Naomi Klein: Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans for the Economy

[marmar]

via AlterNet:




Naomi Klein: Public Revolt Builds Against Rip-off Rescue Plans for the Economy

By Naomi Klein, The Nation. Posted February 6, 2009.

Governments that respond to a crisis created by free-market ideology with the same bad ideas will not survive to tell the tale.



Watching the crowds in Iceland banging pots and pans until their government fell reminded me of a chant popular in anti-capitalist circles in 2002: "You are Enron. We are Argentina."

Its message was simple enough. You--politicians and CEOs huddled at some trade summit--are like the reckless scamming execs at Enron (of course, we didn't know the half of it). We--the rabble outside--are like the people of Argentina, who, in the midst of an economic crisis eerily similar to our own, took to the street banging pots and pans. They shouted, "¡Que se vayan todos!" ("All of them must go!") and forced out a procession of four presidents in less than three weeks. What made Argentina's 2001-02 uprising unique was that it wasn't directed at a particular political party or even at corruption in the abstract. The target was the dominant economic model--this was the first national revolt against contemporary deregulated capitalism.

It's taken a while, but from Iceland to Latvia, South Korea to Greece, the rest of the world is finally having its ¡Que se vayan todos! moment.

The stoic Icelandic matriarchs beating their pots flat even as their kids ransack the fridge for projectiles (eggs, sure, but yogurt?) echo the tactics made famous in Buenos Aires. So does the collective rage at elites who trashed a once thriving country and thought they could get away with it. As Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old Icelandic office worker, put it: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties and I don't trust the IMF. We had a good country, and they ruined it."

Another echo: in Reykjavik, the protesters clearly won't be bought off by a mere change of face at the top (even if the new PM is a lesbian). They want aid for people, not just banks; criminal investigations into the debacle; and deep electoral reform. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/125566/naomi_klein%3A_public_revolt_builds_against_rip-off_rescue_plans_for_the_economy/

[NightWatcher]

1. I (heart) Naomi Klein........ ¡Que se vayan todos!

what arent we yelling that shit here yet?

[tblue37]

8. New _American Idol_ season? nt

[Romulox]

2. k/r

[ThomCat]

3. "They want aid for people, not just banks; criminal investigations into the debacle;

a deep electoral reform."

:headbang:

I hope they get all of those things in full measure. And then, I hope we do too.

I want to see a whole lot of old men in grey suits frog marching in chains! :evilgrin:

[fasttense]

4. Coming to a country near you.

I say by May or June there will be riots here in the US.

Obama is trying but if he does not stop this hemorrhaging of job losses there will be civil unrest. Yes even here where Oxycotin Rush thinks he rules the airwaves, people will start fighting back when their unemployment runs out.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

5. K&R

[Kashka-Kat]

6. the lesson is - we REALLY have to get up & away from our computers, folks....

I'm speaking to myself as well as to y'all!

[cascadiance]

7. Naomi Klein's and Avi Lewis's film "The Take" should be getting aired on television and theaters now

It documents the problems in Argentina, and is SO relevant to what we have going on now. Make a point of watching this DVD!





http://www.thetake.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcostesK0Ik