ignore people’s aspiration andindignation. All and everyone have to reveal respective position in terms ofcapital and classes. One of the gains the movements have made: expose statusquo, its limits, status quo cannot maintain its silence.

Depending on social reality and equation of social forces,similar movements are moving with own pace. News headlines from main streamtell: “Wall Street protests hit 70 US cities”, “Wall Street protest movementspreads to cities across US, Canada and Europe”. Similar many are there. Themovement organizers claimed: In the US and around the world, there are now1,257 Occupy Together communities.

Other than these Occupy Together communities, instruggle/occupation, in the phase of preparation, in solidarity, there areoccupations going on, functionally and effectively, challenging neo-liberalpolicy and politics. Following are a few, very recent:

Brussels

AFP reported: Hundreds of ‘Indignants’ from France, theNetherlands and Spain set up camp in Elisabeth Park in Brussels on October 8 toprotest EU-ordered austerity measures. Belgian protesters joined them. Defyinga ban and rain they pitched tents. The protesters have walked, some for months,from as far as Spain’s Atlantic coast. They plan to hold an alternativeparliament in the park in October 8-15. The protesters informed: police havebeen deployed around the park with dog handlers, mounted police and a bus formass arrests. The authorities had banned the group from setting up camp thereas the park had no running water. The local mayor suggested the protesters tomove into a Flanders University empty building. The EU leaders will meet in asummit, dominated by the continent’s debt crisis, on October 17-18.(“Anti-Austerity ‘Indignants’ Occupy Brussels Park”, Oct. 9, 2011)

London

The Guardian/UK reported: More than 2,000 people staged proteston Westminster Bridge in central London on October 9 to highlight the healthand social care bill. Unfurling banners reading “Save our NHS” the protestersdressed up as medics sat down and blocked the bridge. Hundreds of police lookedon. UK Uncut, the anti-cuts group that organized the Block the Bridge, Blockthe Bill demonstration, said: “Today has brought together doctors, nurses,parents, students, unions, pensioners and children together in an unprecedentedact of mass civil disobedience. We are occupying the bridge because the billwould be bad for the NHS, bad for patients and bad for society.” The protestdrew support from people across the UK. Sam, a therapy radiographer fromLondon, said: “The NHS is the greatest invention in this country's history,providing universal healthcare for all. If it is sold to private companies thiswill no longer be the case.” Susan Secher, 53, a human resources manager fromLondon said: “…the bill is being pushed through and this is our last chance tostop it and people are becoming desperate.” Janet Bennett, a pensioner who hadtraveled down from Liverpool said: “The NHS is so important to people in this countryand we need to stand up and protect it from this creeping privatization, andthis is why I am here today.” The bill is due to go before the House of Lordsthis week. (Matthew Taylor, “Protesters Against NHS Privatization OccupyWestminster Bridge”, Oct. 9, 2011)

Chile

From Santiago the Guardian/UK reported: In late May, came the“Chilean Winter”, a national student uprising seizing control of the politicalagenda and taking over of public educational institutions. Now, about 200 stateelementary and high schools and a dozen universities are being occupied bystudents in Chile. Weekly protest marches throughout the country find50,000-100,000 students on average. There are protest marches by thousands ofstudents in Santiago. Recently, downtown Santiago saw protesting youth, teargas, and arrest of more than hundred students.

One of the occupied schools is the Carmela Carvajal primary andsecondary school, Chile’s one of the most successful state schools. Dozens ofgirl students of the school, the country’s most prestigious girl’s school, areliving a revolution since May. They held a vote after taking over the school toapprove the takeover. About half of the 1,800 students participated in thepolls. The yays outnumbered the nays 10 to one. The five-month occupation showsno signs of dying.

They are still fighting for their goal: free universityeducation for all. The student-occupied school is a wired reality of ageneration that boasts the communication tools that feisty young rebels ofhistory never dreamed of. When police forces come closer, the students useFacebook chat sessions to mobilize. Within minutes, they rally support groupsfrom other public schools in the neighborhood. “Our lawyer lives over there”,said Angelica Alvarez, 14, as she pointed to a cluster of nearby homes. “If weyell ‘Mauricio’ really loud, he leaves his home and comes over.”

Sleeping on a tiled classroom floor and using classroom chairsto barricade themselves they are always on the lookout for police raids.Authorities have repeatedly attempted to retake the school, police were sent toevict the rebel students, but so far the students have held their ground.Police took back the school 10 times. But every time the students occupied itback.

Guest lecturers provide free classes on topics ranging from economics toastronomy. Extracurricular classes are there. Rock bands perform on weekends.Neighbors donate foods. So much food is donated that the Carmela Carvajalstudents regularly pass on those to hungry students at other occupied schools.

The students vote on all issues including daily duties,housekeeping schedules and the election of a president and spokeswoman. Theschool rules now include several new decrees: no sex, no boys and no booze. Afew students tried to bring in alcohol, but they were caught and punished. Aspunishment they had to clean the bathrooms.

Politicians and many parents fret that 2011 is “a lost year”for public education. But for many of the students the past five months hasbeen the most intensive education of their life.

The students are demanding a return to the 1960s’ free publicuniversity education, and education be recognized as a common right for all,not a “consumer good” to be sold on the open market. Current tuition feesaverage nearly three times the minimum annual wage, and with interest rates onstudent loans at 7%. Now, Chile’s many schools are for-profit institutions, runas businesses. A leading newspaper regularly featured advertisements of schoolsfor sale that often described the institutions as highly profitableinvestments. This pushed students demand financial reform, a centerpiece oftheir uprising. Initially, the students’ demands were flatly rejected by theconservative government of president Pinera. But, now, the government is movingtowards meeting students’ demands.

The students’ unified front is supported by an estimated 6 of10 adults in Chile, far higher than the country’s political coalitions orPresident Pinera. (“Chilean Girls Stage ‘Occupation’ of Their Own School in EducationRights Protest”, Oct. 8, 2011)

Greece

In Greece, demonstrators are blocking government agencies andclashing with government thugs amid plumes of tear gas. Workers and employeesare staging job actions. Almost everyday a sector is on strike. Demonstrationsbecome more massive and more organized. “[C]lass oriented trade unions andanti-monopoly coalitions of the self employed take up initiatives, throughmeetings at the work places, at neighborhoods…” Students move on to hugedemonstrations. In a correspondence with In These Times, George Pontikos of theAll Workers Militant Front (PAME), described a steady escalation of militancyacross a growing swath of Greek society. (“While Wall Street Quakes, Greece’sFire Still Burns Bright”, In These Times, Oct. 7, 2011)

A few days back, a group of students occupied a TV station inGreece. A number of campuses are being occupied by students also.

MSM

Main stream media initially tried to ignore the movement. Butit failed. That’s because of power of society, which MSM always tries tomanipulate. MSM’s change in tone or posture signals a number of aspects. Now,section of MSM speaks, with its own tone that safeguards its interests, infavor of people’s aspirations and questions section of capital.

In an editorial the New York Times said: “As the Occupy Wall Street protestsspread […] the chattering classes keep complaining that the marchers lack aclear message and specific policy prescriptions. The message — and thesolutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since theeconomy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while therich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington hasbeen listening.”

Further indicating the non-responsive political system, theeditorial said: “It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation.That’s the job of the […] leaders, and if they had been doing it […] theremight not be a need for these marches and rallies.”

It said, as the leaders have not performed “the public airingof grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself.”

Citing the Occupy Wall Street protest as “more than a youthuprising” and “the first line of defense against a return to the Wall Streetways that plunged the nation into an economic crisis from which it has yet toemerge” the editorial said: “[P]rotest is the message […] the protesters […]are giving voice to a generation of lost opportunity. […]”

Mentioning collusion between financial sector, regulators andelected officials, it said: “The protests […] are exactly right”.

Citing profiteering from credit bubble, and consequently lossof jobs, incomes, savings and home equity costing millions of Americans theeditorial said: “As the bad times have endured, Americans have also lost theirbelief in redress and recovery.”

The NYT editorial mentioned that bailouts and “electedofficials’ hunger for campaign cash from Wall Street,” have increased “[t]heinitial outrage”. Terming combination of these two as “toxic”, the editorial said:the “combination […] has reaffirmed the economic and political power of banksand bankers, while ordinary Americans suffer.”

“Extreme inequality”, it said, “is the hallmark of adysfunctional economy, dominated by a financial sector that is driven as muchby speculation, gouging and government backing as by productive investment.”

It mentioned “concentration of income in today’s deeply unequalsociety”, resurgence of inequality, corporate profits reaching to “highestlevel as a share of the economy since 1950, while worker pay as a share of theeconomy is at its lowest point since the mid-1950s”, decline of real income ofworking-age households.

Referring to research the editorial said: “[S]uch extremeinequality correlates to a host of ills, including lower levels of educationalattainment, poorer health and less public investment. It also skews politicalpower, because policy almost invariably reflects the views of upper-incomeAmericans versus those of lower-income Americans.”

“No wonder”, the NYT editorial said, “that Occupy Wall Streethas become a magnet for discontent.” As policy goals to address the grievancesof the protesters the editorial mentioned 1. lasting foreclosure relief, 2. afinancial transactions tax, 3. greater legal protection for workers’ rights,and 4. more progressive taxation. The editorial said: “The country needs ashift in the emphasis of public policy from protecting the banks to fosteringfull employment, including public spending for job creation and development ofa strong, long-term strategy to increase domestic manufacturing.” (“ProtestersAgainst Wall Street”, New York Times, Oct. 9, 2011)

MSM in the periphery initially followed its masters: totallyignore the movement, total disregard to the movement. But, now, “things” arechanging. A section of the peripheral MSM, talks in the tone of movementparticipants, questions speculators, criticizes failures of capitalism. It’snot because of only advancement of the movement, but also because of power ofcapitalism’s failure, power of people’s mood, and need of the section to secureit consumers and credibility.

Solidarity from afar

Hugo Chávez has condemned the “horrible repression” ofanti-Wall Street protesters. He expressed solidarity with OWS activists who arestaging rallies and marches against corporate greed. “This movement of popularoutrage is expanding to […] cities […]”, Chávez said at a political meetingshown on state TV. (“Chávez condemns Wall Street protest ‘crackdown’”,guardian.co.uk, Oct. 9, 2011)

Solidarity is there in countries. In countries, people havehope. Materializing hopes takes time, and time teaches through achievements andfailures. This solidarity, this hope makes the movement worldwide.

Cut Down Ratings And The Split In Europe

2011-10-09T18:21:00.000+06:00

With confusing creditworthiness twomore countries and many banks in Europe have “achieved” downgraded ratings overthe last few days. And, there is a split. The Germans and the French have,temporarily, disagreed to agree. For the financial elites, politicalimplication of these pulls and pushes is in the wings. “There is a high riskthat this crisis further escalates and broadens,” Wolfgang Schaeuble, theGerman finance minister warned.

The sovereign debt crisis now burdened with downgraded ratingof Italy and Spain, the third and fourth largest economies in the euro zone,needs financial power of the two European giants, Germany and France, tosalvage it. But the giants were split on the question of salvage approach. Theyhave unity of aspiration in rescuing interest seeking capital. But they differon the rescue path. Ultimately, because of their common interests, they have toagree. They will agree on at least one point: press down people, take awaylabor’s bargaining capacity, appropriate whatever people have.

Belgium, a former colonial plunderer, owns a public sector debtequal to Ireland. The country has been warned of a downgraded rating. France isalso at risk of facing the same reality. If it slips down, a larger problemwill appear: financial support for the PIG would tumble. Fitch said: marketconfidence in Italy had been eroded. Fitch’s rating for Italy is now equal toMalta and Slovakia. The south European state with the largest debts in the eurozone, at 1.9 trillion euros – 120% of GDP, seemed is teetering.

But Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, does notcare about those ratings, it seems. He trusts market, which is now ravagingpeople. A confident Frattini said: “markets don’t care much about the role ofFitch, Moody’s and company.” However, the Spanish economy ministry expressed“respect” to the downgrading decision. It seemed, the political representativesof the financial elites are confused with their tools, domain and approach. Aconfused mind of “confident” capital!

Moody’s has downgraded credit rating of 12 UK financial firms:Lloyds TSB, a division of part-nationalized Lloyds Banking Group,government-controlled RBS, Nationwide Building Society, Co-operative Bank,Santander UK, and the building societies of Newcastle, Norwich &Peterborough, Nottingham, Principality, Skipton, West Bromwich and Yorkshire.Nine Portuguese banks have experienced the same. Simultaneously, French banksare over-exposed to peripheral euro zone debt.

However, the UK chancellor George Osborne is confident in theviability of his country’s banks. He said: “I’m confident that British banksare well capitalized, they are liquid, they are not experiencing the kind ofproblems that some of the banks in the eurozone are experiencing at themoment.” During an interview with Radio 4, Osborne expressed his agreement withthe governor of the Bank of England, who said on October 6 that the world wasfacing its biggest ever financial crisis. Osborne said: “Not only have we facedthe biggest banking crisis of my lifetime and your lifetime, the deepestrecession since the Second World War, but also Britain was at the epicenter ofit.” (guardian.co.uk, Oct. 7, 2011)

But the British leader, it seems, considers that the mighty Britishfinancial firms are immune to capitalist disease as he expressed during theinterview. Probably, he has forgotten that poor Greece is putting pressure onthe rich French and the Germans, and there is capital’s globalization, whichhas made immunity impossible for the big capitals. A Greek default would createcatastrophic consequences for the European and global economy. It will beimpossible for the British finance capital to escape that consequence.

Banks and financial firms, cruel characters appearing comicalat current time, are one of the stakes of the entire system. Capital cannotdream to let these drown. The European banks, as the IMF estimates, need up to200 billion euros. Paris wants to use the EFSF, the euro rescue fund, torecapitalize its own stake. Berlin prefers to use the fund as a last resort.Market appears as the first choice to the Germans. But, market is not behavingin a way that can be perceived by capital rational.

Greece has also made impact on the Belgian-Franco municipal lenderDexia, which is facing the threat of becoming the first major Europeaninstitution to fall victim to the eurozone debt crisis. France and Belgium arearguing over respective taxpayers’ share to salvage it. The two countries planto break up Dexia and provide state guarantees to cover a “bad bank” of assets.To provide state guarantee, they have to use public money, the old, easy escaperoute, which is virtually stealing public money.

Greece standing on the brink of bankruptcy has created abuoyant investment market, for which capital was counting days. Germany havinghigh stake in Greece is now trying to grab a bigger part of the country bytaking the role of advisor there. Already, the German government has voted infavor of a European bailout fund to aid Greece. Germany now has offered itscivil servants and banking experts to Greece with the task of showing salvationpath: cut down red tape, set up a new state bank, formulate laws, attractprivate investment, design project finance, etc. The German consultants willbring salvation!

Crisis brings new opportunity. Germany is looking forinvestment opportunities in Greece. The German economy minister has made a dealduring his Athens visit. He brought with him German industry representativesseeking business in Greece, whose ruling elites have put important chunks ofpublic property on sale. A scramble for Greece will not be surprising. It willbe a competition that capitalizes bankruptcy. Labor with a huge reserve armythere is hard pressed that puts capital in a better bargaining position.

Greece is at a crossroads and will need to implement “muchstricter structural reforms” to avoid default, IMF mission chief to Greece wascited as saying by a German newspaper on October 8. It’s an old, global prescriptionthe bosses prescribe. A “much stricter structural reforms” will press the Greekpeople much strictly, and that is more dispossessions, more hardship, snatchingaway of bargaining capacity of labor.

Capitals still are trying to act jointly, especially as theyface stronger competitors. The heads of the French, German and Italianemployers’ lobbies on October 8 called for stronger European economic andpolitical union. They suggested EU’s only “determined” action. “A diverseEurope, composed of many countries, will only be in a position to maintain itseconomic position and retain its role of political decision-maker in thischanging world if it progresses relentlessly toward a political union,” theheads of France’s MEDEF, Germany’s BDI and Italy’s Cofindustria said in a jointletter. They like to follow this path “to confront the United States, China andemerging economies”, as they said. The business leaders are aspiring to buildbridge of unity on a foundation split by competition at its core.

But for capitals, still there is no way out from crisis. “Thereshould be no confusion about what is happening. These are desperate remediesfor increasingly desperate problems. […] These shifts may be too little and toolate – and millions may still pay the price of that”, said an editorial ofguardian.co.uk (Oct. 7, 2011)

The people in the UK, as people of other countries, are payingthe price. Citing PricewaterhouseCoopers guardian.co.uk informs: Britishworkers going to retire with private pensions will be facing harder days astheir pension incomes are substantially less than three years back. Overallpension incomes are now 30% lower than they were three years ago. (Oct. 8,2011) These facts provided by the main stream cannot be ignored by capital.And, capital cannot ignore the reaction these acts, appropriation at sociallevel, will produce.

Dance With People: A Choreographer's Creation

2011-10-07T18:20:00.000+06:00

People participate in dance. Artistsdance with people. Dance turn people's domain, their way of expression. It isneither the partnered steps of Jive nor the “triple step” movement of Cha Cha.It is Allegory of a Puzzle , a ballet. Cuba , the country having rootsof the dances Tango, Conga and Habanera, has created the artist, who is takingdance among people. He is Narciso.

Narciso Medina, internationally renowned Cuban choreographer,principal dancer, considers dancing not as a performance, but as a space ofcoexistence. Alegoría de un rompecabezas , Allegory of a Puzzle ,a new ballet, has brought Narciso to headlines again. Granma International 'sMireya Castañeda talked to him. Granma International carried theinterview on July 21, 2011 .

Narciso's professional choreographer life began in 1986 withthe classic Metamorfosis , his most outstanding work. Movements,manner, style, language, themes of his creations turned distinct. His danceworkshops are part of the community.

In Alegoría de un rompecabez he puts dancers “on thestage dancing, acting, declaiming, interacting with the public”. He says: It isnot a performance; although there is dancing, a lot of energy, it as a space ofcoexistence. He tries to bring the public and dancers very close, have theminteract, not seek distance. As time passes, dancers and audience sharetogether the process of creation. As proposed by the public a lot of stagingand improvisation are created.

He is now “more uninhibited, more natural, in terms of theperformance, not doing anything technical, elitist, which could make the publicfeel that distancing, but to bring them closer to the dancers.” For that reasonhe changes according to the theme, according to the passion he has to create.

What's dancing for him? “For me”, Narciso says, “it is 24 hoursof the day. In dance and in the choreographies I express all my sentiments.Physically, it makes me feel very good, I disconnect from my problems and enterinto a world which I create while I am dancing, teaching. Dance entered into meand I entered into dance. We have gone about creating a good couple. Dancing isto feel alive. Dancing is an irresistible fever.”

Narciso also creates short stories and poems, but danceensnares him. He has the novel Ojo de la vida and essays including “ Elsuspendido vuelo del ángel creador ”, “The suspended flight of a creativeangel”, on dance, the world of art in a general sense, and a book for teaching,Danza creative , which has been translated into Japanese. It is goingto be published for secondary schools where creative dance is going to be anobligatory subject, and one of the teaching materials will be its text. Thefirst part is Educación sico-corporal para la danza , Psycho-physicaleducation for dance.

Narciso says: Literature and dance are two different languages,but they come together, because one has to work on dramaturgy, history, themes,levels of surprise, characters, different languages, movement. “The writtenword satisfies me at the end of the day, but I have had more of a field indance.”

Narciso (Guantánamo, 1961) graduated from the National Schoolof Art (ENA) in 1981, the year he joined what is now the Danza Contemporánea deCuba company. He stayed there for more than 10 years as solo dancer andprincipal choreographer. With his company founded in 1993 “he has achieved hisown language, mixing with ease diverse styles and trends.” This brought famousinternational prizes and distinctions including a Special Mention at theInternational Choreography Competition in Lausanne and First Prize in the 9thCreative Dance Competition, Saitama , Japan . Cuba has decorated him with theNational Choreography Prize for Metamorfosis in 1986; the NationalJuvenile Choreography Prize for Caverna Mágica in 1987; the NationalChoreography Prize for Un Grano de Oro in 1994; and a prize for Ligerode Equipaje at the 2nd International Choreography and InterpretationCompetition. Framed within a distinct style, Metamorfosis is ladenwith international prizes including one from Maurice Bejart, a celebrity inworld choreography for its presentation in Switzerland .

[ This short piece is entirely based on the interview. ]

Labor Supports The Occupy Wall Street Movement

2011-10-03T18:17:00.000+06:00

Labor is extending support to theOccupy Wall Street Movement. With arrest of hundreds of the protesters andtheir release, the protesters’ uninterrupted brave presence, increasing supportto them from wider society, and spread of the movement to other parts of the USthe Occupy Movement is facilitating widen public space in political life. Thetime, it seems, is vibrant with movements, and democratic spirits andaspiration.

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president said: “Wall Street’s out ofcontrol”. On the Occupy Wall Street Movement he said: “[I]t’s a […] validtactic to call attention to a problem.” (John Nichols, The Nation, Sept. 30,2011) Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers (USW)extended support to the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The USW is North America’slargest industrial union representing workers employed in metals, rubber,chemicals, paper, oil refining, atomic energy, airline, health care, serviceand public sectors with 1.2 million active and retired members in the US,Canada, and the Caribbean. In a statement on September 30, Leo W. Gerard said:

The United Steelworkers union stands in solidarity with andstrongly supports Occupy Wall Street. The brave men and women, many of themyoung people without jobs, who have been demonstrating around-the-clock fornearly two weeks in New York City are speaking out for the many in our world.We are fed up with the corporate greed, corruption and arrogance that haveinflicted pain on far too many for far too long.

Our union has been standing up and fighting these captains offinance who promote Wall Street over Main Street. We know firsthand thedevastation caused by a global economy where workers, their families, theenvironment and our futures are sacrificed so that a privileged few can makemore money on everyone’s labor but their own.

Wall Street and its counterparts on Bay Street (Toronto), TheCity (London) and across the world tanked our economy in 2008. They caused acrisis that we’re still suffering from - record job losses, home foreclosures,cuts to schools, public services, police, fire and so much more. They’vegambled with our pension funds and our futures for far too long.

They should have gone to jail. Instead, they got bailed out, while we got leftout. And now they want us to go down the same path.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement represents what most Americans believe: Enoughis enough! It’s time to hold those who caused our economic crisis accountable,to ensure they don’t get away with it again, and to demand that everyone paytheir fair share. It’s time to stand and fight for the creation of real wealthby focusing on making real things and creating family- and community-supportingjobs.

The USW is proud to join with the brothers and sisters of theOccupy Wall Street Movement as we continue this important fight for a more justeconomy and a brighter tomorrow.

According to Village Voice, the historically militant TransportWorkers Union that primarily represents workers in the public transportationsystem and at some private bus lines in the New York City metropolitan area hasunanimously voted to back, and provide food and services to the Occupy WallStreet Movement. The TWU plans to assemble on October 5 and march to ZuccottiPark, the place the protesters are staying. The union counts 38,000 activemembers and covers 26,000 retirees.

In a statement the union applauded the courage of the youngpeople on Wall Street, and said: “the shared sacrifice preached by governmentofficials looks awfully like a one-way street. Workers and ordinary citizensare putting up all the sacrifice, and the financiers who imploded our economyare getting away scot-free, increasing their holdings and bonuses. Young peopleface a bleak future with high unemployment, and minimum wage jobs. Publicsector workers face Mayors and Governors who demand massive wage and benefitsgivebacks or face thousands of layoffs. That’s not bargaining. That’sblackmail.”

The statement said that the union’s Executive Board is unitedin their “determination that this state of affairs is dangerous for America anddestructive to its citizenry. We support the Wall Street protesters and theirgoal to reduce inequality and support every American’s right to a decent job,health care, and retirement security.”

The TWU’s October 5-March is being co-sponsored by eight laborand community outreach organizations having a total membership of over 1million. These are United NY, Strong Economy for All Coalition, WorkingFamilies Party, VOCAL-NY, Community Voices Heard, Alliance for QualityEducation, New York Communities for Change and Coalition for the Homeless.

Terry O’Sullivan, General President of the Laborers’International Union of North America (LIUNA), on September 30 in a statement onOccupy Wall Street said: “The workers who build America – the half-million menand women of LIUNA – are united behind the fight against corporate tyranny andfor economic prosperity for all and stand with the Occupy Wall Street Movementin New York City and across the United States.” It should be mentioned that thehalf-million members of LIUNA are on the forefront of the constructionindustry, a powerhouse of workers.

He said:

The most valuable asset in America isn’t Wall Street, it isworking people. Yet in America today, millions of working people are joblessand are losing their homes, their hopes and their dreams. Meanwhile,corporations are making record profits and the most profitable among them payno taxes, shifting more wealth from the working and middle class to the rich.This ill-gotten wealth is being used to finance an unprecedented assault onworking people and unions in states across the country and in Washington, D.C.Wall Street caused our economic crisis, and yet corporations are attempting toforce working people to pay for it. The only way to turn back the assault is tostrengthen unions and build movements, such as Occupy Wall Street.

Professors at the City University of New York affiliated withthe Professional Staff Congress union have taken a number of labor-orientedsolidarity actions. Their group, Solidarity with OWS, is organizing demonstrationagainst police abuse. Their academic allies include Frances Fox Piven,Christian Parenti, and Stanley Aronowitz. (Michelle Chen, “Labor Movement RollsInto Wall Street Occupation”, In These Times, September 30, 2011)

Huffington Post informed: the trade union representing doormen,security guards and maintenance workers with about 70,000 members (New YorkMetro SEIU 32BJ) was “re-purposing a previously planned rally on Oct. 12 toexpress solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters”. Kwame Patterson,the 32BJ spokesperson said: “The call went out over a month ago, beforeactually the occupancy of Wall Street took place.” Now, “we’re all coming underone cause, even though we have our different initiatives.”

Crain's New York Business informed: local unions arecollaborating with community-based groups that include Make the Road New York,Coalition for the Homeless and Community Voices Heard. These organizations areinvolved with the struggles of the poor and working-class.

The movement is spreading. The main stream media (MSM) nowinform this fact. ABC News said: “The protests have spread across the country,with events popping up in Boston and Chicago in solidarity with Occupy WallStreet. … [E]vents in Boston will continue with a ‘Take Back the Block’festival. At least 1,500 have registered for the festival. Along with New Yorkand Boston, an Occupy Chicago movement has emerged, with nearly 100 peoplegathering in front of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. The protests have beenpeaceful and no arrests have been reported. Occupy Los Angeles protests whichhave also been small in numbers, has called for a march today ...” (Oct 1,2011) The Telegraph/UK carried news with the headline “Occupy Wall StreetProtests Spread across US”. It said: “Inspired by the events in New York City,protesters begin assembling in several cities across the U.S. … [M]oredemonstrations began to spring up across the U.S. In Los Angeles, protestersgathered in front of City Hall and danced on buses with ‘peace’ emblazoned on theside. A smaller protest was held in Chicago’s financial district whereprotesters held placards demanding ‘Jobs Not Cuts’. Protesters also turned outin Denver, gathering downtown before marching into the city chanting, ‘Occupythe streets’.” (Oct. 2, 2011)

The protest organizers/sympathetic websites claimed that manyevents, demonstrations, and assemblies were held around the US including inAtlanta, San Diego, and San Jose in solidarity with the Occupy Wall StreetMovement. Around 200 protesters in Boston took to the streets. An OccupyChicago event also began on Sept. 23. At least 52 cities in America areoccupied or organizing as the protesters claimed. Web sites are cropping up inincreasing number that reflects the expansion of the movement. Occupy Togetheris playing a role of broader banner.

Sister campaigns with names like Occupy Chicago, the protestersclaimed, have emerged in Albuquerque, Arkansas, Austin, Binghamton, Birmingham,Boise, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Clarksville, Cleveland, Columbus, ColoradoSprings, Columbus, D.C., Dallas, Daytona Beach, Durham, Eugene, Hartford,Houston, Indiana, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Knoxville, LasVegas, Lexington, Los Angeles, Louisville, Maine, Memphis, Miami, Michigan,Minnesota, Mississippi, Nashville, New Jersey, New Orleans, OKC, Orlando,Olympia, Omaha, OSU (Stillwater), Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh,Providence, Richmond, Rochester, St. Louis, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, SanDiego, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Spokane, Tulsa, Tampa, Tallahassee,Tucson, Vermont, Winston Salem, Wisconsin.

San Francisco: Occupy the San Francisco Financial Districtkicked off outside the Bank of America (BoA) building, also known as the “WallStreet of the West.” Approximately 150 people including members of US Uncut andthe Revolutionary Poets Brigade, as well as people of all ages and studentsparticipated in the opening rally. After a couple of hours, one group marchedthrough a street while the other met in a public assembly. Then, a small groupof campers formed and stayed the night. A small camp came up. The camp isgrowing. There are now daily meetings at the camp and General Assemblies everySaturday.

Huffington Post reported Mayoral candidate and city Supervisor John Avalosinitiated the San Francisco march with a speech: “[T]his [BoA] building righthere is a symbol of the incredible greed and wealth that has accumulated intofewer and fewer hands. And how do they stay wealthy? They took our tax dollars.They got bailed out.” He urged the crowd to withdraw their money from nationalbanks and invest in small, community-like banks. The demonstrators marched downto Charles Schwab, surrounding the building and chanting, “Charles Schwab, giveus our money back”. The San Francisco protesters ended the day at Chase Bank.Six demonstrators walked into the branch and staged a sit-in in the lobby. Theywere arrested, and eventually released, after they refused requests to leave.(International Business Times, Sept. 30, 2011)

Portland: Occupy Portland, a nonviolent movement for accountability in the USgovernment plans to assemble on October 6, 2011. The assembly will be insolidarity with the Occupy Wall Street, and the increasing “number of citieswhose people will no longer sit back watching corporate and special interestsrun their government.”

Berkley: An AP news report datelined Berkeley, Sept. 22, 2011said: Students occupied a building on the University of California, Berkeleycampus to protest tuition hikes and state budget cuts. There was a confrontationbetween police and protestors. Later, the student demonstration dispersed. Oneprotester was arrested. “Resistance Social,” a group, organized the protest.“Protesters say”, the news report cited, “the University of California isbecoming increasingly unaffordable as the 10-campus UC system raises tuition inresponse to state cuts to higher education.” (“UC Berkeley Classrooms OccupiedBy Tuition Hike Protesters”)

Global: The Wall Street protesters pronounce: “This is really aglobal movement.” According to their claim there were more than 35 eventsaround the world in solidarity of the movement. These include Occupy Brisbane,Occupy Frankfurt, Occupy Hamburg, Occupy Manchester, Occupy Melbourne, OccupyPerth, Occupy the London Stock Exchange, Occupy Toronto Market Exchange, andOccupy Vancouver.

Horizontally connected, broader coalitions are coming upthrough the movement. The coalitions include community, environment, youth andrights organizations. Organizations against predatory lending, and elder persons’organizations are also joining.

Movement’s Media: The MSM tried to black out news of themovement. The protest was ignored. But the MSM-silence could not be sustained.Now, MSM is giving up space to the Occupy Movement. At the same time, the MSM’sunwillingness to accommodate the movement led the movement participants todevise their medium to communicate. Now, there is The Occupied Wall StreetJournal. “It debuted on [October 1] with a print run of 50,000, after twoindependent journalists in New York started a campaign using the onlinefund-raising platform Kickstarter. The four-page broadsheet includes a story[…] headlined ‘The Revolution Begins at Home’, an essay by the former New YorkTimes war correspondent Chris Hedges urging people to participate in theprotests, and a ‘Declaration of the Occupation’ approved at a meeting ofprotesters on Sept. 29.” The initiators of the newspaper raised more than$12,000 within eight hours. (New York Times, Oct. 3, 2011)

Communiqué: Communiqués of the protesters are disseminatinghard facts. In their Fifth Communiqué the 99 percent cited the followinginformation:

On September 21, 2011, the richest 400 Americans owned morewealth than half of the country’s population; about 80% of Americans thoughtthe country was on the wrong track; about one-sixth of Americans did not havework; the same ratio lived in poverty; about 50 million Americans were withouthealth insurance; the US had military bases in around 130 out of 165 countries;and the US was at war with the world.

With this background, the movement demands end of wealthinequality, poverty, joblessness, health-profiteering, political corruption,corporate censorship, modern gilded age, American imperialism and war.

It is true, the movement, a very smaller one in terms ofnumber, is in its formative stage. It is also true, there are a lot ofweaknesses and weak connections. Many factors are yet to be identified. It willbe an illusion that the movement will provide people a full fledged publicspace, and compel capital’s greed to compromise within a short time. But it’spart of a learning process, which is essential for expanding people’s scopes.Already it has produced important lessons and learning “materials”. Even,societies far away can learn from the movement. Socially and politically, themovement is significant. Even, its mistakes will be valuable assets as thesewill act as teacher. The voice of the section of labor, a part of broadersociety, extending its support to the movement is significant also.

“The movements suggest”, Michelle Chen writes, “a generaltrajectory of grassroots organizing: a spark of protest led by youngeractivists, followed by the support of labor organizations, bringing up the rearand then moving to the fore.” “[T]he movement is organically structured, withno formal ‘list of demands’ yet […] Not everyone came to Wall Street knowingexactly what they wanted, but everyone there today knows they’ve had enough,and that they’re not the only ones. […] After decades of a one-sided class war,the fightback has begun.” (“Labor Movement Rolls Into Wall Street Occupation”,In These Times, September 30, 2011)

Pains And Snaps In Greece

2011-09-27T18:15:00.000+06:00

Greece is in pains. Snaps and seethinganger are spontaneous there now. There, the suffering people's acts reflectonly a part of the dire situation: “ Greece is on the brink of default, 16months after it received the biggest bailout in western history” and “apopulace exhausted by the [austerity] measures.” Rumor of a multi-trillion eurogrand plan to save the eurozone being prepared by European officials circulateswhile incidents of despair, destitution and protest provide a partial scene ofthe society.

In Greece , the number of suicides has increased, surging up by40% in a year. The help lines overflow with calls: 5,000 in the first eightmonths of 2011 compared with 2,500 for the entire last year. ( TheTelegraph , Sept. 26, 2011 & guardian.co.uk , Sept. 24, 2011)

Shop closures in the country's Attica region that includesAthens have reached 15% since the crisis began. Of the 3,421 stores sampled ina study in the region, 505 have been closed down, the study by the NationalConfederation of Hellenic Commerce informs. Citing the study conducted in July19-30 daily Kathimerini reports: in central Athens , 215 businessesout of 1,252 have been closed. Clothing stores got the most brunt. In areas,the closure rate was 25%. ( Greek Reporter , Aug. 11, 2011 )

“A new underclass has appeared: in the homeless and hungry whoroam the streets; in the spiraling number of drug addicts; in the psychiatricpatients ejected from institutions that can no longer offer them a place; inthe thousands of shop owners forced to close and board up businesses; in thosewho forage through municipal rubbish bins at night; and in the pensioners whomake do with rejects at fruit and vegetable markets.” The income of the averagehousehold has dropped by 50%. ( guardian.co.uk , op. cit.)

“At the doors of small charities, queues of single men –ranging from Iraqis to Somalis to Nepalese – form in the early morning toreceive free food or medical treatment. Now, to their intense anger, someGreeks are being forced to join these queues: 39 per cent of the country's under24s are unemployed.” ( The Telegraph , op.cit.)

Austerity measures are pushing the people to protest. A 48-hourstrike by all transport workers is expected within days. Days back, the Athensmetro, tram and suburban rail workers went on a 24-hour strike; buses andtrolleys stopped operating for hours; air traffic controllers refused to workovertime. Greek police force's Special Guards unit hung a giant black banner:“Pay day, day of mourning.”

Students on September 25 interrupted the state television news.“There has been an occupation at the state television channel NET”, agovernment spokesman informed. The youths held up a banner: “Stop watching andget out onto the streets”. ( AFP , Sept. 25, 2011 ) Students areoccupying more than 30 schools for weeks. The authority has asked theprotesters to stop the occupations and reopen the schools. ( GR ,Sept. 25, 2011 )

The situation at universities and technological institutes“continues to be chaotic” as a result of the new education law.Students belonging to the Communist Party blocked the entrance to the buildingof the University of Athens rectorate. The Technical University of Crete,the Panteion University and schools of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki areoccupied by students. They hung banners and shouted slogans against theparticipation of enterprises in research programs of university, and the newlaw. They planned the same step in the Technological Institutes of Athens andPiraeus , and in other universities in Athens and other cities. Students areorganizing general meetings in universities. September's exam in the Universityof Patras was postponed so that general assemblies of students could takeplace. ( GR , Aug. 30, 2011 )

Quoting the education minister the newspaper Ta Nea informedthat for this school year, 600 teachers would be appointed while6,000 would be retiring, and the number of substitute teachers would bedecreased by 50% in comparison with last year. The minister “assured” thatthere would be no vacancies at schools. She warned that 2,000 schools would bemerged and all the teachers would have full working hours. ( GR , Aug.18, 2011 )

Thousands of cab drivers demonstrated outside the GreekParliament in late-July. Cab drivers organized strike blocking ports andairports on the islands of Crete and Corfu to protest against government plansto deregulate the taxi sector, a key demand of creditors. The cab sub-sector isone of 135 areas of interference to meet the EU-IMF bailout terms.

The union representing about 800,000 civil servants planned tostrike in case their wages are cut further. Their salaries have already beenslashed by up to 30% since last year. They began working an extra 30 minuteseach day, increasing work-week to 40 hours from 37.5. ( GR , Aug. 12,2011 )

Crime and environment of lawlessness, a variety of challenge tostatus quo, is spreading. “Thefts and break-ins almost doubled between 2007 and2009. Hostility to migrants […] has become widespread and unconcealed.” ( TheTelegraph , op. cit.) Incidents of arson in different areas of the countryover the last few months have been reported by the local press. The young ingrowing numbers are either leaving the country to find jobs or going back tothe rural areas. It is being considered as “the biggest emigration wave sincethe 1960s.”

There is, “a lot of uncertainty, […] a lot of fear. For thefirst time in decades, people are really frightened. They're afraid of thefuture” said Yannis Caloghirou, an economics professor at the NationalTechnical University of Athens. “Greeks feel like they are in a bad dream”,said Fotini Tsalikoglou, a prominent psychology professor. “A common threadthat unites people is the experience of fear and desperation.” A collectivesense of depression, analysts said, has also set in. This sense is moredangerous than the social tensions threatening to tear the country apart. ( guardian.co.uk, op. cit.)

“In Athens , panic is sketched not only on the faces of thosewho have become increasingly impoverished [… P]anic was heard in the voices ofthe ruling elite. ‘People, justifiably, think the crisis is what we're goingthrough now: cuts in wages, pensions and incomes, fewer prospects for theyoung,' said the Greek finance minister […], looking visibly drained […‘T]hecrisis will be […] the complete collapse of the economy, institutions, thesocial fabric and the country's productive base.' Greeks no longer believe whattheir politicians say…. The death of faith in the future is the biggest fear.‘The worst part is perhaps psychological because there is no light at the endof the tunnel, no source of hope,' said Dr Thanos Dokos who directs Eliamep, athinktank in Athens .” (ibid.)

Tale of a Family

Dmitris Andreou, a businessman, and his wife Mary, an Englishteacher, find their savings exhausted, and disposable income dropped by about50% in two years. In some days, they only buy the basics and in others, theyare not able to buy even those. They have to count “cents to decide betweenbuying bread, milk or butter.” They don't buy clothes any more. “People don'tgo out. There is simply no money around out there”, Mary informs. They had tocancel cable TV subscription. The chances of a university education for theirschool-going two daughters are evaporating. “Right now though, they have morepressing problems. At the two girls' secondary school, the autumn term hasstarted without textbooks. The pupils have been handed CDs instead.” ( TheTelegraph , op. cit.)

Bigger Danger

The type of the situation carries “bigger danger to the futureof Greece . People are switching off: from politics, from the mass media, fromsocial life. ‘We would like to see the politicians executed,' says Maria, notsmiling as she delivers the joke. ‘Most people are saying this: politiciansdeserve capital punishment […]' ‘We can't watch the television news any more,'says Dmitris…. ‘If you watch it, with the constant uncertainty, it can makeyour psychology very low. […] I don't trust the media any more.' ‘It feels likewe're in a post-war situation,' says Mary. ‘There's no optimism; we don't knowwhat happens next. We just try to survive.'” (ibid.)

Antonis Papayiannidis publishes Economic Monthly .Antonis warns: ‘In an almost detached way people have just watched thecatastrophe happening to them. They were very displeased but they did noterupt. They became withdrawn and they are still withdrawn. But it could eruptvery quickly, because the feeling of helplessness is very intense right now -in a way that makes the petrol bombs and barricades of June look pathetic.'(ibid.)

Education Reform

As another blow, changes have been initiated in highereducation. Teachers and students have protested the state education reform law.Athens Polytechnic teachers called a 48-hour strike. The students areorganizing general assemblies to assess the situation and to decide on theirnext move. The University of Athens has dismissed the bill. Manyuniversities have already asked the vigilance of theacademic community. The Polytechnic Schools of Athens and Cretepostponed the September exams as the students' unions meetings will take place.The University of Crete decided to follow any legal procedures against the newlaw. ( GR , July 20, 2011 )

Nine hundred world famous academics from 43 countries includingNoam Chomsky expressed their opposition to the policy followed by thegovernment in higher education in Greece and theirsolidarity to their Greek colleagues. They said: The reform having devastatingconsequences in higher education undermines the prospect of research andteaching within Greek universities and will be another blow to the afflictedGreek society and economy. They proposed adequate public funding of highereducation. ( GR , Aug. 20, 2011 ) The left wing political parties'supporters consider that the law will destroy the universities, and underminecritical thought, the scientific knowledge and the ability of students to fightfor their rights. ( GR , Aug. 27, 2011 )

The system, it seems, prefers a single option in the face ofits crisis: press down the common people, encroach their spaces and hand overthe loot to big capital. The crisis, it seems, appears as a boon to capital asit creates its “logic” for survival.

An Exhibition

And, there is an art exhibition from October 5 in Athens toraise public awareness of children's and adolescents' health: “Children andYouth, Voices and Whispers”. But the system is failing to listen to the murmurunder the surface.

For capitalism, the present day Greece is almost unique. Thesystem encountered debt problem in its periphery. But, here, the case is adeveloped capitalist country near to the center. Contradictions are activeamong the dominating “partners”, actually contenders, of the system havingstakes in Greece . All the “partners” are trying to secure and expandrespective interest. It's a partnership in competition. None of the “partners”have capacity to initiate actions independently. All the contenders need all ofthem. It's a unity of disunity. Within the Greek ruling elites, dissent will beheard, and fractures will appear. That will be a contradiction betweeninterests, not a reflection of sense of dignity. But they will remain united onthe fundamental question of common destiny: accumulate, even in distresscondition.

Further austerity measures will “assist” anguish andfrustrations overwhelm public life. Apathy, inertia and a desperate psychologywill cohabit. The state, the maharaja s – the World Bank, the IMF, thebankers, the Brussels bureaucrats – and broadly, the system will come underscrutiny by the people, which is a very long, and initially, a silent process.Armed with the power to silence dissent, and to make lies heard as truth andestablish illogic as logic they also carry the capacity to erode their ownlegitimacy. But in the process, adventurism and anarchism may find fertileground strengthening forces of reaction in absence of a lead by a classconscious politics.

Europe And Economy: Looming Dark Clouds

2011-09-24T18:14:00.000+06:00

Dark clouds loom over Europe and theUS and the time to tackle the problem is short. None but the InternationalMonetary Fund and the UK chancellor make the warning. As desperate capitalcontinues to press people with intolerable burdens Europe, broadly, is now acontinent of protests, demonstrations, strikes, and possible politicalupheavals.

As the UK chancellor George Osborne warned that the time wasrunning out, only “six weeks”, to end the eurozone debt crisis, and the world’sshare markets experienced another volatile week, Christine Lagarde, the IMFchief warned: “There are dark clouds over Europe and there is huge uncertaintyin the US. And with that we could risk a collapse in global demand.” Lagardeadvised countries to collectively “act now”. “We are linked by a commondestiny.” She assumes that the “turbulent times” is the bond of unity. She wasspeaking at the IMF-World Bank annual meeting in Washington. She assures that“there is a path” to recovery, but the path has narrowed down “than it wasthree years ago”.

But capital is failing to unite. There are voices in Europe toforce out of eurozone some countries including Greece. There are also talks ofabandoning the zone. Signs of fracture in the bond of capitals’ “unity” shouldnot astonish onlookers.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick’s “confidence is beingeroded daily by the steady drip of difficult economic news”, although he “stillthinks a double-dip recession for the world’s major economies is unlikely.” Hewas addressing policy makers at Washington. Zoellick warned: Europe, Japan andthe US must immediately tackle their financial problems before it becomes aworld crisis. “A crisis made in the developed world could become a crisis fordeveloping countries.”

The IMF said days ago that the global financial system is morevulnerable now since the 2008 financial crisis. “Risks are elevated, and timeis running out to tackle vulnerabilities that threaten the global financialsystem and the ongoing economic recovery,” the IMF said.

In the Slowing growth, rising risks report, the IMF mentionedthe urgently need to halt the deepening crisis in the single currency area. Theeuro zone is expected to have a slower growth in 2011 and 2012 while theemerging markets are expected to attain a much more rapid growth this year:6.4%. But there is dramatic increase of financial stability risks, the reportsaid. It mentioned geopolitical tensions and vulnerabilities in emergingmarkets as among others factors that pose threats to global growth. Capitals,one should not forget, cannot operate without creating tensions in geopoliticsand making economies vulnerable.

News from the center and near-enter of the globe was notencouraging: the US Federal Reserve’s warning that the US economy is facingsignificant risks slumped world shares, Moody downgraded eight Greek banks’rating, rumors circled that Greece was contemplating defaulting on its debts,the G-20’s commitment “to take all necessary actions to preserve the stabilityof banking systems and financial markets” by November failed to impress investors.Markets declined to listen to leaders, loyal believers of market. The debtcrisis in Europe is haunting the market leaders. World markets on September 22made their deepest dip in more than a month. Fears of a double-dip recessionhave come back.

The European Commission apprehends “a virtual standstill” ineconomic growth in the eurozone in the second half of 2011. Jose ManuelBarroso, the European Commission president, warned in August that the sovereigndebt crisis was spreading beyond the periphery of the eurozone.

The euro, since officially coming into existence in 1999, is incrisis. With an accumulated public debt reaching 100% of GDP on average in theOECD countries, uncontrollable fiscal deficits, and unemployment, all creationsof ruling elites, a permanent bailout fund with about 500bn euros, the EuropeanStability Mechanism, now stands guard against failures. But powerful crisis isdeclining to surrender. Rather, anguish is brewing up even withinestablishment. Greece with its debts of 300bn euros, 113% of GDP, the highestin modern history, is feeling that it has been, as the Greek finance ministercomplained, “blackmailed and humiliated” and made a “scapegoat” for the EU’sincompetence.

Debt rating downgrading of European countries now sounds oldnews. Italy is the latest one, from A+ to A by the Standard and Poor’s. Thereare accusations of “political considerations” in grading the rating as Italyhas voiced. Now, it is not only the poor PIGS that are feeling the fang ofcapital. Strong economies including Germany are staring at the horizon ofcrisis.

Without the continued payments, Greece is set to run out ofcash by mid-October. Its debt rating has been cut down seven times since 2009,from A to CC. In last May, Portugal became the third eurozone country toreceive a huge EU/IMF bailout - 78bn euros. Its rating has been cut down fourtimes since 2009. With 21% unemployment, the highest rate in the EU, Spain isfeeling the grinding weight of freewheeling capital. As its growth has slowed Germanyplans to cut the budget deficit by record 80bn euros by 2014. “Poor” Greekcapital, considered a junk, is seems planning to pull down the mighty Germaneconomy. France plans to cut spending. Romance with Greek banks has created athreat to the French bankers busy to don Napoleon’s coat in Africa. The UK, aproud partner of the Empire, now owns the biggest cuts in state spending sinceWorld War II. Eurozone cannot bail out the trans-Mediterranean warrior, Italy,with the highest total debt in the eurozone and stagnant growth. With acollapsed banking system and rating cut down five times since 2009 the IrishRepublic is standing as a threat to the British banks. Small Cyprus has notbeen spared by the powerful bankers.

Capitalism is trying to find out its survival path, eternalgrowth with finite resource base and a fragile world ecology. The monopolyfinance capital is playing; playing with its speculation tools, time, andpeoples’ hardship and misery. It declines to admit that its options are runningout. It has competition within its camp. But they dream to bury thecompetitions with nice promises that they know are hollow. They also denypeople’s limits of patience, an exercise with ignorance.

Allowing markets function with the least possible governmentintervention has proved wrong. Now market believers look for intervention. Now,section of mainstream admits that “fundamental principles of capitalism - thathuman beings are rational and markets behave rationally, and that markets willassign prices - are flawed…. That game is over ….capitalism has essentially hita wall.” A social matrix of protest is being created.

Cuts in social security, monthly pensions, public sector wage,public investment, subsidies for local government, education spending, familytax benefits, and subsidies to parents, cap on wages and bonuses, increasedhealth care fees, raised retirement age, freezed/slowed down recruitment,frozen salaries, and closing down of schools are the “gifts” financial elitesare now presenting to, broadly, the Eurozone people. They have planned to saleout ports, airports, land and mining rights, telephone, water and electricityservices, refineries, and many more public assets. It seems the finance elitesare going to formally and privately own almost entire countries but the socialresponsibility. There is also a “golden rule” in the constitution of a country,Spain, to keep future budget deficits to a strict limit. In an Europeancountry, France, the highest earners will be required to pay an extra 1% incometax while working people in other countries will “contribute” more bysacrificing much higher portion of their income.

Vigorously unpopular austerity budgets now are degrading life of common peoplein countries in Europe. Thousands of Romanian police officers went on strikeover their pay cut. Protests have spread across Europe. European cities arewitnessing marches against new austerity measures. Trade unions are vowingbigger protests.

It will not be astonishing if dominating capitals plan to relyon the emerging economies. But these are not free of capital’s “virtues” –crisis, bubbles and bursts, unemployment, disparity, and anguish. At the sametime, countries that rely on selling labor in European markets should take intoaccount of the unfolding situation in the continent.

The Wall Street Protest

2011-09-21T17:58:00.000+06:00

Hundreds of protesters are occupyingthe Wall Street for the last few days while the global economy enters adangerous new phase. The protesters are voicing against corporate greed. Policeguarded the Bull, the symbol of Wall Street, said caption of a photographaccompanying a news report. Occupy Wall Street, an online group, called uponpeople to “flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peacefulbarricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.”

“The global economy has entered a dangerous new phase,” saidOlivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist. “Markets have clearly become moreskeptical about the ability of many countries to stabilize their public debt.Fear of the unknown is high.” As a result, the IMF “has sharply downgraded itseconomic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year.The IMF expects the US economy to grow just 1.5 percent this year and 1.8percent in 2012. That’s down from its June forecast of 2.5 percent in 2011 and2.7 percent next year.” The IMF says, the US economy “faces longer-lastingproblems that go beyond high gas prices and disruptions caused by the Japan crisis”.(AP, “IMF: World economy enters ‘dangerous new phase’”, Sept. 20, 2011)

In this uncertain moment of the world economy,
“over two thousand protesters converged on Wall Street [on September 17, 2011].By the end of the second day, those occupying Liberty Park, formerly known asZuccotti Park on Broadway and Liberty St., had settled in, partially helped bypizza, hot chocolate and blankets paid for and delivered by their supporters inNew York City and across the US. The [protest] began after months of planningand encouragement by Adbusters [an internationally distributed ad-freebi-monthly magazine] …They were soon joined by the hacktivist organizationAnonymous in calling for a general people’s assembly.” (Manny Jalonschi, “TheWall Street Occupation: A Sleep-In Protest in the Shadow of Power”, TheIndependent, Sept. 19, 2011)

“[T]he protesters identified their key goals as liberatingAmerica from the death-grip of finance and creating a sustainable, just futurefor every member of the country. Even with a heavy police presence … protestersremained unmoved in their demands for a fairer political system…. While thegroup’s original goal had been to occupy the sidewalk in front of the building,the area was cordoned off and surrounded by … police cars and … policeofficers.” Later, a general assembly of the protesters began “discussions intothree general areas — problems, solutions and strategies.” The participants’“discussion focused on the corruption and collusion between Wall Street andWashington,” and many of them noted that general apathy was a problem ofeducation. As general solutions to the problems identified transparency andeducation was mentioned. “News flooded in throughout the weekend ofsister-rallies across the United States, including Seattle, San Francisco andLos Angeles. The international presence was heavy at the rally itself. Not onlyhad protesters driven in from across the country, but activists we spoke toalso arrived from as far as Mexico and Tunisia.” (ibid.)

The next day “became a day of support for the occupation.Thousands of New Yorkers stopped in to either see or support the growing cityof sleeping bags, signs and popular assemblies. The highlight of the day waswhen over $2,000 in pizza was ordered in less than an hour by supporters fromaround the world for the protesters …” (ibid.)

On September 19, “reports of police interference were growing,as officers began arresting people who were using chalk to write goals andslogans on the concrete they occupied. But even with a heavy police presence …protesters remained unmoved in their demands for a fairer political system.(ibid.)

Organizers on the ground say, “we’re digging in for a long-termoccupation”.(Micah White, senior editor at Adbusters, and Kalle Lasn,co-founder and editor-in-chief of Adbusters, “The Call to Occupy Wall StreetResonates Around the World”, The Guardian, Sept. 19, 2011)

“#OCCUPYWALLSTREET was inspired by the people's assemblies ofSpain and floated as a concept by a double-page poster in the 97th issue ofAdbusters magazine, but it was spearheaded, orchestrated and accomplished byindependent activists. … The idea caught on immediately on social networks andunaffiliated activists … built an open-source organising site. A few dayslater, a general assembly was held in New York City … These activists becamethe core organisers of the occupation. The mystique of Anonymous pushed thememe into the mainstream media. Their video communiqué endorsing the actiongarnered 100,000 views ... The indignados of Spain sent word that they would beholding a solidarity event in Madrid’s financial district, [and] activists inMilan, Valencia, London, Lisbon, Athens, San Francisco, Madison, Amsterdam, LosAngeles, Israel and beyond vowed to do the same.” (ibid.)

“People everywhere”, White and Lasn wrote, “are waking up tothe realisation that there is something fundamentally wrong with a system inwhich speculative financial transactions add up, each day, to $1.3tn (50 timesmore than the sum of all the commercial transactions). Meanwhile, according toa United Nations report, ‘in the 35 countries for which data exist, nearly 40%of jobseekers have been without work for more than one year’.” (ibid.)

Andrew Jones reported: “Video has emerged of some of thearrests, with police throwing some protestors to the ground before putting themin handcuffs and even dragging one individual across the street for 20 seconds.As reported to Democracy Now, Jason Amadi, one of the arrested protestors,said: “I was chalking on the sidewalk when I was surrounded by officers, theytold me to put my hands behind my back and they handcuffed me and took me tothe police station.” Police arrested six Occupy Wall Street protestors, onSept. 19.

An ABC News report said: “The protest comes after comments NewYork Mayor Michael Bloomberg made last week that some may argue seem to haveforecast the event. ‘You have a lot of kids graduating college who can’t findjobs. That’s what happened in Cairo. That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’twant those kind of riots here,’ Bloomberg said.” (“Wall St. Protesters SayThey’re Settled In”)

Citing the website of Adbusters, a Bloomberg report onSeptember 17 said: the goal of the protest is to … end “the influence money hasover our representatives in Washington”.

The report said: Rich Adamonis, a spokesman for the NYSE,Duncan King of Deutsche Bank, and Bank of New York’s Ron Gruendl declined tocomment on the demonstration. (“Protesters Converge on Lower Manhattan, Plan‘Occupation’, Sept. 17, 2011)

One of the organizers said: “The main focus is the toxic andcorrupting effect of unlimited money on the political situation, which would becalled a Corporate-ocracy, not Democracy.” “We need to get government back intothe hands of the 99 percent, not the one percent. Right now, the law iscurrently written for the one percent, and we are seeing an incredible amountof wealth being extracted. The aim is getting back to more of a participatoryDemocracy.” The Occupy Wall Street encourages “the use of nonviolence”.(CBSNewYork, “Groups Plan To ‘Occupy Wall Street,’ But Their Goal Is Not YetSet”, Sept. 6, 2011)

Preparatory events and arrangements for the protest were madeweeks ago that included non violent civil disobedience training, preparing alist of potential hosts to provide protesters place to rest, the FoodCommittee, Tactical Committee Meeting, art and culture meetings, an event forNY Students Rising and an Open General Assembly. In association with a numberof activists around the world a live “TV” channel called Global Revolution wasset up. A hotline for arrests was established with help of the National LawyersGuild. The organizers asked donations for food. They suggested contacting theNew York Police expressing solidarity with the protesters and urging the policeto exercise restraint, to tell the police that the world is watching, and thankthe police for all their hard work. An Occupy Wall Street Orientation Guide wasprepared and distributed. Arrangements for foods, shower, etc. for the protesterswere made. People were requested to bring a little bit of food themselves,enough that can be shared with at least three people. The request added, “Notonly will it help us hold out for longer, it will go a long way in helping youget to know each other a little better as well.” New Yorkers Against BudgetCuts provided fliers for the demonstration.

The protesters’ communiqués present a part of protest-activities.

The third communiqué from the 99 percent said on September 20:“Today, we occupied Wall Street from the heart of the Financial District.” Thedemonstrators began a march through the Wall Street area, rolling through theblocks around the New York Stock Exchange. Two more marches occurred during theday around the Wall Street district, each drawing more supporters to them.

It said: Hundreds occupying One Liberty Plaza, since September17 afternoon, held a candlelight vigil to honor the fallen victims of WallStreet, and filled the plaza with song, dance, and spontaneous acts ofliberation. “We are building the world that we want to see, based on human needand sustainability, not corporate greed.”

The second communiqué said: On September 18, about 400 of thedemonstrators woke up in the Financial District amidst heavy police presence.They resumed their General Assembly and made their demands heard. At noon alarge group marched chanting “this is what democracy looks like.” During themarch many onlookers joined while many more expressed solidarity. By the timethey returned to One Liberty Plaza over 100 sympathizers had joined them. Asthe day progressed their numbers continued to grow, and in the afternoon theywere more than a thousand strong. Later, they were “threatened with arrestusing a bullhorn; so they spoke together in one voice, louder than anyamplifier.”

The first communiqué told: “We are occupying Wall Street.” Agroup marched on the head of Wall Street and formed a spontaneous blockade,prompting the police to threaten arrest. Speakers included the Reverend BillyTalen of the Church of Stop Shopping, and actress Rosanne Barr spoke on thesteps of the American Indian Smithsonian Museum to the crowd. Protestersmarched chanting “Wall Street is our street” and “power to the people, not tothe banks.” They held a general assembly, based upon a “consensus-drivendecision-making process.” All decisions, they claimed, were made “through aconsensus process by the group, for the group.” They said: “[F]reedom has beenlargely taken from the people, and slowly made to trickle down, whenever we getangry. Money, it has been said, has taken over politics. In truth, we say,money has always been part of the capitalist political system. A system basedon the existence of have and have nots, where inequality is inherent to thesystem, will inevitably lead to a situation where the haves find a way to rule,whether by the sword or by the dollar.”

The Wall Street protest reflects indignation of a section ofcommon people, which has cropped up over a long time and in a broadersocioeconomic reality. Richard D Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at theUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst, said in an article in The Guardian thatRepublicans have denounced President Obama’s “millionaire tax” proposal as“class war”. “[T]he reality is that the class war’s winners [emphasis in theoriginal] have been corporations and the rich. Its losers – the rest of us…”,said Richard Wolff. “[A]s Buffett intimated and New York Mayor MichaelBloomberg more explicitly warned last week, a renewal of class consciousness inthe US. Then, Washington might learn what class war really is. (“The Truthabout ‘Class War’ in America”, Sept. 20, 2011)

The protest has once again exposed the main stream media’s(MSM) biasness, which ultimately weakens MSM’s effectiveness. Filmmaker MichaelMoore said the MSM ignores Wall Street protest. Moore appeared on The RachelMaddow Show Sept. 19 to discuss the media’s coverage towards the protests fromthe left. He said: ‘People are down on Wall Street right now holding a sit inand a camp in down there, virtually no news about this protest. This goes onwith liberals and the left all the time, and it gets ignored.’” (“MichaelMoore: The media ignores Wall Street occupation”, Posted on 09.20.11 by AndrewJones) The Wall Street protest reveals some political realities in one of themost advanced bourgeois democracies.

An Empire Struggles Within And Wages Wars Abroad

2011-09-14T17:57:00.000+06:00

The Empire is waging war in countriesand struggling with poverty in home. Good news is not coming from any of thefronts. In home, median household income has declined, the poverty rate hasincreased, and farmers are having hard days. The percentage of the Americansliving in poverty in 2010 mounted to the highest level since 1993.

The US Census Bureau’s annual report Income, Poverty, and HealthInsurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 released on September 13, 2011reveals a part of the Empire’s struggle within and the system’s failure to helpits poor citizens. The report provides the following figures:

(1) The number of the poor moved up to about 1 in 6 persons. In2010, the overall poverty rate rose to 15.1% or 46.2 million, up from 14.3% in2009. In 2009, there were 43.6 million Americans living in poverty. Since 2007,the poverty rate has increased from 12.5% to 15.1%. The poverty line in 2010was at $22,113 for a family of four. Measured by total numbers, the personsliving in poverty is the largest on record since the census began monitoringpoverty in 1959.

Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased fornon-Hispanic Whites, from 9.4% to 9.9%; for Blacks, from 25.8% to 27.4%; andfor Hispanics, from 25.3% to 26.6%. For Asians, the rate (12.1%) was notstatistically different from the 2009 rate.

In 2010, the family poverty rate was 11.7% and the number offamilies in poverty was 9.2 million. In 2009, it was 11.1% and 8.8 million. Thepoverty rate and the number in poverty increased for both married-couplefamilies (in 2010, 6.2% and 3.6 million, and in 2009, 5.8% and 3.4 million) andfemale-householder-with-no-husband-present families (in 2010, 31.6% and 4.7million, and in 2009, from 29.9% and 4.4 million). The females had to bear theburden. In spring 2011, 5.9 million (14.2%) young adults age 25-34 stayed withtheir parents. It was 4.7 million (11.8%) before the recession. This shows thehardship the young faced.

The poverty rate increased for children younger than 18. It was22.0% in 2010. In the previous year, it was 20.7%. The numbers were 15.5million and 16.4 million in 2009 and 2010 respectively. For people 18 to 64, italso increased: from 12.9% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2010. The numbers were 24.7million in 2009 and 26.3 million in 2010.

(2) In 2010, the real median household income (RMHI) was$49,445, down 2.3% from 2009. It was 7% more in 1999: $53,252. Since 2007, RMHIhas declined 6.4%. The RMHI declined for white and black households between2009 and 2010.

Since 2007, the number of men working full time, year-roundwith earnings decreased by 6.6 million and the number of corresponding womendeclined by 2.8 million. In 2010, the earnings of women working full time,year-round were 77% of that for the same category of men.

Based on the Gini Index, the change in income inequalitybetween 2009 and 2010 was not statistically significant. The Gini index was0.469 in 2010. This means, the inequality scenario that was prevailing has notimproved. “We’re risking a new underclass,” said Timothy Smeeding, director ofthe Institute for Research and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.“Young, less educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and formstable families because they are jobless.” Is it much different from a Third orFourth World country?

(3) In 2010, the number of uninsured Americans was 49.9 million, the biggest inover two decades. In 2009, it was 49 million. It rose from 16.1% to 16.3%. Thepercentage of people with health insurance was not statistically different from2009.

In 2010, 9.8% (7.3 million) of children under 18 were withouthealth insurance. The uninsured rate for children in poverty (15.4%) was higherthan the rate for all children (9.8%).

The US harbors one of the highest poverty rates among thedeveloped countries. Among the 34 countries monitored by the Organization forEconomic Cooperation and Development, only Chile, Israel and Mexico have higherrates of poverty.

The data derived from a sample survey of approximately 100,000household nationwide are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), 2011 AnnualSocial and Economic Supplement (ASEC), the source of official poverty estimates.(U.S. Census Bureau | Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division:Poverty | Last Revised: Sept. 13, 2011 Income, Poverty and Health Insurance inthe United States: 2010 – Highlights; AP, “Census: US poverty rate swells tonearly 1 in 6”, Sept. 13, 2011; Reuters, “Number of poor hit record 46 millionin 2010”, Sept. 13, 2011; The New York Times, “U.S. Poverty Rate, 1 in 6, atHighest Level in Years”, Sept. 13, 2011)

There are other data related to food stamps, etc. that alsopresent a grim picture, and reflect the underdeveloped societies in the worldsystem’s periphery.

Food Stamps

A New York datelined Reuters news report said:

Now, about 46 million Americans rely on food stamps. It isabout 15% of the population, and an increase of 74% since 2007. “[F]or manyAmericans […] there is little current alternative if they are to put food onthe table while paying rent and utility bills.” (“USA becomes Food Stamp Nationbut is it sustainable?”, Aug 22, 2011)

“About 40% of food stamp recipients are […] in households inwhich at least one member of the family earns wages. Many more could beeligible: the government estimates one in three who could be on the program arenot. In some parts of the country, shoppers using food stamps have almost becomethe norm. In May 2011, a third of all people in Alabama were on food stamps[….] Washington D.C., Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon and Tennessee all hadabout a fifth of their population on food stamps that month. Over the past 20years, the characteristics of the program's recipients have changed. In 1989, ahigher percentage was on benefits than working, but as of 2009 a higherpercentage had earned income. And 6% of the 72.9 million Americans paid by thehour received wages at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in2010. That’s up from 4.9% in 2009, and 3% in 2002, according to governmentdata. Millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired have toexist only on food stamps and other government aid, such as Medicaid healthcaresupport.”(ibid.)

The news report cites a family from Oregon that “juggles billsto ensure the electricity stays on. They are also selling some belongings […]to raise funds.” The husband, “an electronics assembly worker, lost his job twomonths ago when [the wife] was seven months pregnant with their second child.It was the third time [the husband] has been laid off since 2008.” The wifesaid “she was reluctant, initially, to go on food stamps. ‘I felt the way ournational debt was going I didn’t want to be part of the problem,’ said [thewife]. ‘But I didn’t know what else to do and I got to a point where Iswallowed my pride and decided to do what was best for my daughter.’” (ibid.)

Is it a story of compromising sense of dignity that dominateseveryday lives in poor societies? What’s the type of economy that pusheshumanity to this level? This is not a happy reality for an empire that hasaccumulated wealth from most parts of the world unimaginable in human history.

Farmers

Citing the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Census ofAgriculture an AP news report said: “More than half of America’s farmers work ajob off the farm to make ends meet […Farmers] open up their land to tourists,set up roadside stands and travel the farmers market circuit, […] they alsomoonlight as mechanics, pool cleaners and even authors. They make jam and paintlandscapes, work at banks and own businesses in order for the farm to survive.”(“More farmers work away from fields to pay bills”, Dec 10,)

Many farmers, according to the report, work an outside job inthe day and spend the evenings and weekends working in their farms. Althoughthe trend of farmers taking on other jobs is not new but the percentage hasincreased: from 55% in 2002 to 65% in 2007. The frequency of working off thefarm has also grown substantially over the last 75 years, according to a reportby the USDA’s Economic Research Service. In 1929, one in 16 farmers worked 200days or more off the farm. By 1947, it rose to one in six farmers. By 1997, itturned to one in three farmers. The 2007 survey reported that almost 900,000farmers worked more than 200 days a year in other jobs. “Most farms in theUnited States are small operations, with 60 percent of all farms reporting lessthan $10,000 in sales of agricultural products. Of the 2.2 million farmsnationwide, less than half show profit from their farms. The remaining 1.2million depend on non-farm income to cover farm expenses.” (ibid.)

Children

The ERS reported in mid-November, 2010 that more than 50 millionAmericans, including 17 million children, live in hunger. The 2009 report onHousehold Food Insecurity in the United States illustrates the way hunger wasaffecting a significant number of Americans.

Defaulting Students

The Department of Education’s figures released on September 12,2011 provide additional facts related to a section of the society, students:

The number of defaulters on federal student loans has jumpedsharply. In 2010, the national two-year cohort default rate rose to 8.8%. In2008, it was 7%. The trend indicates: rising tuition costs, low graduationrates and poor job opportunity. The increase was sharp among students borrowingto attend for-profit colleges.

Defaulting on student loan carries implication. It can wreckstudents credit and keep them from being able to return to school later withfederal aid.

A calculation using the latest available figures has found thatin 2008 average debt for graduating seniors with student loans was $20,200 atpublic universities, $27,650 at private non-profits and $33,050 at privatefor-profits. (AP, “Student loan default rates jump”, Sept. 13, 2011)

The reality that emerges from the data mentioned above tellsnothing but a class war, and a failure to adopt measures capable of securing asystem. At the same time, it projects a trend in farming and education, bothinfluencing creativity. Even, with the level of poverty and hunger mentionedabove, how far can be sustained, and how much productivity, a “magic mantra” tocapital, can be achieved? It also questions the logic of waging wars, andpromoting allies in far away lands. What benefit are the money spent behindallies bringing for the citizens of the Empire? What does the future hold in areality where farmers and students suffer? Shall ratio between citizens’benefit and war expenditure and aid to allies be calculated? Where does thewealth go that the social labor crates? Shall the reality, if prevails, putpressure on the foundation of legitimacy of the governing system? And, theEmpire’s image abroad is not discussed now-a-days.

New ‘revolution’ theory carries message for all

2011-09-04T14:55:00.000+06:00

AS THE world is witnessing adventures to reinvigorate the existing hegemony,a new theory for ‘revolution’ is being formulated: intervention to support theLibyan ‘revolution’ is justified and is in the United Kingdom’s nationalinterest. David Cameron, the British prime minister, said this while speakingon the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said intervening was ‘the right thingto do.’ (BBC, Libya: UK forces should
be proud of role, says Cameron”, September 2)
Speaking after the Paris summit on Libya, Cameron said ‘the UK had played asignificant military role in the NATO-led operation... We should be proud ofwhat our forces did.’ (ibid)
Then, the world heard a proud pronouncement from leader of a proud nation asCameron said: ‘I really want to challenge this idea that somehow the Americanssee us a weak ally, they don’t—they see us as their strongest and most staunchally.’ He said: ‘Americans were “very impressed” by what the UK and Europeanforces had achieved.’ (ibid)
On the same news-event the Guardian made the following report:
Cameron ‘hailed Britain’s role in the intervention as “very significant”.’He ‘insisted Britain would remain a “full-spectrum player” in the future and‘signalled further interventions may lie ahead as he revealed that some membersof the Arab League were “toughening their stance” over the situation in Syria.’‘[T]here were “lots of lessons to learn” from the conflict in Libya. ‘Despitetrumpeting Britain’s role, Cameron said there was a danger of people in thewest “taking too much credit for themselves” for what was really a Libyantriumph.’ (‘Libya intervention: British forces played key role, says Cameron’)
He ‘challenged House of Commons library figures that suggested Britain hadperformed just 10% of all strike sorties, saying the figure was twice that.‘There were somewhere just less than 8,000 sorties,’ he insisted. ‘Britainperformed 1,600 of those, so around a fifth of strike sorties.
That is punching at our weight
or even above our weight. We played a very important role, not just in thenumber of strike sorties but also in the fact that we were there right from thebeginning.’ (ibid)
‘On the lack of intervention in Syria,’ according to the report, ‘he saidBritain had “been in the vanguard in arguing for a tougher approach”.’ (ibid)
Now, the following observations can be made: (1) intervention is ‘justified’irrespective of pronouncements in the UN charter; (2) national interests ofworld powers are integrally connected with ‘revolution’ in some other country;(3) any south or central or east Asian or Latin American country can expect aLibya intervention experience if there is any strategic resource in the countryor the country is strategically important and intervention-able; (4) juniorpartners of the empire are not now suffering from inferiority complex, and theywill take active role, signifying shifts in balance of power; (5) the empirehas to be impressed, also having underlying meaning of a geopolitical reality;and (6) coming days may witness reinvigorated campaign from the worldmetropolis to reinforce its hegemony having significance in the periphery.
It can be expected that not only pro-people forces, but also ruling elitesin resource-rich, strategically-positioned and intervention-able countries willtake into consideration implication of these observations. The implicationranges from international arena to national periphery, from the lives of commonpeople to the ruling elite’s or its faction’s ‘fate’.
It will not sound wise to imagine that the Libya expedition was plannedafter initiating expression of discontent in a Libyan town. Planning foractions like Libya expedition is not possible to formulate within days.Because, basically and primarily, it is not a planning for military movement,assault, supply, recovery, armaments, etc. Basically and primarily, it is apolitical planning that takes into account factors related to geopolitics,geo-economics and geo-strategy. This type of planning cannot be completedwithin a week or two and instantly after expression of a domestic discontent ina country. The planning turns complex as competing interests vie for respectiveshares. Not only political leadership, economic interests don’t plan, actuallycannot plan, similar undertakings within weeks. So, ruling elites in somecountries may sleep unaware while its fate will be determined on planning boardlong before the elites wake up.
It will be a daydream for the ruling elites of the type of countriesmentioned above to assume that they will be spared by naked imperialism orenergy imperialism if they cross swords with their masters. (Now, it seems,crisis imperialism will be an appropriate term as imperialism is moving throughcrises, as it is deepening its crises while it is trying to get rid of itscrises, as crises it is creating are not only of peoples, but also of its worldsystem, as it delves external issues more vigorously than issues in its home,as it is expanding the expanse of crises while it is moving/jumping from onetheatre of adventure to another, and some more reasons.) Facts already in handproduce tragic-comical stories/characters: Noriega, Marcos, Suharto, Pinochet,and some more. None of them took the role as Gaddafi, and Gaddafi was not likethese lackeys. They were pliable. But they were ‘relieved’ the day theyappeared useless to their master.
Some other facts are there that help understand a ‘revolution’ withcompanies’ ‘fair and logical benefits’:
‘The race for Libya’s oil’, the Guardian says, ‘appears to have started: […]BP is already holding talks with members of the interim government, whileFrance’s foreign minister, Alain Juppé, said it was “fair and logical” for itscompanies to benefit.’ (‘Libya: Gaddafi says he will fight to the end – livecoverage’)
‘The [UK] government’, the Guardian says, ‘has admitted that theinternational development minister, Alan Duncan, took part in meetings betweenofficials operating a Whitehall cell to control the Libyan oil market and Vitol– a company for which Duncan has previously acted as a consultant.’ The ‘Libyanoil cell’ in the Foreign Office since May silently waged a crucial campaignagainst Gaddafi. It prevented Gaddafi importing and exporting oil whileallowed oil to reach the rebels, and that oil came via Vitol. ‘Duncan, a formeroil trader and multi-millionaire, has had a 30-year friendship with themanaging director of Vitol, Ian Taylor, at one point operating as a consultantto the company and as a non-executive director to a subsidiary firm. Taylor hasalso been a Tory donor, declared on Duncan’s parliamentary register ofinterests. Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, said thegovernment’s disclosure of the existence of the oil cell was mired in mysteryabout Duncan’s role in it. “Given Alan Duncan’s reported links with Vitol thiscurious briefing from within government actually raises more questions than itanswers,” he said. Civil servants in the Foreign Office are known to haveexpressed deep concerns about the existence of the cell, warning that itappeared to be encroaching too far on commercial purposes. One person withknowledge of the Whitehall machinations described their mood as “mutinous”.’(‘Government admits Alan Duncan’s links to company in “Libyan oil cell”’,September 2)
Vitol, the world’s largest oil and refined products trader, handles about 5million barrels a day and controls 200 super-tankers and other vessels. Thecompany with annual turn over of more than $140bn is engaged in explorationfrom Russia to West Africa, and has a presence in every leading oil-producingcountry including Iraq and Syria. Vitol paid $17.5m in fines in 2007 forproviding kickbacks to Saddam’s Iraq, and had to face court in 1996 over oildeals in Serbia as it made a $1m payment to a Serb and a secret oil deal toprovide fuel to Milosevic’s Serbia. It came under investigation in 1993 forselling ‘contaminated’ oil to Pakistan causing the country £100m damage. (ibid)
‘Good wishes’ for ‘revolution’ and its connections are now coming to light:‘revolution’ is ‘connected’ with national interests of the world powers and oilcompanies’ benefit, with ‘reputed’ oil traders and minister! Everything is‘fair’ and ‘just’ in war, revolution and friendship! Ethics and moral standingof interventionist-‘revolution’ stand above all ethics and morality! Thesefacts are helping people in countries learn lessons in a charged world.Probably, ruling elites in countries will also learn from the Libyanexperience.
By tearing of all masks the ‘humanitarian’ interventionists have imposedtheir crude logic over Libya, and are re-conveying the old message to all:rulers, lackeys and independents, and people yearning for democracy. Themessage is: capital shall not spare anybody including friend and foe, and anyplace as it faces deep, prolonged crises. Its crises have made it moreaggressive and crude, and have pressed it to shed of all pretensions. Itsadventures will deepen and complicate its inner relationships instead ofresolving its crises. Factors of the complication are within its entities andbetween its entities.

A New “Revolution” Theory And Its Proud Adherents

2011-09-02T14:51:00.000+06:00

As the world is witnessing attemptsto reinvigorate the existing hegemony a new theory for “revolution” is beingformulated: Intervention to support the [Libyan] revolution is justified and isin the UK’s national interest. Mr. David Cameron, the British prime minister,said this while speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today program. He said thatintervening was “the right thing to do”. (BBC, “Libya: UK forces should beproud of role, says Cameron”, Sept. 2, 2011)

Moreover, speaking after the Paris Summit on Libya on Sept. 1,Mr. Cameron said “the UK had played a significant military role in the Nato-ledoperation ... We should be proud of what our forces did.” (ibid.)

Then, the world heard a proud pronouncement from leader of aproud nation as Mr. Cameron said: “I really want to challenge this idea thatsomehow the Americans see us a weak ally, they don’t - they see us as theirstrongest and most staunch ally.” He said: “Americans were ‘very impressed’ bywhat UK and European forces had achieved.”(ibid.)

On the same news-event Guardian made the following report:

Mr. Cameron “hailed Britain’s role in the intervention as ‘verysignificant’.” He “insisted Britain would remain a ‘full-spectrum player’ inthe future, despite defence cuts, and signalled further interventions may lieahead as he revealed that some members of the Arab League were ‘tougheningtheir stance’ over the situation in Syria.” “[T]here were ‘lots of lessons tolearn’ from the conflict in Libya, and that the government would ‘take our timelearning them’. Despite trumpeting Britain’s role, Cameron said there was adanger of people in the west ‘taking too much credit for themselves’ for whatwas really a Libyan triumph.” (“Libya intervention: British forces played keyrole, says Cameron”)

He “challenged House of Commons library figures that suggestedBritain had performed just 10% of all strike sorties, saying the figure wastwice that. ‘There were somewhere just less than 8,000 sorties,’ he insisted.‘Britain performed 1,600 of those, so around a fifth of strike sorties. That ispunching at our weight or even above our weight. We played a very importantrole, not just in the number of strike sorties but also in the fact that wewere there right from the beginning.” (ibid.)

“On the lack of intervention in Syria,” according to thereport, “he said Britain had ‘been in the vanguard in arguing for a tougherapproach’.” (ibid.)

Now, the following observations can be deduced: (1)Intervention is “justified” irrespective of pronouncements in the UN charter.(2) National interests of world powers are integrally connected with“revolution” in some other country. (3) Any south or central or east Asian orLatin American country can expect a Libya Intervention Experience (LIE) ifthere is any strategic resource in the country or the country is strategicallyimportant and intervention-able. (4) Junior partners of the Empire are not nowsuffering from inferiority complex. (5) The Empire has to be impressed. (6)Coming days may witness reinvigorated effort from the world metropolis toreinforce its hegemony.

Some other facts are there that help understand a “revolution”with companies’ “fair and logical benefits”:

“The race for Libya’s oil appears to have started: […] BP isalready holding talks with members of the interim government, while France’sforeign minister, Alain Juppé, said it was ‘fair and logical’ for its companiesto benefit.” (Guardian, “Libya: Gaddafi says he will fight to the end – livecoverage”)

“The [UK] government has admitted that the international development minister,Alan Duncan, took part in meetings between officials operating a Whitehall cellto control the Libyan oil market and Vitol – a company for which Duncan haspreviously acted as a consultant” said a Guardian report.

The report said:

“The ‘Libyan oil cell’ involved a group of officials working inthe Foreign Office since May waging a quiet campaign against Muammar Gaddafi’sregime by controlling the flow of oil in the country.

“It is said to have played a discreet but crucial role in thecampaign in Libya by helping to enforce the sanctions regime to prevent Gaddafiimporting and exporting oil while allowing oil to reach the rebels in the east.That oil came via one company, Vitol.

“Duncan, a former oil trader and multi-millionaire, has had a30-year friendship with the managing director of Vitol, Ian Taylor, at onepoint operating as a consultant to the company and as a non-executive directorto a subsidiary firm. Taylor has also been a Tory donor, declared on Duncan’sparliamentary register of interests.

“Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, said thegovernment’s disclosure of the existence of the oil cell was mired in mysteryabout Duncan’s role in it. ‘Given Alan Duncan’s reported links with Vitol thiscurious briefing from within government actually raises more questions than itanswers,’ he said.

“It is understood Vitol had been working with the rebels in theeast before the establishment of the cell but had struggled with the sanctionsin place amid concerns that Gaddafi was circumventing the restrictions whilethe rebels were suffering from them.

“Civil servants in the Foreign Office are known to haveexpressed deep concerns about the existence of the cell, warning that itappeared to be encroaching too far on commercial purposes. One person withknowledge of the Whitehall machinations described their mood as ‘mutinous’.

“Vitol is the largest trader of oil and refined products in theworld. The business […] buys and sells more oil and gas than household namessuch as BP and Shell.

“Vitol handles about 5m barrels a day and controls 200supertankers and other vessels to move it around the world. The company […]does not control the giant oil fields or petrol stations associated with thelikes of BP and Shell but does engage in exploration from Russia to WestAfrica, as well as storage and a host of other activities. It also turns overrevenues of more than $140bn (£87bn) in a good year. It has a presence in everyleading oil-producing country, including Iraq and Syria.

“Taylor has retained a good friendship with Duncan since thetwo met as oil traders at Shell. The Tory politician sat on the board of oilcompany Arawak until it was bought in 2009 by Vitol. As shadow leader of thehouse in 2008 Duncan declared donations in the register of members’ financialinterests that he received, via the Conservative party, from Taylor.

“Vitol was forced to pay $17.5m in fines in 2007 after pleadingguilty to providing kickbacks to Saddam’s Iraq under the oil-for-foodprogramme.

“The business also found itself in court in 1996 over oil dealsin Serbia. It transpired that a $1m payment had been made to the Serbian warcriminal Arkan and there had been a secret oil deal to provide SlobadanMilosevic’s Serbia with fuel.

“The company was also investigated in 1993 after selling280,000 tonnes of ‘contaminated’ oil to Pakistan’s state-owned power companycausing £100m worth of damage.” (“Government admits Alan Duncan’s links tocompany in ‘Libyan oil cell’”, Sept. 2, 2011)

“Good wishes” for “revolution” and its connections are nowcoming to light: “revolution” is “connected” with national interests of theworld powers and oil companies’ benefit, with “reputed” oil traders andminister! Everything is “fair” and “just” in war, revolution and friendship!Ethics and moral standing of “revolution stand” above all ethics and morality!These facts are helping people in countries learn lessons in a charged world.

Americans’ Disapproval Of “Spoiled Children” And “Disgusting Jokes”

2011-08-07T14:49:00.000+06:00

It will beinappropriate to discern results from recent polls on performance of the USCongress as a crisis. But it is significant. A number of polls show:significant percentage of the Americans taking part in the polls are not happywith their legislature and with both the parties. The disapproval is at itshistoric low, the lowest ever in more than three decades.

ACNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll showed only 14% of the respondentsapproved the Congress’ debt ceiling performance.

A CBSNews/New York Times poll showed that 82% of the respondents disapproved the wayCongress has conducted the debt ceiling job.

A PewResearch Center poll showed the overall dissatisfaction the respondents felt totheir legislators after the debt ceiling debate.

The CBSNews/New York Times poll indicated that more than 80% of the respondentsbelieved that the debt debate was more about political gain than about doingwhat was best for the US. About 75% opined that the debt negotiations harmed USimage abroad. It indicated an 84% disapproval rating. It showed that 77% ofrespondents believed that their elected officials acted like “spoiled children”during the debt ceiling talks. The NYT poll score was the worst score since itstarted asking Americans to rate Congress back in 1977.

The Pew pollasked the respondents’ feelings about their elected officials. “Ridiculous”,“disgusting”, “childish”, “joke”, and similar terms were used. This increasedthe negative listing to 72%. Only 2% responded positively.

Theprotracted debt ceiling debate brought the US government to the door ofshutdown. It was also facing a possible default for the first time in itshistory.

A singleperformance or a few days’ conducting of business by a state organization or asingle factor does not shape public attitude. Overall situation casts itsshadow on public perception. Condition of the US public is not happy one forlong time. This is reflected in public reactions/expressions, protest, etc.,and in a part of mainstream media despite capital’s control over it.

After thedefeat of the first bailout bill Time wrote: “There was a lack of trust, a lossof confidence, a popular revolt.” On voting no by the majority it wrote: “Thisis a remarkable event, the culmination of a historic sense of betrayal thatAmericans have long felt for their representatives in Washington. The[…]creditcrisis…exposed a much deeper and more fundamental problem: a crisis ofpolitical credibility that now threatens to harm our nation further[…]Theproblem has been growing for years. Roughly 28% of Americans approve ofPresident Bush. Roughly 18% of Americans approve of Congress. Now those lownumbers and majority of bad feelings have manifested themselves in the starkestof terms [….A] critical mass of voters refused to trust their leaders[…T]henation now risks great financial hardship, because there was no one to […]explain the situation.[…]Years ago, the trust between the people and theirpoliticians was broken. Credibility was lost. The reserve of goodwill wentbankrupt. And when they needed it most, our nation’s leaders found that theyhad squandered their ability to exert influence over the people who chose themto lead. (“The Bailout Defeat: A Political Credibility Crisis”)

The realityof lost credibility is much wide, and much deeper.

Joe Klein, aTime journalist, made an “Election Road Trip” in 2010. He traveled more than6,000 miles and “talked to dozens of politicians […] and hundreds of voters.The voters […] tended to be extremely frustrated with the nationalconversation[,] tended to be more anxious than angry.” He “found the samethemes dominant everywhere — a rethinking of basic assumptions, a moment ofnational introspection. There was a unanimous sense that Washington was brokenbeyond repair. But the disgraceful behavior of the financial community, and itsdebilitating effects on the American economy over the past 30 years, was theissue that raised the most passion, […] Many Americans also were confused andfrustrated by the constant state of war since […] 9/11. But for every occasionthey raised Afghanistan, they mentioned China 25 times; economics completelytrumped terrorism as a matter of concern.” (Time, “Encountering Anguish andAnxiety Across America”, Oct. 18, 2010)

Poverty,hunger, rich-poor gap, unemployment, bulldozing foreclosed houses, risingeducation costs, etc. are now almost overwhelming facts of American way oflife. The following New York datelined news report on pawn shops reveals atleast a part of common Americans’ way life.

“Profits atpawn shop operator Ezcorp Inc. have jumped by an average 46 percent annuallyfor five years. The stock has doubled from a year ago, to about $38.
“And companies profiting from their bad fortune will continue to do so.
“Among them:
“Stock in payday lender Advance America Cash Advance Centers (AEA) has doubled[…] to just under $8. Rival Cash America International Inc. (CSH) is up 64percent, to $58. Such firms typically provide high interest loans -- due onpayday -- to people who can’t borrow from traditional lenders.
“Profits at Encore Capital Group, a debt collector […] rose nearly 50 percentlast year. […]The stock (ECPG) is up 59 percent from a year ago, to more than$30.
“Stock in Rent-A-Center (RCII), which leases televisions, couches, computersand more, is up 57 percent from a year ago to nearly $32.
[…]
“On top of that, one in seven Americans now live below the poverty line, a17-year high.
[…]
“It’s that things could get worse -- making customers too poor to borrow or buyeven from these outfits. Rent-A-Center, the furniture store, is alreadysuffering. Some of its core low-income shoppers have seen money they would havespent leasing a couch or cocktail table eaten up by rising food and fuel bills.
“[…]According to Nick Mitchell, an analyst at Northcoast Research, wealthiercustomers, say those making $45,000, are feeling so strapped lately thatthey’re starting to rent furniture, too.” (AP, “How bad is it? Pawn shops,payday lenders are hot down on the US?”, July 8, 2011)

The newsreport shows the US citizens’ living reality: increasing poverty or tougheconomic condition engulfing many and increasing profit of capital that thriveson tough economic condition. At the same time, the citizens are coming acrossnews/information on life of the ultra-rich, human and financial costs of wars,and performance of elected representatives. These and similar incidents areinfluencing public perception. Strong anguish, rejection, desperation, etc. arebeing reflected in many ways including through trifling and sarcastic style. Asurvey result shows a part of the style.

A North Carolinabased Public Policy Polling’s survey results, released on July 21, 2011, foundthat 52% of the 928 respondents approve of the job the Almighty’s done while 9%disapprove. A question in the survey was: “If God exists, do you approve ordisapprove of its performance?” The news report presenting the survey findingsaid: “So about half the public isn’t too thrilled with the way God ishandling, well, everything.” (The Atlantic Wire, “Only 52% of Americans Approveof God's Job Performance”, Jul 21, 2011)

Disapprovalof a politician or another carries a significance, and disapproval of aninstitution or an organ of state carries another significance. The significancein the case of institution is more than in cases of individuals (obviously withexceptions). The difference is more in terms of quality than quantity.

The ironies,disapproval, etc. expressed in the above mentioned polls, etc. are not finaland static expression of public “mind”. There is no doubt that the Congress’approval rating will improve. But this may again dip down. However, the “mind”will develop further despite manipulation by capital controlled media asmedia’s manipulation power is not stronger than facts of life. At one stage,facts of life overwhelm media’s power as media cannot fill stomach although itcan make one feel happy for a certain period. But hard facts of hard life throwaway manipulated feeling of happiness. Media can stuff itself with celebritygossips and photographs, but cannot keep people aloof and apolitical for longtime from the feeling of suffering. That feeling leads people to search for thecauses of suffering.