Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

I'm currently reading The Anti-Austerity Anthology which is written by various UK authors (including a couple of Undergrounders Harry Whitewolf and Rupert Dreyfus) and it's powerful, yet heartbreaking, stuff - as all the authors seem to have experienced poverty or homelessness or similar things where they fell thru the cracks. The book is about standing up for the poor and all book sale proceeds go direct to UK food bank charities (just purchased a copy myself).



I've decided to post the entire intro and foreword to this book here (hopefully the authors/collective won't mind, as I would like others to read this book too and think the foreword in particular written by British journalist Steve Topple is a great advertisement to the 10,000+ members of this group):


The Anti-Austerity Anthology
Introduction

With the United Kingdom currently being the fifth largest economy in the world, it may come as a surprise to learn there were 1,332,952* emergency food supplies delivered by food bank charities to people in the UK between 1st April 2017 and 31st March 2018. Being on a low income is the largest single reason that people in 21st century Britain are forced to go to food banks to be able to feed themselves. With the cost of utility bills and housing increasing, many people cannot afford to make ends meet. In fact, in 2017, there were a staggering 14,000,000** people in the UK living in poverty, which is one in five of the population. That is only the figure for the UK though. It is estimated 767,000,000*** people worldwide are living below the international poverty line. Therefore, all proceeds from this book will be donated to food bank charities. The compilers and contributors would like to thank you for your generosity and encourage you to actively fight poverty both locally and globally.

-The Anti-Austerity Collective


The Anti-Austerity Anthology
Foreword by Steve Topple

Austerity.

It’s debatable whether one word has ever conjured up such anger, disinformation, emotion and opinion than this rather dull noun.

We scream it as an insult at the Conservative Party. We use it as the reasoning behind government cuts to public services. We lament it as the cause of extreme deprivation. And we curse its very existence, because really ‘it’s the bankers wot did it’.

But in reality, austerity is much more than just a policy and a word no one had really heard of until 2010. It’s a cover for an ideological position. One that has its roots in the very structures of society we see around us.

The idea of cutting back public spending in times of perceived economic crisis is nothing new. In modern history, one of the first examples of fiscal austerity was in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. During a period where a two-party political system dominated (ring any bells?), surging national debt, trade deficits, an attempt to return to the gold standard for its currency and political upheaval saw the Japanese administration cut, cut and cut some more its public spending. The result was a 30% drop in GDP, a sustained squeeze on living standards and political chaos.

We saw this pattern repeated in the UK, France and Germany between world wars. Then again in Italy in the early 1950s. And again, in the UK in the mid-to-late 70s. Fast-forward to David Cameron’s election in 2010 and the phrase du jour was “live within our means”. Austerity was sold to the public as a necessity after we bailed out the banks, because ‘we can’t carry on like this’. Government finances were explained to the public as being the same as your household ones; that is, we shouldn’t be borrowing and spending more than we’re actually bringing home in income.

But as Mark Blyth noted in his 2013 book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, this current wave of fiscal slash and burn is the “greatest bait and switch in modern history”. Essentially, Blyth argues that post-2008 austerity has seen corporations and politicians working hand-in-hand to sell a private banking crisis to the public as a sovereign one.

But why?

Political ideologies like the one the UK Conservative Party espouses make no secret of the fact they are driven by the notion of small state coupled with cowboy economics and worshipping at the altar of corporations. Whether you call it neoliberalism, capitalism or corporatism, the principle is the same: that the state should provide minimal support for its citizens. In her book The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein says this is best defined as “corporatism”:

“Its main characteristics are huge transfers of public wealth to private hands, often accompanied by exploding debt, and ever-widening chasm between the dazzling rich and the disposable poor and an aggressive nationalism that justifies bottomless spending on security. For those inside the bubble of extreme wealth created by such an arrangement, there can be no more profitable way to organise a society.”

One of the key phrases in Klein’s statement is “disposable poor”. It is this which is crucial to understanding what drives austerity.

Ever since the earliest civilisations, society has been structured around hierarchies. At the top of these, people live with infinite wealth and power and little social responsibility. Then you have the rest of us at the bottom, living with finite wealth, little power but the burden of social responsibility. From the Egyptians, through the Romans and the Tudors, to Victorian and Edwardian times right up to present day corporatism, these social constructs and their principles remain the same. The illness doesn’t change, it’s the symptoms which merely fluctuate.

What drives modern day thinking by the rich and powerful is similar to what we saw from Victorian times through to WWII: the notion of the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor. That is, if you’re at the bottom of society but willing to play the game according to the rules of the rich, then you’ll be allowed to quietly live out your existence in relative hardship and halfshackles. But if you’re not, or your existence is not useful to the rich and their systems of power, then you’re the “disposable poor”, as Klein put it. Nota bene the constant attacks on the welfare state in the UK drawing the UN to conclude that the UK government had committed “grave” and “systematic” violations of disabled people’s human rights, creating a “human catastrophe” for them.

What we are witnessing from neoliberal-capitalistcorporatist governments and the corporations that ultimately govern them is 21st century eugenics, with austerity being a weapon in the armoury. Simple as. The “disposable poor” are not useful, therefore need to be socially eradicated.

It is quantifiable in the UK: the NHS is being slowly privatised, leaving quality healthcare only available to those who can afford to pay; a two-child limit has been imposed on people who receive certain benefits, meaning if they have more offspring the state won’t support them; the welfare state has been eroded to such a level that four UN reports and a Council of Europe one have all said it breaks international treaties and legislation; poverty pay and employer-biased contracts stalk the workplace; social housing has been decimated; homelessness is rampant; state surveillance is out-of-control, and the UK has a complicit media to all this, being ranked 40th by Reporters Without Borders in its World Press Freedom Index.

The rich are slowly eradicating the poor, creating a dystopian vision of society once often imagined in science fiction. The reality of this, though, is contained in the pages of The Anti-Austerity Anthology. In the book you’ll find personal accounts, thoughts and feelings of the attack on the disposable poor. They are brought to you by independent and radical academics, artists, authors and others on the frontline of the war against us. What makes this collection so special is that everyone who has contributed to it, ‘gets it’. Been there, done that, got the corporate t-shirt.

If you take anything from The Anti-Austerity Anthology, it should be this: while the rich and powerful would have it that the rest of us are powerless, we are not. But the challenge facing us is a massive one. Society as we know it needs a species-level paradigm shift if we’re going to save it from ourselves. Current politics (whatever your party affiliation) is merely tinkering around the edges of this. It’s not enough. Humans need a rethink, and quickly. And that can only come from us, the people. So, sit up, take notice and start thinking how you are going to end this once and for all. It starts, in my opinion, with one simple word: no.

No, we’re not taking this anymore.


STEVE TOPPLE

Steve Topple is an independent journalist and broadcaster. He started blogging while living off benefits out of his mum’s spare room, as he couldn’t afford to travel to attend demonstrations, so online action was his only outlet. Having no formal training, he writes from lived experience, with his work focusing on addiction, classism, corporatism, disability, housing, mental health, poverty and sexuality. He is permanently based at the independent media outlet, The Canary, and has regularly written for The Independent, CommonSpace, openDemocracy, the Morning Star and Consented.

“Irresponsible, so-called journalist.” - Baroness Deech, crossbench peer.

“An outrider for disabled people in UK journalism.” - Aaron Bastani, co-founder and senior editor of Novara Media.


The Anti-Austerity Anthology



Economic definition of austerity: difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce public expenditure.

Looks excellent. A must read, I think!

Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future

Jovan wrote: "Looks excellent. A must read, I think!"

Aye, it's an eye opener.

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