By Peter Koenig
December 21, 2013 “Information Clearing House – The Pitchfork movement started in December 2012 in the South of Italy by farmers protesting against higher taxes, higher fuel and fertilizer prices due to Mario Monti’s (then PM), imposed austerity program – which is in turn imposed by Monti’s countryman, Mr. Draghi, President of the European Central Bank (ECB) and – what many want to ignore – former Goldman Sachs executive. The same austerity imposed on other Southern European countries, like Spain, Greece, Portugal and Ireland – causing unspeakable human misery, unemployment, close to 30% in Greece and Spain (Spain – 57% youth unemployment!), widespread famine, increasing mortality rates in children – especially in Greece, where a third of the population can no longer afford privatized health insurance, therefore their children are no longer routinely vaccinated.
In addition under Draghi, the chief European Central Banker, the infamous troika – International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Union (EU) and ECB – loaded these countries with debt – which generations to come may be burdened to repay.
These are typical draconian pro-cyclical measures that no ‘rich’ OECD country would accept. It is a means by the Gods of Money to continue keeping the pressure on Europe, on the euro, to salvage their worthless currency, the dollar. The Gods of Money are the masters of Wall Street, the US Fed (Federal Reserve), and the BIS (Bank for International Settlement) – the central bank of central banks; i.e. the Rothschilds, Rockefellers and JP Morgans of this world. They control the (Western) gold and monetary markets by keeping the pressure on Europe – and the euro.
This is but a nutshell summary of what’s at stake, and what’s at the origin for so much misery and so many ‘liberation’ movements, such as the Italian Pitchfork crusade, currently timidly making its way from Sicily up north – and hesitantly into some newspapers.
Originally Pitchfork was heavily Sicily centered – a protest of Italy’s separated South against the elitist Rome. In the meantime the movement is growing in strength and has reached Rome, where it is clashing with police. The farmers are being joined by truck drivers and worker unionists – and eventually by people from the street. It is still weak in numbers, has the potential to grow, but the media shun it, don’t talk about it, ignore it. The elite controlling the media know that if and when the knowledge about the crusaders spreads, it could become a dangerous avalanche throughout Europe; it could grow almost infinitely – it could mean the end of the dominating class. Unhappiness is everywhere.
Pitchfork reminds of the May 15 or M15 movement that originated on 15 May 2012 in Madrid, Spain, with protests against Rajoy’s austerity measures. It followed the ‘Occupy Wall Street Movement’, OWM, that began on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park of New York’s Wall Street financial district, as a modern sit-in against the banksters abuses at home and abroad.
While Wall Street was a novelty and caught initial media attention, it grew in visibility and was emulated throughout the world – it was henceforth the strongest nonviolent movement for justice and against the Western boundless banking greed on humanity and the planet.
All of these strong-willed nonviolent protests of the people for the people against a merciless elite have an enormous potential of changing the social landscape of the Western world. But –
the media have purposely and miserably failed them. Social movements need media attention in order to propagate. But largely ignored by the media, they gradually fade into oblivion.
A completely different media scenario presents the Ukraine, where President Viktor Yanukovych is facing pro-Europe mass protests, since he is backing away from a trade agreement with the European Union. Yanukovych is questioning the honesty of the treaty. Against a compensation of at least 20 billion euros – the estimated amount his country would lose with the deal – he might reconsider. Fair enough, since it is clear that so called ‘free’ trade agreements are always slanted in favor of the stronger. Finally this is a question of local sovereignty. Yet the world media zoom in and make believe that Ukraine’s President is acting against the people’s will, never analyzing the size of the protests, where they come from and who pays for them.
In the case of Ukraine there is even more at stake than an unfair trade deal. If linked with the US puppet, called Europe, NATO will not be far. Imagine – NATO at Russia’s doorstep – and 50% of the US Naval fleet already in the Pacific, surrounding China’s East Coast. – Imagine US reaction, if Russia were to build up missile bases in the Caribbean – and China’s naval flotilla would cruise up and down the California Coast!
But the protests in Kiev get plenty of media attention. Media attention of protests against elected governments fuels the Western greed economies, when these governments second-guess, for good reasons, a pro-western stance. Protests which aren’t even genuine. They are ‘implanted’ cells, like those that triggered the so-called Arab Spring. Or those that marched against Mr. Putin’s election in different Moscow parks.
They are infiltrated, trained and paid by US conservative think tanks (sic) which receive hundreds of millions from the State Department for precisely that purpose – to train demonstrators to cause unrest in countries where ‘regime change’ is desired. Media coverage will make sure that the complacent and blinded Western public at large will take position; increasing the pressure on Mr. Yanukovych and Mr. Putin. The US – via the arch-reactionary and hawk, senator McCain – is even threatening with sanctions if Yanukovych should renege on his ‘commitment’ towards Europe. — And, not surprisingly, nobody within a blinded Western populace asks what business of Washington this may be.
But the media is there. Playing up a lie. They are not reporting the Pitchfork and other movements throughout Southern Europe, fighting for sheer survival of the people in their artificially but effectively destroyed economies – social systems built up by the people, sucked empty by banksters with the help of the criminal troika – IMF, ECB and EU Commission.
But there is still hope. Russia and China are not going to be intimidated. If the media are not covering peoples’ movements for sheer existence – they will have no choice but to cover the consequences of Russia’s and China’s actions, when these and other nations will drop the dollar as reserve currency, when they start trading hydrocarbons in their local currencies, when they are proceeding with the “de-americanization” of the world – in China’s words.
China has already shown its muscle by decisively harassing a US missile cruiser in the South China Sea and by enforcing their air space vis-à-vis Washington’s military and civil aviation. – And what’s more – China has already declared to no longer purchase US Treasury Bonds, alias US debt – and is quietly shedding its huge – US$ 1.7 trillion – dollar holdings.
No doubt, the disastrous consequences of these actions for the Western greed economies will get media attention.
The Pitchforks, M15 and OWM — and all those peaceful social movements that fight for their rights and justice and for their people’s sovereignty across the globe — will eventually be vindicated, when the world wakes up to a new reality – when the imposed debt and austerity programs will be wiped out by new governments run by the people and for the people – and when the police and soldiers awaken to the fact that they are brothers and sisters of the people they have been ordered to fight.
Imagine – the lame mainstream media – they would be at a loss of explaining what happens when the paradigm shifts from the haves to the 99.99%!
Peter Koenig is economist and former World Bank staff. He worked extensively around the world in the fields of environment and water resources. He writes regularly for ICH, the Voice of Russia and other internet sites.
