Nina Eichacker: EU Austerity Policies and Dim Economic Prospects Provoked UK's Brexit Vote

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

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EU Austerity Policies and Dim Economic Prospects Set Stage for UK's Brexit Vote

Posted June 29, 2016

Interview with Nina Eichacker, lecturer in economics at Bentley University and a member of the Dollars and Sense collective, conducted by Scott Harris

Great Britain upended the status quo across Europe when a slim majority of the nation’s voters cast ballots on June 23 to leave the European Union. Britain first joined the European Economic Community in 1973, which in 1993 was transformed into the European Union. Financial markets across the globe reacted to the Brexit vote with major losses and volatility, while the British pound fell to its lowest value in 31 years.

The vote that ended the United Kingdom’s membership in the EU, is a product of political expediency when British Prime Minister David Cameron proposed the referendum as a cynical ploy to temporarily unite his divided Conservative party and win the 2015 parliamentary election. Now Cameron, who lost his referendum gamble, has submitted his resignation. Politicians, including the leader of the right wing United Kingdom Independence Party or UKIP, swayed many in Britain to support leaving the EU by appealing to anti-immigrant sentiment and false promises to redirect billions of pounds now going to Brussels to the National Health Service.

Now after the Brexit vote Britain is more divided than ever, with a rise in racist and anti-immigrant attacks, millions signing pro-EU petitions and Scotland threating to hold a second referendum to break away from the UK. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Nina Eichacker, a lecturer in economics at Bentley University and a member of the Dollars and Sense collective. Here she assesses the impact of EU austerity and de-regulation policies that are widely believed to have contributed to the underlying economic insecurity felt by many in Britain that led to the Brexit vote.

NINA EICHACKER: This could be seen in a large way, as a backlash, against not just austerity policies in Britain of the past five years, but also, the longer-term backlash against globalization dynamics that began back in the Reagan-Thatcher period. So, if we think about the consequences of privatization within the U.K. and elsewhere in the West and the world, and we think about the consequences of globalization that really didn't do anything to try to soften the landing for the people in the industries that were going to be most harshly affected by it. We see dynamics in the U.K. that are similar to the dynamics that I think we see here in the U.S. where we have – and I don't know if commiseration is the correct word – but we see this gradual worsening of conditions for a lot of people and we see a failure of the state to step in and help guide, if that is ultimately what is desired for the public at large.

So I think in a big way this vote was a response to those dynamics. And I think that the immigration side of things does certainly play in, I think, when people are in tenuous economic circumstances. You know, it can be tempting to think about migration patterns as a zero sum gain. While I don't necessarily think that's what was going on, I think that the leave campaign really drove those points home in a manipulative fashion. So I think there was a lot of those two factors playing off of each others.

BETWEEN THE LINES: After the Brexit vote, there was a lot of concern in Europe that other nation states may hold similar referendums and could break away from the Europe Union. There's a roiling, right-wing, anti-immigrant, nativist movement in many countries – certainly Marine Le Pen, in France, other nations that are currently in the European Union. Is it possible that the troika, as it's called, the policy-setting body, the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF – Is it possible that in the wake of the Brexit vote, they may reassess the austerity policies that have certainly not gone down well in weaker economies like Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, where those policies on the part of Brussels, have dramatically cut social spending, implemented a lot of unwanted privatization, deregulation seen as linked to very stubborn, high unemployment. Do you think the European Union as a whole will reassess its economic policies and the rejection by increasing numbers of Europeans to that system?

NINA EICHACKER: Well, I certainly hope so. It's strange to be in a moment where the IMF is, first of all, acknowledging that it was wrong about the value of austerity, that it oversold austerity policies as a root to growth. It's strange, but true, that we're in a moment where the IMF has actually acknowledged that provisions of its bailout policies worked out with the European Commission and the European Central Bank for countries like Ireland and Portugal were overly restrictive and benefited bondholder at the expense of the countries that were supposed to be given aid in those moments of crisis.

The question is whether European central banks' mandate to prevent inflation at all costs is so strong that European policymakers can perhaps work in tandem with the IMF in the context of the troika to promote better policy. I think in the absence of strong activist movements at the ground, that we may see worse to come. I certainly hope not. But without a strong human presence on the ground countering those separatist movements, I worry that we will see worse and more divisions to come. I think that without a fiscal union that explicitly protects the interests of people in these different countries as they go through recessions, as they try to improve social services and a provision of public good – without that, the union is doomed to fail, and what is good about it will be missed.

For more information about Nina Eichacker, lecturer in economics, Bentley University visit faculty.bentley.edu/details.asp?uname=neichacker and Dollars and Sense Collective and magazine at dollarsandsense.org.