By Michael Faulkner - October 30, 2011
On October 6 Naomi Klein (author of the 2007 best seller The
Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism) addressed thousands of
supporters of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement gathered in New York’s
Zuccotti Park – re-named Liberty Park by the occupiers. Echoing her Shock
Doctrine message, she told the protesters “If there’s one thing I know it’s
that the 1% loves crisis.” Natural disasters and severe economic crises are embraced
by advocates and practitioners of the shock doctrine as opportunities to “push
through their wish-list of pro-corporate policies: privatizing education and
social security, slashing social services, getting rid of the last constraints
on corporate power.” In the present economic crisis, she said, “this is
happening the world over.” The only thing capable of stopping it from
happening, she continued, is the 99% against whom the shock doctrine is
directed. “And that 99% is taking to the streets from Madison to Madrid to say
‘No. We will not pay for your crisis’.”
Naomi Klein’s message to the OWS protesters expresses
perfectly the newly awakened mood of anger and defiance that is rapidly
spreading like a prairie fire through US cities, across national boundaries in
Europe and throughout the world. This movement is still in its infancy and it
is too early to tell how it will develop and how far it will go. It is surprising that it has taken as
long as it has to emerge. From time to time over the past two or three years,
Letter from the UK has remarked on the absence of any significant left wing
response to the crisis in Britain and elsewhere. Of course there have been
exceptions. In Greece, where the cuts to the public sector have been most
draconian, there is a powerful and effective working class fight-back involving
mass strike action and barricading of ministerial buildings. But generally,
until very recently, response to the crisis from traditional sections of the
left has been conspicuous by its absence. Now, something new and exciting is
happening.
From Spain, where the rate of unemployment is 21.2% (with
youth unemployment at 43% and rising) the “Indignado” movement that started in
Madrid earlier this year, has inspired similar outbursts of anger and indignation
at the gross greed of a bloated financial elite, the 1% who wrecked the economy
only to be bailed out at the expense of the 99% who were blameless for the
wreck. In London an encampment of mainly young people has established itself on
the space in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral after being denied access to
Paternoster Square, home of the London Stock Exchange. Their banner proclaims
“Capitalism is Crisis.” Like the OWS they plan to be there for the long term
and they are gathering support daily. The most striking characteristic of these
occupations is the diversity of their membership. Some of the more jaded
commentary, from both left and right, sees this as a weakness. Those
fundamentally hostile to the protesters dismiss them as incoherent, juvenile hippies,
incapable of articulating their purposes beyond sweeping generalizations. Some
of the more sectarian sections of the left lament the lack of any programme or
clear socialist direction and probably feel somewhat aggrieved that they have
failed to assert their “leadership” of the movement.
For the time being at least, such objections should be
ignored. As with their precursors, the “UK Uncut” movement, the energy and
activism of the protesters should be welcomed and applauded. They have tapped
the deep well of anger and indignation rising amongst wide sections of the
population at what is happening in society. Since 2008 the overriding mood in
Britain has been one of cynicism about “politics” and contempt for most
parliamentary politicians and bankers. Until the cuts started to bite this
year, bringing with them rising food prices, rising unemployment and rapidly
declining public services, this cynicism and discontent did not translate into
support for active opposition. Now things are beginning to change. As in the
United States the political establishment cannot afford to dismiss these
protests. The ranting of a Russ Limbaugh who applauds the ravings of the Tea
Partygoers but condemns the OWS activists as “anti-American”, has no equivalent
on the right here. So far the more discreet British conservatism has remained
quiet, if disdainful. But that has not been the reaction of the wider public
where sympathy for the protesters is widespread and apparently growing. This is
hardly surprising given the state of Britain and the wider world. Let’s
consider for a moment some of the things that are causing concern and impacting
painfully on the lives, not only of the working class, but also, increasingly,
of what Ed Miliband has termed “the hard pressed Middle” – the middle
classes. People read the newspapers or follow the news on television. They have
some notion of what is happening world-wide.
The economic crisis here is severe. The “austerity
programme” has failed. The economy is flatlining, unemployment has topped 2.5
million, with youth unemployment over 1 million. Inflation is presently running
at over 5%. Rising food and fuel prices are biting harder by the week. It is
now public knowledge that many low income working families, including many who
consider themselves middle class, cannot make ends meet and are increasingly
dependent on food hand-outs. Young professionals cannot afford mortgages to
start buying their own homes, in a society that was supposed to have become a
“property owning democracy”. Decent private rented accommodation is too
expensive for even those with salaries above £35.000. For young workers and
unemployed youth faced with a shrinking social housing stock, the situation is
dire and the future looks hopeless. Faced with this situation the deliberations
of government ministers usually give the impression that they live on a
different planet.
The crisis in the Eurozone goes from bad (which is very bad)
to even worse. At the time of writing (22 October) yet another of the
interminable round of meetings by EU finance ministers is in progress (perhaps
not the right word) to deal, yet again!, with the debt crisis. Another (final)
EU summit has been scheduled for next Wednesday. They have a few days to
conclude an agreement that requires them to recapitalize about 70 of Europe’s
so-called systemic banks to the tune of 90 billion euros to help them withstand
exposure to “debt defaults.” They also need to persuade the main banks and
insurers exposed to Greek debt to take a 60% “haircut” (write off of the debt),
when just a few weeks ago these same investors were balking at 20%. The big
issue though is how they propose to increase the funds available to the
European Finance Stability Facility (EFSF) from the present level of 400
billion euros, to 2 trillion euros. How are they going to turn one euro into
five? As far as it is possible to tell, no-one seems to know. In a deep hole,
the only message that gets through to them is ‘keep on digging.’ Keynes’s
advice that if you want to get out of a recession you don’t impose austerity
measures that increase unemployment, destroy consumer spending and close down
businesses, is one that was rejected long ago by the enthusiasts for
neo-liberal capitalism. They are in no mood to listen to reason now.
But, as Naomi Klein has made clear, the Hayekian/Friedmanite
school of neo-liberalism still bestrides the global stage. The financial
wizards who have presided over the worst crisis since the Great Depression and
are now driving headlong towards the precipice, do not, to use Tony Blair’s
phrase, have a reverse gear. They will use the crisis to try to implement the
Shock Doctrine world-wide. It needs to be said loud and clear, that we have
reached a point where we face the prospect of global disaster. Either the 1% will
prevail or the 99% will stop them. Should the multi-billionaire minority of
corporate predators impose their will, it will amount to a final victory for a
neo-liberal capitalism that will reduce the globe to a pleasure park for the
super-rich and a squalid wasteland for the rest of us. The OWS protesters and
their growing army of supporters worldwide are right. They are the core of the
resistance movement that will go from strength to strength. We will be
belittled and dismissed as irrelevant for a time by those who are either part
of, or in hock to, the 1%. But the bankruptcy of a system that is clearly
collapsing under the weight of its internal contradictions is now clear for all
but the willfully blind to see.
The banner raised by the London occupation reads “Capitalism
IS Crisis.” Before 2008 this would have resonated with only a tiny minority of
committed leftists. Now it provides food for serious thought to all whose lives
are adversely affected by the crisis. Prior to this crisis the term “capitalism”
was rarely used in the mainstream media. It was hardly ever used by those who
operated the system and whose interests it served. They talked only of
“democracy” and the “free world” and the “free market” – all these terms
were interchangeable. This was the only way, the best of all possible worlds.
There was no alternative to it. It operated as near to perfectly as it was
possible to get. As Gordon Brown constantly told us and as the financiers of
the City of London nodded in approval, there would be “no more boom and bust.”
But now things have changed. The emerging global resistance
is gaining ever wider support, uniting the burgeoning new movement of youthful
activists with a rejuvenated labour and trade union movement. The OWS and its
kindred spirits world-wide have seen through the obfuscation of the
propagandists of corporate power. The financial crisis denotes the systemic
break-down of global finance capitalism. The power elites in whose interests
that system operates will not be able to fix it. If we are to avoid global
economic catastrophe and irreversible environmental despoliation, there has to
be an alternative that transfers power from the 1% to the 99%. That is, a form
of social organization fit for human beings. In addressing the movement dedicated
to achieving this goal, Naomi Klein concluded her address to the OWS activists
with these words: “Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is the most
important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.”