In Ireland, with a population of 5 million, upwards of one hundred thousand took to the streets to protest the new charges for water. The Irish government's austerity measure has sparked widespread public anger, with Saturday's street protest the fourth since October.
The Republic majorities in both chambers of Congress have crafted their 2016 budget proposals. In the near term, the proposed cuts would hurt millions of poor people, a large share of them veterans, children and the elderly. Two other factors guarantee the pain could get much worse over the next five years: the sequester caps on spending and a plan to convert Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps) into state block grants.
Syriza will not easily sweep the policies of austerity aside, but there is a palpable feeling on the continent that a tide is turning. The victory of Greece's left-wing Syriza Party was, on one hand, a beacon for indebted countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland. It is also a gauntlet for Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and the "troika" - the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund.
SYRIZA has won the election in Greece, securing 149 seats out of 300. This article was written before the election, but speaks to many of the criticisms aimed at this left anti-austerity party both from the bureaucrats of the European Union as well as from left groups. In addition the article speaks to the difficult choices the party must face in order to find a new path towards recovery for the people of Greece.
While heavy on academics, the candidates on the Podemos ticket represented more of a cross-section of the Spanish citizenry than any other party in the country. Their ages ranged from eighteen to seventy-eight, and their vocations from firefighter to librarian, but most importantly they included unemployed workers of all shades.
Condemning the “new tyranny” of unfettered capitalism and the “idolatry of money,” Pope Francis argues in a newly circulated apostolic exhortation that “as long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.”
The principles of democratic self-determination are hamstrung by the powerful Troika—the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission (the EU’s legislative and operational council)—which a disempowered citizenry increasingly views as an automaton that squelches democracy as it protects the interests of the power elite.
After years of brutal austerity, collapsing economies, widespread unemployment and shredding of the social welfare net, Italians said "basta!" "Enough!"
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