Surviving Capitalism (Not) : No to the ‘Euro Pact’, a new attack against democracy: we are not products in the hands of politicians and bankers

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, June 10, 2011

No to the ‘Euro Pact’, a new attack against democracy: we are not products in the hands of politicians and bankers

Click here to access article from Committee for the Cancellation of the Third World Debt.

Once more our governments sign in the name of their citizens in favour of the large financial corporation as though the only way out of the crisis was the reduction of the cost of work and the curtailing of public services, while they leave tax havens, tax evasion and the economic choices of this system completely unchanged.

Although this is about Europe, it applies nearly world-wide. This is a simple recognition that we are losing the class war. Hence, the call to action. However, what kind of action and for what goals should we be active? Simple reform of the existing capitalist system? Or system change? It seems to me that 300 years of extreme wealth and poverty, horrendous wars, and now the threat of climate change are more than enough reasons to change the system.