Blackspot Blog

The Summer of Rage

Will a tsunami of middle-class dissent wash away governments worldwide?

28 comments Micah White , 23 Feb 2009

Military personnel faced off with protesters in Riga, Latvia in January. Weeks later, Latvia's government collapsed.

Iceland was first and now Latvia has become the second European government to collapse as a direct result of the protests sparked by the global economic crisis (source). In Dublin, more than 120,000 workers protested outside of the Irish Parliament in a campaign organizers say is inspired by what was done to Iceland's government (source). And in the UK, the head of the Metropolitan police's public order branch, is warning of a 'Summer of Rage' that will involve mass protests by middle-class citizens fed up with the economic situation (source). A tsunami of dissent is coming and it is not clear what will remain and what will be remade.

The economic recession is now impacting the majority of people in most countries in the world. There is a growing sense of global solidarity among the people who see their governments spending billions of dollars to rescue the banks who are to blame for the crisis. With the visible success of protesters in Iceland and Latvia - who managed to topple their governments relatively nonviolently - the realm of possibility seems to be expanding.

It feels like the the time may be approaching for a global movement to take hold which intends to rethink capitalism and the systems of world governance. Instead of demanding the resignation of a Prime Minister, what if this global movement demanded the resignation of the whole system?

Does the moment feel ripe in your town? What would you like to see as a result of the global protests?

Micah M. White is a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine and an independent activist. www.micahmwhite.com

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The summer of rage, will be

by Colonel Weng-Wah on March 16 2009, @03:13 pm The summer of rage, will be in full effect... Coz the people lost the faith, in the elect...

And at the center of it all

by ew keane on March 15 2009, @09:29 am And at the center of it all is an international banking system that has been skimming the cream off the top for many, many years. Witness the flag of america, an amalgamation of the stripes of the Brittish East India Company. Is the entire history of the west a fable written to the advantage of a certain group? And what of popular movements? What is their idiological underpinnings?

Also, of note here: I’ve

by Exile on March 04 2009, @03:38 pm Also, of note here: I've been reading the comments here, and it's becoming obvious why we're often referred to as "elitist". I hear terms like "dumbed down" "ignorant" and such. This does not inspire much confidence in what we as a people must do. With loving-kindness, provide what you have learned to those that are unaware. some will agree, and join you. some will ridicule you, and send you away. it's easy to sit back, on this website, and talk down about people that are as of yet unaware, because we are amongst others that at least agree on some things. My experience, has been that people, given the facts, come around pretty quickly. Most are shocked to learn what I have, but eagerly learn, and talk with other people in their circle of friends. The real answer, is to go out, and spread the word. Talk about what you've learned. otherwise, you, yes you, are part of the problem.

Now is the time for

by Exile on March 04 2009, @03:26 pm Now is the time for compassion for your fellow human. Rioting, serves the police and military, to bolster their numbers. This financial crisis, is merely a storm of greed, swept out of control. We all needed to learn to live within our means, and now we'll have no choice but to learn. To really solve this problem, we can vote with our money, quite simply. Pull all money's out of international banks, close your credit cards, and support local businesses. We have options, and we just need to use them. by doing this, we'll take back the economy for ourselves. Exile

Watch ‘The Money

by Anonymous on March 04 2009, @02:24 pm Watch 'The Money Masters' on YouTube or Google Video. It will open your eyes as to how central bankers have orchestrated a worldwide economic collapse and now offer the solution. Know your enemy.

You all should be ashamed of

by Justin123 on March 04 2009, @11:44 am You all should be ashamed of yourselves. Talk about being part of the problem, not the solution! Don't like paying taxes? Oh, sure, lets riot. Lost your job? Start a fire. Don't like Banks? Break a window in one. Real genius ideas you've got going here. I guess nothing says sustainable development, human rights and equality like violence. Adbusters hasn't just jumped the shark, you've raped it.

If you

by Anonymous on March 03 2009, @06:44 pm If you want answers?! Infowars.com Prisonplanet.com Whatreallyhappned.com www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com Rebel Revolt RESIST

The Economy is in bad shape,

by Orlando on March 02 2009, @02:24 pm The Economy is in bad shape, Realtors are starving to death and leaving the field....

The tricky thing is that, if

by Anonymous on February 28 2009, @07:32 am The tricky thing is that, if you rally in the streets, you are exactly the target that the para-military police are set up to deal with. Moreover, after the rally, it will be easy for the police to get more funds to strengthen them and make them stronger for the next rally. Which helps a right-wing backlash. Hit them where they ain't! Not where they're strong.

let hippies and artists

by Anonymous on March 02 2009, @01:40 pm let hippies and artists rally in the streets. to be affective cheat or stop paying taxes. stop being so productive. serve on juries and find innocent all against government. grow cannabis. stockpile weapons, ammo, and explosives if not for you then for others. so many ways of direct action.

We are the middle class and

by Anonymous on February 26 2009, @12:12 pm We are the middle class and we are the the drivers of modern industrial civilization. Once the system we have built for the betterment of our children collapses on top of us, and relegates us to lives of exploitation in service to the very system we created, we will realize it is time to withdraw our efforts and take up arms against the system which has enslaved us. My father is a fire captain. I was raised in a very conservative home in southern california. We have watched our livelihoods come under attack, we have watched our nation mocked, laughed at, overrun by foreign nationals, over taxed, and taken advantage of. We have watched our political system rot and fail. We have watched our neighbors flee. The time is soon. Tyler, you are RIGHT. The middle class will fight this war, for we are the impenetrable core. We are the core that never gives in. We are the center, the drivers of this machine. And the machine has turned against us and turned us into its servants. We will not bring our children into a life of servitude into the very land that their fathers conquered. We will stand. We will fight. Down with all governments in the world. Power to the worker. Middle Classes Unite! -southern california

The USA will have to get a

by Anonymous on February 26 2009, @11:02 am The USA will have to get a lot more uncomfortable for anyone to lift a finger to riot. The switch to DTV is a good start--people might get off the couch and make some noise when it affects their viewing habits. But really, we're a far cry from the kinds of issues that affect people directly. Get enough people out of work and milling around, enough people not living the lives they've become comforatable with, enough people not being able to afford necessities, and maybe, maybe people will take to the streets. Stolen elections, fake wars, looting the treasury, and even expensive gas hasn't done the trick yet...

I agree. The middle class

by Wesley McNair on March 03 2009, @08:37 am I agree. The middle class (particularly the youth) have not yet been dislodged from its mindless reverie of consumerism and ignorant selfishness. Until they find themselves in more dire circumstances, not much is going to change.

America needs a good and

by Anonymous on February 25 2009, @10:52 am America needs a good and bloody one right now! We are itching to take the country back. Just need the fuse lit and I think Mr. O has the matches!

Regretfully Europeans are

by Anonymous on February 25 2009, @10:23 am Regretfully Europeans are much more educated on the issues and 'unified' than those here. For God's sakes people here are yapping at one another about inconsequential things like gay marriage/or someone with an extra book of food stamps. As long as the establishment can keep the populous ripping and tearing (deliberate) at one another/ you'll not see bloated Joe Sixpack moving his lard bucket off his easy chair. Also due to the absence of the muckrakers, we have no informative press to rally people. The media is all owned by corporate business per Clinton's Telecommunications Act of 1996. Folks aren't aware of just how militarized our police have become: SEE- (photo essay) O What Is That Sound: http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_24508.shtml

Just couple of days back -

by Anonymous on February 25 2009, @06:46 am Just couple of days back - the para-military force of Bangladesh (BDR or Bangladesh Rifles) mutinied against their own Army & Government. It seems - the discontent among middle class is a growing phenomenon world-wide.

Here in England - heimat of

by John J Kelly on February 24 2009, @12:09 pm Here in England - heimat of the corrosive western class system - our middle class has always been reactionary, complacent and implicitly right wing. Its voice is the Daily Mail, a vicious, narrow-minded, self-serving organ, entirely in tune with the sentiments of its readers - and England's most successful newspaper as a result. BBC Radio 4 is the voice of the middle classes. It feigns concern in a middle class accent. The New Labour project successfully converted sections of the middle classes to Neo-Liberalism, but as it strengthened its grip on the lumpenbourgeoisie it both moved to the authoritarian right and disgusted a small group of native radicals who believed that it still believed in the Left. The Tories moved to the centre left-ish - when they saw the rich pickings. British politics have congealed in the mushy centre, where the majority dwells and the ethos of the Daily Mail prevails. Complacency lives there. I think the police, a tool of the government in the surveillance society that is Britain today, were moved to issue their dire warnings about summer rage from the middle classes because we've all got bored with being terrified by Terror, and they need another bugaboo to scare us. The English middle classes might go on a demo or two - they like a weekend outing to Glastonbury to pretend to be hippies- and they turned out in their millions to protest about the Iraq war (then voted Blair back into office), but the only serious, sustained mass riots we've seen in Britain were the Brixton, Toxteth and Manchester race riots and the Miner's strike in the 1980s. Both were working class expressions of rage against the machine. Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and, indeed Ireland are different places. Their middle classes are not well-defined and they have race memory of revolution and oppression. France has a good track record in rioting. Poland and the Ukraine are good bets for street wars and maybe East Germany. But the British middle classes? They will moan and may attend rallies, but they won't riot. It's just not British.

whats it going to take

by Anonymous on February 24 2009, @12:02 pm whats it going to take america? we all KNOW we are being cheated, lied to, oppressed and misused. We all know the bullshit presented to us by this political system. WHAT MORE WILL IT TAKE before we take to the streets and take back our lives and our livelihoods?

now iceland, latvia. and it

by Anonymous on February 24 2009, @07:23 am now iceland, latvia. and it will be greece, france, germany, england and america later.

The middle class itself is

by Piotr Stepanovitch on February 24 2009, @01:30 am The middle class itself is in it's majority, alienated. Most people can't see any alternative. Yet, they start to awaken, rejoining the political dissenters, the social movements, the civil society in protest against what's happening. The whole trick, in a regional, national context, is to capitalize on the contradicitons of the system and the social turmoil to actually tranform this context into a antoher in wich demands and change are possible. After that point, a global movement might emerge, marking a new start. For the International, global change, protest, that everyone must do the most given it's regional context. This is not the time of the uprising at the peripheries of the neo-colonial construct. Just watch: a termor at the Heart of the system sends shockwaves around the world. The victory will come from the Heart (USA) and the Center (Occident) of the system. By overthrowing the system in those spheres, the rest shall be freed. ... Immanuel Wallersteim is very useful sometimes.

the whole trick is to bomb

by Anonymous on March 02 2009, @01:50 pm the whole trick is to bomb and shoot.

the middle class are the

by mr. sane on February 23 2009, @11:42 pm the middle class are the ones who are begining to withdraw thier consent for the goverment to rule over them. all the people i know that are so normal looking and acting are preparing. they are also cheating the tax system in a huge and orginized way, these are people that whould never think this way 10 or 20 years ago. i have to agree with the crazy tyler post. when i over hear people talking about tim mcviegh as a hero,i think thats ominous. this is not going to be a nonviolent protest, its going to be ugly and murderous. and of course the state will respond by hurting the innocent and striping the bill of rights and constitution. god bless us all.

cultural dissidents and

by tyler durden on February 23 2009, @04:02 pm cultural dissidents and economic rejects are just stupid hippys. it is the middle class that will fight the comming revolution. the most under-estimated group in america is the angry working man. he has the military training, the weapons, the size, and he is relied upon to run everything. they are the police,the fire men, the garbage collector, the salesman,etc. when they are finaly done paying taxes and have nothing left to lose and decide to fight, then you will see true rebellion. the moslem jihad has shown us how to fight. a bomb for every roadside! a snipper for every roof! god bless gordan kahl,carl draga,tim mcviegh.

the spelling is carl drega

by Anonymous on March 02 2009, @01:47 pm the spelling is carl drega and gordon kahl,and yes this is what government gets when they mess with the 'private generation'. and yes they too are modern heros. we either have freedom or we don't.

If I could set the bar as

by dirty-sneakers on February 24 2009, @07:34 pm If I could set the bar as low as Tyler does by making McViegh a martyr, I would probably see light at the end of the tunnel. But really it's just this sort of attitude I assumed we would see again in the U.S., poor and working poor unable to find the bastille, just bathing in their frustration, doing nothing at best, doing something misguided and destructive at worst. You've been conned Tyler. The working class may have weapons but they aren't the right ones. And to believe that the "economic rejects" are the problem, well that's what you are supposed to believe so you will keep reaching for that carrot they hang over our heads every now and then, while they watch us beat each other just to get a piece. www.dirty-sneakers.com

the working poor are the

by Anonymous on March 02 2009, @01:27 pm the working poor are the middle class, chopping them down will be the end of this country's political system. timmothy mcviegh was and is a great hero of the american people just as nathan hale was to the first revolution. INVICTUS Out of the night that covers me, Black as the Pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds, and shall find me, unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

That’s the stupidest thing

by Anonymous on February 23 2009, @05:25 pm That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Sure more an more middle class will join the resistance, but by and large the white middle class will remain complacent because the middle class has too much to lose. The majority of the resistance will probably not even come from North America, but from the international "lumpenproletariat," those who have it the worst.

Sure, but the middle class

by Anonymous on February 23 2009, @12:50 pm Sure, but the middle class alone can't build a revolution. As more and more middle class get abjected out of the mainstream, as class relations more an more become the rich against everyone else, I can imagine a huge assemblage of cultural dissidents and economic rejects rising up. It'll be scary, but exciting. Maybe even funny sometimes. Imagine thousands of people in Toronto, Hindu or not, celebrating Holi, throwing dye everwhere and having huge public bonfires at night. As Jim Morrison once sang, "Can you picture what will be, so limitless and free."