Interest rates are going down, the profits of banks and corporations are
going up, the crisis is over.
This is what we hear from the media and the so-called experts. But who
is the crisis over for?
Certainly not for most people, who see the eruption of unemployment,
the dumping of wages and social security, and the dismantling of public
services.
In fact, the crisis has been a great opportunity for sensational success on
the part of large capital owners, those who control finance and
multinationals:
their profits keep going up rapidly and their power has never been called
into question.
But, on the other hand, the debt is used as a pretext to question social
rights in an unprecedented way, to cancel any ambitious environmental
policy.
Even France, with a supposedly Left government and a president who
said that “my adversary is finance”, has obviously opted for austerity,
austerity for the people:
the signing of the European Budget Pact (which supports budget cuts),
tax reforms with a catastrophic impact on consumers,
a collective agreement that compromises labor rights, and an imminent
new reduction of pensions.
But banks have nothing to worry about after the reform that has been
passed to their benefit.
The scandal that broke out last month and involved a Finance Minister
who himself tax-evaded has not been dealt with yet and no specific
measures have been taken for a fraud that costs the state more than 60
billion a year.
Finally, despite promises, no real progress has been made on
environmental issues.
Of course, as in many other countries, these policies pave the way for
the extreme Right and nationalism.
Faced with such measures, political movements, labor union
movements, and other mass movements have converged; these
movements are meeting again here in Alter Summit.
Local resistances have multiplied; for instance, against the closure of
factories or the construction of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport.
Undoubtedly, they are not enough to overturn the balance of power, but
they strengthen our hopes.
Our hopes also lie with movements that are multiplying everywhere in
Europe: the Indignant in Spain and Portugal, the student movements in
England, and of course all general strikes.
And we are certainly here in Athens because we have strong hopes that
the Greek people is resisting and prevailing against all those who tried to
make this country a guinea pig for austerity policies.
We want to fight together and refuse to fall into the trap of division,
French against Greeks or Germans…
We don’t give up hope for a different Europe; a Europe of democracy,
ecology and solidarity between peoples.
We want to rally together and stand up for our rights, in order to build a
steadfast force against neoliberal Europe.
Let’s hope that Alter Summit will be a substantial starting point.