The Summer of Rage

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

56 comments Micah White, 23 February 2009

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

56 comments on the article “The Summer of Rage”

Displaying 21 - 30 of 56

Anonymous

24 February 2009 at 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?

Anonymous

24 February 2009 at 12:02 pm

John J Kelly

24 February 2009 at 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.

John J Kelly

24 February 2009 at 12:09 pm

Anonymous

25 February 2009 at 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.

Anonymous

25 February 2009 at 06:46 am

Anonymous

25 February 2009 at 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