Eind jaren zeventig van de vorige eeuw had de band The Clash een hit met 'London's burning'. Nu zien we de realiteit met eigen ogen. De hooligans hebben de straten van London overgenomen.
Ongebreideld neoliberalisme leidt onvermijdelijk tot dit soort opstanden. Als deze elite lak heeft aan een sociale samenleving dan kun je ook van de onderkant van de maatschappij niet verwachten die ze zich wel sociaal gedragen. De neoliberale elite heeft de crisis veroorzaakt, en dezelfde elite heeft ook deze rellen veroorzaakt.
AlterNet: "Global economic turmoil is getting worse. Europe’s financial crisis now imperils Spain and Italy. The folly of premature austerity savages economies in Great Britain, Europe and, increasingly, the United States. China and the emerging economies are slowing down. This economy seems stalled at best. People are sensibly scared, worried about their jobs, their homes, their lost savings, their prospects.
Conservative and corporate elites are stoking the turmoil, and using fear to panic a public into accepting harsh measures that would be otherwise unacceptable. The stock market tanks after the debt ceiling debacle (editor's note: Monday the Dow plunged more than 600 points). Standard & Poor's, the discredited and corrupted rating agency, rushes to downgrade U.S. debt, with such haste it doesn’t even get its math right. China’s news service announces the U.S. must roll back its bloated “welfare state” and its bloated military. The talk shows are inundated with pundits expounding the urgent need for the U.S. to get its deficits under control to regain its credit status.
The elite roll-out is clear. The gang of 12 produces a “deal,” combining a hike in eligibility age for Medicare, a cut in Social Security by reducing the inflation adjustment, caps on Medicaid and increased revenues from LOWERING rates on the corporations and the rich, while limiting deductions that reach middle-class families – on mortgages, employer based health care or retirement plans. They may well throw in the current scam – funding the infrastructure bank with proceeds from allowing multinationals who have secreted a trillion on profits offshore to bring the money back at a cut-rate 5 percent.
Yes, the panic will be used to cut the basic promises made to working families in order to pay for the deficits caused by the excesses of Wall Street.
Don’t fall for it. Fight back. On August 9, Republican state senators in Wisconsin who sought to trample basic worker rights are facing recall elections. On August 10, the American Dream Movement, supported by Moveon.org, the Center for Community Change, and the Campaign for America’s Future and others, will sponsor events across the country. Citizens will be taking the new Contract for the American Dream to their legislators, and demanding action on jobs, not on cuts."
Eén op de 6 Amerikanen, bijna 15%, leeft van food stamps, de Amerikaanse vorm van bijstand. Meer dan 30 miljoen Amerikanen leven in armoede. Dat is de werkelijke ellende. Niet hoe het met de beurs gaat. Hoe lang kan dit standhouden? Misschien moeten we in plaats van een credit rating een revolution rating opstellen. Wat is de geloofwaardigheid van het kapitalistische systeem, hoe hoog is de kans dat dit tot revolutie leidt? Indien je levensbestaan bedreigt wordt dan is revolutie moreel verantwoord. En dat heb ik op een katholieke school geleerd.
Noam Chomsky: "By shredding the remnants of political democracy, the financial institutions lay the basis for carrying the lethal process forward—as long as their victims are willing to suffer in silence."