Austerity measures, marches, and the electorate

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Naomi Klein has an article in The Nation where she describes protests around our planet motivated by “the global crisis”. She evokes for us how common citizens go out to bang their pots and pans and shout,

-“All of them must go!”

These protestors refer to the currupt corporate and governmental froth that floats over the economy and that got us into this mess. Those who suffer the consequences are the everyday, on-the-street populace. In response to financial deficits in the high economical spheres governments enact austerity measures like the elimination of funding for health and education, while the corporations reduce salaries, institute massive lay-offs, and close factories. In the meantime they continue with their czarist lifestyles.

This is only part of the problem: while economic resources concentrate way above our heads, so does power. Protest marches and political manifestations have become necessary these days. They are democratic gestures, just like the vote is.

Image: Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra: http://www.allposters.co.il/-sp/Nikolay-Aleksandrovich-Czar-Nicolas-II-with-Alexandra-in-Ancient-Muscovite-Dress-Posters_i1862920_.htm