Austerity — the 1%’s Global Battle Cry (tags)
Whether we are left with the Fiscal Cliff or a Grand Bargain, workers in the U.S. face massive cuts to programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance, Food Stamp assistance and other needed social safety nets. This is an example of “austerity” which has largely been pursued in the U.S. until now, on a statewide and local level.
The Neoliberal Experiment and Europe's anti-Austerity Strikes (tags)
"The neoliberals are fully in control of the bureaucracy, and they are reviving Margaret Thatcher's slogan, TINA: There Is No Alternative. But there is, of course. In the small Baltic economies, pro-labor parties have made it clear that the alternative to government shrinkage is to simply repeal the debts, withdraw from the Euro and break the banks. It is either the banks or labor - and Europe has just realized that this is truly a fight to the economic death. And the first test will come this Saturday, when Latvia holds its national parliamentary elections."
"Manufacturing Dissent": the Anti-globalization Movement is Funded by the Corporate Elites (tags)
"How is the process of manufacturing dissent achieved? Essentially by "funding dissent", namely by channelling financial resources from those who are the object of the protest movement to those who are involved in organizing the protest movement. Co-optation is not limited to buying the favors of politicians. The economic elites --which control major foundations-- also oversee the funding of numerous NGOs and civil society organizations, which historically have been involved in the protest movement against the established economic and social order. The programs of many NGOs and people's movements rely heavily on both public as well as private funding agencies including the Ford, Rockefeller, McCarthy foundations, among others. The anti-globalization movement is opposed to Wall Street and the Texas oil giants controlled by Rockefeller, et al. Yet the foundations and charities of Rockefeller et al will generously fund progressive anti-capitalist networks as well as environmentalists (opposed to Big Oil) with a view to ultimately overseeing and shaping their various activities."
Thousands March in Brussels Ahead of Summit (tags)
Tens of thousands of trade unionists protest peacefully in Brussels ahead of the EU summit, but 22 people are arrested on the border.
Brussels: 100,000 trade unionists for people not profit (tags)
Reposting from Indymedia UK: Brussels on Thursday , December 13th, saw possibly the largest ever demonstration of trade union strength across Europe. Well over 100,000 people took five hours (on a working day) to march through the capital of the 'Europe of Profit' under the slogan, "Europe: it's us!"