A Better World is Possible: Austerity plans & the need for socialist ‘threat’

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“The Welfare States” that were a response to the ‘threat’ of socialism in post-WWII appear to be over, or at least that’s the intention of the ruling class in those countries. No wonder why all news about the austerity plans tell us “The Biggest cuts since the Second World War”. What can we do to fight it? Simple: We need a socialist ‘threat’

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July 1, 2010 – G20 Summit: Trying to square the circle

As a percentage of GDP the national debts of the following countries are: Italy 115.8%, Greece 115.1%, Belgium 96.7%, France 77.6%, Portugal 76.8%, Germany 73.2%, UK 68.1%, Spain 53.2%.

In the USA at the end of first quarter of 2010, the debt stood at 87.3% of GDP and as things stand now it is expected to rise close to 100% of GDP under Obama, a record level since the Second World War. In 2009 alone it expanded by $1.4 trillion

In Japan government debt stands at a staggering 200% of GDP. So bad is the situation in Japan that its new prime minister Naoto Kan recently warned that the country is at “risk of collapse” under this huge mountain of debt, and that what is required is a financial restructuring to avoid ending up like Greece, adding that, “Our country’s outstanding public debt is huge… our public finances have become the worst of any developed country.”

http://www.marxist.com/g20-summit-trying-to-square-the-circle.htm
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June 27 – The New York Times: The Third Depression

“We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the [19th century] Long Depression than the much more severe [1930s] Great Depression. But the cost to the world economy and, above all, the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs will nonetheless be immense.” Krugman

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html
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• July 2 – Romania – Severe Austerity Measures Adopted by Romanian Government
  Romania will cut over 53,000 public jobs as part of a package of austerity measures in order to receive a new portion of the €20 billion bailout led by the International Monetary Fund. Romania has in 2010 about 5.5 million retirees and only about 4.3 million employees, out of a population of about 21 million. About 31 percent of the employees are public sector workers.
• June 29 -Greeks Strike to Protest Austerity Plans
  ATHENS — Public services in Greece ground to a halt, and transportation was disrupted on Tuesday as thousands of workers joined a general strike, the fifth this year, to protest deeply unpopular spending cuts that the debt-ridden government has promised its international creditors.
  
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• June 29 - Britain – Exclusive: Leaked government data concerning next five years shows hidden costs of austerity drive Unpublished estimates of the impact of the biggest squeeze on public spending since the second world war show that the government is expecting between 500,000 and 600,000 jobs to go in the public sector and between 600,000 and 700,000 to disappear in the private sector by 2015.
• June 24 – France: Two million march against Sarkozy’s cuts
• June 15 - Portugal’s austerity plans aim to reduce its budget deficit to 4.6% of GDP by 2011, compared to 9.4% in 2009
• June 12 – Tens of thousands protest Italy’s austerity plan
• June 9 – Germany: The austerity plan is ambitious — the aim is to save up to $95 billion by 2014 through a combination of deep spending cuts and revenue-raising measures. The savings include controversial cuts to welfare payments for the long-term unemployed and reductions in parental allowance for families.
• June 8 – Spanish public sector on strike against austerity plan
• May 24 – Canada, Get ready for austerity plan In a letter last week to leaders of the Group of 20 nations, Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote: “We must continue to fulfill our international obligation to fully implement our stimulus plans to avoid a slide back into financial or economic crisis. However, as the recovery becomes entrenched and our stimulus plans expire, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We must quickly turn our attention to the next major issue facing our countries and the G20 as a whole, that is, the issue of restoring our public finances, or, as many economists put it, implementing fiscal consolidation.”