Greece, Ideology, and Social Power

Here is an interesting article from the Economist concerning Greece.

I have been following this situation fairly closely, and although you wouldn't know it from watching the news/or reading the local paper, this situation is one of the key economic problems facing the world today. I believe this situation provides a window into the future and depending on how this situation is dealt with the problems in Greece have the potential to spread rapidly, with (additional) disastrous consequences for poor/working class people around the globe.

The problems in Greece are two fold. Due to its high level of public debt, deficit spending, and a relatively weak economy, Greece is having trouble raising money on world capital markets. The fear is that Greece will be unable to service its debt in the future, leading to a default, and lost profits to all those capitalists/governments who lent Greece money in the first place. In short, Greece is not a good long term investment, and is increasingly unable to finance government operations.

This has lead the Greek government, under pressure from those same world markets as well as the EU, to introduce increasingly draconian measures to curb public spending, and reduce its need to borrow additional money. The list of these measures is quite extensive but it includes among other things huge cuts to the public service (including massive layoffs and in some case up to 25% wage reductions), increasing the retirement age, and significant tax increases. This has lead to both internal duress and mass protests on the part of the Greek people, in addition to endless debate among the EU about how best to deal with this situation, and wether or not to provide some sort of financial relief to the Greek government.

What makes the situation in Greece particularly interesting to me is that it provides an acute example of two of the big problems facing the world today. As well as a remarkably clear example of Capitalist ideology at work. The two problems that the situation in Greece demonstrates are;

1. The erosion of state power, and its ever weakening position visa vie world Capital Markets/Capitalist Power

2. Economic Fatalism, or, ignorance of the economy as a political and social process.

Upon first glance, it seems easy to criticize Greece. Even without employing ethnic stereotypes, and believe me this discourse does play a significant role in the media's coverage of these events, it would seem that comparatively Greece has a relatively developed welfare state and a large public sector, without the economy to back it up. In a sense Greece is living beyond its means. In this discourse these austerity measures are simply a correction. A time for the Greek government to come to its senses and start acting like the rest of us.

However, this "critique" is fundamentally ideologically. It only serves to engage regular people in a fight with each other over table scraps while the rich make 3.6 billion dollars a year to steal from people and drink martinis on Wall Street. Rather than focus on the true nature of the problem, global income disparity of epic proportions, we blame the lazy Greeks for their decadent lifestyle.

And here is the one of the true problems that the Greek situation exemplifies. The various financiers and stock traders of the world have been able to force Greece into enacting policies directly against the interests of their citizens. Greece has been placed in a situation where the interests of private profit and finance capital trump the interests of regular people. The state, maybe just the Greek state but maybe all states, no longer has the ability to govern. Government is now performed by the financial market.

Secondly, if the above quoted article is correct, 2/3rd's of the Greek population support the governments austerity measures. They have bought the line and believe that, as the market dictates, they must pull up their boot straps and soldier on to rebuild their economy, loose the benefits they fought and died for, in the hope that, one day they can once again have the lifestyles the so recently possessed.

The austerity measures being enacted are not the dictates of the market, but rather the direct workings of human beings. The economy is a social process run by, and one would imagine for, people. There is no invisible hand whisking money around by some mystical force but rather the conscious decisions of individuals.

In this case, the people in question are not working for the public good, but rather in the interests of private profit. Explicit in the idea of the economy functioning as a social process is the idea that we can change it. As its only actors, humanity must work to create an economy where the interests of human beings are placed above those of interests rates, and balance sheets.

We have allowed the world to become what it is, and we are the only people who can, working together, change it for the better.

Fredric Jameson in Vancouver, or, Why we can't have World Politics

On Thursday night I was able to attend a lecture by renown literary and cultural theorist Fredric Jameson This was more exciting due to the fact I am in the process of reading his latest book; Valences of the Dialectic. I found the talk very enjoyable; it was clear, concise, and provided a good introduction of Jameson's views on postmodernism (or post-modernity as he would prefer).

To Jameson, post-modernity is a product of the current stage of capitalist development. Post-modern society is a symptom of changes in the mode of production, particularly, the move from industrial/production capitalism to finance capitalism. Also, and I believe very important to an understanding of Jameson's argument, is while these ideas are products of late-capitalism this does not provide us an excuse to dismiss them outright. Rather we need to engage with them dialectically.

Throughout the talk, Jameson gave numerous examples of how post-modernity is represented, in art, politics, and economics, as well as a brief outline of some the key features of post-modernity. One particular idea that he focused on was that of the "singularity." Particularly as it is represented in financial derivatives.

A financial derivative is a combination of financial instruments designed primarily to mitigate risk. (An instrument of instruments!) In this sense derivatives are a singularity. They represent a coming together of financial instruments, at one time, and for one specific purpose. Consequently, they remain next to impossible to regulate as each one is a unique set of relationships designed for a specific purpose. Another example of singularities referenced by Jameson were art installations, which have a similar uniqueness in regards to their position, within time, space, & human understanding.

While the term singularity may be an apt description of Financial derivatives and the kind of relationships currently produced under finance capitalism. It is ultimately unsatisfactory politically. Towards the end of the talk, Jameson discussed the current difficulty we have conceptualising contemporary society in any meaningful way. His evidence of this fact was that we do not properly have a world politics. In a world of globalization, complex one-time only financial instruments, and the immense power of finance capitalism our current conceptual frameworks do not allow us to organize in any meaningful way. In short, we are stuck with the political tools of modernism while trying to effect change in a thoroughly post-modern world.

How then does an awareness of these "singularities" help us in this regard. I would argue that it doesn't. It may provide us with a description of what is going on, but does nothing to assist us in conceptualizing and understanding financial capitalism. I am curious as to whether Jameson believes this task is possible, or even desirable, with his clear distrust of concepts, grand-narratives, and his denial of both universals and particulars.

Hopefully, reading his most recent book will shed some additional light on these matters. However, if Jameson is right, this leaves us with two options. Either contemporary capitalism has become so complicated that we will never be able to conceptualize it in a way that can provoke meaningful change, or, we haven't done it yet and are too busy chasing our tails to proceed on this task in any meaningful way.

Sooooooo....in conclusion, don't chase your tail as you may get bit.

Federal Budget Time

I had planned on doing a rant about the recently proposed federal budget, but as my good friend Andrew has already done it here. I've decided to be more positive.

While, this years federal budget is predictably dour, each year the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives presents an alternative budget which is of late has been a much better read. I like the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, although far from challenging capitalist discourse, they are one of the few mainstream organizations in Canada that offer concrete tangible policy alternatives to the standard neo-liberal line spouted by seemingly everyone. (A surprising fact given their name).

Here are a couple factoids, concerning this years federal budget strait from the CCPA. Remember these the next time Steven Harper says that there is no money to pay for essential social programs:

• Canada is one of the top 15 military spending nations in the world, and our current spending is higher than Cold War levels


• The current budget includes at least $5 billion in corporate tax cuts, even while Canada has some of the lowest corporate tax rates in the OECD.

If you want to read more here is the link to the CCPA's annual "alternative budget. " After reading something like this its amazing to see the lengths that the government goes to not do useful/helpful things and instead focus on reducing the size of government, cutting corporate taxes, and facilitating private profit to maintain its bone headed, ideological, and patently false agenda.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/reports/docs/AFB%202010%20Budget%20in%20Brief.pdf

Also, in a hopelessly bureaucratic vein, I am appalled at the budget documentation provided by the federal government. At the very least they should provide a year over year comparison, as well as a detailed list of expenditures by department/object. This information exists and should be provided to the public. I will hope that it is on its way as I have far to much sympathy for the work involved in preparing this kind of documentation.

Why is Capitalism So Hard to see?

The current state of global capitalism is remarkably strong. To loosely reference Slavoj Zizek, perhaps the best example of this can be seen in the retreat of the term itself from common usage. Capitalism is no longer seen as an economic system, one among many possible methods of organizing society, it is instead taken as a complete given. It is the white of the page rather than the text itself.

The Olympics provided a wonderful example of this op ache nature of capitalist relations. Even as they have been a time of civic celebration at no time has the City of Vancouver been less "public" and more private/capitalist than it was during the Olympics.

VANOC and the IOC managed to exerted near complete control of the public space. Through an immense police presence and strong armed legal tactics they managed to turn Vancouver into one large advertisement for Olympic sponsors . Even the air space has been privatized, as VANOC has managed to fine people for projecting unwanted advertising through air that they "own." Additionally, how much was the security presence necessary to protect us from terrorist threats, or was it designed to keep "undesirable" people out of what was once public space.

However, during the event itself it was remarkably easy to forget these facts. Glossed over by so much nationalist fervor and good time spirit the last thought on any ones mind was the capitalist accumulation and the reinforcement of capital social relations taking place all around them.

We have a long way to go if we hope to enact positive social change in this world. However, step one remains recognizing the world for what it is, and the capitalism system for just that a system; created by people, temporal, and subject to change. The world we live in was created by human beings and can only by changed by human beings. Every day our daily ritual works to reinforce capitalist social relations and until a larger group of people realise this we have no hope of changing it.

One Year of The Concrete Rainforest!

Hey everyone, in celebration of the one year anniversary of this blog. I have decided to republish the first post. It consistent of my rant about a miserable little article by Vancouver City Councilor Geoff Meggs about his perceived impotence in the face of social housing changes.

I hope you enjoy my vitriol and I'd like to thank Mr. Meggs for his continued insipid fo-leftism which has managed to inspire in me enough anger to start this blog which I have been enjoying more and more as the weeks go by.

So here it is a blast from the past.

Hey all my first blog post and that article that inspired me, here is an interesting article from Vancouver City Councilor Geoff Meggs about the upcoming demolition of some of the last affordable housing in Vancouver (89 units at 4500 Fraser)

http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/2009/02/26/frustration-despair-about-affordable-housing/

I am currently shedding a single tear for poor old Geoff and crew who just couldn't do anything to help the people living in these homes and I sincerely hope their upcoming round-table discussion on affordable housing goes great!

Their feigned impotence and glad handing of Vancouver City Council on this matter is vomit inducing. Saying they say they don’t have legal authority to deny the permit when they set the bounds of that legal authority is ridiculous. Similar permits are denied because people don’t have the right number of fancy rocks near their stream beds and salmon wading pools.

The City of Vancouver’s authority in these matters is quite explicitly spelled out in the Vancouver Charter/Local Government Act, so they need not worry about legal authority. Additionally they certainly could of delayed the demolition as Geoff himself pointed out, but alas the “developer would loose to much money”. Which I will leave to speak for itself. Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant, I’ve been reading ever more news about Civic Politics in Vancouver and getting increasingly angry so hopefully there will be more.

Thanks again for reading, and heres hoping for a few more years!

Garbage Changes

Big changes are on the way to how the City of Vancouver deals with its Garbage. In short, if this report gets passed, starting in 2011 garbage collection will only be once every two weeks. Food waste and yard trimmings will be picked up once a week and composted in Richmond. This is part of a larger regional plan to get foodwaste out of the landfill.

As always this will only effect the single family resitential homes. Apartments and the Industrial/Commercial sector remain subject to the ravages of the market at least for now.

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20100304/documents/csbu2.pdf

Alas, I won't say too much about this as various pieces of paper I signed loosly prevent me from doing so, however, I must say personally I think its a good idea. Although it would be smarter to focus on the commercial/industrial sector as they are the bigger offenders. Hrmmmm........