Thousands in Italy march in austerity protests
Reuters: Thousands participated in austerity protests in Rome on Saturday.
Italy is in the midst of its longest recession since 1970 and unemployment is close to record highs, with young people being hit particularly hard with a 38% jobless rate. Approval rates for the government have dropped from 43% to 34% in the last month.
Photo: Demonstrators applaud during the left-wing Italian metalworkers’ union FIOM rally in downtown Rome’s Piazza San Giovanni on Saturday. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP - Getty Images)
The last few years have left many in the European Union dubious of not only the hardships that austerity policies often visit on countries, but also of its practical efficacy, or lack thereof. This will be a paramount issue for the incoming coalition government in Italy.
REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Andrew Johnson/Handout
The U.S. Navy’s renowned flight demonstration squadron has cancelled its flying season due to federal spending cuts.
On the downside, no more fancy Blue Angels for you fans of fancy air shows. On the upside, a little peace and quiet come Fleet Week time for the rest of us.
Rage against austerity: Violent clashes erupt in Spain, Greece goes on strike
(Photo: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty Images)
Dozens of anti-austerity protesters were arrested after violent clashes in Spain on Tuesday and riot police were on standby in Greece as workers walked off their jobs on Wednesday over the European Union’s policy of imposing austerity on countries mired in debt.
Spanish police told The Associated Press that 38 people were arrested and 64 people injured when officers clashed with protesters demonstrating against cutbacks and tax hikes.
Greek ADEDY labor group member Despoina Spanou makes this sound like a long-term protest: “We call on everyone to take part in the strike and resist the austerity measures that hurt Greek people and the economy. This strike is only the beginning in our fight.”
» A coalition to keep austerity measures alive: The vote in Greece ensures that the two parties that are most likely to support austerity measures — New Democracy and the once-powerful PASOK, which will likely form a coalition with New Democracy to ensure a majority — will be able to keep those measures in place. That’s despite the measures’ widespread unpopularity and extremely high unemployment. The two parties together would hold 162 of the country’s 300 seats in parliament. That said, the elections, which took two tries to get right, were seen as a coming-out party for the far-left Syriza, which was only a minor party as recently as 2009. ”Very soon, the Left will be in power,” said Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, in a concession speech. ”We begin the fight again tomorrow.”
Follow ShortFormBlog • Find us on Twitter & Facebook
Journalists in crisis-hit Greece have gone on strike to protest pay cuts, rising unemployment, and to press for the signing of new collective wage contracts.
The 24-hour strike stopped all TV and radio news broadcasts Monday, while most internet news portals were not updating their content. No newspapers will be published Tuesday.
Could you imagine if the news just … stopped one day? Not just one newspaper — but nearly all of them? Pretty crazy. Best of luck to the journalists who put themselves on the line today.
Follow ShortFormBlog • Find us on Twitter & Facebook
The Greek government has a new problem: A potential martyr. A 77-year-old man who recently recently shot and killed himself in Athens’ Syntagma Square has become a symbol for anti-austerity activists, leading to heavy protests Wednesday, including chants like ”this was no suicide, it was a state-perpetrated murder.” Greece, rocked by a tough state of austerity, has unemployment at 21 percent — higher for young people — and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost. (Photo: People gather at the site of the man’s shooting. Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)
Papandreou’s office says “next week is particularly crucial” to the country’s next bailout. The debt crisis is also so bad that a guy lit himself on fire yesterday because he couldn’t renegotiate his loan.
The only winners here are jaded cynics like us who can make jokes about stories like these. And car companies. And rich people.
Wrote a thing.
Hat tip to this headline writer.
Congrats Tumblr!
Don’t screw this up Yahoo.
In 2007, I was...
I started tumblr when I was at one of the lowest points of...
Exclusive: How the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the...
This graph, courtesy of the New York Times, has been making the rounds today, and it’s worth examining. Note that health care reform, much-maligned by the right as deficit-killer, cost less than even the most inexpensive of George W. Bush’s policies (that policy being Medicare Part D). Note also that the Bush tax cuts alone added more to the deficit than all of President Obama’s new policies combined — and that’s including projected spending over the course of a theoretical second term. source
We know that if tasty and nutritious meals featuring peas are served more frequently in the White House and in the cafeterias of both Houses of Congress, it will contribute to a balanced diet, if not a balanced budget.Pete Klaiber, director of marketing for the USA Dry Pea and Lentil Council (which, surprisingly, exists) • Klaiber is reacting to the President’s comment this morning that we Americans need to “pull off the Band-Aid [and] eat our peas.” The President was being metaphorical, referring to harsh-but-necessary budget cuts and austerity measures, but you gotta give the DPLC creativity points for spotting this as an opportunity to push their pro-pea message. source (via • follow)
Tumult, violence in Greece: Passions continue to run hot in Greece after the party-line vote in favor of a harsh new set of austerity measures — the new tax burden placed on minimum wage earners, in particular, has inflamed swaths of the public against the plan. Protests had been increasingly violent leading up to the vote, and have sustained after the plan’s passage — police have responded with teargas attacks on the protesting crowds. As always, we hope people find a way to keep themselves safe in all this. source
The new face of the Fund: The International Monetary Fund’s hunt for a new managing director (in the wake of rape allegations against former leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn) has come to an end, and Christine Lagarde is the winner. Lagarde is currently a French Finance Minister (meaning the European grip on this position will continue), and will begin a five-year term as the IMF head on July 5th. Her first comments of relevance since the announcement, predictably, were about Greece: “If I have one message tonight about Greece, it is to call on the Greek political opposition to support the party that is currently in power in a spirit of national unity.” Translation: I’d really like you all to get going with this unpopular austerity plan, sooner rather than later. (photo via the World Economic Forum’s Flickr page) source
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
