CA/Continuations/Discussion Group

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<section begin=intro />The Anti-Austerity Discussion Group is a series of discussions about how people locally and around the world are resisting austerity and building strong coalitions to protect access to public services, education, and a basic social safety net. Our goals are to educate ourselves, strengthen our relationships, and develop a shared analysis of austerity and a shared orientation to strategies that work.<section end=intro />

“ Neoliberalism has gone beyond the ‘boorish’ phase...[1] It has become so entrenched and comfortable in its place at the head of the table that neoliberalism has now turned abusive. ”
 

Austerity Basics

Accumulation by dispossession is a concept presented by the Marxist geographer David Harvey, which defines the neoliberal capitalist policies in many western nations, from the 1970s and to the present day, as resulting in a centralization of wealth and power in the hands of a few by dispossessing the public of their wealth or land. These neoliberal policies are guided mainly by four practices: privatization, financialization, management and manipulation of crises, and state redistributions.

Discussion Questions

Indignados Storm City Hall in Vinaròs, Spain
Entrada de la població vinarossenca a l'ajuntament de Vinaròs
¡Indignados! Los vecinos de Vinaròs asaltan el Ayuntamiento
Un grupo 'okupa' el Ayuntamiento de Jódar para exigir tierra y trabajo
European Austerity Crisis
We are looking at pushback against elite-imposed austerity in the countries listed below, either one country at a time, or in small groups of countries. We're starting with Spain:
  • France
  • Greece
  • Iceland
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Portugal
  • Spain

Upcoming Study Group Event

Facebook Invite Page: Anti-Austerity Study Group
When: Saturday, August 11, 2012
Time: 10:00am
Where: 214 NE Thompson Street (map)
Topic: Anti-Austerity Movements in Spain.
Don't Forget: This is a potluck event. Bring food!

Study Assignments

Questions to Ponder
  1. Power relations--the 1% vs. the 99%. What does austerity look like and why?
  2. Who is fighting back? How?
  3. Where might this fightback go?
  4. How does the situation in Spain relate to our situation here?

Spain

“ When energetic and determined people cry out, injustice trembles. ”
Assigned Articles
By drawing attention to the systematic violation of human rights, the indignados have helped to shine a light on the illegitimacy of the financial structure.
“ Enough statistics. Look at people, look them in the eyes. If the government can’t look its own people in the eyes, if it always imposes austerity on the poor, then it’s illegitimate and should step down. It presented itself to elections with a program, and it’s imposing exactly the opposite. ”
Spanish government imposes austerity measures and offers paltry stimulus. Markets respond positively but "country thrown into chaos."
Thousands of public school teachers went on strike Tuesday in Madrid to protest staff cuts as anger over government austerity measures spread to Spain's education system.
Tens of thousands of angry Spaniards protested in 80 cities throughout Spain against the government's latest austerity package, blaming officials for "ruining" the country.
Extra Credit
Members of the Andalusian fieldworkers’ union expropriate cartloads full of food from Carrefour and Mercadona, and give it to the austerity-stricken poor.
Citizens, 15M/Indignados assemblies and various social networks and organizations around the country are building the Citizen Debt Audit Platform to demonstrate the illegitimacy of debt, identify those responsible of the crisis and demand not to pay an illegitimate debt.
This article is part of a Huffington Post series on the global impact of austerity -- "A Thousand Cuts" -- from affordable housing funds lost in San Francisco to increasing class sizes in New York, food inspector cuts in Canada, disability benefits taken away in the United Kingdom, decimation of France's solar industry, and more.
The economic crisis has brought low the middle class, which emerged in the 1980s after decades of dictatorship and flourished during the construction boom of the 1990s.
As the Spanish government got its €65bn austerity package passed in Parliament, millions of people took to the streets in unprecedented demonstrations against cuts on July 19. The day after, as the Valencian regional government asked for a central government bail out (of 3.5bn euro), the risk premium on Spanish bonds hit a new record, while 10 year bonds were yielding 7.3%. The Spanish economy is on the verge of a full bail out.
A SWEEPING $80 billion austerity program pushed by Spain's right-wing Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been met by a new surge of workers' resistance, with miners leading the way and public-sector workers joining the battle with street blockades in the capital city of Madrid.
Struggles converge as miners, firefighters, judges, public employees, the unemployed and even the army step up their resistance against EU-enforced cuts.
"This rejection of representative democracy has to be understood as part of a growing popular skepticism that raises some of the most fundamental questions about the future of society. People everywhere are starting to share and propagate the idea that democracy is not about voting or about elections, but about ‘the people’ having real power over the decisions that determine whether they will have a place to live, the ability to feed their families, or a basic education. More importantly, this shift in meaning is being backed up with large-scale decentralized general assemblies that are building the inclusive structures necessary to enact these new forms of democracy."
Spain's government imposed more austerity measures on the beleaguered country Wednesday as it unveiled sales tax hikes and spending cuts aimed at shaving (EURO)65 billion ($79.85 billion) off the state budget over the next two and a half years.
Workers in Spain have been mobilizing for a series of protests since the right-wing government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the People's Party announced a Greek-style austerity program of cuts in social spending that targets workers and the poor. These policies are the result of an agreement, known as the "Memorandum," that the Spanish government signed with the European Union, which, along with the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, is known as the troika.
Just Not the Way Policy Makers Wanted It to Work
Videos
This documentary examines the rise of the 15M movement, a year later from six people who lived in the Barcelona occupation of Catalonia Square. They meet again to discuss the beginning of the movement, what happened to the country this year and what role should the movement play in the future.
After an 18 day march from Asturias to Madrid, miners confront riot police on the streets of Madrid when the Minister of Industry refuses to meet with them. Fighting to save there communities from destruction, the miners have nothing to lose.
From May 12-May 15th, protesters throughout Spain marked the first anniversary of the 15M movement by re-taking the streets and squares of over 80 cities. The 15M movement inspired people all over the world to occupy their local squares, to self-organize general assemblies and to build networks of solidarity in the face of severe economic policy. This short documentary documents the 15M anniversary protests in Barcelona.
On March 29, 2012, millions of people across Spain went on strike. The strike, which was the first general strike since September 2010, brought the country to a near halt. The situation in Spain has grown increasingly difficult with 1 in 4 people out of work and many struggling to make rent or mortgage payments. This short film is about what happened in Barcelona on that day.
In the midst of rising unemployment rates, extensive austerity measures and increased privatization, many Spanish people are losing faith in electoral politics.

European Austerity Crisis

Lots of good material focused on anti-austerity fightback.
Why would the Catalans or the Basques elect to continue to be a part of Spain, when the government in Madrid has nothing to offer but empty coffers? Why would they let others decide for them when that brings them no economic advantages? Any charismatic leader might convince them that they would be better off as a separate unit. And that leader might be right...[2]
Political Fallout
"Incumbency plus austerity equals political death."
Global Political Awakening
For the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or imperial domination.

Language Barriers: How does the 1% think and how should we interpret it?

“ Like Greece, Spain has an economy that is not competitive. It is burdened by industry restrictions and labor laws that tend to retard growth. It faces a long restructuring process of its social services and its business markets that will test the fortitude of its people. The real estate collapse has led to thousands of jobless construction workers who must be retrained[3] before the economy can recover. One problem is that countries like Italy and Greece already have what are generally considered to be bloated government agencies that burden business with paperwork and regulations and impede job creation. ”
 
— Excerpts from “The Euro Zone Crisis: A Primer”
Trudy's Translations

Owellian business and economic language--terms, "competitive," "restructuring," "labor flexibility," "public-private partnerships," "creativity", etc.--tends to obscure what's actually going on. Let's decipher a few of the phrases used in the article quoted above from sterile economic and business "code" and put it into ordinary language.

“not competitive”

TT: Even though we elites were the cause of the economic collapse, we can easily blame the victims--those who lost their jobs, were tossed out of their homes, etc.--for their lack of competitiveness.

“burdened by industry restrictions and labor laws”

TT: This is a terrific opportunity to shift not only the blame, but the costs too, by removing all burdensome private sector regulations and job-killing labor protections. (BwwaaahhhaaaahaaaahaaaHah!)

“long restructuring process”

TT: More austerity measures will gut public assets to the degree that we can snap them up at a bargain basement price and at the same time crush the will of the now surplus labor force, who will "happily" work for shit wages.

“bloated government agencies that burden business”

TT: Once we own everything that the middle class used to own collectively, and once all labor protections are rolled back, we’ll be even freer than we are now to outsource labor and hire locals on contract, with no benefits. Yay, we win again!"

Previous Topics

Notes of previous discussions located here: Discussion Group Archive

Links & Info

Discussion Notes

Related Events

References

  1. ↑ The Shock Doctrine: a discussion
  2. ↑ (Tae Page)
  3. ↑ 1 Job for Every 3.4 Jobless Workers—Skills Shortage Isn't the Problem - “By far the main cause of today’s persistent high unemployment is a broad-based lack of demand for workers—and not, as is often claimed, available workers lacking the skills needed for the sectors with job openings.”
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