False Dilemmas: A Critical Guide to the Euro Zone Crisis A4

Description

For all you who care about anti-austerity arguments and debt resistance across Europe, or want to get the basics about the euro crisis but don’t know where to start – this is for you! With an emphasis on Greece, it covers the whys, whats and hows of the crisis, providing arguments to debunk austerity, tools for debt resistance, and lots of inspiration from social movements.

The guide covers:

• How to debunk the common myths about the crisis, and learn about what’s really going on.

• How to counter the arguments about austerity

• Who profits from the crisis? Who funds the bailouts and why?

• Arguments and strategies for debt resistance.

• Information on the resistance and the alternatives arising from the grassroots.

Based on myths and false dilemmas, the mainstream narrative around the crisis still dominates discussion. Breaking away from this, this guide shows that:

Private sector debts were nationalised creating huge problems for public fi­nances; yet myths were spun to justify a ‘solution’ that involved ever increasing amounts of sovereign debt whilst imposing widespread unemployment and dramatic reductions in living standards. A step towards social and economic justice would be for these debts to be can­celled and those responsible both nationally and internationally to bear the burden of cancellation. This guide compiles arguments and evidence to chal­lenge debt repayment. While banks and other financial institutions are responsible for countries’ in­debtedness and have helped create the crisis, at the same time they have profi­teered from it in numerous ways, such as betting against countries’ default, and then benefiting from the latter’s bailouts.

Future profitability is ensured by reorganising the institutional landscape to promote private corporate business opportunities. This report shows who is profiting from the crisis and reveals how and why grassroots mobilisations are rising up against the European establishment. This guide argues for opposition to the EU that is not based on discrimination or prejudice, to reclaim the space that has so far been dominated by far right movements. The crisis has cast aside any pretence of democracy; the kind of changes insti­tuted are only possible with broad, general use of force, violence and appeals to nationalism and xenophobia. The guide documents the far reaching impacts of austerity politics and presents the main social, economic and political arguments to counter it.