austerity &mdash; Fight Back! News https://fightbacknews.org/tag:austerity News and Views from the People's Struggle Thu, 14 May 2026 23:07:35 +0000 https://i.snap.as/RZCOEKyz.png austerity &mdash; Fight Back! News https://fightbacknews.org/tag:austerity Economy continues to slow even as more austerity looms https://fightbacknews.org/economy-continues-slow-even-more-austerity-looms?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[San José, CA - On Friday, September 1, the Department of Labor’s report on the job market in August showed continued signs of cooling. Only 187,000 net new jobs were created, and the Labor Department adjusted down the new jobs for June and July by 130,000. This meant that the three month average was only 150,000 new jobs. In contrast, in the first three months of the year, employment grew on average by 312,000 jobs, so that the rate of job creation has been cut in half. !--more-- The official unemployment rate also rose in August to 3.8%, from 3.5% in July. The August rate was the highest since February of 2022, when the jobs market was still recovering from the 2020 recession. Almost all groups saw a rise in their unemployment rate, with teenagers and Asian Americans seeing the biggest increases of almost one percent. The biggest exception was for African Americans, whose unemployment rate actually fell by one-half of one percent from July to August. Government austerity, or cuts in spending, are showing up in the job markets, as all levels of government combined (federal, state and local) have only added 5000 job the last two months. More and more state and local governments, including school districts and state colleges and universities, are facing budget deficits, which means spending cuts and/or raising taxes or fees. Student loan interest starts to accrue this month, and payments are beginning in October. Last but not least, the federal government is facing a likely partial shutdown in October, as right-wing Republicans in the House of Representatives are refusing to pass any bill to continue funding. Signs of distress are also growing among working-class households. Rates of late payments are rising for credit cards and car loans, even as student loans, the biggest chunk of consumer debts, are still in payment suspension. Many retailers are reporting sagging sales. #SanJoséCA #austerity div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> San José, CA – On Friday, September 1, the Department of Labor’s report on the job market in August showed continued signs of cooling. Only 187,000 net new jobs were created, and the Labor Department adjusted down the new jobs for June and July by 130,000. This meant that the three month average was only 150,000 new jobs. In contrast, in the first three months of the year, employment grew on average by 312,000 jobs, so that the rate of job creation has been cut in half.

The official unemployment rate also rose in August to 3.8%, from 3.5% in July. The August rate was the highest since February of 2022, when the jobs market was still recovering from the 2020 recession. Almost all groups saw a rise in their unemployment rate, with teenagers and Asian Americans seeing the biggest increases of almost one percent. The biggest exception was for African Americans, whose unemployment rate actually fell by one-half of one percent from July to August.

Government austerity, or cuts in spending, are showing up in the job markets, as all levels of government combined (federal, state and local) have only added 5000 job the last two months. More and more state and local governments, including school districts and state colleges and universities, are facing budget deficits, which means spending cuts and/or raising taxes or fees. Student loan interest starts to accrue this month, and payments are beginning in October. Last but not least, the federal government is facing a likely partial shutdown in October, as right-wing Republicans in the House of Representatives are refusing to pass any bill to continue funding.

Signs of distress are also growing among working-class households. Rates of late payments are rising for credit cards and car loans, even as student loans, the biggest chunk of consumer debts, are still in payment suspension. Many retailers are reporting sagging sales.

#SanJoséCA #austerity

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/economy-continues-slow-even-more-austerity-looms Sun, 03 Sep 2023 17:45:57 +0000 Social Security report leads to more calls for cuts https://fightbacknews.org/social-security-report-leads-more-calls-cuts?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[San José, CA - On April 21, the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare released their annual report. The report includes a projection that the Social Security benefits will be greater than income next year for the first time since 1982. The Social Security trust fund, which has grown to almost $3 trillion, will start to be tapped for the first time. !--more-- The Wall Street Journal said that Social Security and Medicare “have contributed to larger deficits set to exceed $1 trillion in 2020.” This is the big lie promoted by Wall Street billionaires to try to get cuts in Social Security benefits. For more than 30 years, Social Security has brought in more than it spent, which has led to the large trust fund. In fact, Social Security has run a surplus, and made the federal government deficit smaller than it otherwise would have been. The Trump administration has already broken its campaign promise to not cut Social Security or Medicare; its budget proposal has $900 billion in cuts to these two programs over the next ten years. What none of the major or corporate newspapers mention is what happened the last time Social Security had a shortfall in the 1980s. There was no trust fund then, so the government borrowed money until it worked out a plan to raise the Social Security tax rate on workers from 5.4% to 6.2% - a 0.8% increase that was matched by employers. Today a similar tax rate increase of 1.1%, or $11 on every $1000 of income, would do the trick. This tax increase could be even smaller if the Social Security tax were made fairer. Right now, it is a regressive tax, that is, a tax that falls more heavily on lower-income taxpayers. The Social Security tax also only covers wages and salaries up to $128,400. So one way to make the Social Security tax more fair would be to lift the cap so all wages and salaries are taxed. Medicare already does this. Another way would be to have Social Security tax all other forms of income that are not currently taxed. This is would include interest, corporate dividends, business profits, rental income, or capital gains from sales of stock that mainly go to high income individuals. Either of these would reduce the need to increase the Social Security tax rate, and doing both might eliminate the need to raise the tax rate at all. Last but not least, the projected end of the Social Security trust fund is because the trustees expect immigration to fall in the coming years. While this is what Trump and the Republicans want, increasing immigration would help overcome the funding issue, as immigrants tend to pay more in Social Security taxes than they receive in benefits. Working people who rely the most on Social Security for their retirement and disability need to expose the lies of Wall Street and the politicians, including some Democrats. We need to fight any and all efforts to cut benefits. We also need to fight efforts to privatize Social Security, which would hand our retirement savings over to Wall Street. #SanJoséCA #PoorPeoplesMovements #US #PeoplesStruggles #SocialSecurity #Medicare #austerity #DonaldTrump div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> San José, CA – On April 21, the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare released their annual report. The report includes a projection that the Social Security benefits will be greater than income next year for the first time since 1982. The Social Security trust fund, which has grown to almost $3 trillion, will start to be tapped for the first time.

The Wall Street Journal said that Social Security and Medicare “have contributed to larger deficits set to exceed $1 trillion in 2020.” This is the big lie promoted by Wall Street billionaires to try to get cuts in Social Security benefits. For more than 30 years, Social Security has brought in more than it spent, which has led to the large trust fund. In fact, Social Security has run a surplus, and made the federal government deficit smaller than it otherwise would have been.

The Trump administration has already broken its campaign promise to not cut Social Security or Medicare; its budget proposal has $900 billion in cuts to these two programs over the next ten years.

What none of the major or corporate newspapers mention is what happened the last time Social Security had a shortfall in the 1980s. There was no trust fund then, so the government borrowed money until it worked out a plan to raise the Social Security tax rate on workers from 5.4% to 6.2% – a 0.8% increase that was matched by employers. Today a similar tax rate increase of 1.1%, or $11 on every $1000 of income, would do the trick.

This tax increase could be even smaller if the Social Security tax were made fairer. Right now, it is a regressive tax, that is, a tax that falls more heavily on lower-income taxpayers. The Social Security tax also only covers wages and salaries up to $128,400. So one way to make the Social Security tax more fair would be to lift the cap so all wages and salaries are taxed. Medicare already does this.

Another way would be to have Social Security tax all other forms of income that are not currently taxed. This is would include interest, corporate dividends, business profits, rental income, or capital gains from sales of stock that mainly go to high income individuals.

Either of these would reduce the need to increase the Social Security tax rate, and doing both might eliminate the need to raise the tax rate at all.

Last but not least, the projected end of the Social Security trust fund is because the trustees expect immigration to fall in the coming years. While this is what Trump and the Republicans want, increasing immigration would help overcome the funding issue, as immigrants tend to pay more in Social Security taxes than they receive in benefits.

Working people who rely the most on Social Security for their retirement and disability need to expose the lies of Wall Street and the politicians, including some Democrats. We need to fight any and all efforts to cut benefits. We also need to fight efforts to privatize Social Security, which would hand our retirement savings over to Wall Street.

#SanJoséCA #PoorPeoplesMovements #US #PeoplesStruggles #SocialSecurity #Medicare #austerity #DonaldTrump

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/social-security-report-leads-more-calls-cuts Wed, 24 Apr 2019 18:41:13 +0000 French workers strike against austerity https://fightbacknews.org/french-workers-strike-against-austerity?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Washington, D.C. – Ongoing strikes by workers against proposed austerity measures, which would strip workers’ pay and protections, are disrupting France’s economy. Workers have been engaged in strike activity for weeks now as labor unions in the French rail, subway and airport transit, maritime transport, nuclear power, and fuel depot and refinery industries issue calls for work stoppages. !--more-- The strikes have reduced production and impacted the broader French economy. According to a May 26 article in the Telegraph, half of France’s petrol stations are completely or partially out of fuel and output has been cut at 16 nuclear power plants. Bloomberg reports that 15% of flights at Orly airport in Paris have been canceled and delays are expected at Charles de Gaulle airport. A key business federation representing small and medium-sized companies said that 58% of its members are struggling to make deliveries and 47% are having trouble getting supplied. Many unions are planning to further expand the strike activity starting on June 2. The strikes come after months of mass anti-austerity protests known as Nuit Debout or “arise at night.” The Nuit Debout movement is often compared to Occupy Wall Street and uses the occupation of public squares as a tactic to advance its demands, which include the withdrawal of the austerity labor bill. According to Jacobin magazine, the Nuit Debout mass waves of protest have stormed France ever since the Socialist Party government of Francois Hollande introduced the proposed ‘reform’ of the French labor code, which amounts to austerity. Some of the protests have been extremely large for a country with a population of just 66 million. Approximately 500,000 people engaged in a national day of action on March 9; more than 1 million joined trade union demonstrations on March 31. Hollande’s government pushes austerity for workers The recent attack on French workers comes under the guise of labor ‘reform.’ But what the ruling French Socialist Party calls reform, workers recognize as just more austerity. A review of the main points of the labor austerity bill as identified by BBC News demonstrates that the proposed bill weakens the 35-hour workweek; grants employers greater ability to cut worker pay; reduces layoff protections for workers; and deregulates special leave standards, such as those for maternity leave. French labor unions are also alarmed at the fact that the austerity measure threatens industry standards by granting individual firms greater power to negotiate directly with their employees on pay and conditions, thus avoiding sector-wide standards set by unions. Unsurprisingly, it is this oft-overlooked part of the austerity bill, known as Article 2, that most reduces union leverage and that the government of Francois Hollande says is non-negotiable. The anti-labor measures in France represent just one part of the global austerity agenda of the ruling classes during the present period. The 2007-08 global financial crisis and corresponding economic recession caused massive unemployment and home foreclosures for the working class in many countries. Yet government leaders in capitalist countries did not respond with massive jobs programs or social investment. And they certainly did not offer a critique of capitalism itself, even though capitalism is to blame for the widespread suffering of workers around the world. Instead, capitalist governments offered two different medicines, one for capitalist banks and big business, and the other one for workers. Banking and other preferred industries (such as the automotive industry in the U.S.) receive corporate welfare in the form of massive bailouts. Workers get austerity in the form of cuts to education and other public services, reduced retirement benefits, cuts to food stamps and other welfare programs, restrictions on the rights of organized labor, privatization or outright elimination of government jobs, and regressive tax increases, such as the 2013 increase in the U.S. payroll tax, all to pay for the corporate and bank bailouts. This agenda of bailouts for capitalists on the one hand and austerity for workers on the other is not new and it has played itself out in country after country. The workers’ movements in countries with strong left parties and labor organizations, such as France and Greece, organize mass resistance to austerity. In the U.S., organized labor and the broader left struggle to find their footing in leading a mass and prolonged struggle independent of the Democratic Party bosses who are complicit in the austerity agenda. The emergence of vocal and visible economic movements in the U.S. following the Great Recession, such as Occupy Wall Street and the Fight for $15, show that the popular will exists to fight back if it can just be tapped and led in a coordinated way. French resistance offers lessons to U.S. labor movement The strikes and mass protests in France have been spearheaded in large part by that country’s main trade union federation - the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) - and Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD). The CGT union has it roots in the French Communist Party (PCF), but disaffiliated with the PCF in the 1990s. SUD is a radical union federation that emphasizes social justice unionism and has close ties to the New Anticapitalist Party. While the CGT has been accused of moderating its program since severing ties with the PCF, it still carries out militant actions, especially by U.S. standards, and has a vocal, militant rank and file that is often successful in pushing the union’s leadership to the left on key issues. It is important to note that what makes unions like CGT and SUD strong, and often successful, in leading anti-austerity battles is militancy in shutting down production and mobilizing in the streets, not size. France has lower union density than the U.S. As the Economist points out in a March 2014 article, less than 8% of French workers belong to a trade union, down from a high of about 30% in the 1950s. That figure is below the unionization rate of Britain (26%), Germany (18%), and the U.S. (11%). What sets French unions apart is their militancy, not their density. This militancy stands in stark contrast to the orientation of most U.S. trade union leaders, where some combination of Democratic Party politicking, social justice unionism, and new organizing for union industry density substitute for a sustained strike strategy. Some of the more active labor unions in the U.S. fetishize new organizing as the savior of the U.S. labor movement. These labor unions rightly point out that as U.S. union density has declined since its peak rate of over 33% in 1945, the share of income going to the top 10% has skyrocketed. However, they fail to account for one other important feature of the trade union movement that has declined in this country over this same period of time - the strike. There is nothing wrong with social justice unionism and new organizing to build density. These are progressive moves, but they do not have the same strategic value as withholding labor through a sustained strike, which by itself can stop production, curb the ruling class, force concessions and so much more. A militant rank-and-file minority is needed in this country to push labor union leaders to adopt a militant strike orientation, much the same as rank-and-file members in France’s CGT have forced that union’s leadership into the leadership of an anti-austerity fight. #WashingtonDC #austerity #NuitDebout div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Washington, D.C. – Ongoing strikes by workers against proposed austerity measures, which would strip workers’ pay and protections, are disrupting France’s economy. Workers have been engaged in strike activity for weeks now as labor unions in the French rail, subway and airport transit, maritime transport, nuclear power, and fuel depot and refinery industries issue calls for work stoppages.

The strikes have reduced production and impacted the broader French economy. According to a May 26 article in the Telegraph, half of France’s petrol stations are completely or partially out of fuel and output has been cut at 16 nuclear power plants.

Bloomberg reports that 15% of flights at Orly airport in Paris have been canceled and delays are expected at Charles de Gaulle airport. A key business federation representing small and medium-sized companies said that 58% of its members are struggling to make deliveries and 47% are having trouble getting supplied.

Many unions are planning to further expand the strike activity starting on June 2. The strikes come after months of mass anti-austerity protests known as Nuit Debout or “arise at night.” The Nuit Debout movement is often compared to Occupy Wall Street and uses the occupation of public squares as a tactic to advance its demands, which include the withdrawal of the austerity labor bill.

According to Jacobin magazine, the Nuit Debout mass waves of protest have stormed France ever since the Socialist Party government of Francois Hollande introduced the proposed ‘reform’ of the French labor code, which amounts to austerity. Some of the protests have been extremely large for a country with a population of just 66 million. Approximately 500,000 people engaged in a national day of action on March 9; more than 1 million joined trade union demonstrations on March 31.

Hollande’s government pushes austerity for workers

The recent attack on French workers comes under the guise of labor ‘reform.’ But what the ruling French Socialist Party calls reform, workers recognize as just more austerity. A review of the main points of the labor austerity bill as identified by BBC News demonstrates that the proposed bill weakens the 35-hour workweek; grants employers greater ability to cut worker pay; reduces layoff protections for workers; and deregulates special leave standards, such as those for maternity leave.

French labor unions are also alarmed at the fact that the austerity measure threatens industry standards by granting individual firms greater power to negotiate directly with their employees on pay and conditions, thus avoiding sector-wide standards set by unions. Unsurprisingly, it is this oft-overlooked part of the austerity bill, known as Article 2, that most reduces union leverage and that the government of Francois Hollande says is non-negotiable.

The anti-labor measures in France represent just one part of the global austerity agenda of the ruling classes during the present period. The 2007-08 global financial crisis and corresponding economic recession caused massive unemployment and home foreclosures for the working class in many countries. Yet government leaders in capitalist countries did not respond with massive jobs programs or social investment. And they certainly did not offer a critique of capitalism itself, even though capitalism is to blame for the widespread suffering of workers around the world.

Instead, capitalist governments offered two different medicines, one for capitalist banks and big business, and the other one for workers. Banking and other preferred industries (such as the automotive industry in the U.S.) receive corporate welfare in the form of massive bailouts. Workers get austerity in the form of cuts to education and other public services, reduced retirement benefits, cuts to food stamps and other welfare programs, restrictions on the rights of organized labor, privatization or outright elimination of government jobs, and regressive tax increases, such as the 2013 increase in the U.S. payroll tax, all to pay for the corporate and bank bailouts.

This agenda of bailouts for capitalists on the one hand and austerity for workers on the other is not new and it has played itself out in country after country. The workers’ movements in countries with strong left parties and labor organizations, such as France and Greece, organize mass resistance to austerity.

In the U.S., organized labor and the broader left struggle to find their footing in leading a mass and prolonged struggle independent of the Democratic Party bosses who are complicit in the austerity agenda. The emergence of vocal and visible economic movements in the U.S. following the Great Recession, such as Occupy Wall Street and the Fight for $15, show that the popular will exists to fight back if it can just be tapped and led in a coordinated way.

French resistance offers lessons to U.S. labor movement

The strikes and mass protests in France have been spearheaded in large part by that country’s main trade union federation – the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) – and Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD). The CGT union has it roots in the French Communist Party (PCF), but disaffiliated with the PCF in the 1990s. SUD is a radical union federation that emphasizes social justice unionism and has close ties to the New Anticapitalist Party.

While the CGT has been accused of moderating its program since severing ties with the PCF, it still carries out militant actions, especially by U.S. standards, and has a vocal, militant rank and file that is often successful in pushing the union’s leadership to the left on key issues. It is important to note that what makes unions like CGT and SUD strong, and often successful, in leading anti-austerity battles is militancy in shutting down production and mobilizing in the streets, not size.

France has lower union density than the U.S. As the Economist points out in a March 2014 article, less than 8% of French workers belong to a trade union, down from a high of about 30% in the 1950s. That figure is below the unionization rate of Britain (26%), Germany (18%), and the U.S. (11%). What sets French unions apart is their militancy, not their density.

This militancy stands in stark contrast to the orientation of most U.S. trade union leaders, where some combination of Democratic Party politicking, social justice unionism, and new organizing for union industry density substitute for a sustained strike strategy. Some of the more active labor unions in the U.S. fetishize new organizing as the savior of the U.S. labor movement.

These labor unions rightly point out that as U.S. union density has declined since its peak rate of over 33% in 1945, the share of income going to the top 10% has skyrocketed. However, they fail to account for one other important feature of the trade union movement that has declined in this country over this same period of time – the strike.

There is nothing wrong with social justice unionism and new organizing to build density. These are progressive moves, but they do not have the same strategic value as withholding labor through a sustained strike, which by itself can stop production, curb the ruling class, force concessions and so much more. A militant rank-and-file minority is needed in this country to push labor union leaders to adopt a militant strike orientation, much the same as rank-and-file members in France’s CGT have forced that union’s leadership into the leadership of an anti-austerity fight.

#WashingtonDC #austerity #NuitDebout

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/french-workers-strike-against-austerity Mon, 30 May 2016 16:43:49 +0000 Greek general strike set for Feb. 4 https://fightbacknews.org/greek-general-strike-set-feb-4?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[![Greek workers march in December, 2015 general strike.](https://i.snap.as/DOG0sPU0.jpg "Greek workers march in December, 2015 general strike. Greek workers march in December, 2015 general strike. \(Fight Back! News / Staff\)") Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) for a general strike by Greek workers Feb. 4. !--more-- National - General Strike on February 4 Demonstrations All Over Greece On January 23 The Butcher-Bill on Social Security to be Withdrawn! We Demand Public Social Security For All The SYRIZA Government after it extended and imposed all anti workers’ laws, which were legislated by the previous Governments and destroyed Collective Contracts, after it imposed flexible working conditions, starvation wages, abolished workers’ rights in Healthcare, now comes to give the final blow to whatever rights are left on Social Security! Whatever rights the people managed to preserve through hard struggles, during the last years, the SYRIZA Government wants to cancel them, thus realizing the demands of the big capitalists. NOW Strike Response Everywhere! In Every Industry-Every Branch! At every workplace, school, university, neighborhood! We Organise and Escalate our Action aiming to: Block The Butcher-Bill on Social Security! Participation in the Strike, in the Demonstrations will affect the result of the Struggle! Social Security means “cost” for the capitalists and the state! But for us, social security is our basic right! It is our life and it protects our families! Justice For Us Is Life With Dignity! To Live Humane In The 21st Century And Not In Wretchedness! We Must Receive The Wealth We Produce! Hope is not A Slogan! Hope lies in the Struggle against the policy of the Government and the EU in favor of the profits of the monopolies. Hope lies in the path of rupture, of overthrowing the political and financial dominance of the monopolies. Hope lies in the path that will satisfy people’s needs! Till today, hundreds of trade union organizations have been campaigning, calling for Strike Action, rallying with PAME in a series of actions and activities to prepare the workers’ response. All In the Strike! - We strengthen the Struggle! We Organize! National - General Strike on February 4 Demonstrations All Over Greece On January 23 January 2016 #Greece #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #austerity #Syriza #AllWorkersMilitantFront #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Greek workers march in December, 2015 general strike.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) for a general strike by Greek workers Feb. 4.

National – General Strike on February 4

Demonstrations All Over Greece On January 23

The Butcher-Bill on Social Security to be Withdrawn!

We Demand Public Social Security For All

The SYRIZA Government after it extended and imposed all anti workers’ laws, which were legislated by the previous Governments and destroyed Collective Contracts, after it imposed flexible working conditions, starvation wages, abolished workers’ rights in Healthcare, now comes to give the final blow to whatever rights are left on Social Security! Whatever rights the people managed to preserve through hard struggles, during the last years, the SYRIZA Government wants to cancel them, thus realizing the demands of the big capitalists.

NOW Strike Response Everywhere! In Every Industry-Every Branch! At every workplace, school, university, neighborhood! We Organise and Escalate our Action aiming to:

Block The Butcher-Bill on Social Security!

Participation in the Strike, in the Demonstrations will affect the result of the Struggle!

Social Security means “cost” for the capitalists and the state! But for us, social security is our basic right! It is our life and it protects our families!

Justice For Us Is Life With Dignity!

To Live Humane In The 21st Century And Not In Wretchedness!

We Must Receive The Wealth We Produce!

Hope is not A Slogan! Hope lies in the Struggle against the policy of the Government and the EU in favor of the profits of the monopolies.

Hope lies in the path of rupture, of overthrowing the political and financial dominance of the monopolies. Hope lies in the path that will satisfy people’s needs!

Till today, hundreds of trade union organizations have been campaigning, calling for Strike Action, rallying with PAME in a series of actions and activities to prepare the workers’ response.

All In the Strike! – We strengthen the Struggle! We Organize!

National – General Strike on February 4

Demonstrations All Over Greece On January 23

January 2016

#Greece #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #austerity #Syriza #AllWorkersMilitantFront #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/greek-general-strike-set-feb-4 Tue, 19 Jan 2016 01:08:04 +0000 Greek communists blast new austerity memorandum https://fightbacknews.org/greek-communists-blast-new-austerity-memorandum?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 11 statement from the Communist party of Greece (KKE). !--more-- No to the new “leftwing” memorandum The government of “leftwing” SYRIZA and nationalist ANEL, with the support of the rightwing ND, the social-democratic PASOK (who governed together until January 2015), the centre party POTAMI, is thrusting new unbearable anti-people burdens onto the working class and other popular strata. On the night of the 10th of July, it placed before the full plenum of the parliament the question of “authorizing” the government to negotiate a new, 3rd memorandum of anti-people measures, posing the following dilemma: the continuation of the anti-people political line or the country’s bankruptcy and an exit from the eurozone. The Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras defended his memorandum, the Tsipras-memorandum, arguing in essence that the anti-people measures are being taken n order to regain the confidence of the investors and markets. At 5 in the morning 251 MPs votes for the government’s proposal, while the entire Parliamentary Group of the KKE voted against it. As a whole there were 32 against, 8 who voted “present” and 9 who were absent. These developments, which reveal once again the true face of the “left-patriotic” government of SYRIZA-ANEL, also expose the unacceptable stance of various forces abroad in recent months, which supported the government, including some communist and workers’ parties, allegedly in the name of “solidarity with Greece”. Speaking in the full plenum of the Parliament, during the discussion regarding the provision of “authorization” for the government to agree to the new, 3rd memorandum, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, addressing the government stressed: “You were always supporters of political amorality, opportunism, which literally and without its deeper theoretical dimension simply means being opportunistic and adventurist. Just 10 days ago, in this very hall, during the discussion of the proposal for the referendum, the KKE clearly pointed out to you that you were calling on the people to take part in a referendum with a “yes” or “no” that only had superficial differences, as both the “yes” and the “no” meant the acceptance of a new memorandum, perhaps worse than those we have already seen. You adjusted the “no” of the people to a “yes” for the new memorandum. Something that was confirmed the very day after the referendum, when the rest of the political parties, those that supported a “yes” and those that supported a “no” agreed to a new memorandum which will be even harsher. We were certain from the beginning that this would happen. Not because we are soothsayers, but because your strategy, but because your programme, your position towards the EU, eurozone and the capitalist unions in general, your position regarding the development path and system that you want to serve, inevitably lead to you to struggle at the side of the EU, ECB, IMF, big capital, the monopoly groups, over how the division of the spoils will be conducted, how you will serve their profitability, how in the end you will reduce the people’s income, how you will economically reduce the price of labour power, how you will suck the people dry, so that the parasites of the system will prosper.” The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, in reference of the government’s dilemma “anti-people agreement, i.e. memorandum, or Grexit” stressed that: “The 3rd memorandum will also mean the real bankruptcy of the people. Of course in a somewhat more organized way. We will have barbaric anti-people measures. With the Grexit we will see a rapid pauperization, the people’s bankruptcy together with state bankruptcy, without a way out, still trapped inside the walls of the EU, inside the same old capitalist development path. This is why all the other parties bear historic responsibilities, especially SYRIZA which is in government today and was trusted by the people. A real way out from the crisis and development in favour of the workers’-people’s interests require the organization of the people, their full preparation, honest talk, clear programmes and positions so that the people themselves decide to take power and to organize the economy and new society, outside and far away from the imperialist unions, with central planning, with social ownership of the wealth produced by the working class and our people. All the other options are the failed experiments in social-democratic management, allegedly leftwing governments that manage the system, inside the framework of capitalism, and which after spreading fleeting hopes and false expectations lead the people to great disillusionment, the labour movement to retreat and strengthen conservative and even extremely reactionary trends among the popular forces.” In reference to the entanglement of the “Greek issue” in the inter-imperialist contradictions, D. Koutsoumpas noted that: “You often present the “cruel” Schauble as the only opponent, Schauble who represents an important section of German capital, and that the friends of Greece from time to time are the USA and the IMF, and now France, focusing on the issue of the restructuring of the state debt. Neither US or French or German capital are the friends of the people. They all demand the slaughter of the people’s rights and income. The competition between them is being conducted on the terrain of the capitalist crisis and the deep unevenness that permeates the hard core of the Eurozone. The USA and Germany are competing for hegemony in Europe. The IMF, France and Germany over the future of the eurozone. Sections of domestic capital, industrialists, banking and shipping groups are involved in this confrontation. As long as we are involved in this dangerous web of contradictions all the alternatives will be a nightmare for the people: either the anti-people agreement/memorandum or a state default or a Grexit or even a possible war in the wider region.” The General Secretary underlined the following as regards the future developments: Despite the temporary compromise the tendency for the expulsion of countries remains strong. This does not concern merely Greece but all indebted countries and even those which are candidates to join the euro. The people must not choose between their bankruptcy under the Euro or a bankruptcy under the Drachma. A decisive solution in favour of the people requires a true rupture that has nothing to do with the fake rupture that certain forces within SYRIZA invoke when they defend the exit of Greece solely from the Eurozone. Those who claim –including forces of SYRIZA, as well as other nationalist, reactionary forces from another standpoint– that the exit of Greece from the Eurozone, with a depreciated currency, will give impetus to competitiveness and growth and will have positive consequences for the people, are deliberately deceiving the people. The prospect of Greece as a capitalist country with a national currency does not constitute any rupture in favour of the people. Those political forces that promote this goal as a solution or an intermediate goal for radical changes (such as the “Left Platform of SYRIZA, ANTARSYA as well as other ultra right, fascist forces in Europe) are actually playing the game of certain sections of capital. So we will not choose whether we will go bankrupt under the Euro or the drachma, under an internal or external devaluation. For this reason we do not choose between a memorandum and a Grexit. Because there is an alternative solution if the people struggle for a rupture with the EU, capital and their power. For example, we can abolish the EU commitments which have caused stagnation in domestic production, from sugar and meat to shipbuilding and many other sectors. We can utilize the contradictions between the imperialist centres and achieve international agreements of mutual benefit for Greece under people’s power, which will be disengaged from the EU and NATO. We can pave the way for the satisfaction of the people’s needs if we proceed to the socialization of monopolies, the means of production with scientific nationwide planning of economy”. Finally, D. Koutsoumpas noted that the KKE called on the working people to organize their counterattack in the streets and the workplaces against the new destructive measures. In the afternoon of the same day (Friday 10th July) PAME organized mass rallies in Athens and other major cities throughout the country against the 3rd (“leftwing”) memorandum of anti-people measures. The demonstrations were joined by trade unions, People’s Committees, Women’s Associations and Groups, mass organizations and Struggle Committees of self-employed and craftsmen as well as students i.e. by those who are being attacked by the measures of the coalition government. All of them declared: “enough! There is another path in favour of the people”. D. Koutsoumpas who participated in the mass rally of PAME in Athens stated: “we cannot waste any more time. The working people must organize their struggle, promote their demands and organize the people’s alliance”. #AthensGreece #Athens #Greece #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #austerity #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Socialism #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 11 statement from the Communist party of Greece (KKE).

No to the new “leftwing” memorandum

The government of “leftwing” SYRIZA and nationalist ANEL, with the support of the rightwing ND, the social-democratic PASOK (who governed together until January 2015), the centre party POTAMI, is thrusting new unbearable anti-people burdens onto the working class and other popular strata.

On the night of the 10th of July, it placed before the full plenum of the parliament the question of “authorizing” the government to negotiate a new, 3rd memorandum of anti-people measures, posing the following dilemma: the continuation of the anti-people political line or the country’s bankruptcy and an exit from the eurozone.

The Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras defended his memorandum, the Tsipras-memorandum, arguing in essence that the anti-people measures are being taken n order to regain the confidence of the investors and markets.

At 5 in the morning 251 MPs votes for the government’s proposal, while the entire Parliamentary Group of the KKE voted against it. As a whole there were 32 against, 8 who voted “present” and 9 who were absent.

These developments, which reveal once again the true face of the “left-patriotic” government of SYRIZA-ANEL, also expose the unacceptable stance of various forces abroad in recent months, which supported the government, including some communist and workers’ parties, allegedly in the name of “solidarity with Greece”.

Speaking in the full plenum of the Parliament, during the discussion regarding the provision of “authorization” for the government to agree to the new, 3rd memorandum, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, addressing the government stressed: “You were always supporters of political amorality, opportunism, which literally and without its deeper theoretical dimension simply means being opportunistic and adventurist.

Just 10 days ago, in this very hall, during the discussion of the proposal for the referendum, the KKE clearly pointed out to you that you were calling on the people to take part in a referendum with a “yes” or “no” that only had superficial differences, as both the “yes” and the “no” meant the acceptance of a new memorandum, perhaps worse than those we have already seen.

You adjusted the “no” of the people to a “yes” for the new memorandum.

Something that was confirmed the very day after the referendum, when the rest of the political parties, those that supported a “yes” and those that supported a “no” agreed to a new memorandum which will be even harsher.

We were certain from the beginning that this would happen.

Not because we are soothsayers, but because your strategy, but because your programme, your position towards the EU, eurozone and the capitalist unions in general, your position regarding the development path and system that you want to serve, inevitably lead to you to struggle at the side of the EU, ECB, IMF, big capital, the monopoly groups, over how the division of the spoils will be conducted, how you will serve their profitability, how in the end you will reduce the people’s income, how you will economically reduce the price of labour power, how you will suck the people dry, so that the parasites of the system will prosper.”

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, in reference of the government’s dilemma “anti-people agreement, i.e. memorandum, or Grexit” stressed that: “The 3rd memorandum will also mean the real bankruptcy of the people. Of course in a somewhat more organized way. We will have barbaric anti-people measures. With the Grexit we will see a rapid pauperization, the people’s bankruptcy together with state bankruptcy, without a way out, still trapped inside the walls of the EU, inside the same old capitalist development path.

This is why all the other parties bear historic responsibilities, especially SYRIZA which is in government today and was trusted by the people.

A real way out from the crisis and development in favour of the workers’-people’s interests require the organization of the people, their full preparation, honest talk, clear programmes and positions so that the people themselves decide to take power and to organize the economy and new society, outside and far away from the imperialist unions, with central planning, with social ownership of the wealth produced by the working class and our people.

All the other options are the failed experiments in social-democratic management, allegedly leftwing governments that manage the system, inside the framework of capitalism, and which after spreading fleeting hopes and false expectations lead the people to great disillusionment, the labour movement to retreat and strengthen conservative and even extremely reactionary trends among the popular forces.”

In reference to the entanglement of the “Greek issue” in the inter-imperialist contradictions, D. Koutsoumpas noted that: “You often present the “cruel” Schauble as the only opponent, Schauble who represents an important section of German capital, and that the friends of Greece from time to time are the USA and the IMF, and now France, focusing on the issue of the restructuring of the state debt.

Neither US or French or German capital are the friends of the people. They all demand the slaughter of the people’s rights and income. The competition between them is being conducted on the terrain of the capitalist crisis and the deep unevenness that permeates the hard core of the Eurozone. The USA and Germany are competing for hegemony in Europe. The IMF, France and Germany over the future of the eurozone. Sections of domestic capital, industrialists, banking and shipping groups are involved in this confrontation.

As long as we are involved in this dangerous web of contradictions all the alternatives will be a nightmare for the people: either the anti-people agreement/memorandum or a state default or a Grexit or even a possible war in the wider region.”

The General Secretary underlined the following as regards the future developments:

Despite the temporary compromise the tendency for the expulsion of countries remains strong. This does not concern merely Greece but all indebted countries and even those which are candidates to join the euro.

The people must not choose between their bankruptcy under the Euro or a bankruptcy under the Drachma.

A decisive solution in favour of the people requires a true rupture that has nothing to do with the fake rupture that certain forces within SYRIZA invoke when they defend the exit of Greece solely from the Eurozone.

Those who claim –including forces of SYRIZA, as well as other nationalist, reactionary forces from another standpoint– that the exit of Greece from the Eurozone, with a depreciated currency, will give impetus to competitiveness and growth and will have positive consequences for the people, are deliberately deceiving the people.

The prospect of Greece as a capitalist country with a national currency does not constitute any rupture in favour of the people. Those political forces that promote this goal as a solution or an intermediate goal for radical changes (such as the “Left Platform of SYRIZA, ANTARSYA as well as other ultra right, fascist forces in Europe) are actually playing the game of certain sections of capital.

So we will not choose whether we will go bankrupt under the Euro or the drachma, under an internal or external devaluation.

For this reason we do not choose between a memorandum and a Grexit.

Because there is an alternative solution if the people struggle for a rupture with the EU, capital and their power.

For example, we can abolish the EU commitments which have caused stagnation in domestic production, from sugar and meat to shipbuilding and many other sectors.

We can utilize the contradictions between the imperialist centres and achieve international agreements of mutual benefit for Greece under people’s power, which will be disengaged from the EU and NATO.

We can pave the way for the satisfaction of the people’s needs if we proceed to the socialization of monopolies, the means of production with scientific nationwide planning of economy”.

Finally, D. Koutsoumpas noted that the KKE called on the working people to organize their counterattack in the streets and the workplaces against the new destructive measures.

In the afternoon of the same day (Friday 10th July) PAME organized mass rallies in Athens and other major cities throughout the country against the 3rd (“leftwing”) memorandum of anti-people measures. The demonstrations were joined by trade unions, People’s Committees, Women’s Associations and Groups, mass organizations and Struggle Committees of self-employed and craftsmen as well as students i.e. by those who are being attacked by the measures of the coalition government. All of them declared: “enough! There is another path in favour of the people”.

D. Koutsoumpas who participated in the mass rally of PAME in Athens stated: “we cannot waste any more time. The working people must organize their struggle, promote their demands and organize the people’s alliance”.

#AthensGreece #Athens #Greece #PeoplesStruggles #WorkersAndGlobalization #austerity #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Socialism #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/greek-communists-blast-new-austerity-memorandum Sat, 11 Jul 2015 18:19:32 +0000 Communist Party of Greece against anti-people consensus of capitalist parties https://fightbacknews.org/communist-party-greece-against-anti-people-consensus-capitalist-parties?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 6 statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The KKE is opposed to the anti-people consensus of the bourgeois parties !--more-- The council of the political leaders was held in the presidential palace a day after the referendum of the 5th of July, chaired by the President of the Republic P. Pavlopoulos. The Prime Minister and President of SYRIZA A. Tsipras, the acting President of ND E. Meimarakis, the President of POTAMI S. Theodorakis, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE D. Koutsoumpas, the President of ANEL P. Kammenos and the President of PASOK F. Gennimata attended the 7-hour meeting. During the meeting the parties of SYRIZA, ANEL, ND, POTAMI, PASOK came to an agreement and indeed signed a joint statement, interpreting the result of the referendum as acceptance of the euro and the EU and paving the way for an anti-people agreement. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, D. Koutsoumpas, expressed his complete disagreement with the joint statement. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, made the following statement after yesterday’s meeting of the political leaders chaired by the President of the Republic: “We listened to the briefing of the Prime Minister in the meeting chaired by the President of the Republic concerning the course of the continuing negotiations and discussions, after the referendum of the Greek people. We clearly expressed on our part, once again, the views of the KKE regarding the assessment of the referendum result and chiefly as regards the enormous problems being experienced by the Greek people inside the predatory alliance of the EU, which has a political line that continually increases the impasses for the people, the people’s income, the course of the country and the course of our people as a whole. It has been demonstrated, once again, that there can be no pro-people pro-worker negotiations inside the walls of the EU, inside the capitalist development path. The KKE disagreed as a whole with the joint statement, which the rest of the political leaders and political parties agreed to. Our disagreement is related to how we understand the verdict of the Greek people yesterday and chiefly to our assessment of the course and tactics for the negotiations that the government is proposing and that the other parties accept, at least as regards its general framework and direction. No one has authorized anybody to go and sign new memoranda, new painful measures for our people. And these measures will be harsh.” In response to the question of a journalist as to whether he is talking about a “solution outside the euro”, D. Koutsoumpas stressed the following: “No. We made the following issue clear, that this political line can go in two directions: either they will sign, as it seems and is being scheduled – we will see in the days to follow- a painful agreement, with harsh anti-people measures, a new memorandum, or we will have a state bankruptcy, with a grexit, with a departure from the euro or a double currency or something else. We hear about this mainly from the “partners”, the political parties did not say this at the council of the political leaders. The “partners” talk about this. So our people must be prepared. The position of the KKE is that both these possible outcomes, i.e. an agreement with a memorandum and harsh measures or a grexit or something else will be at the expense of the Greek people. The rupture with the EU, capital and their power has as its precondition a totally different strategy, workers’-people’s power, that the people are truly in power and socialize the means of production, disengage from the EU and unilaterally cancel the debt. This is the comprehensive and totally different proposal of the KKE and has no relation to the various views that will lead to the new pauperization of our people. And I mean views that exist in other parties, as a minority at the moment, as they are in the governing party, that talk about exit only from the currency.” #Greece #austerity #KKE #Troika #Syriza #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 6 statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The KKE is opposed to the anti-people consensus of the bourgeois parties

The council of the political leaders was held in the presidential palace a day after the referendum of the 5th of July, chaired by the President of the Republic P. Pavlopoulos. The Prime Minister and President of SYRIZA A. Tsipras, the acting President of ND E. Meimarakis, the President of POTAMI S. Theodorakis, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE D. Koutsoumpas, the President of ANEL P. Kammenos and the President of PASOK F. Gennimata attended the 7-hour meeting.

During the meeting the parties of SYRIZA, ANEL, ND, POTAMI, PASOK came to an agreement and indeed signed a joint statement, interpreting the result of the referendum as acceptance of the euro and the EU and paving the way for an anti-people agreement.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, D. Koutsoumpas, expressed his complete disagreement with the joint statement.

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, made the following statement after yesterday’s meeting of the political leaders chaired by the President of the Republic:

“We listened to the briefing of the Prime Minister in the meeting chaired by the President of the Republic concerning the course of the continuing negotiations and discussions, after the referendum of the Greek people.

We clearly expressed on our part, once again, the views of the KKE regarding the assessment of the referendum result and chiefly as regards the enormous problems being experienced by the Greek people inside the predatory alliance of the EU, which has a political line that continually increases the impasses for the people, the people’s income, the course of the country and the course of our people as a whole. It has been demonstrated, once again, that there can be no pro-people pro-worker negotiations inside the walls of the EU, inside the capitalist development path.

The KKE disagreed as a whole with the joint statement, which the rest of the political leaders and political parties agreed to. Our disagreement is related to how we understand the verdict of the Greek people yesterday and chiefly to our assessment of the course and tactics for the negotiations that the government is proposing and that the other parties accept, at least as regards its general framework and direction.

No one has authorized anybody to go and sign new memoranda, new painful measures for our people. And these measures will be harsh.”

In response to the question of a journalist as to whether he is talking about a “solution outside the euro”, D. Koutsoumpas stressed the following:

“No. We made the following issue clear, that this political line can go in two directions: either they will sign, as it seems and is being scheduled – we will see in the days to follow- a painful agreement, with harsh anti-people measures, a new memorandum, or we will have a state bankruptcy, with a grexit, with a departure from the euro or a double currency or something else. We hear about this mainly from the “partners”, the political parties did not say this at the council of the political leaders. The “partners” talk about this. So our people must be prepared. The position of the KKE is that both these possible outcomes, i.e. an agreement with a memorandum and harsh measures or a grexit or something else will be at the expense of the Greek people.

The rupture with the EU, capital and their power has as its precondition a totally different strategy, workers’-people’s power, that the people are truly in power and socialize the means of production, disengage from the EU and unilaterally cancel the debt. This is the comprehensive and totally different proposal of the KKE and has no relation to the various views that will lead to the new pauperization of our people. And I mean views that exist in other parties, as a minority at the moment, as they are in the governing party, that talk about exit only from the currency.”

#Greece #austerity #KKE #Troika #Syriza #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/communist-party-greece-against-anti-people-consensus-capitalist-parties Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:43:33 +0000 Communist Party of Greece on the result of the referendum https://fightbacknews.org/communist-party-greece-result-referendum?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Enter a descriptive sentence about the photo here. Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). On the result of the referendum: Hundreds of thousands of people supported the proposal of the KKE !--more-- On the 5th of July 2015, a referendum was held in Greece. The question posed was whether the citizens agreed or not with the proposed agreement, tabled by the EU-IMF-ECB, that will continue the anti-people measures worth 8 billion euros. The governmental majority of SYRIZA-ANEL rejected the proposal of the KKE for the government’s draft agreement to also be placed before the judgment of the Greek people in the referendum together with the issue of abolishing all the anti-people laws that have been passed in recent years and the issue of disengaging from the EU. At the same time, the coalition government explained that the NO in the referendum is interpreted by the government as approval for its own proposed agreement with the EU-IMF-ECB, which inside 47+8 pages also includes harsh antiworker-antipeople measures, worth about 8 billion euros. In these conditions, the KKE called on the workers to turn their backs on the false dilemma which was being posed in the referendum, using all appropriate means. The forces of the KKE outside the election centres handed out its own ballot paper to the voters which said: NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE EU-IMF-ECB NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE GOVERNMENT DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, WITH THE PEOPLE IN POWER Of course, it was understood that this ballot paper would be counted as a spoiled ballot, but together with the blank ballot papers and the abstention it constitutes a political current that disputes the choices of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and also of the imperialist organizations, with whom the government is negotiating for the needs of capital in Greece. It should be noted that together with the parties of the coalition government (SYRIZA-ANEL) fascist Golden Dawn also took a position in favour of the NO,, as well as other small nationalist and ultra-left groups, like ANTARSYA. On the other side, the rightwing opposition ND, social-democratic PASOK that governed until January 2015, together with POTAMI, KIDHSO (the party of the former Prime Minister G. Papandreou) and other smaller bourgeois political forces took a position in favour of a YES which they stated would be interpreted as being consent to “staying in the EU at all costs”. The final results were the following: \[see table with results – editor\] In his first statements after the announcement of the result, D. Koutsoumpas, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE saluted the thousands of people who responded to the call of the KKE and did not submit to the blackmailing dilemmas i.e. those that cast the ballot proposed by the KKE into the ballot box, a proposal which the government refused to put to the vote in the Parliament, depriving the people of the right to cast it in a mass way into the ballot box. He noted that in relation to the dubious question of the snap referendum, a section of the people was able to overcome the entrapment and deception and gave a first response, with the spoiled ballot, and also with the blank ballot, while some chose abstention from this process. The General Secretary addressed himself in particular to those who chose NO, believing that in this way they could stop austerity, that they can answer the anti-people measures and memoranda in this way. He called on them not to be complacent and not to consent to the government’s effort to transform this NO into a YES to new anti-people agreements. He stressed that the KKE extends its hand to them for the struggles against the deterioration of their lives that will begin the day after the referendum. The KKE issued a similar militant call to those who chose YES under pressure from the big employers, due to fear about closed banks and fear of the consequences for their salaries, pensions and small savings. The KKE notes that the negotiations promised by Mr Tsipras, based on his proposal, will inevitably lead to a new worse memorandum. The situation highlights the necessity of the movement and our people adopting the proposal of the KKE for a pro-people way out of the crisis in a mass and determined way. The KKE will be in the frontline of all the struggles of our people in the following period, strengthening, from tomorrow, the anti-monopoly anti-capitalist line of struggle, the rallying around the KKE. #Greece #austerity #KKE #Syriza #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Enter a descriptive sentence about the photo here.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). On the result of the referendum: Hundreds of thousands of people supported the proposal of the KKE

On the 5th of July 2015, a referendum was held in Greece. The question posed was whether the citizens agreed or not with the proposed agreement, tabled by the EU-IMF-ECB, that will continue the anti-people measures worth 8 billion euros.

The governmental majority of SYRIZA-ANEL rejected the proposal of the KKE for the government’s draft agreement to also be placed before the judgment of the Greek people in the referendum together with the issue of abolishing all the anti-people laws that have been passed in recent years and the issue of disengaging from the EU. At the same time, the coalition government explained that the NO in the referendum is interpreted by the government as approval for its own proposed agreement with the EU-IMF-ECB, which inside 47+8 pages also includes harsh antiworker-antipeople measures, worth about 8 billion euros.

In these conditions, the KKE called on the workers to turn their backs on the false dilemma which was being posed in the referendum, using all appropriate means. The forces of the KKE outside the election centres handed out its own ballot paper to the voters which said:

  • NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE EU-IMF-ECB
  • NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE GOVERNMENT
  • DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, WITH THE PEOPLE IN POWER

Of course, it was understood that this ballot paper would be counted as a spoiled ballot, but together with the blank ballot papers and the abstention it constitutes a political current that disputes the choices of the SYRIZA-ANEL government and also of the imperialist organizations, with whom the government is negotiating for the needs of capital in Greece.

It should be noted that together with the parties of the coalition government (SYRIZA-ANEL) fascist Golden Dawn also took a position in favour of the NO,, as well as other small nationalist and ultra-left groups, like ANTARSYA.

On the other side, the rightwing opposition ND, social-democratic PASOK that governed until January 2015, together with POTAMI, KIDHSO (the party of the former Prime Minister G. Papandreou) and other smaller bourgeois political forces took a position in favour of a YES which they stated would be interpreted as being consent to “staying in the EU at all costs”.

The final results were the following: [see table with results – editor]

In his first statements after the announcement of the result, D. Koutsoumpas, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE saluted the thousands of people who responded to the call of the KKE and did not submit to the blackmailing dilemmas i.e. those that cast the ballot proposed by the KKE into the ballot box, a proposal which the government refused to put to the vote in the Parliament, depriving the people of the right to cast it in a mass way into the ballot box.

He noted that in relation to the dubious question of the snap referendum, a section of the people was able to overcome the entrapment and deception and gave a first response, with the spoiled ballot, and also with the blank ballot, while some chose abstention from this process.

The General Secretary addressed himself in particular to those who chose NO, believing that in this way they could stop austerity, that they can answer the anti-people measures and memoranda in this way. He called on them not to be complacent and not to consent to the government’s effort to transform this NO into a YES to new anti-people agreements. He stressed that the KKE extends its hand to them for the struggles against the deterioration of their lives that will begin the day after the referendum.

The KKE issued a similar militant call to those who chose YES under pressure from the big employers, due to fear about closed banks and fear of the consequences for their salaries, pensions and small savings.

The KKE notes that the negotiations promised by Mr Tsipras, based on his proposal, will inevitably lead to a new worse memorandum.

The situation highlights the necessity of the movement and our people adopting the proposal of the KKE for a pro-people way out of the crisis in a mass and determined way. The KKE will be in the frontline of all the struggles of our people in the following period, strengthening, from tomorrow, the anti-monopoly anti-capitalist line of struggle, the rallying around the KKE.

#Greece #austerity #KKE #Syriza #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/communist-party-greece-result-referendum Mon, 06 Jul 2015 17:34:50 +0000 The referendum in Greece and the struggle against austerity https://fightbacknews.org/referendum-greece-and-struggle-against-austerity?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Massive rally of Communist Party of Greece (KKE) fills Syntagma Square fills Syntagma Square Massive rally of Communist Party of Greece \(KKE\) fills Syntagma Square, calling for rupture with European Union and rejection of austerity agreements") Millions of Greek voters go to the polls July 5, in a referendum that will have important implications for the country's future. The prime minister Alexis Tsipras, of the governing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left), announced the referendum last week after a breakdown in negotiations with the so-called Troika (the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission). The referendum basically asks: do you accept the Troika's proposed austerity measures ("yes" or "nai" in Greek) or do you reject them ("no" or "oxi")? !--more-- But the referendum has taken on a much larger meaning than this. Sensing an opportunity, the Greek capitalist class is throwing its weight behind a yes vote; their TV, radio and newspaper outlets which dominate the country's media are clamoring for "yes" and warning of disaster if "no" prevails. There are even reports of employers forcing their workers to turn out to the "yes" rally that took place in Athens on July 3. A win for the "yes" vote would mean favorable conditions for the old center-left and center-right parties of PASOK and New Democracy to come back to power - these are the parties that signed on to the austerity agreements of the last five years. A "yes" vote is important for the capitalist class because it deals a blow to the anti-austerity movement, and also brings some stability into the economy in the form of badly needed funds for the cash-starved banking system. Those in the "yes" camp skew heavily towards being older and more conservative. On the other side is the "no" camp, and here you will find those from the ranks of the poor, the working class, the youth and the unemployed, as well as the pensioners struggling to survive, those without healthcare, and students with no prospect for employment. A victory for the "no" vote would send a strong message to the IMF, the ECB and the EC that Greece refuses to submit to humiliating and poisonous austerity measures that will enslave the country to massive debt payments for generations to come. A victory for "no" would offer encouragement for those forces that are struggling against austerity. Instead of turning back towards the old politics of austerity, a "no" vote provides more favorable conditions for struggle. The problem is that SYRIZA is not in a position to lead this struggle. SYRIZA has already shown it is not going to deliver on its promises to end the austerity measures. Instead the party is proposing their own milder version of the Troika's austerity measures (an "honorable compromise" they call it), which does things like push back implementation of some of the measures (e.g. phasing in the retirement age of 67 later on, rather than immediately) instead of rejecting them outright. More broadly, SYRIZA isn't prepared to, and doesn't have the objective of, confronting the monopolies and the capitalists who run the country, or breaking with the European Union -- preconditions for building a more just economy and society. To break the chains of austerity, Greece needs a rupture with the Troika and the European Union. To have an economy that serves the people, the big industries and monopolies which dominate economic life must be in the hands of the working class. These questions are not on the referendum, of course. So while the "no" vote is important if only for its symbolic value, it's also understandable why the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has urged workers to reject both the "yes" and "no" vote - because the choice should not be between SYRIZA's milder austerity and the Troika's dictates: the choice should be between working people running society or monopoly rule; between producing according to people's needs or producing for capitalist profit, and between distributing wealth fairly or allowing millions to suffer so a tiny handful prosper without measure. No matter what happens with the referendum, one can only hope that the struggle in Greece will continue to strengthen and build people's organizations while keeping their eyes on the prize: a society where working people rule and social justice is the law of the land. #Greece #austerity #KKE #Syriza #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Massive rally of Communist Party of Greece (KKE) fills Syntagma Square

Millions of Greek voters go to the polls July 5, in a referendum that will have important implications for the country's future. The prime minister Alexis Tsipras, of the governing SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left), announced the referendum last week after a breakdown in negotiations with the so-called Troika (the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission). The referendum basically asks: do you accept the Troika's proposed austerity measures (“yes” or “nai” in Greek) or do you reject them (“no” or “oxi”)?

But the referendum has taken on a much larger meaning than this. Sensing an opportunity, the Greek capitalist class is throwing its weight behind a yes vote; their TV, radio and newspaper outlets which dominate the country's media are clamoring for “yes” and warning of disaster if “no” prevails. There are even reports of employers forcing their workers to turn out to the “yes” rally that took place in Athens on July 3. A win for the “yes” vote would mean favorable conditions for the old center-left and center-right parties of PASOK and New Democracy to come back to power – these are the parties that signed on to the austerity agreements of the last five years. A “yes” vote is important for the capitalist class because it deals a blow to the anti-austerity movement, and also brings some stability into the economy in the form of badly needed funds for the cash-starved banking system. Those in the “yes” camp skew heavily towards being older and more conservative.

On the other side is the “no” camp, and here you will find those from the ranks of the poor, the working class, the youth and the unemployed, as well as the pensioners struggling to survive, those without healthcare, and students with no prospect for employment. A victory for the “no” vote would send a strong message to the IMF, the ECB and the EC that Greece refuses to submit to humiliating and poisonous austerity measures that will enslave the country to massive debt payments for generations to come. A victory for “no” would offer encouragement for those forces that are struggling against austerity. Instead of turning back towards the old politics of austerity, a “no” vote provides more favorable conditions for struggle.

The problem is that SYRIZA is not in a position to lead this struggle. SYRIZA has already shown it is not going to deliver on its promises to end the austerity measures. Instead the party is proposing their own milder version of the Troika's austerity measures (an “honorable compromise” they call it), which does things like push back implementation of some of the measures (e.g. phasing in the retirement age of 67 later on, rather than immediately) instead of rejecting them outright. More broadly, SYRIZA isn't prepared to, and doesn't have the objective of, confronting the monopolies and the capitalists who run the country, or breaking with the European Union — preconditions for building a more just economy and society.

To break the chains of austerity, Greece needs a rupture with the Troika and the European Union. To have an economy that serves the people, the big industries and monopolies which dominate economic life must be in the hands of the working class. These questions are not on the referendum, of course. So while the “no” vote is important if only for its symbolic value, it's also understandable why the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has urged workers to reject both the “yes” and “no” vote – because the choice should not be between SYRIZA's milder austerity and the Troika's dictates: the choice should be between working people running society or monopoly rule; between producing according to people's needs or producing for capitalist profit, and between distributing wealth fairly or allowing millions to suffer so a tiny handful prosper without measure.

No matter what happens with the referendum, one can only hope that the struggle in Greece will continue to strengthen and build people's organizations while keeping their eyes on the prize: a society where working people rule and social justice is the law of the land.

#Greece #austerity #KKE #Syriza #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/referendum-greece-and-struggle-against-austerity Sun, 05 Jul 2015 20:12:05 +0000 Stand in solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico! https://fightbacknews.org/stand-solidarity-people-puerto-rico?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[No to Wall Street! Yes to independence! On June 29, the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, said that Puerto Rico’s debt was “not payable.” The government of Puerto Rico has a debt that is 70% of the islands Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is more than three and half times as great as the next most indebted states, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, whose debt-to-GDP ratios are less than 20%. In addition, Puerto Rico’s electric utility also has major debt problems. !--more-- Puerto Rico’s debt woes are rooted in the fact that it is a colony of the U.S. Its economy is limited by the high cost of imports as a U.S. law, known as the Jones Act, requires all of Puerto Rico’s imports to be carried on U.S.-made ships that are U.S.-owned and staffed by Americans. This contributes to the cost of living being almost 15% higher than in the U.S, even though incomes average less than half that of those in the U.S. Unemployment in Puerto Rico is 12%, more than twice the U.S rate. Another problem is that the U.S. government made it easier for Puerto Rico to borrow by making its bonds exempt from all U.S. taxes. Last but not least, Puerto Rico cannot take advantage of U.S. bankruptcy law like other U.S. cities, counties and states. Wall Street immediately turned to its friends in Congress such as Republican Jeffrey D. Duncan of South Carolina. Duncan has proposed setting up a ‘Financial Control Board’ to take over the finances of the government of Puerto Rico, to insure the best results for the Wall Street hedge funds that own billions of dollars of Puerto Rican bonds. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also proposing more of its austerity medicine that it imposed on Greece. They say that Puerto Rico should eliminate its minimum wage, or if not, cut it to one-third the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, or $2.41 an hour. In addition, the IMF wants a welfare cut to force people to work for these slave wages. The governor of Puerto Rico and his allies among the Democrats in Congress want to restructure the debt and extend bankruptcy laws to Puerto Rico. This would be better than Wall Street running the show through a Financial Control Board, but would still mean more austerity - more pension cuts, more wage and job cuts for public sector workers and higher taxes - for the people of Puerto Rico. What would benefit the people the most would be a path of struggle against the Wall Street banksters who almost brought down the world economy during the financial crisis of 2008. The debt should be eliminated. The Jones Act must be repealed. Ultimately, what Puerto Rico needs is independence - so that the their country is in their hands, not the hands of Wall Street hedge funds and their politicians in Washington, D.C. #PuertoRico #Editorials #austerity #AlejandroGarcíaPadilla div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> No to Wall Street! Yes to independence!

On June 29, the governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro García Padilla, said that Puerto Rico’s debt was “not payable.” The government of Puerto Rico has a debt that is 70% of the islands Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is more than three and half times as great as the next most indebted states, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, whose debt-to-GDP ratios are less than 20%. In addition, Puerto Rico’s electric utility also has major debt problems.

Puerto Rico’s debt woes are rooted in the fact that it is a colony of the U.S. Its economy is limited by the high cost of imports as a U.S. law, known as the Jones Act, requires all of Puerto Rico’s imports to be carried on U.S.-made ships that are U.S.-owned and staffed by Americans. This contributes to the cost of living being almost 15% higher than in the U.S, even though incomes average less than half that of those in the U.S. Unemployment in Puerto Rico is 12%, more than twice the U.S rate. Another problem is that the U.S. government made it easier for Puerto Rico to borrow by making its bonds exempt from all U.S. taxes. Last but not least, Puerto Rico cannot take advantage of U.S. bankruptcy law like other U.S. cities, counties and states.

Wall Street immediately turned to its friends in Congress such as Republican Jeffrey D. Duncan of South Carolina. Duncan has proposed setting up a ‘Financial Control Board’ to take over the finances of the government of Puerto Rico, to insure the best results for the Wall Street hedge funds that own billions of dollars of Puerto Rican bonds.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is also proposing more of its austerity medicine that it imposed on Greece. They say that Puerto Rico should eliminate its minimum wage, or if not, cut it to one-third the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour, or $2.41 an hour. In addition, the IMF wants a welfare cut to force people to work for these slave wages.

The governor of Puerto Rico and his allies among the Democrats in Congress want to restructure the debt and extend bankruptcy laws to Puerto Rico. This would be better than Wall Street running the show through a Financial Control Board, but would still mean more austerity – more pension cuts, more wage and job cuts for public sector workers and higher taxes – for the people of Puerto Rico.

What would benefit the people the most would be a path of struggle against the Wall Street banksters who almost brought down the world economy during the financial crisis of 2008. The debt should be eliminated. The Jones Act must be repealed. Ultimately, what Puerto Rico needs is independence – so that the their country is in their hands, not the hands of Wall Street hedge funds and their politicians in Washington, D.C.

#PuertoRico #Editorials #austerity #AlejandroGarcíaPadilla

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/stand-solidarity-people-puerto-rico Sat, 04 Jul 2015 22:06:32 +0000 Greek communists speak out on July 5 referendum https://fightbacknews.org/greek-communists-speak-out-july-5-referendum?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The referendum on the 5th of July and the stance of the KKE !--more-- As is well-known, the government of the “left” and in essence social-democratic SYRIZA party and of the “rightwing” nationalist party ANEL, in an attempt to manage the complete bankruptcy of its pre-election commitments, announced a referendum for the 5th July 2015, with the only question being whether the citizens agree or not with the proposed agreement, which had been tabled by the EU, IMF and ECB and concerns the continuation of the anti-people measures for a way out from the capitalist crisis, with Greece remaining in the euro. The coalition government’s officials call on the people to say “no” and make it clear that this “no” in the referendum will be interpreted by the Greek government as approval for its own proposed agreement with the EU, IMF, ECB, which in its 47+8 pages also contains harsh antiworker-antipeople measures, with the aim of increasing the profitability of capital, capitalist “growth” and the country’s remaining in the euro. As the SYRIZA-ANEL government admits, which continues to extol the EU, “our common European home”, the “European achievement”, this proposal of theirs is 90% identical to the proposal of the EU, IMF, ECB and has very little relationship with what SYRIZA had promised before the elections. Fascist Golden Dawn, together with the parties of the coalition government (SYRIZA-ANEL), took a position in favor of a “no” and it also openly supported the return to a national currency. On the other side, the rightwing opposition ND, social-democratic PASOK that governed until January 2015, together with POTAMI (in form a party of the centre, in essence a reactionary party) took a position in favour of a “yes” to the barbaric measures of the Troika, which they state will be interpreted as being consent to “staying in the EU at all costs”. In reality, both answers lead to a yes to the “EU” and capitalist barbarity. During the session of the parliament on the 27/6, the governmental majority of SYRIZA-ANEL rejected the proposal of the KKE that the following issues be placed before to the judgment of the Greek people in the referendum: NO TO THE PROPOSALS FOR AGREEMENT OF THE EU-ECB-IMF AND THE GREEK GOVERNMENT DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU-ABOLITION OF THE MEMORANDA AND ALL THE APPLICATION LAWS With this stance, the government demonstrated that it wants to blackmail the people into approving its proposal to the troika, which is the other side of the same coin. That is to say, it is asking the Greek people to consent to its anti-people plans and to burden them with its new anti-people choices, either via a new allegedly “improved” agreement with the imperialist organizations, or via an exit from the euro and a return to a national currency, something which the people will be called on to pay for again. In these conditions, the KKE calls on the people to utilize the referendum as an opportunity to strengthen the opposition to the EU, to strengthen the struggle for the only realistic way out from today’s capitalist barbarity. The content of this way out is: RUPTURE-DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, UNILATERAL CANCELLATION OF THE DEBT, SOCIALIZATION OF THE MONOPOLIES, WORKERS’-PEOPLE’S POWER. The people, through their activity and their choice in the referendum, must respond to the deception of the false question posed by the government and reject the proposal of the EU-IMF-ECB and also the proposal of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. Both contain barbaric anti-people measures, which will be added to the memoranda and application laws of the previous ND-PASOK governments. Both serve the interests of capital and capitalist profits. The KKE stresses that the people must not choose between Scylla and Charybdis, but must express, with all means available and in every way, their opposition to the EU and its permanent memoranda in the referendum. They must “cancel out” this dilemma by casting the proposal of the KKE as their vote into the ballot box. NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE EU-IMF-ECB NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE GOVERNMENT DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, WITH THE PEOPLE IN POWER #Greece #austerity #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Troika #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The referendum on the 5th of July and the stance of the KKE

As is well-known, the government of the “left” and in essence social-democratic SYRIZA party and of the “rightwing” nationalist party ANEL, in an attempt to manage the complete bankruptcy of its pre-election commitments, announced a referendum for the 5th July 2015, with the only question being whether the citizens agree or not with the proposed agreement, which had been tabled by the EU, IMF and ECB and concerns the continuation of the anti-people measures for a way out from the capitalist crisis, with Greece remaining in the euro.

The coalition government’s officials call on the people to say “no” and make it clear that this “no” in the referendum will be interpreted by the Greek government as approval for its own proposed agreement with the EU, IMF, ECB, which in its 47+8 pages also contains harsh antiworker-antipeople measures, with the aim of increasing the profitability of capital, capitalist “growth” and the country’s remaining in the euro. As the SYRIZA-ANEL government admits, which continues to extol the EU, “our common European home”, the “European achievement”, this proposal of theirs is 90% identical to the proposal of the EU, IMF, ECB and has very little relationship with what SYRIZA had promised before the elections.

Fascist Golden Dawn, together with the parties of the coalition government (SYRIZA-ANEL), took a position in favor of a “no” and it also openly supported the return to a national currency.

On the other side, the rightwing opposition ND, social-democratic PASOK that governed until January 2015, together with POTAMI (in form a party of the centre, in essence a reactionary party) took a position in favour of a “yes” to the barbaric measures of the Troika, which they state will be interpreted as being consent to “staying in the EU at all costs”.

In reality, both answers lead to a yes to the “EU” and capitalist barbarity.

During the session of the parliament on the 27/6, the governmental majority of SYRIZA-ANEL rejected the proposal of the KKE that the following issues be placed before to the judgment of the Greek people in the referendum:

NO TO THE PROPOSALS FOR AGREEMENT OF THE EU-ECB-IMF AND THE GREEK GOVERNMENT DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU-ABOLITION OF THE MEMORANDA AND ALL THE APPLICATION LAWS

With this stance, the government demonstrated that it wants to blackmail the people into approving its proposal to the troika, which is the other side of the same coin. That is to say, it is asking the Greek people to consent to its anti-people plans and to burden them with its new anti-people choices, either via a new allegedly “improved” agreement with the imperialist organizations, or via an exit from the euro and a return to a national currency, something which the people will be called on to pay for again.

In these conditions, the KKE calls on the people to utilize the referendum as an opportunity to strengthen the opposition to the EU, to strengthen the struggle for the only realistic way out from today’s capitalist barbarity. The content of this way out is: RUPTURE-DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, UNILATERAL CANCELLATION OF THE DEBT, SOCIALIZATION OF THE MONOPOLIES, WORKERS’-PEOPLE’S POWER.

The people, through their activity and their choice in the referendum, must respond to the deception of the false question posed by the government and reject the proposal of the EU-IMF-ECB and also the proposal of the SYRIZA-ANEL government. Both contain barbaric anti-people measures, which will be added to the memoranda and application laws of the previous ND-PASOK governments. Both serve the interests of capital and capitalist profits.

The KKE stresses that the people must not choose between Scylla and Charybdis, but must express, with all means available and in every way, their opposition to the EU and its permanent memoranda in the referendum. They must “cancel out” this dilemma by casting the proposal of the KKE as their vote into the ballot box.

NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE EU-IMF-ECB NO TO THE PROPOSAL OF THE GOVERNMENT DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE EU, WITH THE PEOPLE IN POWER

#Greece #austerity #KKE #CommunistPartyOfGreece #Troika #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/greek-communists-speak-out-july-5-referendum Mon, 29 Jun 2015 21:11:55 +0000 Government austerity in the U.S.: Good for profits, bad for workers and oppressed https://fightbacknews.org/government-austerity-us-good-profits-bad-workers-and-oppressed?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[For the last three to four years, the U.S. government has gone an historic bout of austerity, by raising taxes and cutting spending. This has contributed to a weak economic recovery, with workers still facing an official unemployment rate of 6.7%, which would be even higher if millions of unemployed had not given up looking for work. At the same time corporate profits have boomed to record highs. !--more-- Austerity has hit oppressed nationalities (African Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos and other Latinos, Asian Americans and others) hard. These groups have even higher unemployment and poverty rates, and suffer even more from government cuts to unemployment and other services. Women, who also have lower incomes and who are more likely to bear the brunt of child rearing, have also been hit hard by government cuts. Government austerity began as state and local governments began to raise taxes and cut spending after the 2007 start of the deep recession. Because almost all state and local governments have to balance their budgets, they began to raise tax rates and cut spending as their income, property and sales tax revenues sank with the recession. By the end of 2013, state and local government spending in the U.S., adjusted for inflation, was down to the level of early 2001, even though the overall economy has grown 25% since then. These cuts hit poor and working people the hardest as governments cut spending in programs funded by TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families, commonly known as welfare) and Medicaid (government health insurance for low income children and others). State and local government workers, including public school teachers, who are disproportionately African Americans and women, saw layoffs, furloughs and pension cuts. Many states raised their sales tax rates to increase tax revenues, but sales taxes fall the hardest on low-income families who have to spend all of what they earn. While federal government spending did go up and federal taxes were cut to combat the worst of the recession and financial crisis, by 2010 federal spending on goods and services peaked and started to decline. With the worst of the crisis behind them, and Wall Street and corporate profits back on the rise with the help of hundreds of billions of dollars of bailout aid, the federal government turned to cutting the budget deficit which had grown dramatically. This path was formalized in the 2011 Budget Control act that started the sequestration process of forcing cuts in future spending. The passage of the Budget Control Act in 2011 was another example of how Washington D.C. is beholden to Wall Street, not the working people of this country. While the unemployment rate was 9.0% and there were more than 6 million fewer jobs than the recession began in December of 2007, corporate profits had recovered to pre-recession levels in 2010, and by 2011, were hitting new record highs. With the banking and auto industries stabilized by the federal government bailouts and Federal Reserve loans, working people, both with and without jobs, were put back on the chopping block by both Republicans and Democrats. The payroll tax cut, which mainly benefitted working people, was allowed to end, leading to what was in effect a 2% increase in the payroll tax rate for working people. This hit lower income workers the hardest, since they often pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes. In addition federal extended unemployment benefits were first cut back and then again allowed to expire, even though long term unemployment continued at record high levels. The sequestration process has also led to cutting 57,000 low-income children from the federal Head Start program and imposes cuts in wages and pension benefits for federal workers. Over the last two years while payroll taxes have increased by 18%, mainly because of the end of the payroll tax cut, corporate tax revenues have actually fallen 1.2%. This is during the same time that corporate profits in the U.S. grew by 9% to hit all time record highs. At the same time the median, or typical household incomes, adjusted for inflation, have dropped to levels last seen in 1999. So working people, with fewer jobs and lower incomes, are paying more in federal taxes, while corporations, which are making record profits, are paying less. While the budget deal in December of 2013 softened some of the near-term austerity by increasing cuts in the future, this was offset by the end of federal Extended Unemployment Insurance benefits. The Budget Control Act of 2011 and the December 2013 budget deal set the course for years of federal government austerity in the future. In addition to specific tax increase and spending cuts that hurt working people, the policy of austerity is an overall drag on the economy, keeping unemployment higher than it otherwise would be. The combined tax increases and spending cuts at all levels of government are the greatest in at least 50 years, causing a total drag on the economy equivalent to almost 2% of GDP, or $300 billion dollars, and the loss of millions of jobs, both directly as government workers are cut, and indirectly as the tax increases and spending cuts reduce economic activity and employment. Both Democrats and Republicans use the federal budget deficit as the main reason why there is a need for austerity. The politicians claim that without austerity, that the U.S. could end up like Greece. But this is wrong on two fronts. First of all, the Greek government debt crisis happened only because the Greek government bonds are all in euros, so there is a risk (and reality) that the government can default on its debt. This is what happened to Russia in 1998 and Argentina in 2001, where both countries sold a lot of their government debt in foreign currencies that they couldn’t pay back. In contrast, Japan’s government debt is more than 50% larger than Greek government debt, compared to the size of each country’s economy, and has had no debt crisis. But Japanese government debt is all in Japanese yen, allowing the government to print money to pay off the debt if necessary, so there is no default risk. Similarly, U.S. government debt is all in U.S. dollars, so the U.S. could also print money if necessary to avoid default. The other problem with using the example of Greece to push austerity is that much of Greece’s economic decline has come from their extreme austerity policies. Under pressure from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Greek government has imposed extreme austerity. Government spending on medical services has been cut by some 40%, and the drag of higher taxes and less spending has pushed the unemployment rate in Greece to more than 25%. Perhaps the only good thing to be said about U.S. government austerity is that it could be worse. Government austerity here in the U.S. is not as bad as in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other European countries that are being arm-twisted into raising taxes and cutting deficits. In addition, so far Social Security has been off the chopping block, despite Wall Street’s effort to privatize Social Security and replace it with individual investment accounts, managed, of course, by big banks and other financial institutions. With the federal government on course for another ten years of austerity, the fight to maintain and even expand Social Security and to restore and expand the federal government safety net, starting with federal Extended Unemployment benefits, will be important for working people, oppressed nationalities and women in the U.S. #UnitedStates #Capitalism #austerity #workersRights #ExtendedUnemploymentBenefits div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> For the last three to four years, the U.S. government has gone an historic bout of austerity, by raising taxes and cutting spending. This has contributed to a weak economic recovery, with workers still facing an official unemployment rate of 6.7%, which would be even higher if millions of unemployed had not given up looking for work. At the same time corporate profits have boomed to record highs.

Austerity has hit oppressed nationalities (African Americans, Chicanos, Mexicanos and other Latinos, Asian Americans and others) hard. These groups have even higher unemployment and poverty rates, and suffer even more from government cuts to unemployment and other services. Women, who also have lower incomes and who are more likely to bear the brunt of child rearing, have also been hit hard by government cuts.

Government austerity began as state and local governments began to raise taxes and cut spending after the 2007 start of the deep recession. Because almost all state and local governments have to balance their budgets, they began to raise tax rates and cut spending as their income, property and sales tax revenues sank with the recession. By the end of 2013, state and local government spending in the U.S., adjusted for inflation, was down to the level of early 2001, even though the overall economy has grown 25% since then.

These cuts hit poor and working people the hardest as governments cut spending in programs funded by TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families, commonly known as welfare) and Medicaid (government health insurance for low income children and others). State and local government workers, including public school teachers, who are disproportionately African Americans and women, saw layoffs, furloughs and pension cuts. Many states raised their sales tax rates to increase tax revenues, but sales taxes fall the hardest on low-income families who have to spend all of what they earn.

While federal government spending did go up and federal taxes were cut to combat the worst of the recession and financial crisis, by 2010 federal spending on goods and services peaked and started to decline. With the worst of the crisis behind them, and Wall Street and corporate profits back on the rise with the help of hundreds of billions of dollars of bailout aid, the federal government turned to cutting the budget deficit which had grown dramatically. This path was formalized in the 2011 Budget Control act that started the sequestration process of forcing cuts in future spending.

The passage of the Budget Control Act in 2011 was another example of how Washington D.C. is beholden to Wall Street, not the working people of this country. While the unemployment rate was 9.0% and there were more than 6 million fewer jobs than the recession began in December of 2007, corporate profits had recovered to pre-recession levels in 2010, and by 2011, were hitting new record highs. With the banking and auto industries stabilized by the federal government bailouts and Federal Reserve loans, working people, both with and without jobs, were put back on the chopping block by both Republicans and Democrats.

The payroll tax cut, which mainly benefitted working people, was allowed to end, leading to what was in effect a 2% increase in the payroll tax rate for working people. This hit lower income workers the hardest, since they often pay more in payroll taxes than income taxes. In addition federal extended unemployment benefits were first cut back and then again allowed to expire, even though long term unemployment continued at record high levels. The sequestration process has also led to cutting 57,000 low-income children from the federal Head Start program and imposes cuts in wages and pension benefits for federal workers.

Over the last two years while payroll taxes have increased by 18%, mainly because of the end of the payroll tax cut, corporate tax revenues have actually fallen 1.2%. This is during the same time that corporate profits in the U.S. grew by 9% to hit all time record highs. At the same time the median, or typical household incomes, adjusted for inflation, have dropped to levels last seen in 1999. So working people, with fewer jobs and lower incomes, are paying more in federal taxes, while corporations, which are making record profits, are paying less.

While the budget deal in December of 2013 softened some of the near-term austerity by increasing cuts in the future, this was offset by the end of federal Extended Unemployment Insurance benefits. The Budget Control Act of 2011 and the December 2013 budget deal set the course for years of federal government austerity in the future.

In addition to specific tax increase and spending cuts that hurt working people, the policy of austerity is an overall drag on the economy, keeping unemployment higher than it otherwise would be. The combined tax increases and spending cuts at all levels of government are the greatest in at least 50 years, causing a total drag on the economy equivalent to almost 2% of GDP, or $300 billion dollars, and the loss of millions of jobs, both directly as government workers are cut, and indirectly as the tax increases and spending cuts reduce economic activity and employment.

Both Democrats and Republicans use the federal budget deficit as the main reason why there is a need for austerity. The politicians claim that without austerity, that the U.S. could end up like Greece. But this is wrong on two fronts. First of all, the Greek government debt crisis happened only because the Greek government bonds are all in euros, so there is a risk (and reality) that the government can default on its debt. This is what happened to Russia in 1998 and Argentina in 2001, where both countries sold a lot of their government debt in foreign currencies that they couldn’t pay back.

In contrast, Japan’s government debt is more than 50% larger than Greek government debt, compared to the size of each country’s economy, and has had no debt crisis. But Japanese government debt is all in Japanese yen, allowing the government to print money to pay off the debt if necessary, so there is no default risk. Similarly, U.S. government debt is all in U.S. dollars, so the U.S. could also print money if necessary to avoid default.

The other problem with using the example of Greece to push austerity is that much of Greece’s economic decline has come from their extreme austerity policies. Under pressure from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Greek government has imposed extreme austerity. Government spending on medical services has been cut by some 40%, and the drag of higher taxes and less spending has pushed the unemployment rate in Greece to more than 25%.

Perhaps the only good thing to be said about U.S. government austerity is that it could be worse. Government austerity here in the U.S. is not as bad as in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other European countries that are being arm-twisted into raising taxes and cutting deficits. In addition, so far Social Security has been off the chopping block, despite Wall Street’s effort to privatize Social Security and replace it with individual investment accounts, managed, of course, by big banks and other financial institutions.

With the federal government on course for another ten years of austerity, the fight to maintain and even expand Social Security and to restore and expand the federal government safety net, starting with federal Extended Unemployment benefits, will be important for working people, oppressed nationalities and women in the U.S.

#UnitedStates #Capitalism #austerity #workersRights #ExtendedUnemploymentBenefits

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/government-austerity-us-good-profits-bad-workers-and-oppressed Thu, 20 Mar 2014 19:08:08 +0000 Drop in GDP at the end of 2012 is a warning on austerity https://fightbacknews.org/drop-gdp-end-2012-warning-austerity?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Economic expansion continues...for now San José, CA - On Jan. 30, the Commerce Department reported that Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, fell by a very small amount (0.1% at an annual rate) in the last three months of 2012. The drop in GDP was largely because of a big drop in federal government purchases of goods and services, in addition to a drop in inventories (meaning that stores sold goods that were sitting on their shelves instead of having more produced) and a drop in exports. !--more-- While much of the media and even some economic textbooks describe a recession as two quarters or six months of decreasing GDP, this is not the official definition of a recession. For example, to use this rule, there was no recession in 2001, since GDP did not decline for six months in a row. But to deny that there was a recession wouldn’t make sense, given the large economic downturn and loss of more than 2.5 million jobs. The official definition of a recession uses employment, business sales, personal income and industrial production to measure when there is a wide and long-lasting economic downturn or a recession. Since these measures do not move in lockstep, employment is the most important of the four, with the peak and following decline in the number of total jobs being the official definition of when a recession starts. Recessions are also usually preceded by a large drop in spending on housing (as in the last recession) or spending on new business plant and equipment (as in the 2001 recession). However the GDP report showed that businesses continued to spend on new plant and equipment, and gains in housing construction continued. Then on Feb. 1, the U.S. Department of Labor released its report on the labor market in January, showing that the economy added 155,000 jobs. These are strong signs that the economic expansion which officially began in June of 2009 continues, at least for the time being. However the drop in GDP caused by federal government cutbacks is a warning that the austerity drive by government is going to weaken the economy. While state and local governments have been cutting spending for years (including even more cuts in the last three months of 2012), federal government spending has been holding up. But with the automatic spending cuts scheduled for March 1, and years of more spending cuts in the works under the 2011 Budget Control Act, decreases in federal spending are more and more likely. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. government has used Keynesian policies to change interest rates, government spending, and taxes to try to combat recessions. There was a large effort by the Obama administration to cut taxes, increase spending and maintain low interest rates to put an end to the last recession, which was the worst since the Great Depression. Federal government borrowing and spending have helped to shorten recessions; they have not been able to prevent them, as recessions are a fundamental part of a capitalist economy. Under capitalism, workers are not paid for the full value of what they produce, which is the source of profits. This limits the ability of the vast majority of people, who have to work for others, to be able to spend. At the same time, the profits from the exploitation of workers is reinvested in new plant, machinery and equipment, increasing the ability to produce. The contradiction between the limits on spending and ever-growing ability to produce lead to what Marx called crisis of overproduction, and which are commonly called recessions today. The government Keynesian policy tries to use deficit spending to stimulate the economy out of a recession. This leads to an increase in the federal government debt, which both Republicans and many Democrats are using to push more austerity - higher taxes on working people (like the payroll tax) while cutting government spending on programs that can actually help working people (like financial aid for college). Not only is this unfair, but it also slows the economy, leading to fewer jobs and more unemployment. At its worst, austerity can push a weak economy into a recession and even a depression. This is what has happened in Greece and Spain, where the austerity measure demanded by Germany and other euro-zone countries have pushed their economies into deep depressions, with unemployment rates of 25% and more. #SanJoséCA #GDP #austerity #GrossDomesticProduct div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> _Economic expansion continues...for now _

San José, CA – On Jan. 30, the Commerce Department reported that Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, fell by a very small amount (0.1% at an annual rate) in the last three months of 2012. The drop in GDP was largely because of a big drop in federal government purchases of goods and services, in addition to a drop in inventories (meaning that stores sold goods that were sitting on their shelves instead of having more produced) and a drop in exports.

While much of the media and even some economic textbooks describe a recession as two quarters or six months of decreasing GDP, this is not the official definition of a recession. For example, to use this rule, there was no recession in 2001, since GDP did not decline for six months in a row. But to deny that there was a recession wouldn’t make sense, given the large economic downturn and loss of more than 2.5 million jobs.

The official definition of a recession uses employment, business sales, personal income and industrial production to measure when there is a wide and long-lasting economic downturn or a recession. Since these measures do not move in lockstep, employment is the most important of the four, with the peak and following decline in the number of total jobs being the official definition of when a recession starts. Recessions are also usually preceded by a large drop in spending on housing (as in the last recession) or spending on new business plant and equipment (as in the 2001 recession).

However the GDP report showed that businesses continued to spend on new plant and equipment, and gains in housing construction continued. Then on Feb. 1, the U.S. Department of Labor released its report on the labor market in January, showing that the economy added 155,000 jobs. These are strong signs that the economic expansion which officially began in June of 2009 continues, at least for the time being.

However the drop in GDP caused by federal government cutbacks is a warning that the austerity drive by government is going to weaken the economy. While state and local governments have been cutting spending for years (including even more cuts in the last three months of 2012), federal government spending has been holding up. But with the automatic spending cuts scheduled for March 1, and years of more spending cuts in the works under the 2011 Budget Control Act, decreases in federal spending are more and more likely.

Since the end of World War II, the U.S. government has used Keynesian policies to change interest rates, government spending, and taxes to try to combat recessions. There was a large effort by the Obama administration to cut taxes, increase spending and maintain low interest rates to put an end to the last recession, which was the worst since the Great Depression. Federal government borrowing and spending have helped to shorten recessions; they have not been able to prevent them, as recessions are a fundamental part of a capitalist economy.

Under capitalism, workers are not paid for the full value of what they produce, which is the source of profits. This limits the ability of the vast majority of people, who have to work for others, to be able to spend. At the same time, the profits from the exploitation of workers is reinvested in new plant, machinery and equipment, increasing the ability to produce. The contradiction between the limits on spending and ever-growing ability to produce lead to what Marx called crisis of overproduction, and which are commonly called recessions today.

The government Keynesian policy tries to use deficit spending to stimulate the economy out of a recession. This leads to an increase in the federal government debt, which both Republicans and many Democrats are using to push more austerity – higher taxes on working people (like the payroll tax) while cutting government spending on programs that can actually help working people (like financial aid for college). Not only is this unfair, but it also slows the economy, leading to fewer jobs and more unemployment. At its worst, austerity can push a weak economy into a recession and even a depression. This is what has happened in Greece and Spain, where the austerity measure demanded by Germany and other euro-zone countries have pushed their economies into deep depressions, with unemployment rates of 25% and more.

#SanJoséCA #GDP #austerity #GrossDomesticProduct

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/drop-gdp-end-2012-warning-austerity Tue, 12 Feb 2013 03:28:29 +0000 Communist and workers parties say, “We are all Greeks!” https://fightbacknews.org/communist-and-workers-parties-say-we-are-all-greeks?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statements from communist and workers parties in solidarity with the powerful struggle against austerity in Greece. Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is among the signers. Solidarity with the working people of Greece, with PAME, and with KKE !--more-- For more than a year the Greek people, the workers and youth, members of the trade union front PAME and the Communist Party of Greece have said NO to the measures that the Greek government authorities are willing to impose on them. They are completely opposed to the fact that the bourgeois class in Greece, its governments, with the support of the EU, the IMF and the ECB, attack the people in order to bankrupt the people under the conditions of the crisis and increase the immense profits of the big financial and industrial capital. The Greek people, the workers and youth, PAME and the Communist Party of Greece need all our solidarity. Their struggles can give us precious experience. Greece itself is a rich country. However, the wealth is concentrated in even fewer hands. Indeed, unacceptable measures are taken against the working people. What happens now in Greece will be extended to all countries of the European Union. In all of Europe the question is being raised: Who has to pay for the crisis of capitalism? All European bourgeois parties – Social Democrats, Liberals, Christian Social, Conservative and Greens – are united in supporting their colleagues in Greece and the infamous measures of the EU bodies. The governments and the European Commission are about to intensify the measures against the peoples: a general lowering of wages, generalisation of insecure working condition, a witch-hunt against all people receiving social welfare benefits… Altogether this means the pillage of the world of workers by the world of capital. In Greece, the workers, the youth, the ordinary people say NO. They are building a resistance that is exemplary for all Europe. Solidarity with this resistance is our duty. Everyone should know: today they attack the Greek working people, tomorrow it will be the turn of the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Italian people – and the day after tomorrow they attack all of us. We are all Greeks! Support the struggle against the shifting of the burdens of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working people! Down with capitalism! For a socialist society! Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL) New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN) Workers Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA) Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS) Communist Party of Bangladesh Brazilian Communist Party Communist Party of Britain New Communist Party of Britain (NCPB) Communist Party of Canada Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KCSM) Unified Communist Party of Georgia German Communist Party Hungarian Communist Workers' Party Communist Party of Ireland Workers' Party of Ireland Party of Italian Communists (PdCI) Socialist Party of Latvia Lebanese Communist Party Socialist People's Front, Lithuania Communist Party of Malta Communist Party of Mexico Popular Socialist Party of Mexico Palestinian People's Party Communist Party of Pakistan Peruvian Communist Party Communist Party of Poland Communist Party of the Russian Federation Communist Workers Party of Russia - Revolution Party of Communists (RKRP-RPC) Communist Party of Soviet Union Communist Party of Slovakia Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) Communist Party of Sweden (SKP) Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) South African Communist Party Union of Communists of Ukraine Communist Party USA (CPUSA) Communist Party of Venezuela Belorussian Communist Workers' Party Communist Party of Great-Britain-ML Pole of Communist Rebirth in France (PRCF) l'Union révolutionnaire des Communistes de France (URCF) Communist Network (Rete dei Comunisti), Italy Communist Party of the Philippines Communist Party (KP), Sweden Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), USA #Greece #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #frso #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #austerity #KKE #Europe div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statements from communist and workers parties in solidarity with the powerful struggle against austerity in Greece. Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is among the signers. Solidarity with the working people of Greece, with PAME, and with KKE

For more than a year the Greek people, the workers and youth, members of the trade union front PAME and the Communist Party of Greece have said NO to the measures that the Greek government authorities are willing to impose on them. They are completely opposed to the fact that the bourgeois class in Greece, its governments, with the support of the EU, the IMF and the ECB, attack the people in order to bankrupt the people under the conditions of the crisis and increase the immense profits of the big financial and industrial capital.

The Greek people, the workers and youth, PAME and the Communist Party of Greece need all our solidarity. Their struggles can give us precious experience.

Greece itself is a rich country. However, the wealth is concentrated in even fewer hands. Indeed, unacceptable measures are taken against the working people. What happens now in Greece will be extended to all countries of the European Union.

In all of Europe the question is being raised: Who has to pay for the crisis of capitalism?

All European bourgeois parties – Social Democrats, Liberals, Christian Social, Conservative and Greens – are united in supporting their colleagues in Greece and the infamous measures of the EU bodies.

The governments and the European Commission are about to intensify the measures against the peoples: a general lowering of wages, generalisation of insecure working condition, a witch-hunt against all people receiving social welfare benefits…

Altogether this means the pillage of the world of workers by the world of capital.

In Greece, the workers, the youth, the ordinary people say NO. They are building a resistance that is exemplary for all Europe.

Solidarity with this resistance is our duty.

Everyone should know: today they attack the Greek working people, tomorrow it will be the turn of the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Italian people – and the day after tomorrow they attack all of us.

We are all Greeks!

Support the struggle against the shifting of the burdens of the crisis onto the shoulders of the working people!

Down with capitalism! For a socialist society!

  • Communist Party of Luxembourg (KPL)
  • New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN)
  • Workers Party of Belgium (PTB/PVDA)
  • Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS)
  • Communist Party of Bangladesh
  • Brazilian Communist Party
  • Communist Party of Britain
  • New Communist Party of Britain (NCPB)
  • Communist Party of Canada
  • Socialist Workers' Party of Croatia
  • Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KCSM)
  • Unified Communist Party of Georgia
  • German Communist Party
  • Hungarian Communist Workers' Party
  • Communist Party of Ireland
  • Workers' Party of Ireland
  • Party of Italian Communists (PdCI)
  • Socialist Party of Latvia
  • Lebanese Communist Party
  • Socialist People's Front, Lithuania
  • Communist Party of Malta
  • Communist Party of Mexico
  • Popular Socialist Party of Mexico
  • Palestinian People's Party
  • Communist Party of Pakistan
  • Peruvian Communist Party
  • Communist Party of Poland
  • Communist Party of the Russian Federation
  • Communist Workers Party of Russia – Revolution Party of Communists (RKRP-RPC)
  • Communist Party of Soviet Union
  • Communist Party of Slovakia
  • Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)
  • Communist Party of Sweden (SKP)
  • Communist Party of Turkey (TKP)
  • South African Communist Party
  • Union of Communists of Ukraine
  • Communist Party USA (CPUSA)
  • Communist Party of Venezuela
  • Belorussian Communist Workers' Party
  • Communist Party of Great-Britain-ML
  • Pole of Communist Rebirth in France (PRCF)
  • l'Union révolutionnaire des Communistes de France (URCF)
  • Communist Network (Rete dei Comunisti), Italy
  • Communist Party of the Philippines
  • Communist Party (KP), Sweden
  • Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), USA

#Greece #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #frso #AllWorkersMilitantFrontOfGreecePAME #austerity #KKE #Europe

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/communist-and-workers-parties-say-we-are-all-greeks Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:12:59 +0000 Fifth in a series: Federal debt deal signals new era of austerity https://fightbacknews.org/federal-debt-deal-signals-new-era-austerity?pk_campaign=rss-feed <![CDATA[Spending cuts will hurt weak economy This is the fifth in a series. See parts one, two, three, and four. !--more-- San José, CA - On Aug. 2, President Obama signed into law a bipartisan deal to raise the federal debt limit and cut federal spending. The deal increases the amount that the federal government can borrow by $400 billion now and calls for about $1 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years. A bipartisan committee of congress people and senators will propose another $1.5 trillion in cuts, and the debt limit can be raised by about $2 trillion more. The debt limit deal did not include any increases in taxes, which was a major victory for the Republicans and their Tea Party supporters. The Wall Street Journal editorial after the debt deal hailed it as “A Tea Party Triumph.” The lack of any tax increases is also a victory for the rich, who were able to keep the big tax cuts made by the Bush administration. Big businesses, like General Electric, which paid no corporate income taxes last year despite earning billions in profits, were also winners, as there was no increase in corporate taxes. The big banks and other financial titans of Wall Street pushed hard for the debt deal. By cutting federal spending and reducing the amount of new bonds that the government would have to sell to borrow money, the prices of bonds will be higher. This will benefits banks, insurance companies and other investors in government bonds. Hedge fund managers will also continue to pay taxes at a lower rate than most workers. While there were almost no specific cuts (other than a cut in federal student loans to graduate students), there will be cuts to programs that serve poor and working people. Banks and businesses have an army of lawyers and piles of cash to contribute to politicians’ election campaigns to make sure that their interests are protected. The federal government is also likely to cut back on aid to state and local governments, leading to even more cuts in schools, health care and social services at the local and state levels. The debt deal puts the federal government on a path of austerity that state and local governments have already started down. The debt limit deal also opens the door to cuts in Social Security and Medicare. While the initial $1 trillion in cuts does not include these two programs, the deficit cutting committee is almost certain to recommend cuts to both programs. Both Social Security and Medicare have been running surpluses as the FICA payroll taxes have been greater than the benefits paid, leading to a combined $3 trillion in trust funds for these programs. But Social Security and Medicare will be on the chopping block while the two biggest contributors to the federal debt - the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tax cuts for the rich - are not. Last, but not least, the federal spending cuts will make a weak economy even worse. With unemployment above 9%, the federal government needs to spend more, not less, to stimulate the economy and create more jobs. No other sector of the economy is willing and able to spend more. Consumer spending is limited by high unemployment, falling home prices and still high levels of debt. Businesses are earning record profits and have some $2 trillion in cash, but are not willing to spend and hire more. State and local governments, whose taxes are down because of high unemployment, are cutting spending and jobs. The growing financial crisis in Europe and their slowing economies are going to reduce demand for U.S. exports. Only the federal government has the ability to borrow and spend more during bad economic times. But the will is gone, with both the Tea Party-inspired Republicans and the Wall Street-backed Democrats all too willing to cut spending. There is a short-run danger that this could be enough to tip the economy into another downturn. But even if the economy continues to grow, the limits on federal spending will leave no safety net for the economy when the next recession hits, increasing the prospects of a major depression much more likely in the future. #SanJoséCA #SocialSecurity #federalDebt #Medicare #DebtCeiling #austerity div id="sharingbuttons.io"/div]]> Spending cuts will hurt weak economy

This is the fifth in a series. See parts one, two, three, and four.

San José, CA – On Aug. 2, President Obama signed into law a bipartisan deal to raise the federal debt limit and cut federal spending. The deal increases the amount that the federal government can borrow by $400 billion now and calls for about $1 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years. A bipartisan committee of congress people and senators will propose another $1.5 trillion in cuts, and the debt limit can be raised by about $2 trillion more.

The debt limit deal did not include any increases in taxes, which was a major victory for the Republicans and their Tea Party supporters. The Wall Street Journal editorial after the debt deal hailed it as “A Tea Party Triumph.” The lack of any tax increases is also a victory for the rich, who were able to keep the big tax cuts made by the Bush administration. Big businesses, like General Electric, which paid no corporate income taxes last year despite earning billions in profits, were also winners, as there was no increase in corporate taxes.

The big banks and other financial titans of Wall Street pushed hard for the debt deal. By cutting federal spending and reducing the amount of new bonds that the government would have to sell to borrow money, the prices of bonds will be higher. This will benefits banks, insurance companies and other investors in government bonds. Hedge fund managers will also continue to pay taxes at a lower rate than most workers.

While there were almost no specific cuts (other than a cut in federal student loans to graduate students), there will be cuts to programs that serve poor and working people. Banks and businesses have an army of lawyers and piles of cash to contribute to politicians’ election campaigns to make sure that their interests are protected. The federal government is also likely to cut back on aid to state and local governments, leading to even more cuts in schools, health care and social services at the local and state levels. The debt deal puts the federal government on a path of austerity that state and local governments have already started down.

The debt limit deal also opens the door to cuts in Social Security and Medicare. While the initial $1 trillion in cuts does not include these two programs, the deficit cutting committee is almost certain to recommend cuts to both programs. Both Social Security and Medicare have been running surpluses as the FICA payroll taxes have been greater than the benefits paid, leading to a combined $3 trillion in trust funds for these programs. But Social Security and Medicare will be on the chopping block while the two biggest contributors to the federal debt – the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and tax cuts for the rich – are not.

Last, but not least, the federal spending cuts will make a weak economy even worse. With unemployment above 9%, the federal government needs to spend more, not less, to stimulate the economy and create more jobs. No other sector of the economy is willing and able to spend more. Consumer spending is limited by high unemployment, falling home prices and still high levels of debt. Businesses are earning record profits and have some $2 trillion in cash, but are not willing to spend and hire more. State and local governments, whose taxes are down because of high unemployment, are cutting spending and jobs. The growing financial crisis in Europe and their slowing economies are going to reduce demand for U.S. exports.

Only the federal government has the ability to borrow and spend more during bad economic times. But the will is gone, with both the Tea Party-inspired Republicans and the Wall Street-backed Democrats all too willing to cut spending. There is a short-run danger that this could be enough to tip the economy into another downturn. But even if the economy continues to grow, the limits on federal spending will leave no safety net for the economy when the next recession hits, increasing the prospects of a major depression much more likely in the future.

#SanJoséCA #SocialSecurity #federalDebt #Medicare #DebtCeiling #austerity

]]> https://fightbacknews.org/federal-debt-deal-signals-new-era-austerity Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:41:40 +0000