"There Is About To Be A Very Significant Change In Headlines Around The World
For the past several months, it seems as if there should be a singular version for the word “news” because there has been really only one story: the economy, and what it means to people, how it happened, what’s happening now, who’s to blame, what should be done about it. But there’s about to be a much more significant story taking over the headlines worldwide: social, cultural and political upheaval. There is a growing number of protests events in virtually every area of the world, where primarily middle class anger is being vented at ruling governments for not doing enough (or for doing too much), and also aimed at what can only be identified as the non-government upper class. These are not protests about civil rights or even a religious view; these are protests of one class against another. Where does it go? To answer that, you have to start with: where is it now? And if you start doing searches under words like “economic protests” and just follow links, you will get a startling view.
Here’s A Quick Tour, Starting In Dublin.
This is a photo of a protest of some 100,000 people who marched on Dublin on February 21, 2009, “to vent their anger at the Irish government’s handling of the country’s recession”, according to the BBC coverage. The march was organized by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and the primary focus was a prospective salary cut for 350,000 public sector employees as a way to reduce government spending. However, news and videos I’ve seen about the event make me wonder if what motivated these people was more a mood than an issue - the mood summarized by one unidentified protestor in the BBC coverage: “I’ve worked all my life, I’ve never broke the law, never walked out on strike. Instead I’ve went (sic) to work and done my job,” he said. “I’ve a mortgage to pay, I’ve children to put through school, and now I’m being told I have to take cutback, after cutback, after cutback.”
The alarming thing to me is that these are the concerns of the middle class. I do not remember protests by the middle class, especially protests that appear to be motivated more by frustration and anger than anything else in particular.
The Problem Isn’t Confined To Dublin. Similar Protests Are Happening Throughout Europe.
Let the facts speak for themselves. In every instance below, consider who is protesting (middle class) and where they are venting their anger (at the government and non-government upper class):
This is a photo of a February 26, 2009, Frankfurt, Germany, protest of thousands of workers at the headquarters of General Motors German subsidiary, Opel, as covered by Spiegel Online. Their target is GM, which they fear will close the plant as part of their restructuring, and their own government for not making certain that the plant stays open. Seeing a political opportunity, German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is running as the center-left Social Democratic Party’s candidate for chancellor against incumbent Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democrats, spoke at the rally: “This is a fight for jobs and I’m fighting without any reservation for you,” Steinmeier told workers, regardless of the fact, as noted by an editorial in one of Germany’s leading papers, that he has no plan to rescue the ailing car maker.
Take a look at this BBC coverage of the January 29, million-person protest in France.
Some reports estimated the total number of protestors throughout the country at 2.5 million. What could pull such a massive turnout? Was it a hot issue? Not according to the BBC, which said: “So many people crammed into the square that most had to wait some time before they could join the cortege as it crawled towards the Republique district. In short, a typical French protest. But this one was billed as being different. There was no single issue, although loosely it all came together in defence of ‘jobs and wages’. Low pay, job insecurity and the fear of unemployment were constant themes. A bright orange banner listed the homeless, builders, restaurant workers and cleaners, saying they’d all had enough.” Sounds to me like a very discontented and disillusioned middle class venting their anger at the government and those who made dramatic sums of money during the boom.
The protests in France continue. The Associated Press reported on March 6, 2009, about three separate protests in the past few days in France: “French workers stage a sit-in at a Royal Bank of Scotland subsidiary in Lyon. French employees of U.S. manufacturing giant Caterpillar, Inc. march on Paris to ask the government to save their jobs. And French tire makers for Germany’s Continental AG fight to save their factory.” Common themes starting to emerge? Read on.
Great Britain is not immune.
This photo (Geoff Caddick/Getty) is of a London clash between police and protestors outside the Bank of England, in October 2008, shortly after the London stock market fell by 10%. The protestors were identified as “anti capitalists.” Their banners read: “Why should we pay for their crisis?” The threat of future clashes is being taken very seriously, according to an article dated February 23, 2009, in The Guardian. They reported that police are concerned about “a summer of rage,” as “victims of the economic downturn take to the streets to demonstrate against financial institutions.”
Significantly, The Guardian quotes the head of the Metropolitan police’s public order branch, that “middle-class individuals who would never have considered joining demonstrations may now seek to vent their anger through protests this year.” Among what police call the “most visible” targets are banks, especially those that have continued paying large bonuses to their management and other financial institutions that are considered to be responsible for the economic crisis.
They also quote the police official for citing intelligence reports that suggest that “known activists” are getting involved. Here is what the police official said: “Those people would be good at motivating people, but they haven’t had the ‘footsoldiers’ to actually carry out [protests]. Obviously the downturn in the economy, unemployment, repossessions, changes that. Suddenly there is the opportunity for people to mass protest. It means that where we would possibly look at certain events and say, ‘yes there’ll be a lot of people there, there’ll be a lot of banner waving, but generally it will be peaceful’, [now] we have to make sure these elements don’t come out and hijack that event and turn that into disorder.”
Police attention - and fears — is especially focused on the April G20 meeting of the group of leading and developing nations in London. It is getting significant attention, will be highly visible, and is being exploited by both the extreme right and left. The London police are also concerned about the marriage of other strange bedfellows, for example the combined protests of disillusioned unemployed and radical environmentalists focused on oil companies that continue to report monstrous profits.
There have been more events in Great Britain, including protests at power plants, demonstrating against the employment of foreign contractors to work on critical energy sites, and another dispute at an oil refinery in Lincolnshire, where the protest ended (February 5, 2009) after the owners agreed to hire more British workers on the project - but let’s move on …
In Greece, tractors blocked the Athens-Thessaloniki motorway on January 26, 2009, as well as other motorways, roads and border crossings across the Balkans in an attempt to obtain better procurement prices for their produce. The photo below (Sakis Mitrolidis/Getty) is of the tractor protest near the city of Larisa.
The protest lasted two weeks, creating travel chaos throughout the country. It ended when the farmers’ demands were met: the government pledged 500 million euros in subsidies on products such as olive oil and wheat, according to Reuters. But as in other nations, this was not a unique event.
On February 27, in a classic example of an act of class versus class, pupils from the state schools of Philothei and Paleo Psichico, the richest suburbs of Athens, attacked “Athens College,” the exclusive private school considered “the cradle of the country’s leading group,” according to libcom.org, which provides one of the most complete chronicle of protests in places such as Greece, where mainstream media is ignoring such news. (The organization describes itself as “a small collective of libertarian communists based in and around London …. Our name, libcom, is an abbreviation of “libertarian communism” - and its goals of liberty and community - the political current we identify with.”). At any rate, libcom.org reports that: “The pupils broke the back entrance of the school smashed the guard post spraying anarchist slogans and signs on the walls. Then they fired firecrackers and piled school buses with oranges. In their effort to storm the main building they were confronted by strong police forces. The cops attacked the pupils and arrested a 13 year old boy and a 12 year old girl who was dragged on the ground. The police had to release them both when the pupils counterattacked surrounding the officers with the help of teaching staff who accused them of brutality.”
There have been several other events, and they are increasing in frequency. A libcom.org report dated Sunday, March 8, is headlined: “Warm weekend in Athens: protests, street battles and occupations.“ It begins: “The first weekend of spring has been another warm one for Athens with protest marches, street battles, and occupations over a variety of social issues.” The article then describes ten major public disturbances.
Meanwhile, this weekend in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, a 44-day general strike was ended when most the strikers’ demands were met. Government officials and business owners agreed to raise workers’ pay and lower the cost of basic goods. I’m not certain I understand how that can be done. Nevertheless, it isn’t a unique idea: negotiations are continuing in nearby Martinique over a similar stoppage.
The general strike in Guadeloupe was marked by periods of violence, as this photo shows. The situation became so critical that France deployed hundreds of police and gendarmes to support local security forces’ attempts to restore order. When the strike was finally settled this weekend, the union leader was quoted as saying: “This means work will resume, but we’ll remain mobilized over the coming days and weeks.”
Another general strike to protest the rising cost of living coupled with stagnant wages will begin in the west African country of Chad on Monday, March 9. An organization representing some 50 unions in Chad is coordinating the effort said to be “a warning to the government” because it is refusing to raise public sector wages in line with price increases. The organizers are especially irritated that life for the workers is becoming more difficult despite increased national financial resources from the sale of oil, according to AFP news service.
Let’s Take A Closer Look At Eastern Europe.
It’s a mess. To understand just what that mess means to the world, you should read an article dated February 15, 2009, in The Daily Telegraph, titled “Failure to Save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown” by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the paper’s international business editor. I’ve referred to this amazing article before. The point to be made here is from the following excerpt: “Almost all East bloc debts are owed to West Europe, especially Austrian, Swedish, Greek, Italian, and Belgian banks. En plus, Europeans account for an astonishing 74pc of the entire $4.9 trillion portfolio of loans to emerging markets. They are five times more exposed to this latest bust than American or Japanese banks, and they are 50pc more leveraged (IMF data).” In other words, the instability of Eastern Europe will rock the entirety of Europe and hence the world. So it’s in that context that we should look at protests that are occurring there. As we do, I think you’ll find the common denominator of these protests is that they are largely middle class and they are aimed at the ruling government and the rich, whom they believe to be guilty for the terrible economy they are facing.
Latvia may be the next Iceland. You remember Iceland, don’t you? The government stepped down there on January 26. Why? Months of protests against politician and central bankers. Since February 1, an interim government made up of Social Democrats and the Left Green party has been in power with elections to be held in April. It looked like d?j? vue all over again in February, when Latvia’s Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis also stepped down. Why? Widespread discontent over the government’s corruption; the protestors felt they were paying the price with belt-tightening measures. After enjoying a period of phenomenal growth, Latvia’s economy is expected to contract as much as 12 percent this year. Unemployment there as of February was 8.3 percent (a bit higher than in the US currently); it is expected to reach closer to 13 percent.
Riots in Latvia became so significant that it even made news in the United States, where the media for some reason has totally ignored what is going on in the world. This is the photo (Ilmars Znotins/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images) The New York Times ran with a January 14, 2009, story headlined “Latvia Is Shaken by Riots Over Its Weak Economy.”
From the article: “The rioting broke out Tuesday after around 10,000 people protested in historic Dome Square over the economic troubles and grievances involving corruption and competence of the government.” Is there a theme here?
In Bulgaria, the protests are from groups as diverse as police officers to dairy farmers. Regardless, the theme is always basically the same: “why should we pay the price for government corruption and a crisis the rich created?” In early February 2009, some 100 dairy farmers blocked a key border crossing to Romania to protest low milk prices, according to a February 4, 2009, EUbusiness article titled “Bulgarian farmers in EU milk protests.” Bulgarian border cities with Greece have experienced similar protests. Meanwhile, Bulgarian police, who are banned by law from striking, have held “silent protests” beginning December 2008, demanding a 50 percent pay raise and better working conditions.
Take a look at this video of a January 14, 2009, anti government rally that turned into a riot (in this case, the source is labeled to be Reuters, but it is amazing how very little actual news service video is available).
Here’s the picture in Lithuania:
It’s a photo (Petras Malukas/AFP/Getty Images) of a January 16, 2009, protest in Vilnius outside Parliament. The crowd of protestors, pulled together by trade unions, was estimated at 7,000. The anger was directed to (what else?) an austerity drive attempted by the Lithuanian government.
In Russia, Putin has come down strong against the threat of protests. Thus far, Russia has experienced relatively modest protests, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has already warned opposition critics not to use the economic crisis as an excuse to challenge his government and has told them to abide by the law, according to Reuters. Putin and other senior officials have already spoken critically of potential “people’s revolution” and they have said they will defend against any such attempts. His February 27, 2009, warning followed a series of protests, the biggest being a January 2009 demonstration that took place in the eastern city of Vladivostok, where protesters actually demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The protest was pulled together by the Communist Party - I guess irony is part of the bargain when it comes to the opportunity to protest. Here is a photo of the protest, with a protestor holding pictures of Lenin and Stalin in the protest against Putin.
How About In China? There Aren’t Similar Protests In China Are There? Ooops.
The recession in the US and Europe is drastically reducing demand for goods produced in Chinese factories. China continues to report strong economic growth, but the growth is deceptive. Economists believe a minimum growth of 8 percent is necessary to provide enough jobs to keep pace with the population growth pumping more people into the job market. But the growth rate fell to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to Bloomberg, costing jobs to 20 million migrant workers. Go back. That wasn’t a typo. 20 million jobs. In response, just a couple days ago, March 6, 2009, Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan pledged fast and forceful policies to restore confidence and prevent the global financial crisis from deepening the nation’s economic slump. Bloomberg quotes him as saying: “If we act slowly and less decisively, we’re likely to see what happened in other countries: a slide in confidence.”
Maybe the Chinese government is facing the prospect of protests with a sense of urgency due to the rising number of protests that are spreading around the nation. On February 3, 2009, TimesOnLine reported on the incidents this way: “Hundreds, if not thousands, of ‘mass incidents’ or outbursts of discontent shake China every day with most too small or too local ever to be reported in the media. The official number soared to 87,000 - big and small - in 2005 but fell the following year. Since then the police have not released statistics. However, state-run media have reported taxi driver strikes, protests by laid-off workers who did not receive their salaries and sporadic rioting in recent weeks as export-driven growth has slowed and companies have shed staff. The security chief told officials that it was their responsibility to prevent unrest by swiftly resolving disputes over unpaid wages or bankruptcies. ‘Limit as much as possible the potential for mass incidents, try as hard as possible to solve problems at the grassroots and nip them in the bud and try as hard as possible to solve problems when and where they happen in the first instance.’” Sound familiar yet again? Even in China, the same theme: the middle and working classes protesting against those in charge.
For a somewhat shocking view of large scale rioting by recently unemployed factory workers left desperate and destitute after factory closures in the city of Guangdong, see this exceptional news report from the BBC:
In Japan, just this past Saturday, March 7, thousands marched through the streets of Tokyo, asking for job security to keep their heads above water. According to the transcript of a Reuters story, “Contract workers and temporary employees, who account for one-third of the workforce, are getting the axe now as firms find it easier to cut part-time jobs, but the worst is yet to come.”
Growing economic protests throughout Asia, may not be drawing a great deal of attention from the mainstream media, especially in the US, but it is winning attention from news media such as The Indypendent, which describes itself as “Winner of dozens of New York Independent Press Association awards, The Indypendent is dedicated to empowering people to create a true alternative to the corporate press by encouraging citizens to produce their own media.” On February 27, 2009, they ran a story “Asia’s Coming Fury: Sudden End of Economic Growth Could Spark Radical Protest” by Walden Bello, a senior analyst at Global South and president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, a Philippines-based organization that describes itself as “a nationwide multi-sectoral coalition conducting advocacy work in the national, local and international arenas, to realize a common framework and agenda for economic development. The main task of the Coalition is advocacy, which is the process of promoting alternatives and working for change in policies, programs, structures and relations.“ Consider the conclusion of the story: ”Now, with the era of growth coming to an end, increasing poverty amid great inequalities will be a combustible combination. … Suffering is likely to be accompanied by rising protest, as it already has in Vietnam, where strikes are spreading like wildfire. South Korea, with its tradition of militant labor and peasant protest, is a ticking time bomb. Indeed, East Asia may be entering a period of radical protest and social revolution that went out of style when export-oriented industrialization became the fashion three decades ago.”
Well, At Least The U.S. Isn’t Facing Social Protests. Ummm. Maybe Not.
Have you heard about the protestors in Connecticut who stormed the house of a bank CEO? To their credit, CNN covered the news, but the story was broken by News 12 Interactive. Here is the clip:
As Examiner.com reported on February 27,2009, under the title “Economic Protests Across America:” “Now Americans who just months ago would never have thought of taking to the streets are doing just that.” They reported that “Inspired by President Obama’s radical economic program and a call to action by CNBC’s Rick Santelli, who expressed outrage on air about Obama’s mortgage bailout plan, today, in cities across America, thousands of individuals came out to protest against a government increasingly loose with its citizens’ money.” Here’s a video clip of one of several “tea parties” that occurred following Santelli’s rant - this one is from the Washington, DC, rally but you can find similar clips on YouTube of events in St. Louis, Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Sacramento, Dallas, San Diego, and Orlando (at least):
And here’s a clip of the September 25, 2008, “no bailout” protest that took place on Wall Street -
The chants, aimed at the investing class: “You broke it; you bought it.” In other words, federal bailout money shouldn’t be given to banks and businesses but to “the people.” Running over the video are title slides that are familiar: the pay of CEOs and the implication that while they got wealthy and paid nominal taxes, the working and middle class suffered.
This clip was put together by The World Economic Forum, which describes itself as “an independent, international organization incorporated as a Swiss not-for-profit foundation. We are striving towards a world-class corporate governance system where values are as important a basis as rules. Our motto is ‘entrepreneurship in the global public interest’. We believe that economic progress without social development is not sustainable, while social development without economic progress is not feasible. Our vision for the World Economic Forum is threefold. It aims to be: the foremost organization which builds and energizes leading global communities; the creative force shaping global, regional and industry strategies; the catalyst of choice for its communities when undertaking global initiatives to improve the state the world.”
But Wait. There’s More. More That Has Happened. And Lots More Yet To Come.
This report is already way too lengthy, especially by blog standards. Nevertheless, I have only scratched the surface. There are more reports from around the world and from within the US. But there is more on the horizon. On April 3, 2009, there is a planned “March on Wall Street” during which protests will take place in several cities across the nation.
Here is a promotional clip about the event, in which one of the unnamed apparent leaders suggests: “An election is no substitute for a mass movement.”
It is difficult to track down the people directly behind this protest; I’ve been trying to identify them, and thus far what I’ve discovered is enlightening to say the least. I will post my findings here in the near future. If you want to make certain you receive it, you can subscribe by clicking here.
I’ve suggested in a previous post that rather than comparing the current economic crisis to the Depression, maybe we should compare it to the period preceding the French Revolution, which resulted in a period of cultural/social/political upheaval in addition to economic crisis. I presented the thought that the common factor between then and now is the disillusionment of the middle and working class, who felt that their government and the upper class exploited them for their own benefit. If my premise is correct, then we would see an increasing number of protests around the world - protests based less on single issues and more on a feeling of frustration and anger. As to whether my premise is correct, scroll back to the top and read this post again.
Now the question is: if we are on the verge of some sort of cultural, social and political upheaval, how will that play out in the age of the Internet and the global communications revolution? I’ll reconsider that issue in the future as well. When I do, I will be writing my opinion, which clearly can be (and often is) wrong. The post you are reading now however is an iteration of some facts. If we take these facts and a clear trend seriously, we would start worrying much more about what the actual worst case scenario may be for the current economic crisis. But I hear no broad discussion of this threat. I hear virtually no discussions. I think we are in denial. Certainly mainstream media, especially in the US, is in denial, otherwise, why would they be missing this story?"
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