Ruining Dutch economy to ruin Greek economy, Blairite confesses

This video from the USA says about itself:

New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, gives his argument against austerity.

Paul Krugman is not only a columnist, but also a Nobel Prize winning economist.

This video from Greece says about itself:

May 25, 2013. Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein speaks in Athens in her first visit to Europe since the crisis hit.

At 9pm, she speaks at the three-day B-Fest, billed as an “anti-authoritarian festival”, at Panepistimioupoli (University Campus) in Zografou area.

During the speech an interpreter translates into the Greek language and is also heard in the video.

Highlights of the speech:

“Greeks live the “Shock doctrine“.

The ghost of Thatcher is alive in Greece.

People will not reject troika’s bitter pill, unless they are convinced there is a possibility of dignified life at the other end.

Crisis is used as a pretext to roll back environmental standards – check.

We must say no, but we must articulate our yes.

The same system that is causing mortality spikes in Greece is also killing the planet.

I wrote the book to respond to the “change of subject” after 9/11.

We asked workers at occupied factories in Argentina how we can help. They responded “do this at home”.

State and non-state capitalism share the obsession with centralizing in the state, or big corporations.

Capitalism makes the planet uninhabitable – this should be Nr1 argument against it.

You can’t fight climate change without a democratic public sphere.

Climate change demands deeper democracy – that we stand together.

Put worker ownership at the centre – jobs with dignity.

The present “austerity” policies in Europe are supposed to bring economic recovery, according to Thatcherite theory. In practice, they bring just more austerity; just more trouble for most people.

In the Netherlands, the PvdA, sister party of Labour in Britain, now is a junior partner in a coalition government with the VVD party (referred to as “liberal”; economically “conservative” in the sense of being pro-big business; not religiously conservative like many conservatives in the USA).

Most PvdA voters, and even some VVD voters, are disgusted by the cuts which don’t bring recovery; just more cuts. The government coalition already is a minority in the Senate. Polls says that, if there would be elections now, PvdA and VVD both would lose about half their parliamentary Second Chamber seats, losing the majority there as well.

The youth organisation of the PvdA, and many others, say that the party should stop supporting austerity policies.

However, senior PvdA politicians of the Right wing of the party, similar to followers of Tony Blair in Britain, don’t listen.

PvdA politician Jeroen Dijsselbloem is both Dutch Finance Minister, and chair of the international Eurogroup.

Dutch daily De Volkskrant reports today about what Dijsselbloem said at a meeting in Amsterdam.

According to Trouw, another Dutch paper today (translated):

Even apart from the VVD coalition partner, the PvdA supports the government plans to cut six billion euro, Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said last night in a debate of the local branch of his party in Amsterdam. …

Plea for Europe

The finance minister was reproached that cuts harm the economy more than help it. “The IMF and 99 percent of economists say so. Then, why are you so stubborn?”

Dijsselbloem: “The cuts of six billion euros will indeed take away a piece of the economic growth of next year. However, we in the elections made a plea for Europe. We cannot say to the Portuguese and the Greeks that they must reduce their debts if the Netherlands would not obey the [European Union] agreements.”

So: destroying the economy, health care, education, etc. in the Netherlands, in order to be better able to destroy the economy, health care, education, etc. in Greece. “Doctor” Quack Dijsselbloem prescribes his medicine for the Dutch economy; not because it works, as it doesn’t. But in order to continue to prescribe it in Greece, where it does not work either.

The upside down logic of Blairism, the European Union bureaucracy and corporate fat cats.

People can hardly expect the government to stimulate the economy, Dijsselbloem told a critical audience which asked for investments. …

Citizens need to spend more money again, according to him. “We do not have it” the audience shouted to him then.

And where will these government cuts be? Not in spending on wars, Dijsselbloem’s Blairite colleague Timmermans says. Sorry, I wrote “wars” … I forgot for a moment that obedient subjects are supposed to use the euphemism “defence”. Timmermans is not even the Secretary of War Defence. He is the Foreign Secretary.

So, destroying the Netherlands by “austerity” in order to destroy Greece, Portugal, etc. etc. by austerity. Meanwhile, not forgetting to destroy Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Gibraltar (on the side of the British Conservative govenment? Or of the Spanish conservative government?) etc. by war.

Greece’s Golden Dawn: A Wake-up Call for Europe: here.

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• Dutch government’s cruelty against ill 6-year-old refugee girl (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Dutch would-be wolf-killing politician resigns in financial scandal (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Austerity Has Now Shrunk The Greek Economy By A Quarter Since 2008 (thinkprogress.org)
• Dutch wannabe wolf-killing politician suspected of crimes (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Paul Krugman: Killing the Euro (economistsview.typepad.com)
• Paul Krugman: What Greece Means (economistsview.typepad.com)