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The comrades from Lille and Boulogne-sur-Mer of the OCL invite you to a debate on Saturday, March 21st, at 3 pm at Anamorphose, 48 rue du Long Pot in Lille. Spread the word! ---- Belgium is experiencing a large-scale social movement, considered by many to be the most significant in 40 years. In just a few months of the "Arizona" coalition government (1) led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Belgians have been subjected to a full-scale attack on their social "achievements," which we in France have endured for several decades now. The rhetoric is always the same: the emergence of the "problem" of public debt; the need to make savings, initially 20 billion euros; massive neoliberal attacks on labor such as: limiting unemployment benefits; eliminating special pension schemes; and aligning the public sector with the private sector. The lengthening of working days and weeks (up to 12 hours/day and 50 hours/week) while wage indexation is capped, etc.
A man goes to the doctor. He tells him he's depressed, that life seems harsh and cruel. He tells him he feels alone in a threatening world. The doctor says, "The cure is simple. The great clown Vannacci is in town. Go see him. He should cheer you up." The man bursts into tears. "But, doctor, he says, 'I'm Vannacci.'"
(free paraphrase of the joke told by Rorschach in the pages of Watchmen, Alan Moore's comic book, and in the eponymous film based on the comic book)