Toward Sino-Russian Comprehensive Strategic Relationship

Russia and China are in a chorus after their recent Libya experience. The old foes turned friends are moving toward, as Chinese president Hu Jintao said, a “comprehensive strategic relationship.” Putin, the Russian leader, found no problem “in the political and humanitarian fields at all.”

Putin is not happy with the US. The former KGB boss with the dream 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 is parasitic. “The US is not a parasite for the world economy, but the US dollar’s monopoly is a parasite”, Putin said in an interview with Chinese state media.

Almost at the same time, as an initial response to the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act that the US Senate passed, and that till now verbally threatens to punish China for undervaluing its currency, China condemned the US.

The condemnation, essentially a political reaction, shows that China now stands for free trade, stands for WTO, an essential arrangement for almost global capital. Capital in its voyages to expansion required “free” trade. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said: The bill is essentially trade protectionism, a serious violation of WTO rules. The Chinese commerce ministry 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 a trade war. Beijing will retaliate in case the bill turns into a law by taxing US multinationals in China.

China, however, still prefers to avoid confrontation with the US. 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 Mao followers, now, like to depoliticize economy. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said: “We should […] resist politicization of economic and trade issues, and safeguard the healthy development of Sino-US relations.” A dream indeed! Economic and trade issues in modern world is fully politicized.

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

Many multinational companies oppose the US legislative initiative, which is still now a political posture. John Boehner, the House Speaker, also dislikes the legislation. To him, the legislative action is like dictating another country. He apprehends that dictating another country’s currency policies would be dangerous. House Republican leaders agree with many business groups that action against China could result in a trade war. The Obama government prefers diplomacy instead of the legislation that might violate international trade rules. Critics warn that it will provoke Chinese retaliation 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 its politics. 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 cheap China labor. That part, not totally “communist” capital, has to be kept profitable. That part needs the US market. Even, cheaper commodities from “friendly” capitals will enter the US market and engage into competition if Chinese commodities are pushed away with the power of legislation. Market is really difficult! “Free” market is much more! Profit reigns there. This compels capital to dictate market for making market “free”. It is capital’s dictatorship, 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 China visit, an annual diplomatic ritual. The diplomatic act commemorated the 10th anniversary of Russia-China treaty of “Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation”.

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

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

Russia’s learning with the EU and NATO close-ship is not a happy one. NATO troops are training at the Russian border, in Georgia. It’s NATO’s first military training center in the Caucasus. With a vigorous posture France is trying to take an active role in the area. Ukraine and Georgia are moving closer to NATO. A chain of NATO missile defense systems stretches along the Russian border, from Turkey through Romania and Poland to Norway. The US and Romania signed an agreement on deployment of US missile defense system by 2015 at a Romanian Air Force Base. A few hundred US military personnel will be stationed there also. A few elements of EUROPRO system will be installed in Turkey. Everything indicates that the US military machine and NATO are encircling Russia.

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

Russia, the world’s largest energy producer, and China, the world’s top energy consumer, are expanding cooperation in areas of energy and military technology. The former rivals, and now occasional partners in diplomacy, have already resolved their boundary conflict. They have held a number of 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 in 2010 with commercial turnover of $59 bn. This year, it may exceed $70 bn. The partners 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 economic and trade deals worth over $7 bn that include China’s investment of $1.5 bn in a Siberian aluminum smelter and $1 bn into a joint investment fund.

Russia wants more Chinese investment. The energy giant began supplying oil to China through the 1,000 km Skovorodino-Daqing pipeline on January 1, 2011 boosting China’s energy security and entering a reliable energy market.

These deals, partnership, will impact regions. Russia and China will not be lone actors in these regions. Ruling elites in the region have varying types of relations with geopolitical giants. South Asia will not be a far 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 possible scenarios as the political situation in the world is taking complicated and unexpected turns. At a Moscow press conference Makarov said: The world situation especially in North Africa and the Middle East is constantly changing. “What happened in these regions was difficult to predict and the events developed at a tremendous speed. No one can tell now what will happen there. However, this is a signal for all states. We, the military, must be ready for the worst scenarios”, said the Russian general.

Pawns and lackeys in the Third and Fourth Worlds will, if tricky enough, find opportunities to have a better prize from masters in this increasing rivalry. Faction(s) of ruling classes in these societies will enter into deals with the geopolitical actors. A few of them may have scope, at least temporarily, to withstand masters’ pressures. In turn, masters will find out trusted lackeys to replace disobedient friends. Lackeys will appear on stage with masks of civility, democracy, poverty alleviation, etc. only to ensure masters’ interests. Political strife and upheaval in some of these societies is in the waiting. Countries in south-east and south Asia are vulnerable to this changing balance of power.

Gradually increasing competition for market and source of raw materials leading to rivalry will influence democratic movement in Third and Fourth 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 to install new pawn.

It’s Now, Occupy World Wide

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

It stands opposed to capital’s globalization that is going for centuries but that has failed to make this world livable. All around the globe, capitalism, its ideology and political systems in all variations are being questioned, criticized, condemned, and rejected. Even, political leaders cannot now 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 rightful claims made by people.

Even, main stream media cannot now ignore the people’s struggles, sometimes sporadic, isolated, unorganized and immature, sometimes lacking clear vision, and sometimes lacking mooring in proper perspective and politics. 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 that is exerting pressure on status quo. Status quo, its politics and politicians, its arrangements and facades, its tricks and theatrical moves, its demagogues and 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 of lofty goal: a peaceful, mutually tolerant, decent life free from greed. The struggles, small and smaller, big and bigger, are, as a whole, creating force for 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 frustrated and [...] the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works.”

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

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

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

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

Newt Gingrich, another Presidential candidate, told CBS that he agreed that the protests are “a natural product of Obama’s class warfare.” “We have had a strain of hostility to free enterprise. And frankly a strain of hostility to classic America starting in our academic institutions and spreading 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 radio address, 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 get rid of in the city - the people that work in finance, which is a big part of our economy - go away, we’re not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean the parks or anything else”, he said.

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

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

The pronouncements/observations tell respective economic-political position. But, the fact is: at least for now, and till a rightist onslaught begins, it is not possible to ignore people’s aspiration and indignation. All and everyone have to reveal respective position in terms of capital and classes. One of the gains the movements have made: expose status quo, 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 stream tell: “Wall Street protests hit 70 US cities”, “Wall Street protest movement spreads to cities across US, Canada and Europe”. Similar many are there. The movement organizers claimed: In the US and around the world, there are now 1,257 Occupy Together communities.

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

Brussels

AFP reported: Hundreds of ‘Indignants’ from France, the Netherlands and Spain set up camp in Elisabeth Park in Brussels on October 8 to protest EU-ordered austerity measures. Belgian protesters joined them. Defying a 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 alternative parliament in the park in October 8-15. The protesters informed: police have been deployed around the park with dog handlers, mounted police and a bus for mass arrests. The authorities had banned the group from setting up camp there as the park had no running water. The local mayor suggested the protesters to move into a Flanders University empty building. The EU leaders will meet in a summit, 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 protest on Westminster Bridge in central London on October 9 to highlight the health and social care bill. Unfurling banners reading “Save our NHS” the protesters dressed up as medics sat down and blocked the bridge. Hundreds of police looked on. UK Uncut, the anti-cuts group that organized the Block the Bridge, Block the Bill demonstration, said: “Today has brought together doctors, nurses, parents, students, unions, pensioners and children together in an unprecedented act of mass civil disobedience. We are occupying the bridge because the bill would be bad for the NHS, bad for patients and bad for society.” The protest drew support from people across the UK. Sam, a therapy radiographer from London, said: “The NHS is the greatest invention in this country's history, providing universal healthcare for all. If it is sold to private companies this will no longer be the case.” Susan Secher, 53, a human resources manager from London said: “…the bill is being pushed through and this is our last chance to stop it and people are becoming desperate.” Janet Bennett, a pensioner who had traveled down from Liverpool said: “The NHS is so important to people in this country and we need to stand up and protect it from this creeping privatization, and this is why I am here today.” The bill is due to go before the House of Lords this week. (Matthew Taylor, “Protesters Against NHS Privatization Occupy Westminster 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 political agenda and taking over of public educational institutions. Now, about 200 state elementary and high schools and a dozen universities are being occupied by students in Chile. Weekly protest marches throughout the country find 50,000-100,000 students on average. There are protest marches by thousands of students in Santiago. Recently, downtown Santiago saw protesting youth, tear gas, and arrest of more than hundred students.

One of the occupied schools is the Carmela Carvajal primary and secondary school, Chile’s one of the most successful state schools. Dozens of girl students of the school, the country’s most prestigious girl’s school, are living a revolution since May. They held a vote after taking over the school to approve the takeover. About half of the 1,800 students participated in the polls. The yays outnumbered the nays 10 to one. The five-month occupation shows no signs of dying.

They are still fighting for their goal: free university education for all. The student-occupied school is a wired reality of a generation that boasts the communication tools that feisty young rebels of history never dreamed of. When police forces come closer, the students use Facebook chat sessions to mobilize. Within minutes, they rally support groups from 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 we yell ‘Mauricio’ really loud, he leaves his home and comes over.”

Sleeping on a tiled classroom floor and using classroom chairs to barricade themselves they are always on the lookout for police raids. Authorities have repeatedly attempted to retake the school, police were sent to evict 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 it back.

Guest lecturers provide free classes on topics ranging from economics to astronomy. Extracurricular classes are there. Rock bands perform on weekends. Neighbors donate foods. So much food is donated that the Carmela Carvajal students 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. The school rules now include several new decrees: no sex, no boys and no booze. A few students tried to bring in alcohol, but they were caught and punished. As punishment 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 has been the most intensive education of their life.

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

The students’ unified front is supported by an estimated 6 of 10 adults in Chile, far higher than the country’s political coalitions or President Pinera. (“Chilean Girls Stage ‘Occupation’ of Their Own School in Education Rights Protest”, Oct. 8, 2011)

Greece

In Greece, demonstrators are blocking government agencies and clashing with government thugs amid plumes of tear gas. Workers and employees are staging job actions. Almost everyday a sector is on strike. Demonstrations become more massive and more organized. “[C]lass oriented trade unions and anti-monopoly coalitions of the self employed take up initiatives, through meetings at the work places, at neighborhoods…” Students move on to huge demonstrations. In a correspondence with In These Times, George Pontikos of the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), described a steady escalation of militancy across a growing swath of Greek society. (“While Wall Street Quakes, Greece’s Fire Still Burns Bright”, In These Times, Oct. 7, 2011)

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

MSM

Main stream media initially tried to ignore the movement. But it failed. That’s because of power of society, which MSM always tries to manipulate. 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, in favor of people’s aspirations and questions section of capital.

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

Further indicating the non-responsive political system, the editorial 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 […] there might not be a need for these marches and rallies.”

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

Citing the Occupy Wall Street protest as “more than a youth uprising” and “the first line of defense against a return to the Wall Street ways that plunged the nation into an economic crisis from which it has yet to emerge” 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 and elected officials, it said: “The protests […] are exactly right”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

MSM in the periphery initially followed its masters: totally ignore the movement, total disregard to the movement. But, now, “things” are changing. A section of the peripheral MSM, talks in the tone of movement participants, questions speculators, criticizes failures of capitalism. It’s not because of only advancement of the movement, but also because of power of capitalism’s failure, power of people’s mood, and need of the section to secure it consumers and credibility.

Solidarity from afar

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

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

Cut Down Ratings And The Split In Europe

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

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

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

But Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, does not care about those ratings, it seems. He trusts market, which is now ravaging people. A confident Frattini said: “markets don’t care much about the role of Fitch, Moody’s and company.” However, the Spanish economy ministry expressed “respect” to the downgrading decision. It seemed, the political representatives of the financial elites are confused with their tools, domain and approach. A confused 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 banks are over-exposed to peripheral euro zone debt.

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

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

Banks and financial firms, cruel characters appearing comical at current time, are one of the stakes of the entire system. Capital cannot dream to let these drown. The European banks, as the IMF estimates, need up to 200 billion euros. Paris wants to use the EFSF, the euro rescue fund, to recapitalize 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 behaving in a way that can be perceived by capital rational.

Greece has also made impact on the Belgian-Franco municipal lender Dexia, which is facing the threat of becoming the first major European institution to fall victim to the eurozone debt crisis. France and Belgium are arguing over respective taxpayers’ share to salvage it. The two countries plan to 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 escape route, which is virtually stealing public money.

Greece standing on the brink of bankruptcy has created a buoyant investment market, for which capital was counting days. Germany having high stake in Greece is now trying to grab a bigger part of the country by taking the role of advisor there. Already, the German government has voted in favor of a European bailout fund to aid Greece. Germany now has offered its civil servants and banking experts to Greece with the task of showing salvation path: cut down red tape, set up a new state bank, formulate laws, attract private investment, design project finance, etc. The German consultants will bring salvation!

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

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

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

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

The people in the UK, as people of other countries, are paying the price. Citing PricewaterhouseCoopers guardian.co.uk informs: British workers going to retire with private pensions will be facing harder days as their pension incomes are substantially less than three years back. Overall pension 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 social level, will produce.

Dance With People: A Choreographer's Creation

People participate in dance. Artists dance with people. Dance turn people's domain, their way of expression. It is neither 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 roots of the dances Tango, Conga and Habanera, has created the artist, who is taking dance among people. He is Narciso.

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

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

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

He is now “more uninhibited, more natural, in terms of the performance, not doing anything technical, elitist, which could make the public feel that distancing, but to bring them closer to the dancers.” For that reason he 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 hours of 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 enter into a world which I create while I am dancing, teaching. Dance entered into me and I entered into dance. We have gone about creating a good couple. Dancing is to feel alive. Dancing is an irresistible fever.”

Narciso also creates short stories and poems, but dance ensnares him. He has the novel Ojo de la vida and essays including “ El suspendido vuelo del ángel creador ”, “The suspended flight of a creative angel”, 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 going to be published for secondary schools where creative dance is going to be an obligatory subject, and one of the teaching materials will be its text. The first part is Educación sico-corporal para la danza , Psycho-physical education 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 written word satisfies me at the end of the day, but I have had more of a field in dance.”

Narciso (Guantánamo, 1961) graduated from the National School of Art (ENA) in 1981, the year he joined what is now the Danza Contemporánea de Cuba company. He stayed there for more than 10 years as solo dancer and principal choreographer. With his company founded in 1993 “he has achieved his own language, mixing with ease diverse styles and trends.” This brought famous international prizes and distinctions including a Special Mention at the International Choreography Competition in Lausanne and First Prize in the 9th Creative Dance Competition, Saitama , Japan . Cuba has decorated him with the National Choreography Prize for Metamorfosis in 1986; the National Juvenile Choreography Prize for Caverna Mágica in 1987; the National Choreography Prize for Un Grano de Oro in 1994; and a prize for Ligero de Equipaje at the 2nd International Choreography and Interpretation Competition. Framed within a distinct style, Metamorfosis is laden with international prizes including one from Maurice Bejart, a celebrity in world choreography for its presentation in Switzerland .

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

Labor Supports The Occupy Wall Street Movement

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

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO president said: “Wall Street’s out of control”. On the Occupy Wall Street Movement he said: “[I]t’s a […] valid tactic 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’s largest industrial union representing workers employed in metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining, atomic energy, airline, health care, service and 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 and strongly supports Occupy Wall Street. The brave men and women, many of them young people without jobs, who have been demonstrating around-the-clock for nearly 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 have inflicted pain on far too many for far too long.

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

Wall Street and its counterparts on Bay Street (Toronto), The City (London) and across the world tanked our economy in 2008. They caused a crisis that we’re still suffering from - record job losses, home foreclosures, cuts to schools, public services, police, fire and so much more. They’ve gambled 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 left out. And now they want us to go down the same path.

The Occupy Wall Street Movement represents what most Americans believe: Enough is 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 pay their fair share. It’s time to stand and fight for the creation of real wealth by focusing on making real things and creating family- and community-supporting jobs.

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

According to Village Voice, the historically militant Transport Workers Union that primarily represents workers in the public transportation system and at some private bus lines in the New York City metropolitan area has unanimously voted to back, and provide food and services to the Occupy Wall Street Movement. The TWU plans to assemble on October 5 and march to Zuccotti Park, the place the protesters are staying. The union counts 38,000 active members and covers 26,000 retirees.

In a statement the union applauded the courage of the young people on Wall Street, and said: “the shared sacrifice preached by government officials looks awfully like a one-way street. Workers and ordinary citizens are putting up all the sacrifice, and the financiers who imploded our economy are getting away scot-free, increasing their holdings and bonuses. Young people face a bleak future with high unemployment, and minimum wage jobs. Public sector workers face Mayors and Governors who demand massive wage and benefits givebacks or face thousands of layoffs. That’s not bargaining. That’s blackmail.”

The statement said that the union’s Executive Board is united in their “determination that this state of affairs is dangerous for America and destructive to its citizenry. We support the Wall Street protesters and their goal 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 labor and community outreach organizations having a total membership of over 1 million. These are United NY, Strong Economy for All Coalition, Working Families Party, VOCAL-NY, Community Voices Heard, Alliance for Quality Education, 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 on Occupy Wall Street said: “The workers who build America – the half-million men and women of LIUNA – are united behind the fight against corporate tyranny and for economic prosperity for all and stand with the Occupy Wall Street Movement in New York City and across the United States.” It should be mentioned that the half-million members of LIUNA are on the forefront of the construction industry, a powerhouse of workers.

He said:

The most valuable asset in America isn’t Wall Street, it is working people. Yet in America today, millions of working people are jobless and are losing their homes, their hopes and their dreams. Meanwhile, corporations are making record profits and the most profitable among them pay no 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 on working people and unions in states across the country and in Washington, D.C. Wall Street caused our economic crisis, and yet corporations are attempting to force working people to pay for it. The only way to turn back the assault is to strengthen unions and build movements, such as Occupy Wall Street.

Professors at the City University of New York affiliated with the Professional Staff Congress union have taken a number of labor-oriented solidarity actions. Their group, Solidarity with OWS, is organizing demonstration against police abuse. Their academic allies include Frances Fox Piven, Christian Parenti, and Stanley Aronowitz. (Michelle Chen, “Labor Movement Rolls Into 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 York Metro SEIU 32BJ) was “re-purposing a previously planned rally on Oct. 12 to express solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protesters”. Kwame Patterson, the 32BJ spokesperson said: “The call went out over a month ago, before actually the occupancy of Wall Street took place.” Now, “we’re all coming under one cause, even though we have our different initiatives.”

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

The movement is spreading. The main stream media (MSM) now inform this fact. ABC News said: “The protests have spread across the country, with events popping up in Boston and Chicago in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. … [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 York and Boston, an Occupy Chicago movement has emerged, with nearly 100 people gathering in front of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. The protests have been peaceful and no arrests have been reported. Occupy Los Angeles protests which have also been small in numbers, has called for a march today ...” (Oct 1, 2011) The Telegraph/UK carried news with the headline “Occupy Wall Street Protests Spread across US”. It said: “Inspired by the events in New York City, protesters begin assembling in several cities across the U.S. … [M]ore demonstrations began to spring up across the U.S. In Los Angeles, protesters gathered in front of City Hall and danced on buses with ‘peace’ emblazoned on the side. A smaller protest was held in Chicago’s financial district where protesters held placards demanding ‘Jobs Not Cuts’. Protesters also turned out in Denver, gathering downtown before marching into the city chanting, ‘Occupy the streets’.” (Oct. 2, 2011)

The protest organizers/sympathetic websites claimed that many events, demonstrations, and assemblies were held around the US including in Atlanta, San Diego, and San Jose in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Around 200 protesters in Boston took to the streets. An Occupy Chicago event also began on Sept. 23. At least 52 cities in America are occupied or organizing as the protesters claimed. Web sites are cropping up in increasing number that reflects the expansion of the movement. Occupy Together is playing a role of broader banner.

Sister campaigns with names like Occupy Chicago, the protesters claimed, have emerged in Albuquerque, Arkansas, Austin, Binghamton, Birmingham, Boise, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Clarksville, Cleveland, Columbus, Colorado Springs, Columbus, D.C., Dallas, Daytona Beach, Durham, Eugene, Hartford, Houston, Indiana, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Knoxville, Las Vegas, 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, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Spokane, Tulsa, Tampa, Tallahassee, Tucson, Vermont, Winston Salem, Wisconsin.

San Francisco: Occupy the San Francisco Financial District kicked off outside the Bank of America (BoA) building, also known as the “Wall Street of the West.” Approximately 150 people including members of US Uncut and the Revolutionary Poets Brigade, as well as people of all ages and students participated in the opening rally. After a couple of hours, one group marched through a street while the other met in a public assembly. Then, a small group of campers formed and stayed the night. A small camp came up. The camp is growing. There are now daily meetings at the camp and General Assemblies every Saturday.

Huffington Post reported Mayoral candidate and city Supervisor John Avalos initiated the San Francisco march with a speech: “[T]his [BoA] building right here is a symbol of the incredible greed and wealth that has accumulated into fewer 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 national banks and invest in small, community-like banks. The demonstrators marched down to Charles Schwab, surrounding the building and chanting, “Charles Schwab, give us 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. They were 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 US government plans to assemble on October 6, 2011. The assembly will be in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street, and the increasing “number of cities whose people will no longer sit back watching corporate and special interests run their government.”

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

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

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

Movement’s Media: The MSM tried to black out news of the movement. 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’s unwillingness to accommodate the movement led the movement participants to devise their medium to communicate. Now, there is The Occupied Wall Street Journal. “It debuted on [October 1] with a print run of 50,000, after two independent journalists in New York started a campaign using the online fund-raising platform Kickstarter. The four-page broadsheet includes a story […] headlined ‘The Revolution Begins at Home’, an essay by the former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges urging people to participate in the protests, and a ‘Declaration of the Occupation’ approved at a meeting of protesters 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 disseminating hard facts. In their Fifth Communiqué the 99 percent cited the following information:

On September 21, 2011, the richest 400 Americans owned more wealth than half of the country’s population; about 80% of Americans thought the country was on the wrong track; about one-sixth of Americans did not have work; the same ratio lived in poverty; about 50 million Americans were without health 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 wealth inequality, 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 of number, is in its formative stage. It is also true, there are a lot of weaknesses and weak connections. Many factors are yet to be identified. It will be an illusion that the movement will provide people a full fledged public space, and compel capital’s greed to compromise within a short time. But it’s part 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, the movement is significant. Even, its mistakes will be valuable assets as these will act as teacher. The voice of the section of labor, a part of broader society, extending its support to the movement is significant also.

“The movements suggest”, Michelle Chen writes, “a general trajectory of grassroots organizing: a spark of protest led by younger activists, followed by the support of labor organizations, bringing up the rear and then moving to the fore.” “[T]he movement is organically structured, with no formal ‘list of demands’ yet […] Not everyone came to Wall Street knowing exactly 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

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

In Greece , the number of suicides has increased, surging up by 40% in a year. The help lines overflow with calls: 5,000 in the first eight months of 2011 compared with 2,500 for the entire last year. ( The Telegraph , Sept. 26, 2011 & guardian.co.uk , Sept. 24, 2011 )

Shop closures in the country's Attica region that includes Athens have reached 15% since the crisis began. Of the 3,421 stores sampled in a study in the region, 505 have been closed down, the study by the National Confederation of Hellenic Commerce informs. Citing the study conducted in July 19-30 daily Kathimerini reports: in central Athens , 215 businesses out 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 who roam the streets; in the spiraling number of drug addicts; in the psychiatric patients ejected from institutions that can no longer offer them a place; in the thousands of shop owners forced to close and board up businesses; in those who forage through municipal rubbish bins at night; and in the pensioners who make do with rejects at fruit and vegetable markets.” The income of the average household 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 to receive free food or medical treatment. Now, to their intense anger, some Greeks are being forced to join these queues: 39 per cent of the country's under 24s are unemployed.” ( The Telegraph , op.cit.)

Austerity measures are pushing the people to protest. A 48-hour strike by all transport workers is expected within days. Days back, the Athens metro, tram and suburban rail workers went on a 24-hour strike; buses and trolleys stopped operating for hours; air traffic controllers refused to work overtime. 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”, a government spokesman informed. The youths held up a banner: “Stop watching and get out onto the streets”. ( AFP , Sept. 25, 2011 ) Students are occupying more than 30 schools for weeks. The authority has asked the protesters 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 building of the University of Athens rectorate. The Technical University of Crete, the Panteion University and schools of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki are occupied by students. They hung banners and shouted slogans against the participation of enterprises in research programs of university, and the new law. They planned the same step in the Technological Institutes of Athens and Piraeus , and in other universities in Athens and other cities. Students are organizing general meetings in universities. September's exam in the University of Patras was postponed so that general assemblies of students could take place. ( GR , Aug. 30, 2011 )

Quoting the education minister the newspaper Ta Nea informed that for this school year, 600 teachers would be appointed while 6,000 would be retiring, and the number of substitute teachers would be decreased by 50% in comparison with last year. The minister “assured” that there would be no vacancies at schools. She warned that 2,000 schools would be merged and all the teachers would have full working hours. ( GR , Aug. 18, 2011 )

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

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

Crime and environment of lawlessness, a variety of challenge to status quo, is spreading. “Thefts and break-ins almost doubled between 2007 and 2009. Hostility to migrants […] has become widespread and unconcealed.” ( The Telegraph , op. cit.) Incidents of arson in different areas of the country over the last few months have been reported by the local press. The young in growing numbers are either leaving the country to find jobs or going back to the rural areas. It is being considered as “the biggest emigration wave since the 1960s.”

There is, “a lot of uncertainty, […] a lot of fear. For the first time in decades, people are really frightened. They're afraid of the future” said Yannis Caloghirou, an economics professor at the National Technical University of Athens. “Greeks feel like they are in a bad dream”, said Fotini Tsalikoglou, a prominent psychology professor. “A common thread that unites people is the experience of fear and desperation.” A collective sense of depression, analysts said, has also set in. This sense is more dangerous 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 those who have become increasingly impoverished [… P]anic was heard in the voices of the ruling elite. ‘People, justifiably, think the crisis is what we're going through now: cuts in wages, pensions and incomes, fewer prospects for the young,' said the Greek finance minister […], looking visibly drained […‘T]he crisis will be […] the complete collapse of the economy, institutions, the social fabric and the country's productive base.' Greeks no longer believe what their 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 end of the tunnel, no source of hope,' said Dr Thanos Dokos who directs Eliamep, a thinktank in Athens .” (ibid.)

Tale of a Family

Dmitris Andreou, a businessman, and his wife Mary, an English teacher, find their savings exhausted, and disposable income dropped by about 50% in two years. In some days, they only buy the basics and in others, they are not able to buy even those. They have to count “cents to decide between buying bread, milk or butter.” They don't buy clothes any more. “People don't go out. There is simply no money around out there”, Mary informs. They had to cancel cable TV subscription. The chances of a university education for their school-going two daughters are evaporating. “Right now though, they have more pressing problems. At the two girls' secondary school, the autumn term has started without textbooks. The pupils have been handed CDs instead.” ( The Telegraph , op. cit.)

Bigger Danger

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

Antonis Papayiannidis publishes Economic Monthly . Antonis warns: ‘In an almost detached way people have just watched the catastrophe happening to them. They were very displeased but they did not erupt. They became withdrawn and they are still withdrawn. But it could erupt very 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 higher education. Teachers and students have protested the state education reform law. Athens Polytechnic teachers called a 48-hour strike. The students are organizing general assemblies to assess the situation and to decide on their next move. The University  of Athens has dismissed the bill. Many universities have already asked the vigilance of the academic community.  The Polytechnic Schools of Athens and Crete postponed the September exams as the students' unions meetings will take place. The University of Crete decided to follow any legal procedures against the new law. ( GR , July 20, 2011 )

Nine hundred world famous academics from 43 countries including Noam Chomsky expressed their opposition to the policy followed by the government in higher education in Greece  and their solidarity to their Greek colleagues. They said: The reform having devastating consequences in higher education undermines the prospect of research and teaching within Greek universities and will be another blow to the afflicted Greek society and economy. They proposed adequate public funding of higher education. ( GR , Aug. 20, 2011 ) The left wing political parties' supporters consider that the law will destroy the universities, and undermine critical thought, the scientific knowledge and the ability of students to fight for their rights. ( GR , Aug. 27, 2011 )

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

An Exhibition

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

For capitalism, the present day Greece is almost unique. The system encountered debt problem in its periphery. But, here, the case is a developed capitalist country near to the center. Contradictions are active among the dominating “partners”, actually contenders, of the system having stakes in Greece . All the “partners” are trying to secure and expand respective interest. It's a partnership in competition. None of the “partners” have capacity to initiate actions independently. All the contenders need all of them. It's a unity of disunity. Within the Greek ruling elites, dissent will be heard, and fractures will appear. That will be a contradiction between interests, not a reflection of sense of dignity. But they will remain united on the fundamental question of common destiny: accumulate, even in distress condition.

Further austerity measures will “assist” anguish and frustrations overwhelm public life. Apathy, inertia and a desperate psychology will cohabit. The state, the maharaja s – the World Bank, the IMF, the bankers, the Brussels bureaucrats – and broadly, the system will come under scrutiny 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 and establish illogic as logic they also carry the capacity to erode their own legitimacy. But in the process, adventurism and anarchism may find fertile ground strengthening forces of reaction in absence of a lead by a class conscious politics.

Europe And Economy: Looming Dark Clouds

Dark clouds loom over Europe and the US and the time to tackle the problem is short. None but the International Monetary Fund and the UK chancellor make the warning. As desperate capital continues to press people with intolerable burdens Europe, broadly, is now a continent of protests, demonstrations, strikes, and possible political upheavals.

As the UK chancellor George Osborne warned that the time was running out, only “six weeks”, to end the eurozone debt crisis, and the world’s share markets experienced another volatile week, Christine Lagarde, the IMF chief warned: “There are dark clouds over Europe and there is huge uncertainty in the US. And with that we could risk a collapse in global demand.” Lagarde advised countries to collectively “act now”. “We are linked by a common destiny.” She assumes that the “turbulent times” is the bond of unity. She was speaking 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 was three years ago”.

But capital is failing to unite. There are voices in Europe to force out of eurozone some countries including Greece. There are also talks of abandoning the zone. Signs of fracture in the bond of capitals’ “unity” should not astonish onlookers.

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

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

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

News from the center and near-enter of the globe was not encouraging: the US Federal Reserve’s warning that the US economy is facing significant 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 stability of banking systems and financial markets” by November failed to impress investors. Markets declined to listen to leaders, loyal believers of market. The debt crisis in Europe is haunting the market leaders. World markets on September 22 made their deepest dip in more than a month. Fears of a double-dip recession have come back.

The European Commission apprehends “a virtual standstill” in economic growth in the eurozone in the second half of 2011. Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, warned in August that the sovereign debt crisis was spreading beyond the periphery of the eurozone.

The euro, since officially coming into existence in 1999, is in crisis. With an accumulated public debt reaching 100% of GDP on average in the OECD countries, uncontrollable fiscal deficits, and unemployment, all creations of ruling elites, a permanent bailout fund with about 500bn euros, the European Stability Mechanism, now stands guard against failures. But powerful crisis is declining to surrender. Rather, anguish is brewing up even within establishment. Greece with its debts of 300bn euros, 113% of GDP, the highest in modern history, is feeling that it has been, as the Greek finance minister complained, “blackmailed and humiliated” and made a “scapegoat” for the EU’s incompetence.

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

Without the continued payments, Greece is set to run out of cash 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 to receive a huge EU/IMF bailout - 78bn euros. Its rating has been cut down four times since 2009. With 21% unemployment, the highest rate in the EU, Spain is feeling the grinding weight of freewheeling capital. As its growth has slowed Germany plans to cut the budget deficit by record 80bn euros by 2014. “Poor” Greek capital, considered a junk, is seems planning to pull down the mighty German economy. France plans to cut spending. Romance with Greek banks has created a threat to the French bankers busy to don Napoleon’s coat in Africa. The UK, a proud partner of the Empire, now owns the biggest cuts in state spending since World War II. Eurozone cannot bail out the trans-Mediterranean warrior, Italy, with the highest total debt in the eurozone and stagnant growth. With a collapsed banking system and rating cut down five times since 2009 the Irish Republic is standing as a threat to the British banks. Small Cyprus has not been spared by the powerful bankers.

Capitalism is trying to find out its survival path, eternal growth with finite resource base and a fragile world ecology. The monopoly finance capital is playing; playing with its speculation tools, time, and peoples’ hardship and misery. It declines to admit that its options are running out. It has competition within its camp. But they dream to bury the competitions with nice promises that they know are hollow. They also deny people’s limits of patience, an exercise with ignorance.

Allowing markets function with the least possible government intervention has proved wrong. Now market believers look for intervention. Now, section of mainstream admits that “fundamental principles of capitalism - that human beings are rational and markets behave rationally, and that markets will assign prices - are flawed…. That game is over ….capitalism has essentially hit a 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, family tax benefits, and subsidies to parents, cap on wages and bonuses, increased health care fees, raised retirement age, freezed/slowed down recruitment, frozen salaries, and closing down of schools are the “gifts” financial elites are now presenting to, broadly, the Eurozone people. They have planned to sale out ports, airports, land and mining rights, telephone, water and electricity services, refineries, and many more public assets. It seems the finance elites are going to formally and privately own almost entire countries but the social responsibility. There is also a “golden rule” in the constitution of a country, Spain, to keep future budget deficits to a strict limit. In an European country, France, the highest earners will be required to pay an extra 1% income tax while working people in other countries will “contribute” more by sacrificing much higher portion of their income.

Vigorously unpopular austerity budgets now are degrading life of common people in countries in Europe. Thousands of Romanian police officers went on strike over their pay cut. Protests have spread across Europe. European cities are witnessing marches against new austerity measures. Trade unions are vowing bigger protests.

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

The Wall Street Protest

Hundreds of protesters are occupying the Wall Street for the last few days while the global economy enters a dangerous new phase. The protesters are voicing against corporate greed. Police guarded the Bull, the symbol of Wall Street, said caption of a photograph accompanying a news report. Occupy Wall Street, an online group, called upon people to “flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.”

“The global economy has entered a dangerous new phase,” said Olivier Blanchard, the IMF’s chief economist. “Markets have clearly become more skeptical 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 its economic 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 1.8 percent in 2012. That’s down from its June forecast of 2.5 percent in 2011 and 2.7 percent next year.” The IMF says, the US economy “faces longer-lasting problems 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 as Zuccotti Park on Broadway and Liberty St., had settled in, partially helped by pizza, hot chocolate and blankets paid for and delivered by their supporters in New York City and across the US. The [protest] began after months of planning and encouragement by Adbusters [an internationally distributed ad-free bi-monthly magazine] …They were soon joined by the hacktivist organization Anonymous in calling for a general people’s assembly.” (Manny Jalonschi, “The Wall Street Occupation: A Sleep-In Protest in the Shadow of Power”, The Independent, Sept. 19, 2011)

“[T]he protesters identified their key goals as liberating America from the death-grip of finance and creating a sustainable, just future for every member of the country. Even with a heavy police presence … protesters remained unmoved in their demands for a fairer political system…. While the group’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 … police officers.” Later, a general assembly of the protesters began “discussions into three general areas — problems, solutions and strategies.” The participants’ “discussion focused on the corruption and collusion between Wall Street and Washington,” and many of them noted that general apathy was a problem of education. As general solutions to the problems identified transparency and education was mentioned. “News flooded in throughout the weekend of sister-rallies across the United States, including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. The international presence was heavy at the rally itself. Not only had protesters driven in from across the country, but activists we spoke to also 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 city of sleeping bags, signs and popular assemblies. The highlight of the day was when over $2,000 in pizza was ordered in less than an hour by supporters from around 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 and slogans 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-term occupation”.(Micah White, senior editor at Adbusters, and Kalle Lasn, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Adbusters, “The Call to Occupy Wall Street Resonates Around the World”, The Guardian, Sept. 19, 2011)

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

“People everywhere”, White and Lasn wrote, “are waking up to the realisation that there is something fundamentally wrong with a system in which speculative financial transactions add up, each day, to $1.3tn (50 times more than the sum of all the commercial transactions). Meanwhile, according to a 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 the arrests, with police throwing some protestors to the ground before putting them in 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, they told me to put my hands behind my back and they handcuffed me and took me to the police station.” Police arrested six Occupy Wall Street protestors, on Sept. 19.

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

Citing the website of Adbusters, a Bloomberg report on September 17 said: the goal of the protest is to … end “the influence money has over 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 to comment on the demonstration. (“Protesters Converge on Lower Manhattan, Plan ‘Occupation’, Sept. 17, 2011)

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

Preparatory events and arrangements for the protest were made weeks ago that included non violent civil disobedience training, preparing a list of potential hosts to provide protesters place to rest, the Food Committee, Tactical Committee Meeting, art and culture meetings, an event for NY Students Rising and an Open General Assembly. In association with a number of activists around the world a live “TV” channel called Global Revolution was set up. A hotline for arrests was established with help of the National Lawyers Guild. The organizers asked donations for food. They suggested contacting the New York Police expressing solidarity with the protesters and urging the police to exercise restraint, to tell the police that the world is watching, and thank the police for all their hard work. An Occupy Wall Street Orientation Guide was prepared and distributed. Arrangements for foods, shower, etc. for the protesters were 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, “Not only will it help us hold out for longer, it will go a long way in helping you get to know each other a little better as well.” New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts 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.” The demonstrators began a march through the Wall Street area, rolling through the blocks around the New York Stock Exchange. Two more marches occurred during the day around the Wall Street district, each drawing more supporters to them.

It said: Hundreds occupying One Liberty Plaza, since September 17 afternoon, held a candlelight vigil to honor the fallen victims of Wall Street, and filled the plaza with song, dance, and spontaneous acts of liberation. “We are building the world that we want to see, based on human need and sustainability, not corporate greed.”

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

The first communiqué told: “We are occupying Wall Street.” A group marched on the head of Wall Street and formed a spontaneous blockade, prompting the police to threaten arrest. Speakers included the Reverend Billy Talen of the Church of Stop Shopping, and actress Rosanne Barr spoke on the steps of the American Indian Smithsonian Museum to the crowd. Protesters marched chanting “Wall Street is our street” and “power to the people, not to the banks.” They held a general assembly, based upon a “consensus-driven decision-making process.” All decisions, they claimed, were made “through a consensus process by the group, for the group.” They said: “[F]reedom has been largely taken from the people, and slowly made to trickle down, whenever we get angry. 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 based on the existence of have and have nots, where inequality is inherent to the system, 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 of common people, which has cropped up over a long time and in a broader socioeconomic reality. Richard D Wolff, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said in an article in The Guardian that Republicans have denounced President Obama’s “millionaire tax” proposal as “class war”. “[T]he reality is that the class war’s winners [emphasis in the original] have been corporations and the rich. Its losers – the rest of us…”, said Richard Wolff. “[A]s Buffett intimated and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg more explicitly warned last week, a renewal of class consciousness in the US. Then, Washington might learn what class war really is. (“The Truth about ‘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 Michael Moore said the MSM ignores Wall Street protest. Moore appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show Sept. 19 to discuss the media’s coverage towards the protests from the left. He said: ‘People are down on Wall Street right now holding a sit in and a camp in down there, virtually no news about this protest. This goes on with liberals and the left all the time, and it gets ignored.’” (“Michael Moore: The media ignores Wall Street occupation”, Posted on 09.20.11 by Andrew Jones) The Wall Street protest reveals some political realities in one of the most advanced bourgeois democracies. 

An Empire Struggles Within And Wages Wars Abroad

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

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

(1) The number of the poor moved up to about 1 in 6 persons. In 2010, the overall poverty rate rose to 15.1% or 46.2 million, up from 14.3% in 2009. 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 2010 was at $22,113 for a family of four. Measured by total numbers, the persons living in poverty is the largest on record since the census began monitoring poverty in 1959.

Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites, from 9.4% to 9.9%; for Blacks, from 25.8% to 27.4%; and for Hispanics, from 25.3% to 26.6%. For Asians, the rate (12.1%) was not statistically different from the 2009 rate.

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

The poverty rate increased for children younger than 18. It was 22.0% in 2010. In the previous year, it was 20.7%. The numbers were 15.5 million and 16.4 million in 2009 and 2010 respectively. For people 18 to 64, it also increased: from 12.9% in 2009 to 13.7% in 2010. The numbers were 24.7 million 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, RMHI has declined 6.4%. The RMHI declined for white and black households between 2009 and 2010.

Since 2007, the number of men working full time, year-round with earnings decreased by 6.6 million and the number of corresponding women declined 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 inequality between 2009 and 2010 was not statistically significant. The Gini index was 0.469 in 2010. This means, the inequality scenario that was prevailing has not improved. “We’re risking a new underclass,” said Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Young, less educated adults, mainly men, can’t support their children and form stable families because they are jobless.” Is it much different from a Third or Fourth World country?

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

In 2010, 9.8% (7.3 million) of children under 18 were without health insurance. The uninsured rate for children in poverty (15.4%) was higher than the rate for all children (9.8%).

The US harbors one of the highest poverty rates among the developed countries. Among the 34 countries monitored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, only Chile, Israel and Mexico have higher rates of poverty.

The data derived from a sample survey of approximately 100,000 household nationwide are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), 2011 Annual Social 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 in the United States: 2010 – Highlights; AP, “Census: US poverty rate swells to nearly 1 in 6”, Sept. 13, 2011; Reuters, “Number of poor hit record 46 million in 2010”, Sept. 13, 2011; The New York Times, “U.S. Poverty Rate, 1 in 6, at Highest Level in Years”, Sept. 13, 2011)

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

Food Stamps

A New York datelined Reuters news report said:

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

“About 40% of food stamp recipients are […] in households in which at least one member of the family earns wages. Many more could be eligible: the government estimates one in three who could be on the program are not. In some parts of the country, shoppers using food stamps have almost become the 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 had about a fifth of their population on food stamps that month. Over the past 20 years, the characteristics of the program's recipients have changed. In 1989, a higher percentage was on benefits than working, but as of 2009 a higher percentage had earned income. And 6% of the 72.9 million Americans paid by the hour received wages at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in 2010. That’s up from 4.9% in 2009, and 3% in 2002, according to government data. Millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired have to exist only on food stamps and other government aid, such as Medicaid healthcare support.”(ibid.)

The news report cites a family from Oregon that “juggles bills to ensure the electricity stays on. They are also selling some belongings […] to raise funds.” The husband, “an electronics assembly worker, lost his job two months 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 wife said “she was reluctant, initially, to go on food stamps. ‘I felt the way our national debt was going I didn’t want to be part of the problem,’ said [the wife]. ‘But I didn’t know what else to do and I got to a point where I swallowed my pride and decided to do what was best for my daughter.’” (ibid.)

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

Farmers

Citing the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Census of Agriculture an AP news report said: “More than half of America’s farmers work a job 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 also moonlight as mechanics, pool cleaners and even authors. They make jam and paint landscapes, 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 in the day and spend the evenings and weekends working in their farms. Although the trend of farmers taking on other jobs is not new but the percentage has increased: from 55% in 2002 to 65% in 2007. The frequency of working off the farm has also grown substantially over the last 75 years, according to a report by the USDA’s Economic Research Service. In 1929, one in 16 farmers worked 200 days or more off the farm. By 1947, it rose to one in six farmers. By 1997, it turned to one in three farmers. The 2007 survey reported that almost 900,000 farmers worked more than 200 days a year in other jobs. “Most farms in the United States are small operations, with 60 percent of all farms reporting less than $10,000 in sales of agricultural products. Of the 2.2 million farms nationwide, less than half show profit from their farms. The remaining 1.2 million depend on non-farm income to cover farm expenses.” (ibid.)

Children

The ERS reported in mid-November, 2010 that more than 50 million Americans, including 17 million children, live in hunger. The 2009 report on Household Food Insecurity in the United States illustrates the way hunger was affecting 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 jumped sharply. In 2010, the national two-year cohort default rate rose to 8.8%. In 2008, it was 7%. The trend indicates: rising tuition costs, low graduation rates and poor job opportunity. The increase was sharp among students borrowing to attend for-profit colleges.

Defaulting on student loan carries implication. It can wreck students credit and keep them from being able to return to school later with federal aid.

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

The reality that emerges from the data mentioned above tells nothing but a class war, and a failure to adopt measures capable of securing a system. At the same time, it projects a trend in farming and education, both influencing creativity. Even, with the level of poverty and hunger mentioned above, how far can be sustained, and how much productivity, a “magic mantra” to capital, can be achieved? It also questions the logic of waging wars, and promoting allies in far away lands. What benefit are the money spent behind allies bringing for the citizens of the Empire? What does the future hold in a reality where farmers and students suffer? Shall ratio between citizens’ benefit and war expenditure and aid to allies be calculated? Where does the wealth go that the social labor crates? Shall the reality, if prevails, put pressure on the foundation of legitimacy of the governing system? And, the Empire’s image abroad is not discussed now-a-days.