Thursday, October 20, 2011 – by Staff Report
Protests in Athens bring Greece to standstill amid austerity vote ... Protesters in Athens fought running battles with riot police as a general strike brought Greece to a standstill before the adoption of painful new austerity measures. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: This is an independent protest and expression of people's anger. Beware of people power.
Free-Market Analysis: We long ago predicted the tribes of Europe would revolt once the reality of the European Union's dysfunction and corruption became clearer. What we didn't anticipate was the degree of control the Anglosphere power elite would exercise – or try to exercise.
There is no doubt Europe is catching fire. Spain was just given a double-downgrade by ratings agencies and the dissatisfaction with the status quo is palpable in that important country. Meanwhile, in countries like Greece and Italy despair and anger fuels street battles.
Protestors are out in force, some masked, some not, throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at darkly dressed policemen in riot gear with transparent shields. The police answered back with teargas and stun grenades. In Greece, the target is Syntagma Square where Greek politicians are meeting to approve yet another weary austerity bill. Here's some more from the article excerpted above:
Greek politicians granted initial approval to a new austerity bill whose spending cuts and tax hikes have sparked fury on the streets of Athens. The bill received a 154-141 vote late Wednesday. A second vote on the bill's articles will be held Thursday in the 300-member Parliament. Only after that vote will the bill have passed.
The legislation, whilst deeply unpopular with ordinary Greeks, must be passed if Athens is to receive the latest 8 billion euro (£7 billion) tranche of funds from its 110 billion euro international bailout organised by the EU and IMF. Without the injection of funds, the Socialist government of George Papandreou, the prime minister, has said that by next month it will have run out of money to pay for pensions and public sector salaries.
A small but highly militant minority of demonstrators threw rocks and petrol bombs at ranks of police officers. More than 100,000 private and public sector workers marched on parliament to protest against plans to raise taxes, cut salaries and suspend public sector workers. Protesters wearing gas masks, scarves and motorcycle helmets tried to smash down a metal barricade guarding the main approach to the parliament building.
From our point of view the Greek protestors are sincere but we have a good deal more questions about the protest organizers – the nation's major unions. One would have to be naïve indeed to believe that Greece's major unions are not participating in the larger manipulations the long-suffering Greek populace is subject to.
In fact, the way we see it, the rank-and-file may be rioting; but behind closed doors the union bosses are meeting with the Greek political-party bosses and even with European "austerity" delegations. The entire affair has a scripted quality, like the dithyrambs that used to be recited in ancient Greek theatre beneath the ritualistic masks.
We think we can discern the power elite's pattern now. They did indeed intend for the economic chaos afflicting the world; how could they not since they set it in motion via the central banks they control? Not only have they inflicted the ruinous boom-bust cycle via central banking, they have now capitalized on it via demonstrations and riots in Europe and the formation of a global protest movement.
The riots are great political theatre, but in our view they are not serious, or not yet. Most of those involved are perfectly sincere – and agonized – over what is taking place, but at the top, history is being manipulated and plans are being set in motion.
It is too pat, too perfect. The mainstream media – an entirely controlled apparatus in our view – is bringing us all the sound and fury of these civil conflicts from the riots in Europe to the demands of Occupy Wall Street in America to the soundbites of the Modern Technological Messiah, Julian Assange, on the steps of St. Paul's in Britain. TV, news, even the Internet is ablaze with modern, scripted chaos.
There are wars in the Middle East and Africa, a growing (controlled) global protest, the world's remaining pillar of economic stability – China – teeters perilously over a pit of stagflation and recession. There is talk of revolution ... and guillotines. Russia Today, seemingly part of the Hegelian Dialectic after all, brings us rioting in full color over the Internet. All that is left now is to increase the agony while gradually introducing the final structures of globalism as the antidote. source
