May 3, 2012 - Issue 470 |
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Amid Europe’s
Crisis - A Surge from the Left
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Rest
assured. The specter of socialism is not haunting Actually,
what is happening in With Hollande likely to become the next president of France,” writes Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, “Europe’s hot populist anger is about to confront the cold austerity measures required by the euro zone, with a predictable result: a storm that rattles the foundations of the European economic house.” This
situation is not simple nor without dangers. While some (even some on
the left in this country) are trying to play it down, European reactionaries
are on the move as well. As could be expected, people seeking simple answers
to their nation’s plight are being seduced by those seeking to scapegoat
immigrants, not only from Asia, Africa or But the main thrust of opposition to the policies that contributed to the ongoing crisis that falls under the rubric “neo-liberalism” and the policy of retrenchment or “austerity” is coming from the left. Over
the past two weeks, Hollande has emerged as
the leading candidate for the president of The major media has pretty much shied away from giving an accurate picture of the European “left” to which it refers, beyond its assurance that France’s Hollande is not rabid. But it’s worth talking a look. In Romania, where an election is scheduled for November, opinion polls indicate the Social Liberal Union (USL), the opposition left alliance (currently with 228 seats in the 460 member parliament), has more than 50 percent support and would most likely win an election. It is headed by 39-year-old Victor Ponta, head of the left-leaning opposition Social Liberal Union (USL). Ponta, who has won medals in basketball and auto racing, is from the center-left Social Democrat Party and now serves as interim prime minister. “ “The
government in Somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000 people took to the streets last Saturday in the biggest demonstrations for decades, and the Romanian trade unions have promised new protests within the next six weeks. Meanwhile
in The Netherlands, opposition austerity measures resulted in the fall
of the government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
The country has been in recession for nearly a nearly a year. The government
resigned after the rightwing Freedom Party - the Dutch version of The Dutch Socialist Party, the emblem of which is a tomato, says of itself: “In the final analysis the SP is a campaigning organization capable of mobilizing thousands - on occasion tens of thousands - of members and sympathizers to pursue its goals of equality, solidarity and human dignity. Campaigns express these principles in concrete ways which improve lives in the here-and-now, while the SP never takes its eyes off the prize of a better society and a better world.” “Dutch
participation in illegal wars abroad and the neoliberal onslaught on social
rights and public property at home have formed the focus of the party’s
major campaigns in recent years. With energy and militancy, but also with
characteristic humor and color, the SP has demanded the return of Dutch
troops from “The
party has resisted the creeping privatization of health care privatization
and the deregulation of postal services and energy provision, defended
vital social programs, fought the raising of the pension age and the reduction
of state support to students, and called for an end to the ideologically-motivated
neoliberalism which prevails both at home and in On April 22, the party, the third largest in the country, called for “a careful budgetary plan that avoids destroying the economy through spending cuts and leaves room for a new beginning, while taking into account the position of people who did not cause the crisis, but who have been presented with the bill for it,” adding that whether Hollande in France or the Dutch Labour Party “will follow through is the question. It is an important test for the social democrats.” “Fortunately
the real left has also done well, with the polls giving Jean-Luc Melenchon, the Euro-MP, who is the presidential candidate
of the Front de Gauche, 12 percent of the votes,” said the Dutch socialists.
“In the “The
Disgruntled
Voters will also head to the polls in With
the wrenching economic crisis growing in What
does all this portend for the “After a period in which Mr. Obama has pushed back with some success against demands for austerity, the Republicans are committed to reversing course, at a time when demand in the US and the global economy is still weak and the deficit is at a record,” writes Financial Times bureau chief Richard McGregor. “So we’re now living in a world of zombie economic policies - policies that should have been killed by the evidence that all of their premises are wrong, but which keep shambling along nonetheless. And it’s anyone’s guess when this reign of error will end,” wrote Krugman. In
a commentary titled, “The Lesson for Obama of Europe’s Failed Austerity,”
economist Robert Reich, wrote, “the president should make it clear he
won’t allow government spending cuts to take precedence over job creation.
He won’t follow “Finally,
Obama should make sure Americans understand the link between “But to put any of this into effect, Obama will need a Congress that’s committed to better jobs and wages for all Americans,” says Reich. “He should remind voters that congressional Republicans prevented him from doing all that was needed in the first term, and they must not be allowed to do so again.” The
Republicans have repeatedly suggested that the BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member
Carl Bloice is a writer in |
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