August 25, 2011—”Black Thursday”—Another huge rally at the Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin to protest the first paycheck where 10-13% pay cuts to public service workers went into effect. Corrupt Gov. Scott Walker and his fascist Republican cronies in the state legislature see these cuts as the first step for an austerity plan for the entire state.
“This day Wisconsin State Employees will receive up to a 13% pay cut courtesy of Gov. Walker. This pay cut does not just impact state workers, but all Wisconsinites. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that wage reductions implemented by Act 10 will cost the state nearly $1 billion in economic activity. Walker and his cronies demand wage cuts for workers while offering massive handouts to corporations and the super-wealthy. Nationally, we are told by both sides of the political aisle that there must be “shared sacrifice” to solve our current fiscal woes. This translates to working people paying for the crisis caused by bankers and Wall Street. Stand with state workers on… to say “Enough!” We have sacrificed, and it is time that the corporate class pay its fair share.” –Scott Walker Watch
“Austerity” programs implemented through the EU countries in Europe have been met with massive resistance and protest by the populace. “Austerity is mainly noticed by a country when its aspects (usually known as 'cuts') are implemented unilaterally and forcibly (a "hatchet job") rather than through a more careful strategy of creeping normalcy wherein such cuts are made to seem reasonable, or at least tolerable. Austerity is usually only referred to by that name when it is part of a sweeping package or packages of reforms that have the openly-admitted effect of great or even complete overhaul of major aspects of a society's socioeconomic core facilities, programs and/or services. Because of this nature, austerity programs in general often are virulently opposed by the populations experiencing them, as they tend to have an impact on the poorest segments of the population…
“Prior to the 2010 European sovereign debt crisis, in many situations, austerity programs were implemented by countries that were previously under dictatorial regimes (e.g., Portugal, Greece, Spain), leading to criticism that the citizens are forced to repay the debts of their oppressors. In Greece, for example, the current austerity measures are popularly viewed as a combination of leftover policies of the 1967-1974 military dictatorship in that country on the one hand, and the "betrayal" of socialist principles by the current parliamentary-majority Panhellenic Socialist Movement on the other hand, due to that party's wholesale enactment of extremely severe austerity measures in the country, which most everyday Greeks conceive of as intensely right-wing in nature, at least when compared to the party's officially-stated core beliefs.
“In the present-day enactments of various "austerity budgets", however, a prior history of dictatorship is not necessarily a precondition for the implementation of such a budget by a given government. Examples of countries implementing severe austerity measures without a history of what the world's mainstream media would typically consider a 'dictatorship', include the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, the latter of which witnessed its housing market completely (rather than partially as elsewhere) collapse, and the Republic eventually appealing for a massive bailout from the International Monetary Fund, "in exchange for" implementation of a very severe austerity programme. The austerity measures and the terms of the IMF bailout became major aspects of the 2008-2011 Irish financial crisis, and popular anger over these issues played a very major role in the loss of governmental power of Fianna Fáil to opposition parties in the 2011 Irish general election…
“Austerity in most European countries, including Spain and Italy—where there have been massive anti-austerity protests, wildcat strikes, and union-organized industrial actions of various types at semi-regular intervals since late 2008, earning for the most part massive worldwide media attention—is by no means limited to what could be the 'expected' areas of the economy that might in theory experience direct penalties as a result of gross mismanagement, such as financial institutions. In fact, financial institutions rarely, if ever, truly receive such 'punishment' by a country's government; austerity-like levies could perfectly well be imposed on them for causing, or helping to cause, the crisis that leads to the austerity measures in the first place, but typically are not. Instead, it is argued (chiefly by people engaging in anti-austerity protests, but also some economists as well) that rather than 'punish' the banks and others truly responsible for the crisis, the government is instead 'punishing' regular people for the 'crimes' of others, namely the 'elite' and/or greedy professional money-handlers engaging in market manipulation”. -Wikipedia on Austerity
