Articles with tag “Austerity”
The Implications of Portugal for a Renewal of Social Democracy
For some time I’ve been curious about what’s been happening with of the Left-supported social democratic government in Portugal. It struck me as the best argument against my suspicion that a classical social democratic government are not possible within capitalism today. I recently read two reports on the experience of government there: an enthusiastic one written by a social democratic think-tank, and a more critical one from an activist with the radical left Bloco de Esquerda which is supporting the minority government there.
Tsipras, go to Hell
Once the initial disappointment was over, I was able to step back and appreciate that this was a rather infantile post. While I stand by my comments that Tsipras was naive and feel that, if they weren’t going to use it to fight back against the EU, calling the referendum was ultimately harmful because of the ensuing economic turmoil, name calling such as this is not very helpful. On the other hand, I don’t wish to erase history, so I have decided to leave the post up, but with this disclaimer.
Greeks Bearing Debts
Just over five months ago, Greece elected a new government lead by left-wing party SYRIZA. SYRIZA comes out of a radical tradition rejecting both reformist social democracy and authoritarian communism and was swept to power on a wave of anti-austerity sentiment. Austerity refers to the massive cuts to public spending (tending to hurt particularly those on lower incomes) which Greece has endured over the past five years, along with the associated policies of deregulation, cuts to the minimum wage, an end to collective bargaining, and the privatization of anything which actually makes a profit for the government.
