Il pacchetto di aiuti all’euro inaugura l’offensiva contro la classe operaia/ drastici tagli sociali in tutta Europa
● La più ampia offensiva contro la classe operaia dalla fine della Seconda Guerra Mondiale viene introdotta in Europa dal pacchetto di salvataggio per l’euro deciso lo scorso fine settimana dai leader UE,
o seguito immediatamente dall’introduzione di misure di austerità in Spagna e Portogallo, bersaglio degli speculatori a causa del loro alto deficit.
o Spagna, Zapatero ha annunciato: -5% agli stipendi del PI, congelamento dei salari e della maggior parte delle pensioni, eliminazione del sussidio per le famiglie per i nuovi nati (€2500), cancellazione del fondo per l’assistenza sanitaria agli anziani, e del finanziamento pubblico per le prescrizioni di farmaci, taglio a MD di investimenti pubblici, trasporti compresi, …
o Le misure di austerità faranno ulteriormente crescere la disoccupazione spagnola, già al 20%.
o Portogallo: il governo del socialdemocratico Sócrates, senza dettagli, ma comprenderà una riduzione di spesa per i governi locali, e si aggiungerà al misure già annunciate, come taglio di posti di lavoro nel PI, di indennità di disoccupazione, congelamento salari, vendita di imprese statali.
● La classe operaia europea deve opporsi unita a questa offensiva, rompendo con partiti socialdemocratici e sindacati che offrono i propri servizi al capitale finanziario:
o in Grecia il socialdemocratico Pasok; in Spagna il governo socialista di Zapatero; in Portogallo, il socialista Socrates; in GB, Tory e Lib-Dem con l’appoggio dei Labour.
o in Germania, dopo le lezioni del NRW, si sta pensando di far partecipare al governo la SPD, per imporre un nuovo giro di misure di austerità; i Verdi hanno appoggiato i salvataggi alle banche e le misure di austerità correlate.
o In tutti questi paesi i sindacati eliminano la resistenza contro i tagli dividendo la classe, e godono dell’appoggio di diverse organizzazioni piccolo-borghesi, che si definivano un tempo “di sinistra”.
● Il pacchetto finanziario presentato dai leader europei come salvataggio all’euro, è in realtà un massiccio trasferimento di ricchezza sociale dalle masse popolari a banche internazionali e ai fondi di investimento, è volto a “calmare i mercati” e riconquistarne “la fiducia”.
● Il fondo sottoscritto dai governi servirà a tutelare contro i rischi gli speculatori, che hanno intascato ingenti somme scommettendo contro il debito greco e l’euro.
● Con il nuovo pacchetto di salvataggio all’euro, i governi europei si sono posti alla mercé del capitale finanziario internazionale,
o se non tagliano drasticamente i loro deficit di bilancio seguirà inevitabilmente una nuova ondata speculativa.
o Se vengono richieste le garanzie finanziarie, aumenteranno i deficit, e la richiesta di nuove misure di austerità.
● Secondo gli esperti il pacchetto di salvataggio all’euro è solo l’inizio di un massiccio programma di austerità a scala europea,
o a dimostrazione che la UE è solo uno strumento delle banche e delle frazioni più forti della borghesia europea.
o Le misure introdotte in Grecia (salari -30%, riduzione di pensioni e indennità, licenziamenti si massa nel PI) sono divenute un modello per tutta l’Europa.
– I mercati finanziari, che hanno raccolto enormi profitti grazie alla speculazione sul debito sovrano greco, sono stati presi dal panico di fronte
o alla massiccia opposizione alle misure di austerità decise dal governo greco organizzata nello sciopero generale.
o Il crollo della borsa ha aumentato la pressione sui governi UE perché fornissero garanzie al debito, per la Grecia e per tutti i paesi dell’euro con forte deficit(Obama stesso è intervenuto per convincere la Merkel a cedere).
o I paesi della zona euro, della UE e l’FMI hanno creato un fondo da €750 MD per rifinanziare i debiti dei paesi euro che si trovassero in difficoltà a pagare.
o La BCE ha acquistato obbligazioni statali dai paesi fortemente indebitati per contrastare il forte aumento dei tassi di interesse.
– La dimensione dell’ondata di speculazioni contro l’euro è stata di decine di MD, una “guerra di aggressione condotta dagli speculatori contro la zona euro”, secondo le dichiarazioni di Sanio, capo dell’Autorità per il controllo federale finanziario della Germania, Bafin (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht).
o Per quanto riguarda la Grecia, in 3-4 mesi gli speculatori hanno intascato profitti di circa il 500% sfruttando i CDS (assicurazioni sul credito).
o Tali profitti record compaiono anche nei bilanci di grandi banche di investimento:
o Deutsche Bank, profitto al lordo delle tasse di €2,8 MD, pari al 30% dell’investimento;
o Goldman Sachs, ogni giorno del trimestre ha raccolto profitti per $100mn.
– Lanciato un avvertimento della Commissione europea, a nome delle banche europee e internazionali, a Bulgaria, Cipro, Danimarca e Finlandia: deficit troppo grossi, saranno soggette alle procedure previste che impongono scadenze per il taglio della spesa pubblica.
– L’FMI ha approvato, assieme alla UE, il pacchetto di salvataggio per la Romania (gli ultimi €8MD dei €20MD già stanziati), o meglio per gli istituti finanziari che detengono quote del debito statale rumeno: condizione piano economico per la riduzione del deficit al 4,4% del PIL entro il 2011 (era del 7,2% nel 2009).
– Piano del governo rumeno: PI, stipendi -25%; pensioni statali, -15%; si calcola che le misure di austerità taglieranno circa 250mila posti di lavoro. Manifestazioni di protesta di lavoratori e pensionati, con scontri a Bucarest; scioperi indetti per la prossima settimana.
– La disoccupazione ufficiale è al 10%, si stima che 2/3 della popolazione sa sotto la soglia di povertà.
– Germania, Roland Kock (vice-presidente CDU, candidato alle Finanze, al posto di Schauble ammalato: dato il deficit di €10MD e i €123 MD di contribuzione da sborsare per il pacchetto UE: nessun taglio sarà considerato un tabù.
– La svalutazione dell’euro causerà, secondo gli economisti, riduzioni ai salari reali sia in Germania e in tutta Europa, con forte aumento dell’inflazione.
– GB, il nuovo governo Tory-Lib-Dem.: non ci saranno ritardi nell’attuazione del programma di riduzione del deficit.
USA, avvertimenti dal funzionario supervisore del bilancio: occorre muoversi a tagliare il deficit, che sarà oltre €1,5 trilioni a fine anno fiscale, se non vogliamo finire come la Grecia. Si sta pensando a tagli dei programmi come la Social Security, Medicare e Medicaid.
Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)
Euro aid package inaugurates offensive against working class
– Last weekend, European leaders and finance ministers agreed to a rescue package for the euro which inaugurates the most comprehensive offensive against the working class since the end of World War II.
– This offensive must be repulsed by the combined resistance of the European working class.
On Friday evening, the leaders of the euro-zone countries met in Brussels to formally pass the €110 billion package for Greece drawn up during the week. But a two-hour dinner then turned into a six-hour crisis meeting.
– Two days beforehand, a general strike in Greece had clearly shown the scale of the resistance to the austerity measures being introduced by the Greek government.
– The financial markets, which had seen massive profits garnered through speculation on a Greek sovereign default, were then gripped by panic. On Thursday, America’s Dow Jones stock index at one point plummeted by up to nine percent.
– This increased the pressure on the European governments to provide debt guarantees not only for Greece, but also for all other deficit-ridden euro countries. President Obama picked up the phone personally to convince German Chancellor Angela Merkel to abandon her opposition.
In a night session, the heads of state and government leaders then established the foundations for a comprehensive financial package that was then further elaborated at another summit meeting on Sunday. It was to be finalised in the early hours of Monday morning, before the Japanese markets opened and the wave of speculation against the euro resumed.
– The members of the euro-zone, the European Union[e] and the International Monetary Fund set up a fund of €750 billion to be used if necessary to refinance the debts of those euro-zone countries facing payment difficulties. In addition, the European Central Bank (ECB) purchased government bonds from highly indebted countries to curb the rapid increase in interest rates.
– The leaders and finance ministers presented this huge financial package as an indispensable measure to rescue the currency union, and as an aid to highly indebted euro area countries.
– In reality, it is a financial gift to the international banks and investment funds. It is, in the language of official politics, meant to “calm down the markets” and regain their “trust”. Speculators, who have earned vast sums by betting against the Greek government’s debt and the euro, are to have all their risks underwritten at public expense.
– For this reason, the stock exchanges celebrated the new rescue fund on Monday with an enormous upsurge in prices. After last Thursday’s panic, they now had assurances that the European governments stood on their side and had declared war on the working class.
– The extent of the powerful wave of speculation against the euro was made clear by Jochen Sanio, head of the German financial supervisory board Bafin, speaking to last week to the budget committee of the Bundestag (parliament). Sanio spoke of a “war of aggression by the speculators, against the euro zone”, which involved “crazy sums” running into tens of billions.
o In the case of Greece, speculators exploiting CDS (credit insurance) were able to reap about 500 percent profit in three to four months.
– These record profits are also reflected in the balance sheets of the major investment banks.
o The Deutsche Bank recorded a pre-tax profit of €2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2010, a return on investment of 30 percent.
o In the same quarter, Goldman Sachs, for the first time in its history, reported a profit on each day of trading, on most days amounting to $100 million.
– The working class will now pay for these huge sums of money in the form of welfare cuts, wage cuts and unemployment.
– With the new euro rescue package, the European governments have placed themselves completely at the mercy of international financial capital. If they do not drastically reduce their budget deficits, the next wave of speculation will inevitably follow.
– If the financial guarantees are then called upon, the holes in the state budgets will grow, demanding even greater austerity measures.
– Experts therefore agree that the euro rescue package is only the beginning of a massive European-wide austerity program, which will spell the decimation of the European welfare state. This shows the real character of the European Union[e] as a tool of the banks and the most powerful sections of the European bourgeoisie.
– The Financial Times commented on the package: “Most of the European Union[e] is living beyond its means…. Many Europeans have come to regard early retirement, free public health care and generous unemployment benefits, as fundamental rights. … Yet if Europeans do not accept austerity now, they will eventually be faced with something far more shocking—sovereign debt-defaults and collapsing banks.”
– In Germany too, many economists demanded tough austerity measures. The leader of the so-called “economic wise men”, Wolfgang Franz, said the rescue package had merely extinguished the “fire in the Euro-house”, now it was time to “clean up”. Economics expert Kai Carstensen said radical austerity plans were called for in the euro countries. “If they do not all reduce their debts, the problems will be even larger in three years,” he said.
– What began in Greece—lowering wages by 30 percent, the reduction of pensions and benefits, mass sackings in the public sector—is now a model for all Europe. Opposition to these measures must be organised across Europe. Workers in all European countries must support Greek workers and unite together with the international working class.
– This requires a complete break with the social democratic parties and trade unions which declare that there is no alternative to slashing state budgets and offer their services to finance capital in order to implement these cuts.
– In Greece, the social democratic PASOK has taken up the task of enforcing a drastic austerity program.
– In Spain the socialist head of government Zapatero announced public service wage cuts immediately after the euro rescue package was announced and
– in Portugal his socialist colleague Socrates is pursuing a similar policy.
– In Britain, the Tories and Liberal Democrats, with the support of the Labour Party, have just taken over the government in order to push through a drastic austerity program.
– In Germany, after the state elections in North Rhine Westphalia, consideration is once again being given to the participation of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in government, in order to impose a new round of austerity measures. The Greens have also supported the bank rescue packages and the related austerity measures. Christian Democratic Union[e] (CDU) right-winger Roland Koch, who is being discussed as a future finance minister, is already calling for strict austerity measures and the abandonment of all reforms in the education system adopted in recent years.
– The trade unions in all of these countries play a key role in suppressing resistance against the cuts, dividing workers and diffusing opposition. They enjoy the support of a host of petty-bourgeois organisations that formerly described themselves as “left” and today strictly reject a revolutionary perspective.
– With the aid package adopted over the weekend, the attacks on the working class take on a pan-European form. Several regulations governing the monetary union—such as the prohibition of mutual financial assistance and the independence of the European Central Bank—have been abandoned. If a government does not meet its savings targets, all the others are directly affected. This will significantly exacerbate tensions within the European Union.
– The working class must prepare politically for the coming class struggles. It must break with the political parties and organisations that support the rescue packages for the banks and the associated austerity measures, and with the unions and the many petty-bourgeois organisations which stoke up nationalism to divert attention from the class issues. The conflict is not between Germans and Greeks, or Europeans and Americans, but between the international working class, on the one hand, and capital and its political lackeys, on the other.
– Opposition to the attacks must be organised at all levels. The only alternative to a future of poverty, repression, unemployment and growing national tensions is the unification of the European working class on the basis of a revolutionary socialist program: repudiation of all debts, the socialisation of banks and major companies under the democratic control of the working class, the confiscation of speculative profits and a high level of taxation for large incomes and fortunes.
The progressive unification of Europe is only possible on the basis of such a revolutionary socialist program in the form of the United Socialist States of Europe. The International Committee of the Fourth International is the only political tendency worldwide which advances such a perspective. We call on workers, students and critical intellectuals to study our program, read the WSWS and join the ranks of the International Committee.
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– In the wake of the $1 trillion euro bailout agreement reached at the beginning of this week, governments throughout Europe have unveiled austerity measures that include sweeping attacks on jobs, wages and basic social rights.
– It has now become abundantly clear that the nearly $1 trillion package cobbled together by European finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund was not merely aimed at staving off the bankruptcy of Greece and other European Union[e] member states gripped by sovereign debt crises.
– It was designed to effect a massive transfer of social wealth from the masses of the population to the international banks and investment firms. And it is to be paid for by compelling governments across the continent to implement the kind of draconian attacks that have brought hundreds of thousands of Greek workers into the streets in strikes and mass protests.
The European bourgeoisie is acting on the cynical adage of “never let a crisis go to waste.” It has seized upon the dramatic events in Greece and the threat of a worldwide financial meltdown, largely the product of the financial elite’s own speculative activities, to ram through an assault on conditions of life for European workers that is without precedent since the continent lay in ruins at the end of World War II.
– An unannounced corollary to the agreement on the bailout package reached in Brussels early Monday was the immediate implementation of austerity measures in Spain and Portugal, whose public deficits have made them the targets of international financial speculators seeking super profits by bidding up interest rates on the countries’ debt offerings.
– After the Spanish stock market rose a dizzying 14.4 percent on Monday, “It has belatedly dawned on Spaniards that the Iberian peninsula, not Greece, is the main target of the financial ‘bazooka’ unveiled by the European Union[e] and the International Monetary Fund,” the Financial Times commented Wednesday.
– With the euro zone’s third largest public deficit, Spain has been increasingly targeted by financial speculators and forced to pay ever higher interest rates to secure foreign credit.
– The country’s social democratic Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero went before parliament on Wednesday and announced a series of austerity measures, including: a 5 percent pay cut for public employees, followed by a wage freeze; the freezing of most pension payments; the elimination of the so-called cheque-bebé, a 2500-euro government subsidy for families with new babies; elimination of a program funding elder care and public funding for prescription drugs.
– Also to be slashed are over 6 billion euros in public investment, including on public transportation projects. Billions more will be eliminated in funding to local governments and development aid, necessitating still further layoffs and cutbacks.
– Under conditions in which the country’s official unemployment rate already stands at over 20 percent, the austerity program will mean millions more being thrown on the unemployment and a further turn by the country’s economy towards slump as consumption is curtailed.
– Portugal followed suit on Thursday with its own proposal for across-the-board cuts in public spending and increases in regressive valued-added taxes.
“If we fail to show we can implement credible measures to cut the deficit, the tap of overseas financing will be turned off,” Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, Portugal’s finance minister, told members of parliament during a debate on the proposed austerity package.
– The social democratic government of Prime Minister José Sócrates did not spell out where the budget ax would fall, but indicated that it would include reductions in funding for local governments, and that the plan comes on top of already announced measures that include an elimination of public sector jobs, cuts in unemployment benefits, a freeze on salaries, and the sale of publicly owned enterprises.
– The European Commission, speaking for the European and international banks, warned Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark and Finland Wednesday that their budget deficits have grown too large, and that they will be subjected to “excessive deficit procedures” (EDPs), imposing deadlines for slashing public spending.
– Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund, working together with the EU, has approved the latest tranche of a “rescue package” for Romania, or more precisely for international financial interests holding Romanian debt.
– The condition for releasing the latest outlay from the 20 billion euro package (12 billion euros have been paid out thus far) was the government’s approval of an economic plan to reduce the public deficit to 4.4 percent of GDP by next year, compared to 7.2 percent for 2009.
– The Romanian government produced a proposal for a devastating round of budget reductions that includes cutting public workers’ pay by 25 percent and slashing state pensions by 15 percent. It is estimated that the austerity measures could mean the wiping out of as many as a quarter of a million jobs.
– The announcement provoked demonstrations by workers and pensioners throughout the country and scenes of older retired workers clashing with security forces in the capital of Bucharest. Strikes have been called for next week.
– The official unemployment rate in Romania already stands at 10 percent, while according to some estimates fully two thirds of the population is living at or below the poverty line.
These unprecedented attacks are to be carried out throughout Europe. In Germany, Roland Koch, deputy leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party and considered a likely candidate to succeed the ailing Wolfgang Schauble as finance minister, warned that no cutbacks could be “considered taboo” as Germany confronts its own 10 billion euro fiscal deficit, as well as the cost of its 123 billion euro contribution to the EU rescue package.
– Koch, the minister president of the state of Hesse, called for reconsidering a policy that provides for kindergarten for all children under the age of three. The proposal has provoked outrage. “Anyone who starts talking about such cuts is acting like an arsonist,” Christine Haderthauer, Bavaria’s social affairs minister, told the Passauer Neue Presse. “If we have to take the red marker specifically to the areas of education and family, we’re playing the lottery with our future.”
– Meanwhile, economists are predicting that the decline in the value of the euro will slash the real wages of the working class in Germany and throughout Europe. “We can expect inflation to rise sharply over the next few years,” German economist Wolfgang Brachinger told the British Guardian. “The euro is losing value, and consumers will have to dig deeper in their pockets as a result.”
– In Britain, with the new Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition just beginning to unveil its right-wing agenda of “emergency” measures, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, stated that there could be no delay in implementing a deficit-reduction program.
King described the crisis in Greece as an opportunity to “tackle the excessive fiscal budget deficit.” He added, “The bigger risk at present, given the experience of the last two weeks, would be for a new government not to put in place clear and credible measures to deal with the fiscal deficit.”
– On the other side of the Atlantic, the Obama administration’s chief budget official sounded a similar note, warning that Washington must take action to slash its deficit, which is expected to exceed $1.5 trillion this fiscal year, or “wind up facing the sorts of choices that Greece now faces.”
“I would prefer to be addressing this sooner rather than later,” said Peter Orszag, the White House budget director in an interview Wednesday with the Reuters news agency. Orszag declined to discuss specific measures, saying that the administration wants to allow a bipartisan commission on the deficit formed by Obama to complete its work.
– The panel is taking aim at so-called entitlement programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It is co-chaired by Alan Simpson, a former Republican Senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, a former Clinton administration official and investment banker. Bowles sits on the board of directors of Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street investment firm, where he chairs its compensation committee, approving eight-figure salaries and bonuses for top executives.
That such an individual could combine these two roles underscores the class character of the economic policies being pursued, not only by the Democratic administration of Barack Obama in the US, but by governments throughout Europe and internationally. All of them are attempting to impose the full burden of the financial crisis on the backs of the working class, while transferring massive amounts of social wealth to the financial parasites who are responsible for it.
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