The New Greek "Revolt"

So after a week of waiting the world now gets to see the results of the last week's Greek parliamentary elections: PASOK, the third largest party in Parliament, has failed to form a coalition after New Democracy and Syriza have also failed. As the BBC states the president is now going to call for parties to form a government of "national salvation", but that call is unlikely to be heeded. The crisis of the Greek government's legitimacy will now lead to a new round of elections, and these new elections will be even more interesting as the public has already shown it is not fond of the New Democracy/PASOK neoliberal austerity policies, so the question remains will this mean a rise for parties like Syriza, Democratic Left, the Communists, and Golden Dawn, or will scared voters want the stability of PASOK and New Democracy? The situation in Greece is the most volatile in the Western world right now, and everyone should keep their eyes fixed on it because this may be the biggest example of the failure of neoliberalism the world has yet seen. Stay tuned...

Europe's Revolt Against Austerity

With the election of Francois Hollande to the French presidency and the Greek parliamentary elections that saw the election of the Radical Coalition of the Left (Syriza) become the second most represented party in Parliament the media has begun to trumpet the same message: the end of austerity. From Paul Krugman to the BBC, economists, policy makers, and analysts are all sounding out the end of the "Merkozy" austerity policies imposed on Greece, Spain, and other EU nations by France and Germany. But what will this actually achieve? For one, with the failure of the centre-right and pro-austerity New Democracy party not able to form a coalition in Greece it still remains to be seen if Syriza can form its own coalition government to combat austerity. But in France, Hollande's presidency does not necessarily mean much will change as the National Assembly is still dominated by the UMP (with elections coming up in June) and the Socialist Party not exactly being a party of anything other than Third Wayist Blairite neoliberalism (see DSK as head of the IMF, some socialist he is). So far all that Hollande is proposing is increasing taxes, lowering the retirement age, and enacting some social policies, but little is mentioned about the austerity agreements with Germany.

So while leftists may have an urge to celebrate the victories, they may want to wait before reality kicks in.

May Day: A Day to Remember Working People, Not Blow Up Public Spaces

If you are an avid news-reader such as myself, you will have seen or heard about 5 men charged with plotting to blow up a bridge near Cleveland, OH, and a few of these men were self-described anarchists. While the circumstances surrounding this incident are murky, it is clear that these men put themselves in a situation where they conspired to blow up a public space. Now it is worth noting that while we may rush to condemn these men let us not forget that law enforcement and federal security agencies regularly use entrapment to get activists to commit crimes, a tactic that smells of COINTELPRO. This aside, if these men indeed plan to blow up a bridge they need to realize that not only is the act dangerous but it is also counterproductive. Usually when a direct action like this is executed it is done so because of symbolism, the act itself may not be very effective in disrupting the system or oppression but the act is symbolic of defiance of some sort. In this case, there seems to be little in the way of symbolism behind this planned attack: the bridge is not a corporate office of some oppressive company, and while the bombing may be symbolic of defiance of government why not blow up a government building? A bridge is a public utility that all people, rich and poor, utilize on a daily basis, and to disrupt this public utility is to make the lives of working people as well as rich people more difficult. Further, taxpayer funds from working people would pay to rebuild such a bridge, so the idea of this act somehow advancing "anarchism", a legitimate ideology that seeks to liberate humanity from the shackles of the state and capitalism, is ridiculous as anarchists (at least social, communist, or syndicalist anarchists) seek to ally themselves with working people and to blow up a public utility like this would alienate working people from our ideology.
I am not opposed to direct action per-se, on the contrary I find actions such as Black Bloc tactics and other forms of property destruction/disruption of capitalist entities to be legitimate within a certain context, but simply blowing up a bridge to show off the ability to destroy is not productive. Anarchism is more than just destroying the old order of capitalism, it is the creation of a new society and being sensitive to those who are oppressed by the current system, and blowing up public utilities shows neither sensitivity nor the capacity to create.