#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #News #Journal #Update - (en) Italy, FDCA, IL Cantiere #14: Spain: Analysis of the economic and social situation. State of permanent crisis. Union struggle and action. - CGT Confederal Formation Secretariat(1) (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 There are those who think of crises as an opportunity and those who see the end

of capitalism around every corner. The facts prove it to us, it's not like that,
the capitalist accumulation system, before it dies, will do whatever it takes to
maintain or increase profitability in the form of profit. A historical review of
the crises, which have occurred in the past decades, can help us understand the
mechanisms of capital to maintain and seek to increase its earnings and how this
affects the popular classes. ---- Likewise, some effects could be anticipated by
measures that have already been applied or are on the table. Roughly speaking, we
can divide the causes of the crises between those of a production type, or linked
to demand or even a financial one.

This division must not be considered in watertight compartments, since the
various problems have repercussions on each other, linking together, in times of
crisis, economic, social and/or ecological problems, representing a setback in
the rights and conditions of working class life.

After the Second World War, a period has passed, known as the glorious thirty
years, where capitalism in the West was consolidated under the concept of "good
capitalism". These three decades of the alleged "golden age" of capitalism have
been enough for many "progressive" political currents to take them as a reference
period. If there has been progress on workers' rights and living conditions, they
have always been achieved against the interests of capital and right-wing
politicians, without forgetting that we were emerging from a world war whose
enormous human cost was basically borne by the popular classes . Furthermore, in
the case of Spain,

Over time, this model of development has produced a decline in profitability
while the search for high rates of profit has pushed ferociously to return to a
dynamic of liberalized capitalist reproduction, capable of guaranteeing greater
profitability and unlimited capital.

All this was accompanied by the oil price crisis at the end of the 1970s, by the
problem of energy dependence, by the deindustrialization processes of some
states, such as Spain, as well as by the strong struggles of the working class
against wage stagnation and job insecurity. This context, of global crisis, has
been used to strengthen the most repressive economic policies, which, in general
terms, implied an offensive against class unions, downsizing of the public sector
and the turning of state intervention in favor of the interests of the capital.

Thanks to the impetus and alliance of the governments of Ronald Reagan and
Margaret Thatcher, with the support of the Austrian and Chicago schools, the
foundations of neoliberalism were consolidated. The situation has allowed,
through the doctrine of the shock, the acceptance and generalization of
structural adjustment policies as unique recipes capable of transporting the
"correct" path to all economies.

A set of measures based on five axes: fiscal adjustment based on tax relief
---for entrepreneurs and renters---, trade liberalization, financial sector
liberalization, privatization and labor deregulation. Pillars of Washington's
consensus were structural adjustment programs that were applied not only in the
most developed economies, but also, and were particularly harmful, in the
villages of Latin America and other regions of Africa and East Asia.

During the 1990s, the foundations of neoliberal policies were strengthened, not
only as growth dynamics, but also as adjustment mechanisms and a single cookbook
that allowed economies to "emerge" from the various crises that occurred.

An example of this was the evolution of the Spanish economy during this period
through the speculative growth of the real estate, deindustrialization, market
liberalization, process of massive privatization, flexibility and deregulation of
the labor market.

All this has given rise to a normalization and institutionalization of job
precariousness, of our working and personal life, permanent structural
unemployment and, of course, a decrease in labor rights which has been
instrumental in explaining the current wage reality. An explosive mixture
camouflaged in the spiral of speculative growth that occurred in the early years
of the 21st century, hiding the real economic and social situation with which the
"Spanish miracle" was sustained.

The 2008 crisis represented the great crisis and with it the great shock. The
policies applied by the different governments, of different colors, are framed in
the line of wage adjustment based on three fundamental dimensions: direct wage,
indirect (public goods and services) and deferred (pensions).

Likewise, priority was given to the payment of public debt through the Euro pact
and, ultimately, the state strengthened its policy of defending the interests of
capital above the interests of society. Even if in purely economic terms, the GDP
of the Spanish economy "came out" of the recession in 2014, the truth is that the
economic, social and labor reality we found ourselves in was very far from having
overcome the crisis.

Since 2008, inequalities and poverty have increased through the
institutionalization of precariousness, the weakening of public services and the
abandonment by institutions of protecting workers' interests. At the same time, a
charitable and welfare model has developed as a mechanism for fighting poverty
and social exclusion.

The political response to this crisis has had -and has- an important economic and
social cost.

 From 2010 to 2020, the loss of purchasing power reached 10%. Inequalities and
poverty have continued to increase, reaching the highest levels in the EU, being
the 5th country with the highest inequality and the 4th country with the highest
share of the population at risk of poverty in the EU.

Faced with the precariousness of work, the fragmentation and atomization of the
working class, in addition to the various labor reforms promoted, progress has
been made by weakening collective bargaining. The appearance of in-work poverty
highlights the costs of the policies applied. 13% of the employed population in
Spain, even if working, is below the poverty line. At the same time, polarization
has grown.

A decade after the outbreak of the crisis, large estates have increased by 50%,
according to the Valencian Institute of Economic Investigaciones, and the richest
20% of the population owns 6 times more than the wealth possessed by the poorest
20% of the population.

We have never seen inequality gaps as high as they have been since 2008. A
worrying reality which, unfortunately, has intensified with the arrival of the
pandemic in 2020.

COVID19 according to this Oxfam report, has hit the working class hard again.

The consequences of the policies established during the 2008 crisis brought the
public health system to its knees, which could hardly face the pandemic, as well
as the fragile situation in which we workers found ourselves.

The situation revealed a number of structural problems that required far-reaching
policies that responded to the difficult socio-economic situation of the working
class. The capitalist system has faltered all over the world and the answers were
to ensure the reproduction of the system. Given the size, the different
governments have chosen to approve packages of measures with a different
orientation than those established in previous years. The same international
organizations that defended the suffocating society with cuts to public goods and
services, the devaluation of salaries and the priority of public debt payment,
such as the Troika (European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF) or the
World Bank, have recognized the danger of returning to the same approaches in the
face of this new crisis.

The situation was different, this time there was little room to continue choking
and they decided to inject resources into society to ensure the sustainability of
the system.

The EU has responded with European Next Generation funds to stimulate investment
and consumption, and thus ensure economic growth through demand. However, the
unwillingness to tackle the root problems with far-reaching structural policies
continued to leave out a significant part of society. Despite "efforts" and
policies such as the minimum vital income, in 2021 28% of society in the Spanish
state continued to live at risk of poverty and social exclusion and 571,000
families continued to have no income to contribute to their household . In the
midst of this global earthquake, in September 2021, a new crisis appears with the
growing increase in energy prices which has worsened, in February 2022,

Since then, rising prices for electricity, gas, diesel and petrol, as well as
other commodities such as oil or grain, have increased fears about inflation. All
this caused the world economy and politics to explode once again.

After several months of war and utmost uncertainty, the direct effects on our
economy, that of the working class, are destructive.

The latest data on inflation is around 10% while the conventionally agreed wage
increases are 2.3%. This means more expensive living and a loss of purchasing
power close to 7.7% this year. If we add to all this the rise in interbank
interest rates --- with forecasts of continued growth ---, we find ourselves in a
suffocating situation that will lead families to be unable to pay their mortgage
or rent, to have to do without heating in their homes to not be able to buy basic
foods such as meat, fish, eggs or some types of fruit and vegetables which have
risen in price by more than 14% according to last September's CPI data.

Estimates by the European Commission, the ECB, the OECD and the IMF warn of the
seriousness of this chain of crises. Without going any further, the latest report
from the IMF and the World Bank warns of the risk of an increase in extreme
poverty in the coming months due to the crisis. Similarly, all of these
organizations warn of the economic and social dangers of tax cuts for the highest
incomes, and are also in favor of introducing transitional and exceptional taxes
on large estates to provide a way out of growing impoverishment. This change of
policies in the face of the crisis does not correspond to an ideological change
of these organizations, far from it, but it is the only response ---exceptional
and transitory--that can ensure that the capitalist system continues to function.

In recent years we have seen how capital continues to seek profitability niches
and perhaps the current scenario offers new opportunities to achieve this goal.
For this reason, the leading role of the States has been fundamental in
guaranteeing an increase in profitability, making binding requests, financing
companies, disbursing production aid, assuming risks that capital does not want
to take or even, by approving regulatory frameworks that favor its own needs of
the capital. Crises are moments that have been used to apply economic, political,
and social shock doctrines. History confirms that states have not favored the
working class and over time have done nothing but reduce the incomes of the labor
force against the income of capital.

As CGT we want to denounce the situation in which the working class finds itself.

This new situation provides a gruesome landscape that could make the situation
even worse.

This is why we consider it a priority to recover the struggle in the workplace
and in the neighborhoods: against the degradation of health care, in defense of
education and the public pension system, filling the streets with our
mobilizations and acts of protest, strengthening workers' confidence in the trade
union action and organisation.

An example happened last Saturday, October 15: we took to the streets to fight
against the devaluation and loss of wages, for decent pensions and for the
recovery of labor rights.

One day of vindication and struggle among the many that we would like to plan for
this autumn-winter.

(1) Taken from La Brecha, November 2022 n. 6.
https://informacioncgt.info/la-brecha-06crisis-estado-permanente/

https://www.veliber.org/archivio/IlCantiere/A3/cant_2023_14/files/cant_2023_14.pdf
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