Capitalism Is The Crisis: Radical Politics in the Age of Austerity

Capitalism Is The Crisis: Radical Politics in the Age of Austerity examines the ideological roots of the “austerity” agenda and proposes revolutionary paths out of the current crisis. The film features original interviews with Chris Hedges, Derrick Jensen, Michael Hardt, Peter Gelderloos, Leo Panitch, David McNally, Richard J.F. Day, Imre Szeman, Wayne Price, and many more!

The 2008 “financial crisis” in the United States was a systemic fraud in which the wealthy finance capitalists stole trillions of public dollars. No one was jailed for this crime, the largest theft of public money in history.

Instead, the rich forced working people across the globe to pay for their “crisis” through punitive “austerity” programs that gutted public services and repealed workers’ rights.

Austerity was named “Word of the Year” for 2010.

This documentary explains the nature of capitalist crisis, visits the protests against austerity measures, and recommends revolutionary paths for the future.

Special attention is devoted to the crisis in Greece, the 2010 G20 Summit protest in Toronto, Canada, and the remarkable surge of solidarity in Madison, Wisconsin.

It may be their crisis, but it’s our problem.

www.capitalismisthecrisis.net

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Call to Action for the Spring 2011 IMF/WB Meetings

On April 16, 2000 upward of 20,000 anti-globalization protesters descended on Washington, DC to resist the destructive neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. On the heels of the stunning victory in Seattle on N30, hopes were high that the A16 demo would shut down the meetings and once again show the world the power of bottom-up, horizontal resistance.

A16 didn’t turn out to be another Seattle, but the worldwide struggle against neoliberalism was largely successful nonetheless. The relentless pressure of mass demonstrations at every summit meeting, coupled with ever more militant resistance from the residents of the affected countries, left the so-called Washington consensus in ruins. IMF capitalization plummeted in the following years as more and more poor nations opted out of the financial straightjacket of exorbitant interest rates and austerity measures demanded of IMF loan recipients.

Today, the tentacles of neoliberalism are encircling previously exempt populations in Europe and the US, as international bankers demand their speculative losses be made good by people already on the verge of destitution. In countries like Greece and Latvia, massive cuts in social services are forcing millions into poverty, in order to repay the IMF the billions that went to bailing out casino capitalists. In other countries, like the US, neoliberals wreak their havoc without middlemen, but the results are the same. Here in Washington, DC, home of the IMF and World Bank, school budgets are being slashed, homeless shelters closed, city employees laid off, and Metro fares raised, all to make up budget shortfalls caused by rescuing multi-billion dollar banks from their own greed and stupidity. DC is also the target of an invasion by Wal-Mart, who plans to open four stores here in 2012. This is the same Wal-Mart that received millions from the World Bank for energy projects in Haiti and Mexico.

The rest of the world is not taking this lying down. In Greece, strikes and protests are near daily occurrences, to the point that the economic disruption may be costing the government more money than they save through austerity measures. Students in England have rioted in response to tuition hikes, destroying the lobby of the Liberal Democrat party headquarters and attacking Prince Charles’ car – with him inside it. A spontaneous, leaderless revolt in Tunisia has driven one president into exile, and the transition government is already falling apart.

Here in the US we live at the heart of the capitalist empire. More than any other people in the world, we have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to derail the imperial machine. This year the IMF and World Bank will once again begin their spring meetings on April 16. The IMF Resistance Network invites all enemies of neoliberal capitalism to join us in the streets of DC to fight for a just and free world.

A Hopeful Obituary for Urban Capital

From AnarchistNews.org:

For the city as we know it, rigor mortis has set in.

“Historical” mansions of centuries past stand empty, meticulously kept, arrogantly lauded and fiercely guarded, while a housing crisis wracks the urban populace, because we care more about dead aristocrats than about homeless children who still breathe. Foodstamps are little solace when there’s nothing to eat for miles.

Public schools, denied any readily available cure, instead face involuntary euthanasia. Co-ops, those bourgeois utopian clubhouses, are constantly reproducing and reifying their own sterile elitism. This is New York City, a rotting mosaic of doors we can’t open, windows we can’t touch, and would-be getaway cabs we can’t afford. Five sprawling boroughs of dead labor keeping dead space from crumbling.

A Note of Appreciation from the Rich

Let’s be honest: you’ll never win the lottery.

On the other hand, the chances are pretty good that you’ll slave away at some miserable job the rest of your life. That’s because you were in all likelihood born into the wrong social class. Let’s face it — you’re a member of the working caste. Sorry!

As a result, you don’t have the education, upbringing, connections, manners, appearance, and good taste to ever become one of us. In fact, you’d probably need a book the size of the yellow pages to list all the unfair advantages we have over you. That’s why we’re so relieved to know that you still continue to believe all those silly fairy tales about “justice” and “equal opportunity” in America.

Of course, in a hierarchical social system like ours, there’s never been much room at the top to begin with. Besides, it’s already occupied by us — and we like it up here so much that we intend to keep it that way. But at least there’s usually someone lower in the social hierarchy you can feel superior to and kick in the teeth once in a while. Even a lowly dishwasher can easily find some poor slob further down in the pecking order to sneer and spit at. So be thankful for migrant workers, prostitutes, and homeless street people.