NOVEMBER 10,
2015
Counterpunch.org
In
America, a nascent movement against “politics as usual” or to put it another
way, “anything other than the establishment” is reflected by the popularity of
weird, offbeat presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Ben Carson. This
looming national mood reflects a provocative anti-establishmentarianism,
targeting exploitative and repressive neoliberal governmental policies.
But, America’s fledgling anti-establishmentarianism is
relatively negligible when compared to the worldwide movement, which is gathering
momentum by the month, by the year. It is now officially worldwide, as acrimony
turns outrageously furious when people hit the streets.
Capitalists should be concerned. After all, neoliberal
principles have effectively removed working people from upward mobility,
noticeably into a downward spiral, in the context of “winner takes all
economics.”
Now that neoliberal policies of 35 years have pulled the rug out
from underneath workers of the world, intensity of street protests increases,
portending a dark future of massive uncontrollable demonstrations, bringing
down the walls. It’s happened time and again throughout history, the French
Revolution (1789) and the Russian Revolution (1917) are but two prime examples
of street anger taking heads, bodies, leaving behind twisted souls.
For example, Central London erupted into massive street protests
on November 5th as chants of “One Solution: Revolution” rang throughout
highbrow Great George Street, within iconic Trafalgar Square, along opulent
Regent Street and in front of royal Buckingham Palace. Guy Fawkes’ image was
omnipresent, an anachronism of the failed Gunpowder Plot of November 5th1605
when Fawkes and co-conspirators intended to assassinate King James I in order
to restore a Catholic monarch.
According to the BBC: “The Million Mask March was organized by
Anonymous to hit back at austerity measures and perceived inequality brought
about by the government,” Million Mask March: Three Police Officers Treated in
Hospital, BBC News, Nov. 6, 2015.
Today, Guy Fawkes’ mask, a top seller thru Amazon but banned in
Bahrain and United Arab Emirates, exemplifies the mask worn by “V” in the comic
book series “V for Vendetta,” battling against a fictional fascist English
state.
But, nowadays, the fictional fascist English state is not
fiction. As far as protestors are concerned, it’s the real thing, real fascism
thru and thru, as fascism engages rampant capitalism, similar in many respects
to Italy and Germany, circa 1930s.
The Daily Mail claims: “Thousands of masked anti-capitalist
demonstrators descended on central London for a bonfire night protest.” Yes,
today’s brand of capitalism or neoliberalism is under fire; it is disliked and
an incendiary-provoking force. Signage reading “No More Cuts” clearly
references austerity measures enforced in Mediterranean countries, like Greece,
Italy, and Spain, as well as the UK and throughout Europe and coming to
America.
After all, when economies fail to provide solutions for everyday
common livelihood, and especially when banks bleed at the gills, societal
government programs shudder, knowing they’ll lose their heads, figuratively the
heart and soul of well-being. The big axe is dropped, cutting social programs
that heretofore rescued masses from destitution, infirmity, and vagabondage.
Everywhere all across the world, parks, alleyways, and streets
have never been so full of downcast stares. A supercharged capitalism, or 21st
century neoliberalism, stiffly serves as the root behind downtrodden spooky
forlornness, reflected within the saucy and witty, slightly sinister, smile of
Guy Fawkes’ impressionistic mask.
Why all of the fuss? One logical answer is that nation-state
policies and borders no longer protect jobs, as wages are forced to compete
amongst the world’s most humble from shore to shore. As it happens, and
ironically, neoliberal principles, over time, inadvertently kill capitalism as
workers of the world are cut off at the knees, prompting ever-growing
demonstrations, which can only lead to class warfare. Ultimately, it happens
when too few exploit too many.
London street protestors squarely aim insults at the destruction
of civil liberties, and creation of a surveillance state, and governmental
disregard for the poor, the elderly, and the disabled summarily crushed by
austerity measures to save the treasury that saved the bank.
Protestors in London hoist a coffin full of money through the
streets, not so subtly suggesting “death to the moneyed class.”
Indeed back in 2014, the Million Mask March conducted in 481
cities was acclaimed as the largest ever protest against capitalism. Anonymous,
the central organizer of the Million Mask March is closely identified with
Occupy protests, Wikileaks, and the Arab Spring.
Purportedly, Anonymous is a loose and leaderless movement that
makes a virtue out of dissent. Curiously, a leader is not required for
increasingly large street protests. People just show up.
Setting new records in 2015, protestors hit the streets in over
670 cities, a brisk 40% increase in only twelve months, but without any of the
fanfare reserved for publication by establishment media, which is likely a
major misjudgment, likely a big mistake by not forewarning the capital class of
imminent danger, as a result of blowback from brutal neoliberalism.
The uprisings bring questions to mind. Why are so many people
inspired to hit the streets, an uncomfortable endeavor indeed, risking life and
limb with each step into quasi-war-zone streets filled with angry strangers?
Why do it?
By all appearances, frustration is the primary motivation,
similar to what happened in late 18th century France when ordinary folks took
up sticks, stones, pitchforks, and eventually guillotines to behead any and all
wearing fine garments. Not only a king and a queen but snooty, pompous
aristocrats and men of cloth and entire families lost heads, 16,594 guillotined
in one of the world’s most powerful prototypes of anti-establishmentarianism.
Yesteryear’s Versailles is today’s gated community, similarly
rich in splendorous golden touches of design with refined comfy features at
odds with all but each other, whilst casually ignorant of compassion, other
than “trophy donations,” for those in distress. Gates keep them out.
Meanwhile, the streets, sans restraining gates, become the stage
upon which public seething comes to life, as a cascade of smoldering anger and
deep frustration flash danger signals to the select few beneficiaries of
neoliberalism, but nobody is watching or listening or caring, yet.
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