The struggle against austerity is sweeping the U.S. and Europe. Not for decades have we seen such a surge of struggle in this part of the world. Moreover, the protest actions are massive and likely to increase in intensity and scope as time passes.
Prompting the surge is the economic crisis in general and the debt crisis in particular. Ruling circles on both sides of the Atlantic are attempting to offload government and private indebtedness onto the working class and its allies.
The most striking example is Greece, where the social democratic government in cahoots with the International Monetary Fund and the European Union has not once but twice squeezed huge concessions from the Greek people, despite massive nationwide protests. Elsewhere in the Atlantic world the assault isn't quite as draconian, but it is punishing nonetheless.
The refrain out of the mouths of the ruling elites irrespective of country is: the country is broke and there is no option but to cut wages of public sector workers, abrogate collective bargaining rights, and shed social programs that were won in earlier periods.
Don't buy this bill of goods!
This crisis is not a crisis of state finances. There is plenty of money if you look in the right places - the banks accounts of the investor class and, in the U.S. in particular, the budget of the Pentagon.
This is a crisis of capitalism. With each passing day it reveals its inability to meet the elementary living requirements of the working class in this era.
MUCH MORE:
http://www.peoplesworld.org/europe-and-u-s-have-same-problem-capitalism/