The economic crisis, austerity measures, and resistance in Europe
PUBLISHED ON JULY 8, 2011

Governments in Europe are responding to the world economic crisis by tightening control by the European Union and forcing an intensified implementation of neo-liberal measures to compete with the US. Hard-hit by these measures are the working people who are now rising up, conducting massive strikes and protest actions.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
www.Bulatlat.com

In recent months, the focus of the international community has been on southern African countries because of the widespread protests against unpopular governments and presidents strongly alleged to be backed by the United States. These uprisings are popularly recognized as manifestations of people’s strong disgust and discontent against deep-seated corruption in government and their failure to stop the continuously deteriorating quality of life.

The global economic crisis has severely affected the impoverished countries of the south, but according to Wim De Ceukelaire of human rights group Intal Belgium, Europe has also been hit hard and the effects have sent economies into a tailspin.

In presentation he made to the 4th International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), De Ceukelaire said that European governments are challenged to reinstate stability, particularly in the eurozone. He said the gap between the strong economies under the leadership of Germany and the weaker economies in southern and eastern Europe is increasing.

The eurozone is an economic and monetary union (EMU) of 17 European Union (EU) member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency. The eurozone currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. Of the 10 EU member states outside the eurozone, seven states are obliged to join, once they fulfill the strict entrance requirements.

“How can an economic union and a common currency zone survive when Germany’s trade surplus is breaking records while Greece and Portugal are all but bankrupt? German capitalists do not feel like paying for a solution to problems of the Greeks or Portuguese,” he said.

According to reports, European President Herman Van Rompuy established a “task force” to look for solutions to the crisis, but it was German Chancellor Angela Merkel who held the pen.

“This is how a a proposal took shape during the European Summits of 2010 — they wanted to establish some kind of a “European Economic Government.” The solution they were providing was supposedly simple: everyone is supposed to follow the so-called “German model” of harsh neo-liberal economic governance. In Germany real wages went down by five percent in the past 20 years. Unemployment benefits are now a meager € 450 (US $644) after one year, that is if the individual beneficiary has sold his house at least. Poverty is also on the rise,” he said.

All over Europe, unemployment rates are increasing. According to Visual Economics.com: Austria registered an unemployed rate of 4.5 percent, Belgium 7.4 percent, France 8.8 percent, Germany 8.3 percent, Greece 9.1 percent, Spain 18.7 percent, Sweden 8.9 percent, Netherlands 4.4 percent and France 8.8 percent.

De Ceukelaire said that the concept of European economic governance was hatched and finalized all throughout the year 2010, with the Belgian government at the head of these efforts. He explained that during the 2011 Spring European Council, an EU Economic Governance pact was signed.

“The pact puts national governments under tight European surveillance. Instead of the European Commission making recommendations, it has been authorized to verify the concrete commitments of member states with regard to budgets, labor policies and pensions and to penalize them if they do not comply,” he said.

To make a point, De Ceukelaire cited the case of his own country.

“For instance, when one Belgian negotiator was asked during the prolonged government negotiations what his preferred coalition was, he answered that it didn’t really matter whether there would be a left or a right coalition. He said, and I quote: ‘There will be a government that will implement the dictates of the European Commission.”

The difference between the way European governments are run now and how they previously operated is stark: governments now have to submit their plans beforehand instead of waiting for the European Council’s judgment after the plans have been implemented.
 

“Plans are now evaluated by the Commission every June, and this judgment is ratified by the European Council before the end of the month. National governments are supposed to take these assessments into account when drawing up their budgets for the following year, and especially reforms of health care, labor market policy, education and pensions. Member countries that fail to obey can be punished with sanctions. The consequences of this kind of “economic governance” for social policies can be tremendous, as the examples of Greece, Ireland and Portugal are already demonstrating today,” he said.

Europe patterns economic plans after the US’

For all the new changes and arrangements in how the European governments are operating the business aspect of their administrations, the content of the economic programs, however, remains the same.

“The method might be new but the content is not. A general characteristic of the European plans is that the US serves as their model. This is no coincidence. For more than 60 years, the biggest US capitalists have ruled the world economy and manipulated it to serve their interests. In the meantime, the “emedies” the US adapted to stave off the crisis of overproduction have heavily influenced economic and financial policies in the European Union,” said De Ceukelaire.

The whole process of neo-liberal reforms in Europe accelerated in 1992 with the Maastricht Treaty. Formally known as the Treaty on European Union, it was signed in Maastricht, the Netherlands, on February 7, 1992. It represented a major step by its signatories toward European economic, political, and social and most importantly monetary integration. The treaty was signed by Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

In anticipation of the single currency, national economies had to be streamlined. Issues of budget deficits and public debt were exposed and scrutinized. In many fields of business, finance and economic administration, the EU and its member states began copying US policies

“The EU states began implementing tax reforms that benefitted big companies. They privatized social security, and completely deregulated the market. There was strong reliance on the stock market and it was developed to an excess. On the other hand, social benefits for workers and other sectors of the working people were slashed. Since the early 1990s, the EU has been imposing the liberalization policy in the industries of telecommunications and railways, as well as the postal services. The formerly public services became new fields for profit for private capital,” De Ceukelaire said.

These policies resulted in massive lay-offs, erosion of the salaries of government employees and their working conditions. The immediate effect on the greater public was the deterioration of public services. In the meantime, because of the Bolkestein directive, the services that were provided by the private sector were further liberalized. Policies on wages, social security and the labor market, however, were still decided at national levels.

Proponents of the directive said that it aims to create a free market for the services sector by removing the legal and administrative barriers that supposedly hinder businesses from offering their services in another country. The directive aimed to encourage cross-border competition, and it covers a vast range of businesses such as hotels and restaurants, car rentals, construction, advertising services and estate agencies. It also covers advice provided by professionals such as architects, and certain public services, such as social care and environmental services. Excluded were a number of areas, including broadcasting, postal services, audiovisual services, temporary employment agencies, social services, public transport and gambling and healthcare.

Opponents insist that the directive will push down wages, lower standards of social and environmental protection

In the meantime, the European Union has also put together its Lisbon 2000-2010 strategy. This was supposed to make Europe “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge economy in the world.”

The rat race to the bottom

De Ceukelaire explained that the Lisbon Agenda set standards for an overall employment rate (70 percent by 2010), and set the retirement age higher. Member states were given good and bad points to exert moral pressure but there was no enforcement of these policies. It was a so-called open coordination.The goal is, by 2010, for the EU to surpass the US in competitiveness and productivity and to confront the future threat of positions lost to rising powers such as China, Russia and India.

To enable European companies to compete with their US counterparts, the exploitation of the European workers had to become more intense and comprehensive. Capitalists added new concepts to their arsenal such as “flexicurity” (supposed job security in exchange for working extremely flexible hours); “employability” (the availability of workers for the labor market at any time); and “activation” (forced integration in the labor market) of the unemployed, elderly and even handicapped people.

“This kind of competition with the US is nothing but a rat race to the bottom as regards social rights and welfare,” said De Ceukelaire.
 

EU member states further reduced social security system benefits such as pensions, health and welfare. They also abolished collective labor agreements and replaced them with contracts for “alternative employment.” Concretely this meant work contracts valid only for a specified period or for part-time arrangements such as occasional employment, “zero hour” contracts, distance employment, and piecework.

Companies were also emboldened by the new economic strategies to deregulate dismissals on the one hand, and to strengthen the systems for so-called “tripartite employment relations.” This meant that workers were perpetually “for hire” and businesses no longer have the responsibility to uphold labor laws pertaining to job security and benefits.

Rulings by national and Community courts or the Court of Justice of the European Communities have also begun on the warpath against workers rights, characterizing strikes as illegal and abusive. The courts argue that strikes are in violation of “Community law” and “the Four Freedoms.”

The Four Freedoms refers to the frontier-free area the EU establishes within which (1) people, (2) goods, (3) services and (4) money can all move around freely.

Protests in Portugal and Greece

The international economic crisis has hit European countries hard, but among those most severely affected are Portugal and Greece.

De Ceukelaire said that Greece suffered most from the crisis in the eurozone. He said that the Greek government has launched a number of austerity reforms in order to assure itself of bail-outs from the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In the last two years, more than € 45 billion (US$64,430 million)have already been saved by cuts in government programs or collected in extra taxes. Despite this, however, public debt has risen from 135 percent to 156 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP).
 

Within one year, unemployment increased by 40 percent. Among the youth, 42 percent are unemployed. In 2010, the Greek economy shrank by 55 percent. There was a 21 percent increase in the value-added tax on many basic necessities. The government agreed to privatize assets for € 50 billion (US$71,590 billion): airports, railways, power plants, even its tourist beaches.

“So far, the shock therapy had no effect and yet prices are skyrocketing while the average income of the Greeks dropped by nine percent in just one year,” he said.

In Portugal, the wages of public employees have been frozen until 2012. The minimum wage, in the meantime was lowered to €485 (US$494) The government raised VAT on many basic products. As a result the price of bread increased by 10 percent and electricity by six percent. The taxes paid by banks, however, were slashed by halved.

According to De Ceukelaire, the protests against the global economic crisis and the crisis in Europe are strongest and most organized in Portugal and Greece. This is no coincidence, he said, because the two are among the countries hit exceptionally hard. “Both countries are also home to a strong labor movement and communist parties,” he said.

The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), with no less than 400,000 members, is at the heart of protests. In November 24, 2010, more than three million people took to the streets in protest of the proposed austerity measures. The government proposed cutbacks on public spending as well as wage cuts for public workers, and it was no surprise that and 75 percent of the protesters were workers.

The protests including strikes, which affected the transport sector, grounding flights and causing the cancellation of some bus and train services. Banking services and other businesses were also affected. Observers said that the stoppage was biggest in 20 years.

De Ceukelaire said that the PCP led the discussion at all levels, from its local groups in factories up to its representation in the parliament. He shared that the party also had a strong showing in the recent elections, securing two seats in the national assembly out of a total of 16. It also posted the highest vote total of the 21st century despite a voter turnout of less than 60 percent nationwide.
In a message to the public, the PCP’s secretary general Jerónimo de Sousa said that that the protests had its roots in the consolidation campaign they built since the elections. According to him, there was widespread awareness about the country’s real problems and about those responsible for the crisis.

In Greece, the most visible expressions of people’s protest were the massive rallies in the streets of Athens and other big cities and general strikes. While protests continue, people’s committees were established in neighborhoods and villages across Greece. Workers, farmers, independents, women and youth organized to strengthen resistance.

The people of Greece bannered the issue of health care during the protests. They called for free health care and higher allocations for public hospitals. In the regions, the focus was on access to care for the unemployed. In Larissa, a city in the center of Greece, the elderly joined protests; they occupied the offices of the social security agency and demanded a meeting with the director.

Topple the government colluding with the IMF

Nikos Noulas, an ILPS delegate from Greece and representing the Union of Working People group, explains that the nationwide protests in his country are against the “troika” comprised of the International Monetary Fund, European Union, and the European Central Bank.
“The people of Greece will continue to hold militant but peaceful mass demonstrations in our country’s various squares (plazas and public gathering areas) to demand the removal of the troika. We are also demanding that Prime Minister George Papandreou steps down immediately,” he said.

Noulas explained than since May 24, thousands have gathered in a protest camp in Syntagma Square in Athens. They have put up tents and makeshift kitchens and daily hold programs and discussion groups on the economic issues affecting Greece.

“We know the problems, we know the culprits behind them: what we want now are solutions. The only solution we want in the immediate is for the leaders of government colluding with the IMF, EU and the European Central Bank to step down,” he said. He explained that among the popular symbols in the Greek protests are that of a stylized helicopter.

“It symbolizes what we want: for all the corrupt officials in government to get on a helicopter, leave the country and never return. The protests that begun on May 24 continue to this day, and we don’t see them stopping any time soon. The people of Greece are united in demanding change, and we will not stop until we overthrow this government and ” he said.

On June 15, police lobbed teargas outside the Finance Ministry where a mass protest while taking place. Syntagma Square was quickly enveloped in fumes which included asphyxiant gas, which is said to severely inhibit breathing. Stun grenades also exploded.
“The government used violence against us, but we were not cowed. We are inspired by the protests in Southern Europe — in Portugal and in Spain; we are inspired by what the people of northern African countries are doing — taking history in their hands and ousting corrupt presidents. We know that it is possible to change the situation the country is facing; and we want to change the country’s direction. The path set by the troika is not one we want to follow, not even for a single day; we will set a different path, go toward a different direction where we can realize true national independence and lay the foundations for socialism,” he said.

The economic crisis continues to sweep through Europe, but like what is happening in Africa, the people of Europe especially the sectors of the working people are not taking things sitting down.

At the end of his presentation, De Ceukelaire said that in discussing people’s resistance in Europe, certain conclusions can be made.

“First, monopoly capital exploits the working class not only in its former colonies but also in Europe, and the current economic crisis has sharpened the class contradictions at home. Second, the strength of the labor movement matters in these circumstances. Without solid trade unions, popular committees and workers’ parties, the future of the resistance movement is uncertain. It is where these organizations are taking strong roots among the people that the resistance has the best prospects. Third, reactionary forces are still strong in Europe while the forces of resistance are relatively weak. As the crisis of capitalism is worsening, its inability to solve the rising contradictions will become clearer for the workers. The challenge is to consolidate their organizations so they will be able to tilt the balance of forces in their advantage,” he said.

The global economic crisis has severely affected the impoverished countries of the South, but according to Wim De Ceukelaire of human rights group Intal Belgium, Europe has also been hit hard and the effects have sent economies into a tailspin. (Photo by Ina Allecco R. Silverio / bulatlat.com)
 

COMMISSION 1: Cause of National Liberation, Democracy & Social Liberations

Meet Wahu Kaara. She is from Kenya. She traveled halfway across the globe from her native Kenya to the Philippines to meet with hundreds of delegates from no less than 39 countries. It is the 4th International Assembly of the International People’s Struggle (ILPS) this July 7-9 in Manila, Philippines.

Wahu is a 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. She ran for parliament in 2002 and 2007 and was a delegate to Kenya’s Constitutional Conference. Wahu, however, is not your ordinary parliamentarian. She is a globally renowned Kenyan educator and campaigner for social justice, serving as a director of the Kenyan Debt Relief Network, head of the East African Coalition on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights, and a coordinator at the World Social Forum held in Kenya in 2007.

Activists like Wahu will gather for the ILPS assembly not only to move ideas and things but to move peoples and nations towards a brighter future.

Multi-colored gathering

Invited to speak for the ILPS, Wahu will join other delegates from around the world to discuss the present global crisis and how the various peoples can confront it with their struggles.

The event could never have been more relevant and timely. It is not only in Africa, where Wahu came from, that momentous events are shaking the world.

Joining Wahu is Mamdou Habashi of the African and Arab Research Center. He will share the peoples’ struggles in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa where tumultuous events have led to intensified US intervention and conflagration of wars and protests.

In the ILPS workshop, Wahu will also be joined by O Ryong Il of the Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People. He will speak on the current situation in the Korean Peninsula with regard to war provocations by the US against the DPRK, the struggle to withdraw US troops from the south and to achieve the independent and peaceful reunification of Korea.

Speakers from Europe, particularly Ireland, Greece, France, and Spain, will also discuss their struggles against anti-worker and anti-people policies in the wake of the prolonged global depression.

The ILPS gathering is truly a multi-colored event where various shades of opinion and ideas from different peoples and societies come together to forge their common struggles for liberation and to make the promise of change real.

Prayer for a bright future

Signaling the start of the ILPS assembly is the raising of annapurna or Nepalese “prayer flags,” similar to those raised by mountaineers before trekking towards the summit of Mt. Everest. Written on the flags are the people’s demands and aspirations for a brighter future, the ILPS theme for its fourth assembly.

With Wahu and her fellow ILPS delegates pealing the Peace Bell at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City, Philippines, the call rings out to “Mobilize the people to resist exploitation and oppression amidst the protracted global depression, state terrorism and wars of aggression!"

With this call, Wahu hopes to achieve a better world for all people’s and nations. The ILPS is one such venue to make her dream come true.

COMMISSION 2: Socio-economic Development & Social Justice

World production of material wealth has gone global, bringing peoples and nations closer together. Yet, at the same time, poverty grips a swelling number of destitute people trying to survive on less than $2-a-day, estimated at 1.2 billion or nearly one-third of the global labor force in 2010.

Addressing the socio-economic roots of poverty, unemployment, rising food prices, budget cuts for public services and other social ills, an international gathering of progressive organizations and movements convenes in Manila, Philippines this July.

Led by the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), hundreds of delegates from 39 countries are set to share insights, discuss and resolve to intensify the struggles for employment, decent incomes, better working and living conditions, access to social services, and control over land, water and other productive resources.

This resolution is part of the three-day event where the general call of the ILPS to build a brighter future is bannered.

Facing financial goliaths

The ILPS assembly resolves to fight the international financial institutions and the G-20, virtual goliaths in the world economy, for their policy agenda of privatization, disemployment and austerity measures. “Greater socialization” became a clarion call for the assembly.

Paul Quintos, a Filipino resource person for the event, said that “women and men should fight for the universal right to find decent and productive work that ensures security and human dignity. This also means work that is engaged in meeting social needs for the present and future generations, including access to food, education, health, housing and basic services for all.”

The ecological crisis is also confronted by calls “for the fundamental reorientation and reorganization of production and consumption towards meeting social needs rather than endless profit-seeking and capital accumulation.“

“Such a demand inspires broad-based struggle for a just, democratic, peaceful and sustainable world,” Quintos said.

“This will help people realize that sustainability can only be made possible by collective ownership and social-planning,” he added.

Cooperation, not competition

The assembly noted that, with demand and prices for commodities on the rise, monopoly firms are frantically competing for and violently taking over vast tracts of land, forests and marine resources for the extraction and export of oil, food, minerals and other resources throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Hence, the ILPS called for strengthening the people's struggles for ownership and control of productive resources and greater cooperation among peoples in trade. It cited the case of the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean (ALBA) led by Venezuela and Cuba as a regional alternative to the US-led Free Trade Area for the Americas.

Closer to home, the assembly said that “for many of the least developed countries, Chinese or Indian trade and investments provide alternatives to EU or US capital and markets.”

”Greater south-south cooperation objectively provides greater elbow room for oppressed countries to collectively assert their independence and development for their people.”

That assertion complements the greater resistance and protests on going in the world today – to which the ILPS assembly expresses its international solidarity.

COMMISSION 3: Human Rights in the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Fields

On February 14, 2008, Guatemalan indigenous rights leader Ramiro Choc was arrested by six armed soldiers and sentenced to six years on trumped up charges of aggravated robbery, land stealing, and kidnapping. On the third year of his incarceration, three of Choc’s colleagues at Encuentro Campesino, a peasant organization he helped form, were found dead, each shot multiple times. Choc is one of the 592 cases of criminalization of defenders of human rights in Guatemala between 2004 and 2009, according to Unidad de Defensores/as de Derechos Humanos en Guatemala (UDEFGUA).

In the Philippines, peasant leader Dario Tomada survived an assassination attempt in Kanangga, Leyte but ended up in jail on July 22, 2010. He was charged with murder that took place almost three decades ago. Tomada is but one of the more than 340 political prisoners languishing in 67 detention centers in the Philippines.

In Iran, prison guards are reportedly facilitating rape of young opposition activists by giving out condoms to criminals. In its 2010 report, Amnesty International documented the rape of male and female detainees by security officials.

In Burma, despite the release of a handful of political prisoners, many continue to serve unduly harsh and extreme prison terms with over 200 serving 20- to 50-year sentences, 54 serving 51-to 106-year sentences, and 91 serving life sentences.

At the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, suspected terrorists undergo severe forms of torture including sleep deprivation, exposure to hot and cold, bright lights, and loud music during interrogations.

These tales of torture, maltreatment and imprisonment based on fabricated charges are carried out by state security forces of governments waging wars against their own peoples. In its May 2011 report, Amnesty International reported that there are 98 countries who practice torture and other ill-treatment, unlawful restrictions on freedom of expression in 89 countries, and prisoners of conscience in 48 countries.

In the case of United States, the entire world has become a war zone. With its “targeted killing” program, the Obama administration has authorized a program for the killing of suspected terrorists anywhere.

In its review of the 18 months of the Obama administration, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said: “Indeed, on a range of issues including accountability for torture, detention of terrorism suspects, and use of lethal force against civilians, there is a very real danger that the Obama administration will enshrine permanently within the law policies and practices that were widely considered extreme and unlawful during the Bush administration.”

In May, Obama signed a four-year extension of the USA Patriot Act that allows private security firms under the supervision of the government to monitor and search American citizens' phone conversations, email communications, medical, financial and official records to discover “potential terrorism-related threats and foil the probable plots which can jeopardize the country's domestic security.” Roving wiretaps, court-ordered searches of business records and conducting surveillance of individuals engaged in terrorism-related activities without being linked to renowned terrorist organizations are allowed.

Since the September 11, 2001 attack, the U.S. government prodded other countries to enact so-called anti-terrorist legislations that contain similar draconian measures.

Since the 9/11 attacks, too, U.S. special forces have nearly doubled in number, their budget nearly tripled, and their overseas deployments quadrupled. The Special Operations Command's overall strength now stands at roughly 60,000 in 79 countries. They are engaged in counterinsurgency operations that aim, according to the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, to “disrupt terrorist plots and training facilities, thin out the terrorist ranks, and pre-empt insurgencies before they can escalate into threats to U.S. security.”

The U.S. government also continues to support repressive regimes such as Israel that has occupied Palestinian territories. Despite condemnation of Israel’s offensive attacks such as the attack on a flotilla attempting to break the Gaza blockade on May 31, 2010, Israel remains the largest overall recipient of foreign aid from the United States since World War II, receiving US$2.775 billion in military aid in 2010.

In the Philippines, the new Aquino government adopted the US Counterinsurgency Guide. Even as the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) portrays itself to be respecting human rights with its psywar tactics, at least 48 have been victims of extrajudicial killings, five were victims of enforced disappearances and hundreds were victims of harassment and threats. Like Israel, the Philippines is a recipient of US military assistance, receiving US$32 million in fiscal year 2009-2010 under Foreign Military Financing for procurement of US military equipment, services, and training.

As in the past, the US has instigated state terrorism. It provides indoctrination, strategic direction, officer training and military equipment to the state apparatus of repression.

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), in its fourth assembly in Manila, Philippines this July, condemns all these human rights violations perpetrated by the US and its client states.