[Marxism] A planet on the brink

[Louis Proyect]

A Planet at the Brink
Will Economic Brushfires Prove Too Virulent to Contain?
By Michael T. Klare

The global economic meltdown has already caused bank failures, 
bankruptcies, plant closings, and foreclosures and will, in the coming 
year, leave many tens of millions unemployed across the planet. But 
another perilous consequence of the crash of 2008 has only recently made 
its appearance: increased civil unrest and ethnic strife. Someday, 
perhaps, war may follow.

As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to 
solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests 
or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including 
government officials, plant managers, landlords, immigrants, and ethnic 
minorities. (The list could, in the future, prove long and unnerving.) 
If the present economic disaster turns into what President Obama has 
referred to as a "lost decade," the result could be a global landscape 
filled with economically-fueled upheavals.

Indeed, if you want to be grimly impressed, hang a world map on your 
wall and start inserting red pins where violent episodes have already 
occurred. Athens (Greece), Longnan (China), Port-au-Prince (Haiti), Riga 
(Latvia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Sofia (Bulgaria), Vilnius (Lithuania), 
and Vladivostok (Russia) would be a start. Many other cities from 
Reykjavik, Paris, Rome, and Zaragoza to Moscow and Dublin have witnessed 
huge protests over rising unemployment and falling wages that remained 
orderly thanks in part to the presence of vast numbers of riot police. 
If you inserted orange pins at these locations -- none as yet in the 
United States -- your map would already look aflame with activity. And 
if you're a gambling man or woman, it's a safe bet that this map will 
soon be far better populated with red and orange pins.

For the most part, such upheavals, even when violent, are likely to 
remain localized in nature, and disorganized enough that government 
forces will be able to bring them under control within days or weeks, 
even if -- as with Athens for six days last December -- urban paralysis 
sets in due to rioting, tear gas, and police cordons. That, at least, 
has been the case so far. It is entirely possible, however, that, as the 
economic crisis worsens, some of these incidents will metastasize into 
far more intense and long-lasting events: armed rebellions, military 
takeovers, civil conflicts, even economically fueled wars between states.

full: 
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175038/michael_klare_a_pandemic_of_economic_violence