[Marxism] "A New Age of Rebellion"

[Jay Moore]

January 21, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article5559773.ece


  World Agenda: riots in Iceland, Latvia and Bulgaria are a sign of
  things to come


    Our third global political column explores the start of an age of
    rebellion over the financial crisis - beginning in Iceland

Icelanders vented their fury at the political class's handling of the 
financial crisis by staging angry protests in Reykjavik

Icelanders all but stormed their Parliament last night. It was the first 
session of the chamber after what might appear to be an unusually long 
Christmas break.

Ordinary islanders were determined to vent their fury at the way that 
the political class had allowed the country to slip towards bankruptcy. 
The building was splattered with paint and yoghurt, the crowd yelled and 
banged pans, fired rockets at the windows and lit a bonfire in front of 
the main door. Riot police moved in.

Now in the grand sweep of the current crisis, a riot on a piece of 
volcanic rock in the north Atlantic may not seem to add up to much. But 
it is a sign of things to come: a new age of rebellion.

The financial meltdown has become part of the real economy and is now 
beginning to shape real politics. More and more citizens on the edge of 
the global crisis are taking to the streets. Bulgaria has been gripped 
this month by its worst riots since 1997 when street power helped to 
topple a Socialist government. Now Socialists are at the helm again and 
are having to fend off popular protests about government incompetence 
and corruption.

In Latvia – where growth has been in double-digit figures for years – 
anger is bubbling over at official mismanagement. GDP is expected to 
contract by 5 per cent this year; salaries will be cut; unemployment 
will rise. Last week, in a country where demonstrators usually just sing 
and then go home, 10,000 people besieged parliament.

Iceland, Bulgaria, Latvia: these are not natural protest cultures. 
Something is going amiss.

The LSE economist Robert Wade – addressing a protest meeting in 
Reykjavik’s cinema – recently warned that the world was approaching a 
new tipping point. Starting from March-May 2009, we can expect 
large-scale civil unrest, he said. “It will be caused by the rise of 
general awareness throughout Europe, America and Asia that hundreds of 
millions of people in rich and poor countries are experiencing rapidly 
falling consumption standards; that the crisis is getting worse not 
better; and that it has escaped the control of public authorities, 
national and international.”

Ukraine could be the next to go. The gas pricing deal agreed with Moscow 
could propel the country towards a serious financial crisis. Russia, 
too, is looking wobbly. A riot in Vladivostok may have been an omen for 
things to come. What will happen when the wider economic crisis 
translates into higher food prices? Or if Gazprom has no choice but to 
increase domestic gas prices?

Governments have so far managed to deflect attention from their role in 
the crash, their slipshod monitoring, by declaring themselves to be 
indispensible to the solution. This may save the skins of politicians in 
wealthier countries who can credibly and expensively try to prop up 
banks and sickly industries. But it does not work in countries that are 
heavily indebted, with bloated and exposed financial sectors. There, the 
irate crowds are already beginning to demand: why hasn’t a single 
politician resigned? What has happened to ministerial responsibility? 
Who will investigate government failure?

Good questions, it seems to me, in these unquiet times.