Homeless man in Athens, 02.02.2012, Photograph: Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg [latimes.com]
The European Union is currently undergoing the biggest economic
crisis since its foundation 20 years ago. Economic growth is collapsing:
the eurozone economy contracted by 0.6% in the fourth quarter last year
and this slump is set to continue.
The euro crisis was incorrectly blamed on
government spending, and the subsequent imposition of cuts and increased
borrowing has resulted in growing national debts and rising
unemployment. Government debts in crisis countries have predictably
soared: the highest ratios of debt to GDP in the third quarter of 2012
were recorded in Greece (153%), Italy (127%), Portugal (120%) and
Ireland (117%).
Under pressure from the European Commission, Europe’s member states
have responded by implementing severe austerity programmes, making harsh
cuts to crucial public services and welfare benefits. The measures
mirror the controversial structural adjustment policies forced onto
developing countries during the 1980s and 1990s, which discredited the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
The results, like their antecedents in the
South, have punished the poorest the hardest, while the richest
Europeans – including the banking elite that caused the financial crisis
– have emerged unscathed or even richer than before.
Behind the immoral and adverse effects of
unnecessary cuts though lies a much more systematic attempt by the
European Commission and Central Bank (backed by the IMF) to deepen
deregulation of Europe’s economy and privatise public assets. The dark
irony is that an economic crisis that many proclaimed as the ‘death of
neoliberalism’ has instead been used to entrench neoliberalism.
First, are you our sort of a person? Do you wear A glass eye, false teeth or a crutch, A brace or a hook, Rubber breasts or a rubber crotch,
Stitches to show something's missing? No, no? Then How can we give you a thing? Stop crying. Open your hand. Empty? Empty. Here is a hand
To fill it and willing To bring teacups and roll away headaches And do whatever you tell it. Will you marry it? It is guaranteed
To thumb shut your eyes at the end And dissolve of sorrow. We make new stock from the salt. I notice you are stark naked How about this suit -
Black and stiff, but not a bad fit. Will you marry it? It is waterproof, shatterproof, proof Against fire and bombs through the roof. Believe me, they'll bury you in it.
Now your head, excuse me, is empty. I have the ticket for that. Come here, sweetie, out of the closet. Well, what do you think of that? Naked as paper to start
But in twenty-five years she'll be silver, In fifty, gold. A living doll, everywhere you look. It can sew, it can cook, It can talk, talk, talk.
It works, there is nothing wrong with it. You have a hole, it's a poultice. You have an eye, it's an image. My boy, it's your last resort. Will you marry it, marry it, marry it.
The outcome of the Italian elections should send a clear message to
Europe’s leaders: the austerity policies that they have pursued are
being rejected by voters.
[...]
[T]he reality is that much of
the European Union is in depression. The loss of output in Italy since
the beginning of the crisis is as great as it was in the 1930’s.
Greece’s youth unemployment rate now exceeds 60%, and Spain’s is above
50%. With the destruction of human capital, Europe’s social fabric is
tearing, and its future is being thrown into jeopardy.
[...] The reality [...] is that the cure is not working, and there is no hope that it
will – that is, without being worse than the disease. Indeed, it will
take a decade or more to recover the losses incurred in this austerity
process.
[...]
An alternative set of
well-discussed policies could work. Europe needs greater fiscal
federalism, not just centralized oversight of national budgets. [...] [I]t clearly needs far more
European-level expenditure, unlike the current miniscule EU budget
(whittled down further by austerity advocates).
A
banking union, too, is needed. But it needs to be a real union, with
common deposit insurance and common resolution procedures, as well as
common supervision. There will also have to be Eurobonds, or an
equivalent instrument.
European leaders recognize that, without growth, debt burdens will
continue to grow, and that austerity by itself is an anti-growth
strategy. Yet years have gone by, and no growth strategy is on the
table, though its components are well known: policies that address
Europe’s internal imbalances and Germany’s huge external surplus [...].
Concretely, that means wage increases in Germany and industrial
policies that promote exports and productivity in Europe’s peripheral
economies.
Photograph: Monika Graff/Getty Images, May 1, 2012nydailynews.com
[A]nyone who arguesthat demands mustbe capable of beingsatisfied assumes thatthere is someone orsome existing institutionalpower to whomone could appeal tohave one’s demandssatisfied. Union negotiationsbacked bythe threat of strikesusually do have a listof demands which, ifsatisfied, will avert thestrike, and if not, willcommence or prolonga strike. But when acompany, corporation, or state is not considereda legitimate partner fornegotiation, thenit makes no sense to appeal to that authorityfor a negotiated settlement. In fact, to appealto that authority to satisfy the demand wouldbe one way of attributinglegitimacy to thatauthority. So articulating demands that canbe satisfied depends fundamentally on theattribution of legitimacy to those who havethe power to satisfy the demands. And whenone ceases to direct demands to those authorities,as happens in the general strike, then itis the illegitimacy of those authorities that isexposed. [...] But if those existing institutions are complicitwith the economic regime that dependsupon,and furthers, the reproduction of inequality,then one cannot appeal to those institutionsto bring about an end to the conditionsof inequality. Such an appeal woulddefeat itself in the course of its articulation.Simply put, the appeal or demand that soughtto be satisfied by the existing state, globalmonetary institutions, or corporations, nationalor transnational, would be giving morepower to the very sources of inequality, and in that way aiding and abetting the reproductionof inequality itself. As a result, another set ofstrategies are required, and what we are nowseeing in the Occupy Movement is preciselythe development of a set of strategies that callattention to, and oppose, the reproduction ofinequality.
[...]
[I]twould not be possible to think democracy withoutan ideal of radical equality. So radical equalityis a demand, but it is not directed to thoseinstitutions that reproduce inequality. It is directedto the people themselves whose historicaltask is the making of new institutions. The appealis to ourselves, and it is this new “we” that isformed, episodically and globally, in every actionand demonstration. Such actions are in no sense“apolitical.” They take aim at a politics that offerspractical solutions at the expense of addressingstructural inequality. And they remind us thatevery form of politics gains or loses its legitimacydepending on whether it accords equality to thepeople it is said to represent. Otherwise, it failsto represent, and so destroys its own legitimacyin the eyes of the people. In demonstrating, inacting, the people come to represent themselves,embodying and reanimating the principles ofequality that have been decimated. Abandonedby existing institutions, they assemble themselvesin the name of a social and political equality, givingvoice, body, movement, and visibility to anidea of “the people” regularlydivided and effacedby existing power.
The above text is an excerpt from the article So, what are the demands? And where do they go from here? byJudith Butler, published in tidal: occupy theory, occupy strategy, #2, March 2012, pp. 8-11; all issues are available in fullhere and here.
The subject of the photograph is photography itself,
and the ways that life is documented, manipulated, trivialized, and celebrated
with photographs. Kenneth Josephson found a snapshot of a ship taken by an
anonymous photographer and used it for a postcard, and he employed it to convey
his conviction that what is being viewed is not as important as engaging with
the ideas behind it. The “reality” New York State depicts is the reality he
created with the choices he made, similar to the choices that artists make for
other kinds of art—subject, materials, composition, and emphasis.
