EYFA NETWORK NEWS! December 2008

EYFA newsletter is a tool to spread information on campaigns, actions,
meetings and convergence happening around Europe and beyond. Info is
forwarded to our network e-list and to network partners and contacts.
Please send us info <eyfaATeyfa.org> if you have news to be spread.
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. on The Crisis

No, not a newsletter on the food or water crisis. Not on the energy crisis
nor on the climate crisis or the social crisis. We close off the year
with the
financial and economical crisis!! Is it a bad thing? Is it a good thing?
And is
it an opportunity for radical transformation?

**Contents

1. Credit Crunch
2. Saving Iceland's savings
3. Apokapitalism now!
4. New deals
5. Alternative solutions
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1. Credit Crunch

OK, in short: The capitalist sysem is based on the ideology that profit
leads to investments leads to growth leads to progress. Accumulation
of capital is understood here as the engine of growth. New investments
need to be made constantly to keep the engine running. Investments
are done in real capital goods on the expectation of profit but since the
70s capital sees no ways to put made profit into new investments in
order to expand. The standard of profit and economic growth was
temporarily maintained though by moving production lines in the 80s
and 90s to countries where salaries are low. Then capital thought to put
its investments in more short term projects based on speculation, also
referred to as "casino capitalism". Profit is here made more and more
via transactions in financial circuits rather then in trade or in real
goods.

This virtual economy kept expanding but was a soap bubble about to
pop. Money was no longer going around to finance trade and the
production of goods and lost its basal function within the financial
system.
As with all bubbles it took more and more money to make a return.
Taking it so far that banks had to stop giving out big loans (credit) – a
Credit Crunch – and went bankrupt.

Or for a more extensive and critical analysis' see:

_http://www.indypendent.org/2008/10/02/how-to-wreck-the-economy
http://www.greatrecession.info <http://www.greatrecession.info/>_
_http://casinocrash.org/?page_id=222_
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2. Saving Iceland's savings

Due to the financial crisis and the collapse of the Icelandic banks the
activists of the Saving Iceland environmental campaign get their well
deserved break. The construction of the Alcoa's aluminum smelter in
Straumsvik will be delayed for the next years. The construction of the
dam in the Tungnaá river as an expansion of the smelter is now also
uncertain due to the lack of financing. See _http://savingiceland.org
<http://savingiceland.org/>_

Did we say a break? For more than 2 months Iceland's has seen weekly
massive demonstrations and actions. The three major Icelandic banks
have been nationalized, putting the debt on the people's shoulders.
People have lost their lifelong savings, lost their jobs, and are facing
the
threat of losing their houses. The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
has granted a loan to Iceland. But as with all IMF loans it comes, most
likely, with a set of neoliberal measures, privatizing health care and
education and destroying Iceland's wilderness. Protesters not so much
ask the current government to resign nor plea for new elections; they
demand a radical transformation and an end to capitalism now!

See _http://aftaka.org/2008/12/12/direct-action-in-iceland_

And what does Björk think of this all:

_http://savingiceland.puscii.nl/?p=3514&language=en
<http://savingiceland.puscii.nl/?p=3514&language=en>_
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3. Apokapitalism Now!

Governments are pumping billions into the big banks to prevent the
financial system from a total collapse. After three decades of privati-
zation, we are back at regulation and nationalization. The fact that this
is paid by people's tax money does not mean that they get any more
control over the banks. Top managers still claim their x-mass bonuses
in millions of euros.

Fed-up people in Greece got rid of all the banks by burning them to
the ground. For a timeline of events in Greece:
_http://balkans.puscii.nl <http://balkans.puscii.nl/>_

Horrible scenes in Amsterdam while bankers go berserk in search of
money:

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Anjv95eKE_

_http://indymedia.nl/nl/2008/10/55457.shtml_
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4. New deals

The car industry is in major crisis. America's General Motors, that brought
us the most polluting SUV's, sacks its workers (a major social crisis).
Under pressure of the unions Obama promises a rescue plan for the
company. You would think that in light of an energy crisis and a climate
crisis rejuvanating this dirty industry is not the answer. In order to
plead
for public funds the three CEO's of GM, Ford and Chrysler flew from
Detroit to Washington to discuss the rescue plan. Each in their own
private jet.

_http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Wallstreet/story?id=6285739&page=1
<http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Wallstreet/story?id=6285739&page=1>_

Meanwhile UN leaders talk of a "Green New Deal" - named after the
"New Deal" implemented after the depression of the 1930's to help set
up the world economy and stimulate growth. The green economy should
provide a new engine for economic growth, create jobs and decrease
poverty, by investing in environmentaly sustainable solutions.

But what constitutes 'green' here? Are huge plantations for agrofuels
green? Is nuclear energy green? Is this the new economy that we want
or is it the same old market? Plus the question if our planet has the raw
materials for all these alternatives and whether it can handle more
economic growth. More growth is not sustainable and solutions can only
lie in reduction in our use of energy and in our consumption habits. We
need to shrink! As long as growth and profit stay the pillars of our
economy this planet is doomed.

At the end of November 2009 world leaders will come together in
Copenhagen for COP15 – the UN climate summit. The Kyoto protocol
adopted in 1997 will be followed up by a new environmental treaty.
Climate change has put us up with a hard deadline. Ten years after Seattle
the movement needs to bring its demands for real change to Copenhagen.
_http://climateaction09.org <http://climateaction09.org/>_
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5. Alternative solutions

At a congress two weeks ago in Amsterdam titled 'Left and the Crisis' a
Socialist Party member was asked what their response is to the crisis.
Fairly
it came down to staying seated on your ass while smirking a 'I told you
so'.
Looking at history we can see that every crisis is grasped by capitalism
and
its elites as a window of opportunity.
Read for example _http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine_ .
So we can't stay on our asses and wait for capitalism to reform itself
again.
Real change can and needs to be pushed now.

An initial response from individuals, social movements and non-governmental
organisations in support of a transitional program for radical economic
transformation Beijing, 15 October 2008. Includes a long list of concrete
action proposals mostly on a macro-level: _http://casinocrash.org/?p=235_

On a more grassroots level:

Communities taking it in their own hands:

_http://www.transitiontowns.org <http://www.transitiontowns.org/>_

Alternative currencies:

LETSystems: _http://www.gmlets.u-net.com <http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/>

_

Open Money projects: _http://www.openmoney.org <http://www.openmoney.org/>_

Participatory Economics: _http://eng.anarchopedia.org/Parecon_

Anarchist perspective(s) on economics:

_http://eng.anarchopedia.org/Anarchist_economics_

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Published electronically by EYFA.

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