There’s some important events happening today: Another Brexit vote, and the Canadian federal election (whose results are not obvious), but we won’t know how either of those end until later, so let’s discuss some popular protests of massive size.
In France, the protests were sparked by an increase in diesel taxes. The demands included an increase in the minimum wage, a re-introduction of a wealth tax, and lower fuel taxes, along with Macron’s resignation.
Now what’s interesting is what they got, and what they didn’t get:
He (Macron) subsequently promised a minimum wage increase of €100 per month from 2019, cancelled a planned tax increase for low-income pensioners, and made overtime payments as well as end-of-year bonuses tax free. However, Macron refused to reinstate a wealth tax he scrapped upon entering into office
So, crushing the lower classes with regressive taxes, rolled back a bit. But the wealth tax was not re-instated. “We’re willing to give a bit on crushing the peasants into the dirt, but not on ourselves getting richer.”
In Ecuador, the protests were caused by an IMF austerity package which removed fuel subsidies. (Notice a similarity here?) The protests were so large that the government was forced to flee the capital. On at least one occasion (and maybe more), the military actually stopped the police from attacking protestors.
The austerity was rescinded, and Moreno agreed to work together with indigenous and other leaders to figure out how to tackle the debt.
In Chile, the protests were started by an increase in the fare for public transit. (Are you noticing a trend here? Transportation costs, transportation costs, transportation costs = regressive taxes, in effect.) Unfortunately, as often happens, anger led rioters to attack the immediate object of their anger; in this case they burned down metro stations, which was incredibly foolish, because now those stations will be out of commission for months.
As I have noted repeatedly, if you are going to riot, take a bit of time to head into the nice part of the town where the rich live and riot there.
The riots and protests are ongoing, there’s been a curfew imposed, and we’ll see how it plays out. But the transit fare increase has already been cancelled.
In Lebanon , we have a slight alteration in the pattern: The government was going to tax messaging on WhatsApp and other messaging services. But again, this is a regressive tax–ordinary people message and text a lot. A rich person isn’t even going to notice, but such a tax would add up quickly for people who aren’t wealthy.
Ending rampant corruption is a central demand of the protesters, who say the country’s leaders have used their positions to enrich themselves for decades through favourable deals and kickbacks…
…Speaking to Al Jazeera from Beirut, Nizar Hassan, a member of Lihaqqi, an opposition progressive movement, said people want to overthrow the “political class … in peaceful, constitutional means”.
This is why they have been calling for a new cabinet that is independent of the ruling forces in the country, he noted.
“We are not settling for small kind of reforms … what we need is taxes on those who have been benefitting from the economic system for the last 30 years,” Hassan said, adding that Lebanon’s economic problems are “very structural”.
Now it’s hard to say how real this is, but the demonstrations are huge, and if the general strike actually comes off it indicates a united citizenry.
In all of these cases, what we have is a revolt against the rich. In all of these cases, we have attempts to raise taxes on the poor and middle class.
All of these protests are economic protests. They are about class, wealth, and income. They are about the fact that all four countries have very rich people, and yet taxes fall harder and harder on the non-rich.
Macron may mouth off about climate change, but what he wanted to do was make the poor pay for a climate change tax AFTER he removed a wealth tax. These people want the poorest to pay for the sins of the richest.
And the weak and the poor are saying, “No.”
We’ll see how it all plays out. There are still some yellow vest protests in France, but they’ve died down a great deal. Lebanon and Chile are ongoing. Ecuador is in play with new negotiations.
But this is a rise of people smashed flat, finally saying, “Enough.”
I don’t think our lords and masters in most countries are able to listen, honestly. They got where they are by imposing generations of austerity (it didn’t start in 2008, it accelerated then) and it’s all they know. They like being rich and powerful, they’re used to killing people to get their way (their policies have killed plenty of people, don’t pretend otherwise), and they’re not likely to stop unless they’re scared spitless.
But the Lebanese who want them gone have the right idea. People who think this group of leaders can be made to do the right thing are simply wrong. They may give a little on specific issues, but their hearts and intentions will never change.
You need leaders who actually want to do the right thing, and they won’t and can’t come from our current ruling class.
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Ten Bears
Brings to mind, in particular Macron\’s roll-backs, T. Roosevelt\’s so-called progressivism: throw the rubes a bone. Give \’em just enough to quiet things down. It\’s a feature, a strategy; I wouldn\’t be surprised if that were the plan – generate then roll back some of the outrage but leave the tax cut in place.
Brings also to mind Marie Antoinette and her cohort had no idea what was coming.
Keith in Modesto
“I don’t think our lords and masters in most countries can listen, honestly. They got where they are by imposing generations of austerity … they’re not likely to stop unless scared spitless.
…. People who think this group of leaders can be made to do the right thing are simply wrong. They may give a little on specific issues, but their hearts and intentions will never change.
You need leaders who actually want to do the right thing, and that isn’t and can’t be our current ruling class.”
[Cut out a little to make the quote shorter]
I think this is exactly correct. People can change, but it’s hard, and when the change is really central to who you are (where “you” = “the ruling class”), in aggregate it’s very unlikely. We should not have to wait on them to learn compassion and wisdom. And we can’t. The Climate Emergency is too urgent to wait on them, whether it’s for them to reform or to die off.
We, the losers in this system, the poor and working classes, have to be clear on the urgency and the and unacceptability of the system staying the way it is, even with little reforms. New leaders are required. Maybe some of us should be those leaders.
Eric Anderson
Nutshell:
The rich are cutting back the bread, and trying to make more money off the circuses.
What? These guys didn’t take “How to keep your head from rolling into a basket” 101 at their ivy walled schools?
Machiavelli would be so disappointed in the latest crop of plutocrats.
Ché Pasa
Massive protests continue in Iraq (ostensibly over corruption, lack of jobs, pitiful infrastructure, then over the very bloody crackdown by police) and Hong Kong (ostensibly “pro-democracy” -ha- but virulently against the current administration overseen by Beijing).
Economic issues play a huge role in those protests as well. Specifically who benefits economically in a system set up to disfavor some while over-rewarding those who are oftentimes incompetent and unworthy. There’s also a generational issue. The old appear to be benefiting at the expense of the young.
There are Color Revolution elements in the Hong Kong protests which should raise questions about what’s really going on there. But the Iraq demonstrations — and the many thousands of casualties the protesters have endured — suggest something more organic, much as the other protests Ian details in his post.
Let’s not forget the massive demonstrations in Britain over Brexit. Economics on steroids, no?
By comparison the US and Canada seem preternaturally calm.
Sid Finster
The whole point of IMF imposed austerity measures is to give a government political cover for doing what it otherwise cannot do.
“We really really really don’t want to remove fuel subsidies, and we feel really really really bad about this, but the IMF has given us, like no choice…..”
Joe
Che, I don’t think the US is calm, I think it’s simmering and seething. It’s about to boil over and we can only hope someone up in the elite knows how to turn down the heat like FDR did…otherwise it might get real bad real fast.
Ammunition sales are through the roof, people are stockpiling.
Bill Hicks
“Leaders who will do the right thing”
Good luck with that. In the U.S. The best we can do is a politically isolated octogenarian who may not even live long enough to get elected, and whose foreign policy is almost as evil as that of the establishment. The system has been too thoroughly corrupted. And the fact is, America already had its “revolution” in 2016, and the results haven’t been pretty.
Z
Bill Hicks,
I don’t agree with some of Sanders foreign policies, and I think that’s where I disagree with him most, but you stating that Sanders’s “foreign policy is almost as evil as that of the establishment” is way overstating it IMO. He was against the Iraq War and a lot of our other foreign policy interventionist misadventures and he does want to cut military spending. Though I also agree with you that the system is corrupted … who wouldn’t but but our rulers? … I wouldn’t say he’s been much corrupted by it.
Z
Z
The fact that Sanders hasn’t been much corrupted by it is the exact reason why he is so politically isolated.
Z
Hugh
In the US, Trump managed to pass a yuuge tax cut for the rich. He has also been running up yuuge deficits, but actually improving the lives of anyone in the lower 80%? You couldn’t find it with an electron microscope.
Re Iraq, I don’t think most people realize how badly Maliki f*cked up the country. He was always a Dawa extremist and fantastically corrupt. It wasn’t any US withdrawal that led to the rise of ISIS. It was his sectarianism and corruption that did. He screwed and oppressed the Sunnis and at the same time hollowed out institutions like the army which could have opposed them. And it’s not like, corruption was purely a Shia-Sunni thing. Dawa led the way on corruption and the other Shia parties followed suit. The result is a system where about 20-25% of the population benefits from the corruption and the rest can’t get basics like electricity and water. My understanding is that it is not so much the police but militias from the parties profiting from the corruption that are responsible for most of the violence against protestors.
Mallam
According to some commenters, Bernie Sanders has evil foreign policy because he stands with democratic advocates in their home countries and expresses solidarity with them (did anyone see Honduras protestors? They were holding up signs with a picture of Bernie Sanders twitter account that expressed solidarity with them). Yet according to the same commenters, Iran and Russian foreign policy in Syria is good, and Assad was correct to kill protestors. Or make believe conspiracies (look at Che with the bullshit about Hong Kong, where millions protest yet tries to insinuate some CIA conspiracy).
Hezbollah is signaling opposition to the protestors in Lebanon, and we are already seeing shabbiha trying to intimidate them. They’re losing legitimacy in many parts of the country they control. The people want the fall of the Hariri regime and Hezbollah, seems to me. Good. Both are garbage. Notice also the Lebanon protestors are standing in solidarity with Sudan and Syria. Let’s hope cool heads prevail and there’s no orders to fire on the protestors.
Mallam
Excuse me, it was protestors in Haiti that held signs of Bernie Sanders, not Honduras.
I Hate Giving My Email
What a frustrating election. The Liberals, like the USA Democrats, have nothing to offer but fearmongering. “Vote for us or the Conservatives win.” It worked this time. Despite all their broken promises, they only got a slap on the wrist while the NDP got weaker.
Ian, I hope that in the coming months and years, you write more about what a neoliberal cancer Trudeau is, because it isn’t talked about enough, and it’s your homeland. I can’t rely on anyone better to get the truth. Even some of my own family isn’t all in with the NDP. I was told by my cousin that Jagmeet Singh looked “sneaky” for “dumping on the Greens” and that “Canada isn’t ready for a non-white leader”. And I simply don’t have enough fodder on Trudeau’s track record to hit back.
Chiron
I lived through a color revolution in Brazil and they’re real, they worked because there is good part of the political class, media and population who is ready to become vassals of the American Empire and everybody knows who pulls the strings in America.
American foreign policy is written in Israel, is that simple and the political fights are now global which was already true a half-century ago, my view is that Bernie is just a Trostkyite that never transitioned to a Neocon like other political jews of his generation and no chance in hell he will be elected or even run for President as a Democrat.
Mike Barry
Is Stormfront down, Chi?
different clue
Could Sanders be elected if he runs as a Democrat? It would be an intriguing political science experiment. I would vote for him.
The main obstacle to running that experiment is the Catfood Democrats, who will do everything they can to prevent Sanders, or any other semi-dissident figure, from getting nominated.
The Catfood Democrats would prefer a second Trump term to a Sanders term.
As to Trotskyist . . . while I am not an expert on these things I would assume that Trotskyists are at some level Marxist. And Marx himself supported Free Trade while I will assume that today’s Marxists support Open Borders. Sanders has gone on record opposing both.