Vickie Cooper en David Whyte hebben een boek over deze inhumane bezuinigingen geschreven, onder de titel 'The Violence of Austerity'. Dat geweld zien de schrijvers bijvoorbeeld in het grote aantal huisuitzettingen, die velen al niet meer opvallen, het is 'een normaal verschijnsel' in de Britse straten geworden...... Zoals ook daklozen, de voedselbanken, bedelen en de suïcide epidemie 'een normaal verschijnsel' zijn geworden in de Britse straten (hetzelfde geldt overigens voor Nederland: leve het ijskoude, inhumane neoliberalisme!!)........
De onderlaag werd en wordt onevenredig hard geraakt met deze bezuinigingen. Verder wijst men in het boek op de vernederingen en degradatie die kinderen ten deel vallen, waarmee deze kinderen gestigmatiseerd worden (armoede zorgt bij kinderen voor een trauma, dat ze hun leven lang niet meer kwijt raken..).
Dagelijks gaan in GB meer dan 4 miljoen kinderen met honger naar school, waar men deze kinderen van voedsel voorziet...... Niet de situatie thuis wordt verbeterd, maar het gevolg van die armoede wordt met een pleister weggeplakt, een pleister die voor alle andere kinderen duidelijk zichtbaar is en waarmee ze hun onfortuinlijke leeftijdsgenoten pesten......... In de vakanties lijden deze kinderen dus 'gewoon' honger en dat anno 2017 in een rijk westers land........
Twee andere schrijvers, David Stuckler en Sanjay Basu stelden in hun boek 'The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills?', dat wanneer men bezuinigingen zou onderzoeken als medicijnen, deze zouden worden afgekeurd..............
U begrijpt dat er niet veel uitleg nodig is, om aan te tonen, dat deze bezuinigingen op den duur, door misdaad, frustraties, geweld enz, de maatschappij een veelvoud zullen kosten, dan de opbrengsten die werden behaald met deze bezuinigingen (tenzij men ommuurde getto's creëert, waar de onderlaag van de maatschappij wordt opgesloten, veel westerse politiekorpsen 'lopen al stage in Israël, om zo te leren, hoe men getto's in de hand kan houden en 'terreur' tegen kan gaan, 'terreur' veroorzaakt door ongebreidelde overheidsterreur....)..... Al moet ik toegeven dat mensen die zich uit wanhoop het leven hebben benomen, in de toekomst geen cent meer kosten en niet in opstand zullen komen.......
Het volgende artikel komt van the Canary:
An eye-opening book has given the Tories’ austerity programme a whole new meaning
Austerity
has been at the heart of politics in the UK since the 2008 global
financial crash; in particular since the Conservative party took
control in 2010.
And
the book The
Violence of Austerity from
Pluto Press persuasively shows why. Through its collection of essays,
editors Vickie Cooper and David Whyte argue that [p.2]:
People most affected by austerity cuts are not only struggling under the financial strain but are becoming ill, physically and emotionally, and many are dying.
The
book lays out how the government justifies its “violent” policy;
who the policy affects and its impact; and it presents what really
lies behind the neoliberal agenda of austerity and how we can oppose
it.
Chillingly normal
One
thing the book comments on is how violence occurs through apparently
harmless forms [p.3]:
The routine order and administration involved in, for example, seeking asylum or determining whether a person is legally homeless can have lasting and damaging effects whereby the failure to properly support people exacerbates and reproduces other violent circumstances in their lives. These routine administration practices are not always identified as violent; but they are.
It
argues that the way violence is carried out through legitimate means,
makes it seem normal [p.24]:
Perhaps we have become so accustomed to the ease with which people are evicted and become homeless, or to the food banks, the street-begging and the epidemics in suicides, that we do not make the most obvious observations: that the age that we live in is one in which the political violence of the state is becoming normalised.
And
because of this normalisation, people don’t always see the
violence.
Four-part exploration
The
book explores how violence has occurred in four parts.
In
Part I, Deadly
Welfare,
the book looks at groups of people unduly hit by austerity. It also
highlights how government work programmes can enable employers to
ruthlessly exploit unpaid volunteers. But soaring suicide rates show
the worst impact of austerity, which has been on mental health.
Part
II walks through how austerity has amplified poverty. And it points
to some very visible examples, such as the rising number of food
banks. It touches on non-tangible impacts such as the stigma of
poverty, which is also discussed in Chapter Six of Part I, The
Degradation and Humiliation of Young People.
And the “othering” in the media has made this stigma worse. These
are all signs, the book argues, of symbolic violence.
Parts
II and III present an overview of how state regulation and state
control is slowly erasing social protections; while taking the means
to oppose austerity out of public control. For instance, the
shrinking social housing stock and lack of rent controls have led to
a violent process of evictions. And law enforcement are now policing
peaceful protestors by using counter-terrorism methods. Austerity is
also no longer just a policy, its been turned into law, forcing local
authority actors to carry out its violent agenda [p.185]:
Law-sterity always involves the threat of the state imposing fines upon local government officials, which can ultimately lead to prison sentences.
The neoliberal agenda of austerity and what to do about it
Mary
O’Hara, who authors the first chapter, quotes David Stuckler and
Sanjay Basu who wrote the book The
Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills?.
They wrote in The
New York Times saying:
If austerity were tested like medication in a clinical trial, it would have been stopped long ago…
But
the government remains committed to its austerity agenda. The editors
say its motive is to stabilise the economy in a way that
benefits the rich. It does this by growing inequality and
privatisation, which will end in the permanent disassembly of
the state.
This
is not something that members of the public have to accept however.
The book notes examples where countries have rejected austerity, like
Iceland, which happened on the back of public protest. And activists
have taken many successful legal actions against the government due
to its unreasonable measures.
The
book is enlightening and an education. And it’s a very accessible
read, so that ultimately
the violence of austerity is plain to see.
Get
Involved!
Featured
image via Flickr
Become a Canary member to support fearless independent journalism
- TAGS
==========================
Zie
ook: 'The
Tories just gave £40m to their mates to cover up a crisis they
created'
en: 'Tory rebel knives are drawn against Theresa May as they claim ‘She’ll f*** up again’'
en: 'The Government’s latest planned NHS cuts will cost people at least £7,000 a year'
en: 'Tory partij (premier May) lekt als een incontinente windhond die de jaarvoorraad aan Red Bull heeft opgedronken.........'
en: 'Tory rebel knives are drawn against Theresa May as they claim ‘She’ll f*** up again’'
en: 'The Government’s latest planned NHS cuts will cost people at least £7,000 a year'
en: 'Tory partij (premier May) lekt als een incontinente windhond die de jaarvoorraad aan Red Bull heeft opgedronken.........'
en: 'Theresa May hoort in de gevangenis, aldus ex-Tory lid Reynolds'
