The crisis has worsened in Hego Euskal Herria in 2013, and hence it was believed that the reasons for the protest are more forceful. That may be the case, but it has not been reflected in the last day of general strike, the convening of the Basque trade union majority has had the same response as the previous ones and perhaps with a downward trend, at least as far as the strike is concerned. In mobilizations, the response remains high and thousands of citizens go out into the streets. Forecasts suggest that the situation in 2014 will worsen for the majority of the population, but it will be difficult to see next year other general calls for strike by the Basque trade union majority, demands for protest and alternatives should be based on alternative responses.
That does not mean that there is no reason to protest, to claim other types of economic policies, but it does mean that the form of the annual general strike has probably been found at its own border. And it means that only the street is not enough, there is complicity among all those who want to get away from the bad model of cutting in the street and in the institutions. And in this context comes the lehendakari Urkullu, which calls for a global agreement to deal with the crisis that, according to many sources, can materialise with the PSE. If it is contrary to the model of cutting, it will have support, but the attitudes that have been done so far do not suggest it, among other things because the basis or proposals of these agreements are not explained to the citizen: What kind of tax reform is going to be done? If indebtedness increases, where do we spend it? Can financial institutions be encouraged to offer the loan in a reasonable way? What are the measures to shield social spending? How will the social economy be boosted? Where are the limits for investing in large infrastructures? What tools do the Basque institutions have to better respond to the crisis? What are they missing? Short-term responses.
And you'll need strong answers, because the size of the deal will also be. By making the deficit more flexible, the European Union has opened up a little the door to government indebtedness, but what comes in return is not a joke: more cuts, more tax pressure on citizenship, another labour reform and, among other things, a profound reform of pensions to reduce them. It is clear that the welfare state will continue to destroy, and at the moment, our top leaders need to recognize that this is happening and that this does not come as a laugh or an earthquake, that behind there are concrete reasons and claras.La current
crisis comes from the hand of finance, where the consensus is broad, began in summer 2007 in the United States and then spread to the whole world, mainly to developed countries, and especially to Europe. The explosions of the financial, insurance and real estate bubbles occurred at the same time and the monetary size of the measure is given by the following US data: The value of financial derivative risks in the books of Wall Street companies at the end of 2007 was $183 trillion, 13 times the size of the US economy.
The US Federal Government responded to the financial crisis by spending $700,000 million (EUR 3 trillion in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). The rescue was based on two ideas: banks are too big to drop and they are going to open the source of the loan in the real economy. And measures would be taken to control the financial world. But none of that happened. The entity’s inspector general (TARP) who controlled the flow of money from the public source to private banking, Neil M. Barosfsky acknowledged the failure of the operation in 2011: “Large banks are 20% larger than before the crisis and control a large part of our economy” (For the sake of empire. Josep Fontana). In July 2011, the Market Watch organization estimated that derivatives in the U.S. financial world had a value of 248 billion dollars, more than before the crisis.
Then came the United Kingdom, Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Italy… in the bailouts of banks, as well as governments investing more or less money, all with similar processes. What has been done, in general, to control the financial world? They are forced to increase their funds, the size of the bank is equal or larger and there is no flow of loans. But of all that is said little already, governments are silent, as if someone ordered them what can be done and what can't. And in the meantime, what does the mirror of the United States show? That financial institutions are stronger than before the crisis, the citizens are poorer and the rich are richer. It is Urkullu’s great agreement that has to be fought.