Today on 14 Nov. a general strike against so-called Troika takes place. According to an article, this general strike were called for in Spain and Portugal, then the trade unions in Greece, Cyprus, Italy and so on, also followed the call. In addition, ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) decided to hold the solidarity action in the same day (14N More protests: General strike in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy…).
This article also quotes the statement on the 14N general strike. It says:
We want to take the strike as a strike against the debt, to keep saying that we do not owe and we will not pay, we want to deepen the dismissing process against the government and the constitutional process for a democracy to stop austerity policies at European level. (14N More protests)
Certainly, it is one of the challenges to oppose to austerity. It is important to make clear who is really responsible with the huge debt. Nevertheless this statement leaves some fundamental questions intact.
What does the word „democracy“ mean in this sentence: „to deepen … the constitutional process for a democracy to stop austerity policies at European level“? Isn’t it reduced in fact only to „stop austerity“ in this sentence? What policies shall be then implemented in order to stop it? Is it sufficient to tax financial capital and regulate the transnational capital transaction? If so, then aren’t we talking about just a national Keynesianism, supplemented with European coordination, rather than democracy? What must be the genuine „democratic“ control? Is it only financial capital we must control? Is there any other ways that lead us to the democratic control of our own lives, if we don’t challenge the capitalist production system itself by inviting the majority of people to the control of production process in the local or grassroots level?
This statement also declares that anti-austerity movement should be enlarged „at European level“. When I read this, I cannot help but say that debt has been a major tool of imperialism after the third worldism. Through the IMF structural adjustment program the system of exploitation from global south has been re-established, which often turned to be even stronger than in the colonized period.
Thomas Sankara, the leader of the disrupted social revolution in 1984-1987 in Burkina Faso, is one of those who criticize debt as a tool of contemporary imperialism. Nick Dearden catch the echo of his message in ongoing situation in Europe.
Perhaps today, Sankara’s words are most relevant to our own crisis in Europe. They are echoed by those in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland who have heard little of him: „Those who led us into debt were gambling, as if they were in a casino.. there is talk of a crisis. No. They gambled. They lost… We cannot repay the debt because we have nothing to pay it with. We cannot repay the debt because it is not our responsibility.“ (Nick Dearden, Thomas Sankara: an African leader with a message for Europe, in Red Pepper Online)
All I want to say is that opposition to austerity and financial capital can be nothing other than the abolition of imperialist order articulated to capitalist production and exploitation system.
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