Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Spain’s government and European authorities bent on dismantling welfare state

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

Monday, June 4, 2012

Spain’s government and European authorities bent on dismantling welfare state

Click here to access article by Mark Weisbrot from Real-World Economics Review Blog.

...the primary cause of the crisis and its prolongation is the political agenda of the European authorities – led by the European Central Bank and European Commission. These authorities — which if we included the IMF constitute the so-called “Troika” that runs economic policy in the eurozone — want to force political changes, and particularly in the weaker economies, that people in these countries would never vote for.

At the end of his article the author suggests that the Obama administration is also very much involved in the banking strategies to dismantle social safety nets and pro-labor laws. I think his focus on the Obama administration is much too narrow. The latter represents one powerful section of the ruling class. As I see it, the austerity policies been promoted throughout the Empire are carefully coordinated among banking elites (the "Troika"). National borders have been largely erased under globalization, and they are pursuing basically the same policies everywhere in the Empire.

There will always be factions within this ruling class, in which financial elites are a major part, that want to pursue such policies in different ways, the most definite of which is the speed at which austerity and anti-labor policies are implemented: slowly or very aggressively. The camp that wants to continue Obama in office wants to slow things up a bit until after the election mostly because Obama has been very useful in co-opting progressives in the US.. The aggressive camp wants to move quickly and aggressively, and also want to install their regime at the head of the Empire.

So much depends on the economy in the US up until the election in November; and it makes me wonder if the current slump in the Wall Street market in addition to the deepening crisis in Europe hasn't been engineered by the aggressive camp in order to install a more suitable regime in the US.

One test of the power of these two camps is being played out in Wisconsin's recall election taking place tomorrow in Wisconsin. Stephen Lendman explains how well the two camps are represented in the election.

Both candidates support monied, not popular interests. Wisconsin Democrats aren't much better choices than Republicans. Regardless of who wins on Tuesday, labor rights lose. Wisconsin reflects what's happening across America. It's bad and getting worse.