August 16, 2012
thepeoplesrecord: Spain’s ‘Robin Hood’ mayor steps up protestsAugust 15, 2012 The mayor of a Spanish town who helped raid supermarkets to give groceries to the poor will step up his campaign against the country’s austerity measures. Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, a regional lawmaker and mayor of Marinaleda, population 2,645, will begin a three-week march to draw attention to families hit hard by Spain’s economic crisis, Reuters reported Wednesday. Sanchez Gordillo stood outside the stores during the raids, Reuters said, but wasn’t arrested himself, because he has political immunity as an elected member of Andalusia’s regional parliament.Seven people have been arrested for their roles in two grocery raids, in which labour unionists loaded up supermarket carts and walked out without paying. “There are people who don’t have enough to eat,” Sanchez Gordillo told Reuters. “In the 21st century, this is an absolute disgrace.” Poverty levels are said to have risen more than 15 per cent since 2007, with a quarter of workers jobless and tens of thousands have been evicted from their homes. Media coverage of the supermarket stunt has made the mayor a national celebrity. His home region of Andalusia is one of the parts of Spain worst hit by the economic crisis: one worker in three is jobless, the news agency said. His march will start in Jodar, which has Andalusia’s highest unemployment rate. The EU has demanded Spain shrink one of Europe’s highest budget deficits to prevent the continent’s debt crisis from spreading. Sanchez Gordillo has long been a fringe figure on the national stage, known for criticism of the mainstream political parties, Reuters said. “They say I’m dangerous,” the news agency quoted him as saying. “And the bankers who are let off for fraud? That’s not dangerous? The banks which borrow from the ECB for one per cent then resell that debt to Spaniards for six per cent — they’re not dangerous?” he said. Source

thepeoplesrecord:

Spain’s ‘Robin Hood’ mayor steps up protests
August 15, 2012

The mayor of a Spanish town who helped raid supermarkets to give groceries to the poor will step up his campaign against the country’s austerity measures.

Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, a regional lawmaker and mayor of Marinaleda, population 2,645, will begin a three-week march to draw attention to families hit hard by Spain’s economic crisis, Reuters reported Wednesday.

Sanchez Gordillo stood outside the stores during the raids, Reuters said, but wasn’t arrested himself, because he has political immunity as an elected member of Andalusia’s regional parliament.Seven people have been arrested for their roles in two grocery raids, in which labour unionists loaded up supermarket carts and walked out without paying.

“There are people who don’t have enough to eat,” Sanchez Gordillo told Reuters. “In the 21st century, this is an absolute disgrace.”

Poverty levels are said to have risen more than 15 per cent since 2007, with a quarter of workers jobless and tens of thousands have been evicted from their homes.

Media coverage of the supermarket stunt has made the mayor a national celebrity.

His home region of Andalusia is one of the parts of Spain worst hit by the economic crisis: one worker in three is jobless, the news agency said.

His march will start in Jodar, which has Andalusia’s highest unemployment rate.

The EU has demanded Spain shrink one of Europe’s highest budget deficits to prevent the continent’s debt crisis from spreading.

Sanchez Gordillo has long been a fringe figure on the national stage, known for criticism of the mainstream political parties, Reuters said.

“They say I’m dangerous,” the news agency quoted him as saying. “And the bankers who are let off for fraud? That’s not dangerous? The banks which borrow from the ECB for one per cent then resell that debt to Spaniards for six per cent — they’re not dangerous?” he said.

Source

(via burnagain)

8:34pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyRZV35L
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Filed under: austerity Spain poverty banks 
June 14, 2012

The House of Commons was to begin voting Wednesday night on several hundred amendments to Bill C-38, the 425-page monster known as the omnibus budget implementation bill. The voting was expected to go on all night and all day Thursday.

Viewed one way, the whole thing is quite silly. Given the government’s majority, none of the amendments is likely to pass, nor is the bill itself in any danger of defeat. Viewed another way, however, this is an important moment. For the first time since the last election, the opposition is putting up a serious fight against the abuses this government has visited upon Parliament: not only the omnibus bill – which repeals, amends or introduces more than 60 pieces of legislation – but the repeated, almost routine curtailing of debate by means of time allocation; the failures of oversight, misstating of costs, and abdication of responsibility in the F-35 purchase; and the refusal to provide basic information on spending to Parliament or the Parliamentary Budget Officer – to say nothing of the stonewalling, prorogations and other indignities of the minority years.

It should be noted it is not only the opposition’s interests that are being defended here. It is Parliament’s. Were MPs on the government side more mindful of their responsibilities, they would be as vigilant in its defence as the opposition.

More here.

Conservative MPs… 

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(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: Elizabeth May Green Party Canada Conservative Stephen Harper parliament abuse F-35 Bill C-38 House of Commons democracy austerity authority ignorance 
June 13, 2012
abbyjean: As you can see, government employment tends to rise during recessions, helping to cushion their impact. But with the exception of a spike when we hired temporary workers for the decennial census, it’s fallen sharply during this recession. Note that a Republican was president after the 1981, 1990 and 2000 recessions. Public-sector austerity looks a lot better to conservatives when they’re out of power than when they’re in it. The implications are huge: If state and local governments had followed the pattern of the previous two recessions, they would have added 1.4 million to 1.9 million jobs and overall unemployment would be 7.0 to 7.3 percent instead of 8.2 percent. (via Andrew Sullivan

abbyjean:

As you can see, government employment tends to rise during recessions, helping to cushion their impact. But with the exception of a spike when we hired temporary workers for the decennial census, it’s fallen sharply during this recession. Note that a Republican was president after the 1981, 1990 and 2000 recessions. Public-sector austerity looks a lot better to conservatives when they’re out of power than when they’re in it. The implications are huge: If state and local governments had followed the pattern of the previous two recessions, they would have added 1.4 million to 1.9 million jobs and overall unemployment would be 7.0 to 7.3 percent instead of 8.2 percent. (via Andrew Sullivan

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(Notes: 7)
  
Filed under: employment austerity measures austerity recession workers Republican president public-sector conservatives politics Andrew Sillivan 
June 10, 2012

Whether you believe the Republicans are engaging in purposely destructive fiscal behavior or are simply fiscally incompetent, it almost doesn’t matter. It most certainly is bad economic policy and that should be part of any national debate not only on who is to blame for the current economic mess, but also what steps should be taken to get out from underneath it.

But don’t hold your breath on that happening. Presidents get blamed for a bad economy; and certainly, Republicans are unlikely to take responsibility for the country’s economic woes. The obligation will be on Obama to make the case that it is the Republicans, not he, who is to blame – a difficult, but not impossible task.

More here.

10:03am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyN6xU7H
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: GOP Republican America austerity measures austerity economic economy jobs politics Obama election 2012 
June 8, 2012

Speaking of debts, as most governments now do in order to explain why they can’t create anything and need to cut back on whatever is already there, here’s what I think we owe to those striking Quebec students.

We owe them for taking a shot at saving our national honour in the eyes of the world. We’ve lost brownie points on the environment, our even-handedness in areas like the Mideast, our commitment to peacekeeping — but their campaign for equal, publicly funded access to higher education hits a note closer to that other, previous Canada…

…

The students have fought this one on the issue of free — in the sense of publicly funded — post-secondary education. If post-secondary seems a bridge too far, think about this: any argument you can make against accessible post-secondary schooling, would apply in exactly the same way to high schools and elementary. In fact, during the last Depression, when high school still wasn’t widely available, there were the same arguments you hear now about how we couldn’t afford it. It was then, in that economic mess, that the fight was fought. I’m not talking about Quebec; it happened here in Ontario. The students aren’t just out to save a few bucks personally; they’re fighting for a historic principle.

OK, now having opened the door, as they say in the courtroom shows, I suppose I have to address the cry: There isn’t enough money! Along with its twin: The numbers don’t lie. Actually, since numbers are animated by people, they do anything people do: they lie, obscure, omit — so let me just point this out: When something is a widely agreed social priority, the numbers obediently adjust. The money gets found. That happens in every war and natural disaster. In those cases nobody ever says there’s no money. They raise taxes, rejig priorities, rearrange financial schedules. Suddenly it’s no prob. In other words, this isn’t just about economics, it’s about politics…

Rick Salutin in The Toronto Star (more here)

(Source: thestar.com)

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Filed under: Canada democracy principle education free Quebec students student protests austerity measures austerity money priorities economics politics 
May 29, 2012

nationalpost:

Lawyers take to the streets with students for Montreal’s 35th consecutive night of protest
As negotiations between student leaders and the provincial Liberals resumed in Quebec City Monday evening after a supper break, more protests took place in different parts of Quebec including Montreal, which hosted its 35th consecutive night of demonstrations.

Lawyers dressed in their courtroom gowns paraded in silence from the city’s main courthouse through the streets of Old Montreal to join the nightly march.

“It is one of the first times I’ve seen lawyers protest in public like this…and I’ve been practising for almost 30 years,” Bruno Grenier said outside the building surrounded by about 250 people, some carrying copies of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The lawyer said his colleagues wanted to show the public that they oppose a law they “find unjust and which is probably unconstitutional.” (Photos: Canadian Press/Reuters)

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Filed under: Quebec lawyers protests student austerity austerity measures 
May 23, 2012

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Europe’s current malaise is the replacement of democratic commitments by financial dictates — from leaders of the European Union and the European Central Bank, and indirectly from credit-rating agencies, whose judgments have been notoriously unsound.

Participatory public discussion — the “government by discussion” expounded by democratic theorists like John Stuart Mill and Walter Bagehot — could have identified appropriate reforms over a reasonable span of time, without threatening the foundations of Europe’s system of social justice. In contrast, drastic cuts in public services with very little general discussion of their necessity, efficacy or balance have been revolting to a large section of the European population and have played into the hands of extremists on both ends of the political spectrum.

Amartya Sen writing in The New York Times

8:02am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZBXRbyL_znAW
Filed under: Europe austerity European Union European Central Bank credit-rating agencies democracy public John Stuart Mill Walter Bagehot social justice public services politics economics