Saturday, October 27, 2012

Italians Take to Street to Protest Against Technocrat (and Goldman Alum) Prime Minister Monti


Organizers say 100,000. Reuters say "tens of thousands", which is one order of magnitude bigger than the customary "thousands" when the media reports any protest anywhere in the world.

Despite a minor recent setback of having been sentenced to 4 years in prison for tax fraud (and not likely to ever be in jail anyway), Silvio Berlusconi vows to take down the unelected prime minister who was installed by the EU troica of IMF, the EU and the ECB.

(Berlusconi's center-right party is part of the Italian coalition that props up the Monti administration, as Reuters reports in a separate article.)

From Reuters (10/27/2012):

Tens of thousands protest against austerity in Rome

(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people marched through Rome in a "No Monti Day" on Saturday, some throwing eggs and spraying graffiti to protest against austerity measures introduced by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's government.

Appointed in November when Italy risked being sucked into the euro zone debt crisis, Monti has pushed through painful tax hikes, spending cuts and a pension overhaul.

"We are here against Monti and his politics, the same politics as all over Europe, that brought Greece to its knees and that is destroying half of Europe, public schools, health care," said demonstrator Giorgio Cremaschi.

Some protesters threw eggs at bank windows and set off firecrackers, but no major incidents were reported.

"United with a Europe that is rebelling. Let's get rid of the Monti government," read one of the banners held at the demonstration.

Unemployment in Italy has risen to 10.7 percent, its highest since monthly records began in 2004, and unions are locked in disputes with companies over plant closures and layoffs. The nation's public debt is running at 126 percent of output, according to the International Monetary Fund.

"It's been years that there have been no investments, instead it's all outsourced and privatized, we are here to say enough and we hope this voice will grow," said another demonstrator, Caterina Fida.

Organizers said more than 100,000 people participated in the demonstration.

Monti says he believes his technocratic government will be remembered for having helped Italy pull itself out of a deep economic crisis without needing to resort to external aid.

Separately, some 20,000 doctors and nurses, wearing their white hospital gowns or uniforms, marked in another section of Rome to protest cuts to the national health service.

"The entire system risks collapse if the cuts continue," one demonstrator said on television.

In another demonstration in northern Italy, a small group of protesters scuffled with police near where Monti was addressing a rally on the theme of family values.


Family values? What could that be? That family members should support each other without the money from the government? (Which is by the way the Japanese way that even the Japanese do not and cannot practice these days.)

7 comments:

Atomfritz said...

Wow, didn't know that Monti is an employee of Goldman Sachs. But this is true.
In the Goldman Annual report 2010 Mario Monti is listed as member of the Board of International Advisers. [*]

And it was also Goldman who helped the Greeks to massage their figures in a way that even the EU statistic authority Eurostat was deceived so that Greece could become a member of the Euro currency at all. [**]

So, according to Le Monde, Goldman wants the ECB, led by the Goldman employee Mario Draghi (currently installed as ECB chief), and supported by the Goldman employee Lukas Papademos (Greek MP) to buy the Italian junk bonds to avoid losing money. [***, ****]

It's a real tragedy that George Washington's warnings against allowing Jews to become US citizens were not heeded: "They work more effectively against us than the enermy's armies. They are a hundred times more dangerous to our liberties and the great cause we are engaged in. It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago has not hunted them down as pests to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America — The Jews." [*****]

*: http://www2.goldmansachs.com/investor-relations/financials/current/annual-reports/2010-ar-pdf-files/GS_AR10_Allpages.pdf
**: http://www.deutsche-mittelstands-nachrichten.de/2011/11/31904/
***: http://dmn.blogformdm.com/2011/11/31177/
****: http://www.presseurop.eu/de/content/article/1177201-goldman-sachs-meint-es-gut-mit-uns
*****: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/repute.htm

Beppe said...

According to the analysis of an american investment bank the main financial problem of the Italian goverment is a massive tax evasion. "Professor" Monti is doing nothing to address this issue. Instead he is cutting on education, healthcare and using the funds of INPS, the national private sector pension fund, to finance the public employees pension fund (INDAP) whose largesse afforded swaths of people a pension after less than 15 years of work. This is just to mention a few items but the list is much longer.
By the way, a 20,000 strong demonstration is not a huge one in Italy -- the largest I recall was 750,000 in Rome (at the time police said we were only 500,000; organizers quoted 1,000,000). Also, Italians can request their goverment to hold legally binding referendums; to request a referendum you need 750,000 signatures on a national basis, less than six times of what was collected in Shizuoka alone.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

Dear atomfritz,
please stop vomiting antiemitic filth on this webpage; I thought you were more intelligent than fishing your text from "biblebelievers.org". Goldman-Sachs is a capitalist institution, not a Jewish conspiracy.

Anonymous said...

>Goldman-Sachs is a capitalist institution, not a Jewish conspiracy.

Depending on who you ask. I remember someone roundly criticized as "antisemitic" on an investment message board for simply mentioning the names of analysts, fund managers and bankers in prominent financial institutions.

Anonymous said...

Putting the blame of the economic crisis on people belonging to a specific religion (Jews here but Christians in other places) makes little sense and can not do anything good.
It also frightfully recalls nazism, which plunged Europe into a horrendous war that brought so much devastation and, more broadly, recalls the pitiful state of affairs of all those places where religion is been used as an excuse to wage war against another country, a domestic minority or a domestic majority (Middle East and beyond).
By the way, Monti is not a Jew, he is Catholic.
Beppe

Anonymous said...

When people in high government offices have close ties to Goldman-Sachs, that's what is worrisome and deserves all our attention, not what religion they practice.

@Beppe at 6:56: Right on with your comment!
*mscharisma*

Anonymous said...

If you haven't seen the documentary "Goldman-Sachs, the bank that rules the world" and if you speak German, you can access it at the following link. A written English description of the documentary is also provided.
http://www.globalmarshallplan.org/en/news/film-tip-goldman-sachs-bank-rules-world-documentary-about-power-and-greed-arte-france
*mscharisma*

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