UK to Significantly Cut Its Military, Become Less Hated, Live More Prosperously

For Washington, the moves amount to a tactical scaling down of military ambition by the one European ally consistently willing to back the United States with firepower in international conflicts, ....

When is the Wa. Post going to learn to write truthfully and only truthfully? The U.S. is never involved in "international conflicts". Instead, the U.S. is always committing wars of aggression, putting tyranical dictatorships in place and using them as proxy forces, acting against legitimate democracies, and so on. The U.S. is the lead cause of conflicts through crimes of aggression and the many crimes that come along with aggression.

Update: It's not "international conflicts". It's [creation] of "international conflicts"; as well as creation and escalation (covertly) of national conflicts, which the U.S. is also "good" at doing.

Re. the G20 summit, I made a few posts on Oct. 18th here in the following page about this topic, posts #1 and 2, which presently are the only posts made for the page. The posts are for links to TRNN (TheRealNew) video reports on the G20 summit, but some of these are not relevant for this page on the UK cuts in military spending and other sectors, so I'll specify the titles for some of the relevant videos or reports following the link for the page.

http://warisacrime.org/content/national-guard-advert-metrodome-proposed-...

Relevant TRNN reports:

Post #1:

"TORONTO G20 - THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME"

"G20 commits itself to more "neoliberalism"

Post #2:

"THE MISSING WORDS AT THE G20"

The video report for "G20 Exposes Ontario 'Martial Law'" in post #1 may also be possibly considered relevant, for it illustrates how serious the elites are about their economic plans; bad for us, profitable for them.

Europe, now:

For what's presently going on in Europe, check the following index.

wsws.org/category/europe.shtml

I'll include links for one or two articles.

"Millions march in France against pension cuts"
by Alex Lantier, Oct. 20th, 2010

www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/fran-o20.shtml

An estimated 3.5 million workers and students marched nationwide in France yesterday in a day of action called to oppose pension cuts demanded by President Nicolas Sarkozy. Though the most critical provisions of the pension “reform” have been passed — a two-year increase in the retirement age and a corresponding increase in the pay-in period — the law has yet to be formally voted on by the Senate.

(snip)

The strikes have spread to oil refineries, oil depots, ports and trucking firms, resulting in a growing gasoline shortage across France. The response of prominent union leaders to the upsurge in working class militancy and the widening economic impact of the strike wave — and opinion polls showing more than 70 percent of the population supporting the strikes — has been to indicate that the mass movement should be ended once the Senate has passed the pension bill.

The union leadership has from the onset sought to use the strikes and protests as a lever to obtain some cosmetic concessions from the government, while accepting the major cuts in the “reform.” They have rejected any struggle to bring down the Sarkozy government, insisting that the movement be limited to applying pressure on the president and the parliament.

They hoped that repeated one-day protests would wear down and exhaust the opposition of workers and students, but to date the intensity of the movement has only increased.

(snip)

Smaller regional trade union federations are pushing for broader strike action. In the Ardennes, the all trade union alliance passed a resolution calling for a renewable general strike “in all sectors of economic activity,” with rail workers and Peugeot auto workers voting in large numbers for the resolution.

(snip)

Student protests were at record levels, according to statistics provided by high school student unions. The FIDL (Independent and Democratic High School Student Union) said 1,200 of France’s 4,302 high schools were on strike, with 850 schools blockaded. At ten universities students met in general assemblies and voted to blockade their institutions. Youth marching in demonstrations chanted: “Unemployed at 25, exploited at 67, no, no, no!”

Police clashed with demonstrators across the country. (snip)

The administration of Université Lyon-2 closed the institution “indefinitely” after students voted to blockade it. Similarly, the administration closed Toulouse-Le Mirail University after 75 percent of the 2,000-strong general assembly voted a blockade. Rennes-2 was also closed.

Youth clashed with riot police throughout the Paris suburbs. (snip)

(snip) Sarkozy indicated his concern over the situation, but said he would not modify the cuts: ....

(snip)

The government acknowledged yesterday that France is in the grip of a growing gasoline shortage, with Ecology and Transport Minister Jean-Louis Borloo admitting that 4,000 of France’s 12,500 gas stations are running dry. (snip)

(snip) According to Agence France-Presse, the Caen Chamber of Commerce and Industry released a report yesterday stating: “There is currently no more fuel available on our territory… ...."

(snip)

The press is citing in threatening terms the legal measures available for use against blockades. (snip)

The national trade union leaderships have not responded with any campaign to defend striking workers. They are undoubtedly in talks with the government over the terms of a sellout. The major union federations are set to meet Thursday to discuss their next moves.

(snip)

The unions are effectively acting as counselors to Sarkozy on how to impose the cuts. They are warning the government not to move too rapidly in passing the pension bill so as to avoid provoking uncontrollable opposition in the working class.

CGT official Nadine Prigent told Agence France-Presse: “It’s not a done deal that a Senate [vote for the cuts] will calm things down.” The UNSA (National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions) warned: “No one knows what effect that vote will have.”

"The strike wave in Europe and the decay of bourgeois democracy"
Barry Grey, Oct. 20th, 2010

wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/pers-o20.shtml

The growing struggles of the working class in Europe and internationally against mass unemployment and government austerity policies are exposing the reality behind the façade of bourgeois democracy. In every country, the government, whether conservative or nominally “left,” is cutting jobs and wages and slashing social programs in complete disregard for the overwhelming opposition of the population.

Elections, parliamentary debates have no effect on policy. The state does the bidding of the financial aristocracy, tearing up the living standards of the masses in the interests of the bankers who are responsible for the economic crisis. The financiers and corporate executives are making more money than ever by exploiting mass unemployment and growing social distress to slash wages and increase the exploitation of the working class.

Where the best efforts of the trade unions do not suffice to hold the workers in check and struggles break out that challenge the plans of the capitalists, most prominently in France and Greece, the state uses its powers of repression to smash strikes and protests. (snip)

(snip)

Despite these attacks, the resistance of the working class is growing. The current wave of strikes and protests in France is the most developed expression of a new stage in the international class struggle. It marks a shift in the world political situation of historic proportions. The working class is once again entering into battle against the capitalists.

Recent days have seen the spread of the strike movement in France, the outbreak of a strike in Greece that has paralyzed the country’s rail system, and a demonstration of hundreds of thousands in Rome protesting the policies of the Berlusconi government.

There have been one-day general strikes and mass protests in Spain, Portugal and Ireland, strikes by workers in Romania, and powerful strikes by auto workers in China and by workers in India, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

In Britain, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government is imposing historically unprecedented cuts totaling 83 billion pounds, which will mean the loss of at least 500,000 jobs in the public sector and another 500,000 in the private sector.

British workers have repeatedly sought to resist the government-corporate onslaught, but have to this point been stymied by the treachery of the trade unions, which oppose any serious strike action or social mobilization. (snip)

In the U.S.:

The above article next refers to the economic crisis in the U.S.

In the US, Obama, who came to power by appealing to the intense hatred among working people and youth for the pro-corporate, militarist policies of Bush and the Republicans, is carrying out uniformly right-wing, anti-working class policies, shattering the illusions of millions who voted for him. The inability of the White House and the Democratic Party to in any way distance themselves from the corporate-financial elite has been underscored by the administration’s actions over the past week, just two weeks before the congressional elections.

The administration has lifted the moratorium on Gulf oil drilling, announced that Social Security recipients will receive no cost-of-living increase, and rejected calls for a moratorium on home foreclosures.

The growing opposition of the American working class is finding expression in an incipient rebellion by workers against the United Auto Workers union, which is seeking to make the 50 percent wage cut for newly hired workers worked out last year between itself, the auto bosses and the Obama administration the new baseline for the industry.

The contempt of the American ruling class for the democratic will of the people was summed up in an editorial on the events in France published Tuesday by the New York Times. The major organ of the “liberal” Democratic Party establishment acknowledged that there is broad support in the French population for the strikes and protests against Sarkozy’s plans to raise the retirement age. “Despite the widespread inconvenience and economic losses,” it wrote, “public opinion has remained sympathetic to the unions.” (French polls show upwards of 70 percent supporting the strikers).

(snip)

The fight for workers’ power emerges organically and inevitably out of the struggles of the working class against the attacks by the bourgeoisie. It must be conducted consciously, in opposition to the trade unions, the official “left” parties and the various middle-class pseudo-left organizations, such as the New Anti-Capitalist Party in France, that seek to keep the working class tied to the existing political setup and prevent it from mounting an independent struggle for power.

This fight is, moreover, an international struggle. (snip)

"WSWS speaks to French workers on protests"
by Antoine Lerougetel, Oct. 19th, 2010

wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/demo-o19.shtml

In the latest national day of action against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s programme of pension cuts and austerity, millions of workers and students took to the streets in France October 16 in demonstrations in over 250 cities and towns.

(snip)

The marches took place as railway workers were on the fourth day of their indefinite strike, an action that was severely disrupting train services. Dockers’ and refinery workers’ strikes and blockages were threatening to bring the country to a halt .... Tens of thousands of high school students have struck and closed down schools over the past week.

Early Friday morning, massive riot police interventions forced the dispersal of pickets blocking access to fuel depots and preventing petrol lorries from filling up and replenishing supplies at petrol stations. (snip)

The WSWS spoke Saturday to several railway workers from Amiens, a railway town in northern France with train maintenance depots and workshops located in the vicinity. The discussions made clear the need to expose the role of the unions and ex-lefts in downplaying the depth of the capitalist crisis and limiting the strike to the single issue of pensions.

(snip)

WSWS reporters went to the picket at the entrance of the SNCF (national rail company) depot in Amiens. The workers have erected barricades to block the road and lit a bonfire with tyres and railway ties in the middle of the road to express their determination. There is another bonfire inside the gate.

Aurélien has worked for the SNCF for nine years. He does maintenance. “We’re going to work to spread the strike. It’ll need a general strike to make Sarkozy give in. The unions won’t call it. It’s us workers who make the country function. [Bernard] Thibault [CGT general secretary] is a turncoat.”

(snip)

Other strikers who were briefly interviewed basically have the same view; that it's the workers' fight, while the or certainly some of the unions work with the government's politics, so for the economic elites. And like one of the strikers said to WSWS, it's not Chinese workers who are taking away jobs from the French; it's the capitalist elites who are responsible.

The latter striker is right and it clearly is a workers' struggle.

All of this economic crisis, threats against workers, strikes, et cetera, and the G20 summit's 27-page document of statements, basically rulings for governments to adhere to and to therefore apply, are definitely related.