Social killing grounds: (eastern ) Europe - Shock Doctrine under our very eyes

[BelgianMadCow]

It's happening again, and plain to see for all.

1) EU leaders agreed (again lol) to scrutinize the financial sector.
They acknowledge the need for a uniform approach, and wish to do this through strengthening the IMF (international monetary fund, once headed by Wolfowitz, remember him?).
Therefore, they want to inject capital into it to the tune of 250 billion euro. Where this has to come from, is unclear.

2) The eastern european economies, relying largely on western consumption and investment for their growth and a growth market for many western banks, are crashing like there's no tomorrow.

3) This sets the stage: the Hungarian government for example, threatened by insolvency, is trying to secure a loan from Europe, but explicitly state a loan from the IMF is to be their very last resort since it comes with DRACONIAN measures. The IMF always wants something in return for their loans: very strict regulation on government spending for example. Drowning the government anyone? As it is, Hungarian government employees are planning on striking against reduction of their numbers. Hospitals and medical care could be insolvent by the end of the year.

So again, it's likely the (economical) shock to the people will be utilized to further a disaster capitalist (neocon too) agenda, thereby dismantling much of our social security. Here in Belgium, it's calmly stated the aid to banks is on a collision course with funding of pensions and social security. Say WHAT?

:mad:

It's gonna be a very hot summer - strikes in France, unrest in Greece, 100000 people in the streets in Ireland - that has been only the beginning.
The silent majority seems about to speak out, or maybe I just hope.

regards
bmc

PS: I've cobbled the above together based on current news in Europe, from The Guardian, El Pais and Le Monde.

[panader0]

1. Thanks for the news across the pond

Haven't seen you around in a while.

[BelgianMadCow]

5. I know I was kind of absent

it was due to another one of my mood swings.
I just came out of hibernation.

:hi:

[izquierdista]

2. Maybe it will bring the Communists back?

This "Shock Doctrine" operates at a far higher level than the average Eastern European. All that the previous loans and capital injections have done is to create colonies of the western consumer capitalist culture behind the Iron Curtain. There are a few big bankers and oligarchs who are on the hook for the money that they looted and put into a Swiss bank account, but the man in the street is going to live the way he always has: buying locally grown food at the street market, using locally dug coal to heat his home, and trying to keep his dilapidated house and clothing in some state of repair.

Western capitalism was a big joke played on the people of the East, a relegation to serfdom since they wound up on the losing end of the Cold War. True, there are plentiful consumer products with western brand names on them that weren't available in the Communist days, but the local currency buys little of these goods and the social services that were available have gone straight downhill. And if the Communists do come back, what will they do with all the loan paper held by the west? To paraphrase Khruschev, "we will bury it".

[BelgianMadCow]

4. valid points

but still, the socio-economic change that comes with IMF help will further reduce the standard of living of the average person, or if it really can't be lowered, take away all chances for progress in the short and middle term.

[madrchsod]

3. when ever the imf is involved ....

kiss your country good-bye.

[ThomWV]

6. Wolfowitz ran the World Bank, not the International Monitary Fund

One is not the other.

[BelgianMadCow]

7. thanks for pointing that out. He WAS the guy pointing out WMDs as consensus causus belli

in "Cigar Afficionado" iirc.