The latest Greek drama is still playing itself out. But Murray Dobbins writes that we have reached a turning point:
The temple of neoliberalism and its ideology of social suicide in the interests of the banks has been breached. The hysteria in European capitals (particularly Germany) after the resounding 'No' vote by the people of Greece is entirely appropriate. For decades now developed country governments and their enforcers, the IMF and the World Bank have managed to bamboozle people in country after country, convincing them that up is down and black is white -- that austerity and recession are nirvana --pie in the sky by-and-by. Until now.
The Neoliberals will not yield willingly. They will fight for every inch of ground they have occupied. But it's quite clear that a war has been going on. And it's also quite clear who is fighting whom:
The war between democracy and international finance, effectively suppressed for decades by complicit Western politicians and co-conspirators in the corporate media, is now out in the open for all to see. And what we see should have us declare that we are all Greeks now. Because we are all (except the 1 percent) suffering, to one degree or another, from this ideological lunacy of austerity in the midst of recession. The source of the madness is a radical cult of free market economists and trade lawyers who have occupied the temples of state power and captured the loyalty of elected representatives. They hold sway in Ottawa as well.
Indeed. Everywhere that Stephen Harper goes, he makes it clear that he will make no concessions and take no prisoners:
Canada is not suffering as much but the prescription applied by Harper and Paul Martin before him have the same roots: shrinking the social state through tax cuts for the rich and corporations, hobbling government powers through "trade" agreements, and systematically transferring wealth from the middle class to the wealthy. As in the EU Harper declares that any other set of policies is reckless. Last week in Calgary Harper declared that the October election was about security versus risk: "Friends," he said, "We've come too far to take risks with reckless policies. That's why I'm confident that this October Canadians will choose security over risk."
Security. That's his watchword. It's all hokum, of course. He claims that he's making Canada secure from the terrorists that lurk everywhere outside our moat. But the moat -- in economic and security terms -- only protects a few.
From now until election day, he'll try to convince Canadians that his is a very big tent. But it's clear that he lives in a pup tent. And it's beginning to look like there's just enough room for him.
