#ows - Occupy Wall Street is being demolished by the New York Police Department as I write. By the sound of it the park they're meant to be 'cleansing' is being destroyed with it.
Seven #occupylsx protestors are in a polcie station under arrest this morning for a peaceful protest outside the Guildhall - the offices of the City of London.
Greece and Italy have unelected prime minsters today as the bankers begin to take ove governments.
Spain's interest rates are rising - the markets will seek to overthrow its democratic institutions next.
Germany admits Europe is facing its darkest hour since the second world war - but dithers and does nothing.
Throughout the continent and in the US we face the problem that timid politicians - all of them neoliberal whether from left or right - are frightenmded to act and do not know what to do if they gathered their courage.
And as Gideon Rachman says in the FT this morning:
Europe, and the world at large, has every reason to hope that Messrs Monti and Papademos can work miracles. For if the technocrats fail to do so, the extremists are waiting in the wings.
In Greece, about a quarter of the electorate now say that they favour parties of the far left, and a further 8 per cent back the nationalist right. Collectively, the political extremes in Greece now muster more support than either of the two mainstream parties. The shape of Italian politics, after the forced resignation of Silvio Berlusconi, is likely to be confused for a while. But Italy has spawned powerful communist and far right movements in the past. In the meantime, Umberto Bossi of the Northern League says that he will relish entering opposition — where he can rail against the EU, immigrants and southern Italians.
And it's not just in the south, as Rachman points out
The radicalisation of politics is just as visible in the creditor nations of Europe as amongst the debtors. Marine Le Pen of the far right National Front will have a big impact on the 2012 presidential election in France, although she is unlikely to win. In the Netherlands the government is now reliant on the votes of the Freedom party led by Geert Wilders, which is running second in the polls. Austria's far right Freedom party is at level pegging in the polls with the governing People's party. In Finland the nationalist True Finns are still gaining ground and are easily over 20 per cent in the polls.
All of these rising parties rail against “elites”, whether in Brussels, Wall Street or their own governments. They are all hostile to globalisation and to immigration, particularly from the Muslim world. Some parts of the European far right, such as the Jobbik party in Hungary, still play on traditional anti-Semitic themes. But others, like Mr Wilders in the Netherlands, are strongly pro-Israel, perhaps because they see the Jewish state as an ally in a clash of civilisations with the Muslim world.
Increasingly, however, Europe's populists are intent on breaking out of the electoral ghetto of hostility to immigration — and are instead stressing economic and eurosceptic themes that have a broader appeal.
This is the risk we face: of fascism, of totalitarianism, of extreme nationalism, of war.
I'm glad it is being said in the press.
Now for heaven's sake - where are the mnainbstream politicioans saying it, and saying that unless democratrioc instiutions now take on and control finance, and act to promote growth the alternative is
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This is the danger that I too have been concerned about. When we really need good leadership from the Left in this country, the politicians seem to be fearful about speaking out. Maybe Ed is playing the ‘long game’ and I know he is a thoughtful politician but in the days of the rolling news he really needs to up his game now and voice his concerns about this. If not, the wrong people – migrants and benefit recipients will be scapegoated and the elites will be allowed to continue business as usual. We are witnessing the end of democracy with the installation of these technocrats.
Enter the Boys from Brazil. And don’t expect any help from Ed, he’s in the thrall of big business just as much as any Tory.
BB
I think your “25%” of the country is voting for extremists is a bit unfair. Firstly, it puts the far-right and far-left in the same camp, which is in this situation a mistake. After all, the LAOK far-right in Greece may be fond of saying anti-EU rhetoric, but in practice they’re all lot more pragmatic when it comes to the EU. Also, they aren’t a party which in any way seeks to change the overall economic system that has led to this, indeed they have ministers involved in this coalition in Greece, so despite their rhetoric they’re quite happy to indulge the EU’s patronage if they gain from it politically, something which will lose them support very soon.
Also, I think you’re underestimating the successes on the left. I saw a poll, for example, that had the KKE (communists) on 23% and SYRIZA (democratic socialist/marxist) on 9% which means the left, just in these two parties, has 32% of the overall vote going by this poll (I will google search for the poll and add it later)
It is the right that worries me
The %s al came from the FT
Hear hear. Nobody ever talks about fascism as a viable political system any more, as if it were killed forever by World War II. It wasn’t, of course, and now there is a real danger that it is rising again. First they used the “war on terror” as an excuse to erode our democratic rights; now, it seems, economic emergency is the excuse.
Re the “technocrats”, I left the following comment on Rachman’s article:
If there was time I would recommend The ‘Lanny Budd’ series of novels by Upton Sinclair published in the 1940’s about what went on behind the scenes in Europe between the two world wars. The similairities are appalling and I dread the world my children are inheriting.
Thinking about EdM and the possibility that he might ‘wake up’, I imagine that he only reads what he’s fed by his team. He really needs to do his own research but I doubt he ever will now he’s leader. Also I imagine that no one in his position will do this unless they’ve been used to it beforehand and if they ever did they would be reluctant to give it up..
The elite in the finance industry, in combination with (or unchecked by) governments, have taken over much of the world. To date this revolution has not shed very much blood on the streets of the western world – although it has caused immense harm in parts of the third world where starvation is now endemic amongst a billion people.
If (or when) normal people resort to more than peaceful protest be certain that this “elite” (the 5%) will some how evade justice. Evasion being a skill that they are highly accomplished in!
As a micro- example case study, students of this phenomenon should consider the Isle of Man where election candidates are largely government stooges, where there is no freedom of information legislation and where the finance industry has established itself as pivotal to the island’s survival.
And from where a continuous stream of sinister propaganda is pumped at the credulous, both on the island and around the world, in an attempt to convince people that if the OECD (and Sarkozy!) says it’s honest and righteous then it must be so.
It’s not. Full stop.