Thread: Drastic social cutbacks unveiled throughout Europe

Drastic social cutbacks unveiled throughout Europe


By Bill Van Auken
WSWS.org
14 May 2010


In the wake of the $1 trillion euro bailout agreement reached at the beginning of this week, governments throughout Europe have unveiled austerity measures that include sweeping attacks on jobs, wages and basic social rights.

It has now become abundantly clear that the nearly $1 trillion package cobbled together by European finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund was not merely aimed at staving off the bankruptcy of Greece and other European Union member states gripped by sovereign debt crises.

It was designed to effect a massive transfer of social wealth from the masses of the population to the international banks and investment firms. And it is to be paid for by compelling governments across the continent to implement the kind of draconian attacks that have brought hundreds of thousands of Greek workers into the streets in strikes and mass protests.

The European bourgeoisie is acting on the cynical adage of “never let a crisis go to waste.â€

The panel is taking aim at so-called entitlement programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Ah, yes, let's pull the rug out from under the poor and elderly, while government officials have gold-plated, lifetime health and welfare benefits.

[b]elimination of a program funding elder care and public funding for prescription drugs. [/b]
Sound familiar???

This is coming for our elderly as well (which is eventually all of us). They will lose benefits LONG before Illegal Alien invaders have all theirs cut...lol

Wealth Redistribution FTL