The CGT, Economic Crisis, and Political Change

2018 ◽  
pp. 51-74
Author(s):  
George Ross
Focaal ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 (65) ◽  
pp. 147-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Knight

The Greek economic crisis resonates across Europe as synonymous with corruption, poor government, austerity, financial bailouts, civil unrest, and social turmoil. The search for accountability on the local level is entangled with competing rhetorics of persuasion, fear, and complex historical consciousness. Internationally, the Greek crisis is employed as a trope to call for collective mobilization and political change. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Trikala, central Greece, this article outlines how accountability for the Greek economic crisis is understood in local and international arenas. Trikala can be considered a microcosm for the study of the pan-European economic turmoil as the “Greek crisis“ is heralded as a warning on national stages throughout the continent.


Author(s):  
Ignatius Ismanto

<p>The economic crisis that hit Indonesia both in mid-1980s and 1997 has allowed Indonesia to liberalize its economy. Economic liberalization has promoted a deeping of Indonesia’s economic integration into the global capitalist economy. The economic crisis in 1997 not only challanged the economy. The crisis also caused a flourishing of political change: the delegitimizing of an authoritarian regime, the spreading of political liberalization, and the burgeoning of democratization. Decentralization has been adopted as a deepening instrument in promoting democracy. Political pressure for curbing rent seeking activities has been articulated along with the country’s changing economy. Ironically, political liberalization that overhauled the authoritarian structure and power has failed to keep rent seeing activities in check. Rent seeking activities have institutionalized following the country’s changing economy and, therefore, they have been vulnerable to corruption.</p>


Author(s):  
Palmar Alvarez-Blanco

Resumen      Partiendo de la premisa de que no estamos solo ante una crisis económica sino ante una crisis planetaria y de civilización marcada por la desaparición de los derechos humanos y los derechos de la naturaleza, este ensayo revisa el concepto de colonialidad del saber o “colonialismo interno” (Rivera Cusicanqui) junto al de matriz del aprendizaje capitalista como estructura instituyente tanto de la psique colonizadora como de la subalterna y de las relaciones entre ambas y el mundo. En este contexto, propongo pensar el videoactivismo de OVNI [Observatorio de Video no identificado] como posible herramienta cultural emancipadora y de trabajo en un proceso de cambio político.  Abstract      Starting from the premise that we are not dealing with only an economic crisis but also a planetary crisis marked by the disappearance of human and environmental rights, this essay looks at the concepts of colonization of knowledge or “internal colonialization” (Rivera Cusicanqui) alongside with the neo-liberal capitalist model of learning as an institutive structure of the colonizing and the colonized psyche as well as the social relationship between the two of them and the world. In this context, I propose to think the video-activism of OVNI (Observatory of Non-Identified Video) as a possible cultural emancipatory tool and one that can be used in a process of political change. 


1991 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 608-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter H. Smith

Democratization in Latin America took place throughout the 1980s within a context of acute economic crisis, thus posing a sharp challenge to established theory. This essay examines alternative explanations-economic, political, institutional, international-for this paradoxical outcome. It is argued that the political impact of the debt crisis differs for the short, medium, and long terms. The analysis also devotes considerable attention to the concept of “democratization” and to the quality of Latin American democracies, which tend to contain pervasive authoritarian features. Careful reading of these phenomena can lay the foundation for new and enduring theoretical frameworks about the relationship between macroeco-nomic transformation and political change.


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