Europe, in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis, is being engulfed in a wave of rising parties advocating far right-wing politics. Familiar tale isn’t it? In order to to circumvent Godwin’s Law and avoid ‘death by cliché’ this article will consciously abstain from mentioning too much about the characters from the 1930′s. However, just as their shadows lurk ominously behind every statement from the mouths of Golden Dawn, Le Front National and the NDP et al, they shall lurk too behind these words.

The rise of Far Right politics in this new austerity epoch has to be examined in today’s context. Since 2008, nationalist and anti-immigration parties have made sweeping electoral gains in a variety of countries, in a manner that indicates a larger trans-national trend which must not be ignored. For example, in Finland, the unambiguously named True Finn Party emerged from political obscurity, riding on the back of a narrative that blamed all of Finland’s problems on the EU, specifically the countries given the derogatory acronym PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain). Between 2007 and 2011 their electoral take grew by 800%, gaining 19% of all votes in the last election and becoming the largest opposition party in parliament. In neighbouring Sweden, the supposed Mecca of all things liberal, the far-right Sweden Democrats who were an out and out fascist party in the ’90s now have parliamentary representation with 20 members of parliament. The French Front National had leader Marie Le Pen looking like she might just break into the final run-off in last year’s Presidential elections. She won 6.4 million votes in the first round and according to pre-vote polls, 25 % of 18-24 year-olds were planning to vote for Marine Le Pen. But all of the aforementioned parties lie eclipsed by the emerging shadow of Greece’s alarming Golden Dawn party.

Greece has borne the weight of this global economic crisis, perhaps heavier than anywhere  else. Unemployment is nearly 30% and for young people it sits at an unbelievable 60%. This crippling climate of frustration and resentment has given rise to a political party of such base-level xenophobia, racism and paranoia, two-dimensional cartoon baddies seem complex in comparison. They now say they reject their neo-nazi origins but their flags, symbol and ‘traditional hand salute’ all bear striking resemblance those who will not be mentioned. If all that wasn’t enough, they also lack the charm offensive other European parties have used to expand their support into the mainstream. Golden Dawn gained worldwide notoriety when spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris struck opposing politician Liana Kanelli live on TV during a debate: 

Whilst you would think nothing could top that disgusting act, this week the news broke that Golden Dawn MP Giorgos Germenis stands accused of pulling a gun on the mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis. After he failed to get his gun out, he then tried to hit the mayor but missed and instead hit a twelve year old girl. Amazingly, this mob is now the third most popular party in the home of Socrates, Sophocles and Archimedes. It would be funny if it were not so terrifying. Golden Dawn members are constantly associated with acts of violence and intimidation against immigrant populations. Even scarier than the 18 seats the party won in the last elections are the rumours of collusion between Golden Dawn and the senior levels of the Greek police. This has led to the perception both within the party and by the general population that the street thugs of Golden Dawn can operate with impunity.

When looked at holistically, this continental rise in right-wing politics is disturbing. As stated above, it quickly leads us to think of those who will not be mentioned, but we must also remember that this is not simply a 1930′s remake. New villains like the European Union or the Islamic immigrant have replaced ‘the Jewish conspiracy’ as the source of all ill. The regression into nationalistic purity is harder for the average citizen of today’s European nation. It is is complicated by a lifetime of exposure to delights of the wider world through culture, travel and mass media. This is why all the aforementioned parties have, after an early flirtation with outright fascism, tried to stress their anti-racist ideological foundation. They will send immigrants home because they have to, not because they have any problems with them. They are not racist. In fact, if you call them racist, you are racist as you will not allow them their own right to culture! After a while, it all gets very confusing; at least in the 1930′s everyone was upfront about where they stood.

It is this white-washing of their ideology that makes these new groups so dangerous. In Britain, last week saw the biggest ever electoral success for the UKIP (United Kingdom Independent Party). Of course supporters of UKIP would resent being lumped in with Le Front National and Golden Dawn. The first thing they say on their website is that they are non-racist (if you have to specify that…). True, they do deliver their own band of anti-immigrant populism in a typically British apologetic  manner. Leader Nigel Farage is more Monty Python than Mighty Leader but his narrative is consistent with the other parties: Pull out of Europe, close the borders, expel the immigrants and all will be right with the world again. Never mind the crippling inequality that has arisen between the top and bottom in society or the control the financial elite maintain over our system of governance; if you can only get rid of that taxi driver who has overstayed his visa then we can return to life as it was in the past, racially homogenous and completely free of conflict and suffering.

It’s understandable that peoples anxiety and fear for the future makes these groups appear attractive.  However such a turn is always the easy option, blaming the asylum seeker as opposed to the CEO. It’s also impractical. The world is just too small for nations to be isolationist and protectionist and its only going to get smaller. Europe does face very serious problems in this age of austerity, but in order to solve them, it has to expand its imagination and not revert to its history. Because we all know what happened then.

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Grover Norquist: Not so powerful anymore.

Are we finally seeing a ray of light for the future of the Republican Party? From the Guardian:

Senator Lindsey Graham has become the second senior Republican in days to publicly disavow a pledge that handcuffs the party to a policy of no tax rises, raising hopes of a deal over the fiscal cliff.

Speaking on ABC’s This Week, the South Carolina politician said that the only pledge members of either party should make would be one to make sure the country did not go the same way, economically, as Greece. Regarding a pledge against tax hikes that has been signed by most Republicans in Congress – having been promulgated by the conservative lobbyist Grover Norquist – Graham said: “I will violate this pledge, long story short, for the good of the country.”

In the aftermath of the GOP’s defeat in the presidential election of 6 November, Norquist is increasingly seeing his influence on the party decline. On Thursday, senator Saxby Chambliss said he would break the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in an attempt to help avert the automatic triggering of $600bn of spending cuts and tax increases, the so-called “fiscal cliff”.

This act of defiance by two prominent Republicans may seem like a small thing, but given they are confronting 30 years of ideological rigidity, Graham and Chambliss should be given a great deal or respect. It’s going to take many more Republicans coming out of the wood work and telling purists like Norquist to disappear, but every movement starts with one act of bravery, and it looks like we could be seeing the start of one.

It is too early to know whether this will have any effect, but if other Republicans start to challenge the insane orthodoxy that taxes cannot be raised under any circumstance, it may seep into the mainstream of their current ideological platform.

And after that? Who knows? They may even start accepting that climate change is real….

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Paul Krugman sums up the German economic policy of austerity that is causing immense misery throughout Europe:

Why do it, then? Partly it’s because Europe is still operating on the false theory that this is essentially a fiscal issue; partly it’s to assuage the Germans, who remain convinced that those lazy Southern Europeans are getting away with something. In effect, the policy is to inflict pain for the sake of inflicting pain.

Which brings us to the question: can this go on? When do the people of the afflicted economies say that they can bear no more?

And as Krugman notes, the protests erupting in Greece and Spain show that that time is coming very quickly.

It is easy for bureaucrats and bankers to speak about economic policy in terms of numbers and financial equations. They do not have to live under the brutality of their own policies, so are removed from the human impact of it. Austerity as a philosophy is applied to ‘cleanse’ markets of their sins, to restore balance to its function and work by itself. Outside help is not accepted because markets, in the eyes of the austerity advocates, are perfect. If there is disharmony, they must be allowed to heal by themselves, even if there is enormous pain because of it.

As Keynesian economics shows though, that pain is not necessary. Debt can be accrued in the short term while growth is secured making recovery far less damaging and lengthy. Government spending provides the groundwork for sustained growth and job security. Without it, there is just pain and more austerity. That is until people won’t accept it any more and they demand their governments take action rather than leave them to the dictatorship of the market.

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I missed this story last week, and it’s an important one. If you want evidence that Disaster Capitalism – the termed coined by Naomi Klein in her brilliant book “The Shock Doctrine” is still the dominant tactic of free market militants, look no further than what is being proposed in Greece. Klein proposed that prominent free market capitalists use disaster, ‘either real or perceived’ to ram through extreme free market reforms that the public would otherwise reject, and it looks like the European Central Bank, the IMF and the European Commission is trying to do just that. From Business Insider:

Greece’s eurozone creditors are demanding that the government in Athens introduce a six-day working week as part of the stiff terms for the country’s second bailout.

The demand is contained in a leaked letter from the “troika” of the country’s lenders, the European commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund. In the letter, the officials policing Greece’s compliance with the austerity package imposed in return for the bailout insist on radical labour market reforms, from minimum wages to overtime limits to flexible working hours, that are likely to worsen the standoff between the government and organised labour in Greece…..

The letter, sent last week to the Greek finance and labour ministries, orders the government to extend the working week into the weekend.

“Measure: increase flexibility of work schedules: increase the number of maximum workdays to six days per week for all sectors.

“Increase flexibility of work schedules; set the minimum daily rest to 11 hours; delink the working hours of employees from the opening hours of the establishment; eliminate restrictions on minimum/maximum time between morning and afternoon shifts; allow the consecutive two-week leave to be taken anytime during the year in seasonal sectors.”

The reforms are of course targeted at those least able to resist them – the poor and struggling middle class, while the rich are being left alone. This is a typical misdirection tactic used by free market capitalists who insist on free markets for the poor while refusing to acknowledge the heavily subsidized and protected existence of the rich. Conversely, the rich are given more benefits during times of crisis, ostensibly because they will reinvest their money back into the economy (despite the evidence showing that they don’t).

The reforms being proposed by the EC, IMF and ECB are simply another attempt by bankers to permanently disenfranchise huge sectors of the population from the economy and make them more beholden to the owners of society – ie. themselves. The proposals are basically to create giant flexible labor markets that work exclusively for the interests of the rich, and not themselves. They want Greeks to worker longer and harder for less money, while they continue to force them to pay back loans at excessive interest rates that they will never be able to afford. The result? More debt and no way out. It’s incredibly transparent, and given Greece’s tradition of trade unionism and strong protection of worker rights, thankfully it’s not going to go down very well.

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Karen Klein, 68, bullied to the point of tears

By Chez Pazienza: I still remember the heartbroken look on his face as he stood at my doorstep in his little green-striped shirt and Toughskins khaki shorts. His name was Doug and he lived up the street from me — and for some reason he desperately wanted to be my friend. He was my age, maybe five or six, and he’d come by every afternoon to ask me if I wanted to play with him since he didn’t seem to have many kids willing to. His eyes would always be fixed on the ground in front of him, as if he were a dog that someone had beaten into a perpetually submissive stance; he was never anything less than a pitiful sight. But I didn’t take pity on him; I didn’t question why his parents never seemed to be around and why I would always see him walking alone to and from the playground at the end of the block; I simply told him to go away, that I didn’t want to play with him and didn’t want to be his friend and didn’t want him in my house. When my mother would show some decency and humanity and invite him in, I’d wait for her to disappear from sight, then press him toward the door and tell him to get out. I’d say those exact words just before slamming the door in his face: “Get out.”

Believe it or not, they’re words that have haunted me throughout a good portion of my life. Maybe I truly hurt Doug, maybe I was one of the first and would ultimately be one of the many — or maybe he shrugged it off and went on to live a very happy life. Either way, I’ve never fully forgiven myself for being cruel to someone at such a young age — someone who had only wronged me by trying to be my friend.

For some reason, I thought about this immediately when I heard the story of the middle-school kids in upstate New York who recorded an extended video of themselves mercilessly tormenting a 68-year-old widow to the point where she cried. If you haven’t seen the clip yet, it’s simultaneously one of the most heart-rending and infuriating things you’re likely to witness for some time. Captured on video for posterity, shot by a seemingly sociopathically detached group of young people who in all probability took great pride in what they were doing at the time, are ten-minutes of verbal and emotional torture directed at an elderly school bus monitor who’s done nothing to provoke them other than exist and be weak enough in their eyes to warrant the abuse and to most assuredly not fight back. As it always is, Karen Huff Klein was bullied simply because she was an easy target, and the kids who bullied her were right in their assessment: She didn’t fight back and she didn’t lash out; she just sat there and took it as they called her ugly, called her fat, said that her kid had killed himself — which her son in fact did, ten years ago — because he didn’t want to be near her. She remained as dignified as possible, even as she began to finally cry under the weight of all the vicious scorn begin heaped upon her.

Because we live in the age of social media, it took almost no time at all — literally, hours — for Karen Huff Klein’s story to be beamed around the world and for millions to respond to it. My initial reaction, like so many others’, wasn’t simply outrage but pure seething fury at what a bunch of kids had put this poor woman through. Like everyone else, I was disgusted at what I saw and substituted my own mother or grandmother in place of Karen Huff Klein; I fantasized about what brand of almighty vengeance I would exact on my loved one’s tormentors. I lamented the state of things and wondered where the hell we’d gone wrong in raising our children and whether there was any way back from the darkness our culture had apparently crossed over into some time ago. Were kids these days really this callous and lacking in empathy? Who would actually take pleasure in sadistic voyeurism at such a young age? What did it all mean for our future?

But then I considered something: my own youth. I admit that I occasionally think about what would have happened to me and my childhood friends had we grown up in the self-constructed, self-perpetuated Panopticon that today’s kids do. We were, for the most part, rotten little bastards — misanthropic terrors that didn’t really care what anybody thought and who certainly didn’t respect authority or our elders. Get enough of us together, in fact, and we could be downright cruel. But we didn’t do it because we were cold-blooded monsters — we did it because we submitted to the pressure of conforming to our peers, we hadn’t yet discovered how to stand on our own and stand up for what’s right and we didn’t understand that actions have severe and sometimes unintended consequences and that there were other people in the world who could be seriously damaged by the things we did. We just didn’t have the fully developed psychological and emotional tools in place to help us navigate the sometimes tricky gulf between right and wrong. We thought the world revolved around us because we were kids, and that’s how kids think. I wonder sometimes whether our crimes against decency were as heinous as the ones exhibited by the middle-school students on Bus 784 in Greece, NY and we were simply lucky enough to have never been able to put it on video and consequently suffer an internet backlash that brings the wrath of the world down on us.

That backlash against the kids who abused Karen Huff Klein, as well as the unrestrained show of support for Klein herself in the wake of the abuse, has already reached the level of ferocity we’ve come to expect from any viral sensation of this magnitude. Tens of thousands of dollars have been raised for Klein, a lifetime resident of the town of Greece who makes just a little over 15-grand a year working for the school system; she’ll be making the national morning show rounds over the next couple of days. The kids, meanwhile, have seen their identities researched and their names and pictures published by the cunning internet wizards over at 4Chan and police are now considering putting some of them under protection out of fear for their safety — this as police and the school district also consider what action can be taken against those very same students.

Thanks to the nature of our media these days, which constantly feeds information to us at a dizzying rate and generates new cultural storylines seemingly out of thin air as it goes, the young people involved in the verbal abuse of Karen Huff Klein won’t have the opportunity to think long and hard about what they did. They won’t get the chance to organically come to a point where they’re fully cognizant of the hurt they caused to a defenseless old woman; to wonder whatever happened to her; to regret their actions and silently wish she could forgive them. They won’t be able to do that because they’ve been publicly, instantaneously shamed by millions. In some ways, they have no idea how lucky they are that they’ve been spared their own torment — and yes, I do believe that, while certainly not all, many bullies grow to understand and be haunted by their cruelty. I know because I did. I was.

One of my very first memories is of causing pain to a little boy who didn’t deserve it — and it stays with me to this day.

These kids already know what they did and will be made to pay for it quickly and harshly.

They got off easy.

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The Tory Party continues its war against the working poor. From the NewStatesman:

While the eyes of the world were on Greece, the Conservatives quietly launched a new assault on workers’ rights. Iain Duncan Smith announced that low-paid workers will lose their benefits if they go on the strike. Under the current system, workers on wages of £13,000 or less can claim tax credits. But under IDS’s proposals, there will be no increase in benefits if a worker’s income drops due to strike action. He said: “It is totally wrong that the current benefit system compensates workers and tops up their income when they go on strike. This is unfair to taxpayers and creates perverse incentives. Striking is a choice, and in future benefit claimants will have to pay the price for that choice, as under universal credit, we no longer will.”

Has it ever occurred to Ian Duncan Smith that low paid workers don’t strike for the fun of it – that they are protesting the pitiful wages and awful working conditions they are subjected to for a reason? Living on £13,000 in the UK is virtually impossible, so striking is one of the only ways people can negotiate for more. Take those rights away, and you solidify the existence of a permanent underclass and make it impossible to have any type of social mobility.

I guess that’s the point.

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Banks still have the final say over policy in the EuroZone

From the Independent:

The eurozone is preparing to bow to the will of the financial markets as leaders attempt to ease fears ahead of crucial elections in Greece this weekend.

A draft of the text that will be discussed at the European Union summit later this month was leaked, showing national leaders are set to go ahead with a pan-European banking union and closer integration, the two areas where frightened investors have been clamouring for progress.

“There is a need for more specific building blocks centred around a much stronger banking and fiscal integration, underpinned by enhanced euro governance,” said the draft, which was obtained by Reuters.

Investors have been pulling money out of banks in struggling eurozone states in recent months, motivated by fears that their deposits could be devalued if the eurozone breaks up. Figures released by the Greek central bank showed total deposits fell by 17 per cent in 2011. There have also been reports of large withdrawals from the Spanish banking system, for which the Madrid government has requested a bailout of up to €100bn.

Senior European policymakers, including the European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, have suggested that a move to a banking union, with central guarantees of all deposits, will calm investors. The European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, has also called for such a union.

However, the leak of the draft yesterday failed to make a positive impression. Spanish 10-year borrowing costs rose again, closing at 6.76 per cent. Italy also faced higher borrowing costs. The country had to pay 3.97 per cent to raise €6.5bn, up from 2.34 per cent last month.

Markets were also unsettled by German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who expressed doubts about Athens’ ability to stick to the savings programme imposed under the EU’s bailout. He was said to have told a meeting of his ruling Christian Democratic Party this week that the “Troika” of EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund officials would soon find out that Greece will not keep to its commitments.

“When the Troika next visits Athens they will see that Greece cannot fulfil the programme,” Die Welt newspaper quoted him as saying. He said that no matter who won Sunday’s election, Athens would not manage to keep to the conditions. Die Zeit newspaper also said Greece was behind schedule on implementing its savings programme and warned Germany might have to consider a third bailout before summer ends.

Ambassadors will discuss the draft summit text today, ahead of the formal meeting in Brussels on 28-29 June. Mr Barroso has said a banking union could be established next year without any new European treaties being required.

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President of Spain Mariano Rajoy warns that the danger is far from over. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Responding to increasingly urgent calls from across Europe and the United States, Spainon Saturday agreed to accept a bailout for its cash-starved banks as European finance ministers offered an aid package of up to $125 billion.

European leaders hope the promise of such a large package, made in an emergency conference call with Spain, will quell rising financial turmoil ahead of elections in Greece that they fear could further shake world markets.

The decision made Spain the fourth and largest European country to agree to accept emergency assistance as part of the continuing debt crisis. The aid offered by countries that use the euro was nearly three times the $46 billion in extra capital the International Monetary Fund said was the minimum that the wobbly Spanish banking sector needed to guard against a deepening of the country’s economic crisis.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tried to deflect criticism for his government’s decision to seek assistance for Spain’s ailing bank. The winners, he said,  were “the credibility of the European project,  the future of the euro, the solidity of our financial system and the possibility that credit will flow again.”

But he warned  that Spain’s economic problems would worsen  this year despite the request. “This year is going to be a bad one,” Mr. Rajoy told reporters, according to The Associated Press.  More people, he said, could lose their jobs — one out of every four Spaniards is already unemployed.

Mr Rajoy also insisted that the rescue deal should not be seen as the fourth bailout in the euro crisis but as a loan  to recapitalize Spain’s weakest banks, “which isn’t that easy to obtain.”

The announcement of a deal came amid growing fears that instability in Spain could drag down an already sputtering world economy. The decision was the culmination of weeks of a contentious back-and-forth between Spain and its would-be creditors in which it was hard to tell how much of Spain’s resistance to financial help was tactical maneuvering for a better deal and how much a refusal to admit the depth of the banking sector’s troubles.

The escalating tension prompted President Obama to push Friday, in unusually explicit terms, for quick European action.

European officials have said they wanted their offer to go well beyond Spain’s immediate needs to shield the country from any destabilizing effect from next weekend’s Greek parliamentary election. Spain has fought to avoid the stigma of a bailout and on Saturday portrayed the Europeans’ offer as coming with few strings attached. Although the European statement on the aid package gave few details, it did not mention new austerity measures and said the conditions of the agreement were focused instead on banking reforms, as Spain had requested.

Spanish officials on Saturday denied that their country was in the same position as Greece, Portugal and Ireland, which have all received bailouts that demanded they slash spending. And on Sunday, Mr Rajoy  rejected suggestions that Spain had been pushed to request help ahead of new Greek elections on June 17 that could precipitate Greece’s withdrawal from European monetary union.

Read more at the NYTimes…

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Not a good day for Europe

Traders fearful of a rupture in Europe’s financial system retreated Wednesday from risky investments. They punished stocks and fled to the safety of U.S. bonds, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to a record low.

Major U.S. stock indexes fell more than 1 percent. European stocks fell even more, and the euro dropped to a nearly two-year low against the dollar. Borrowing rates for Italy and Spain, both of which are seen as the next problem cases in Europe’s debt drama, rose sharply as traders dumped bonds issued by those governments.

Rising demand for low-risk, easily tradable securities pushed the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 1.64 percent from 1.74 percent late Tuesday. German government bond yields, also seen as safe, turned lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 147 points to 12,433. The Dow has had a miserable May. It’s down 5.9 percent for the month, putting it on track this week to end its first losing month since September.

Concerns about Europe seemed to lurk around every corner: the European Commission said consumer confidence fell sharply in the region last month. Spaniards withdrew money from their banks, spreading fear about that nation’s ability to go on without bailouts. Spain’s main stock index fell two percent.

An opinion poll in Greece showed that the far-left Syriza party is gaining support ahead of key elections. Syriza opposes the system of bailouts and sharp budget cuts that have kept Greece afloat but also punished its economy. If the party wins, Greece may be forced to exit the euro currency. The shockwaves could topple nations that have received bailouts, like Portugal, and those that might need them, like Italy.

Amid the tumult, Europe’s executive branch called on the 17 nations that use the currency to create a “banking union” that can centrally oversee and — if needed — bail out the sector.

Read more at BusinessWeek.com

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Stocks tumble in Europe as Greeces prepares for Euro Zone exit

European stock markets have fallen sharply as concerns mount over Greece’s future in the euro.

Shares fell after a report quoted former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos saying that the Greek government may be making preparations for leaving the euro.

By lunchtime shares in London, Paris and Frankfurt were down about 2%.

Adding to the negative mood, Germany’s central bank said the developments in Greece were “highly alarming”.

“Greece is threatening not to implement the agreed reforms and consolidation measures,” the Bundesbank said in its latest monthly report.

It said that scenerio could create “substantial” challenges for the eurozone and Germany, but the situation would be “manageable via careful crisis management”.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said: “It cannot be excluded that preparations are being made to contain the potential consequences of a Greek euro exit.”

“The risk of Greece leaving the euro is real and it depends effectively on whether the Greek people will support the continued implementation of the economic programme,” he said.

Despite the prospect of Greece leaving the euro, the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, is keeping up the pressure on Greece to fix its finances.

In an interview with the BBC, Ms Lagarde said there had to be more tax collection and structural reform.

That is despite the deep unpopularity of austerity measures imposed on Greece by the IMF and European Union in return for bailout funds.

Greek politicians are divided over whether to continue supporting those austerity measures and face a 17 June election.

“The Greek population has made huge efforts. But they have more to do. There are more structural reforms to be had, there is more tax to be collected and that has a price,” Ms Lagarde said in an interview with the BBC’s Today programme.

Many analysts think that Greece may abandon the austerity measures and be forced out of the euro.

Ms Lagarde said the IMF did not like the that prospect, but that it was “prepared for all possible situations”.

Read more at theBBC….

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