A crisis of capitalism

The article appeared in the renowned British newspaper “The Guardian”. The journalist is Riccardo Bellofiore, an Italian professor.  Looking at the article to the reader the heading stands out immediately. With a great game of alliteration, in the heading, we can found the topic which the journalist will deal with. The presentation of the topic is also confirmed in the subheading. In this article there is a significant image: riot police during a clash with protesters in Rome. The article is divided into eleven paragraphs.

In the first one we find a famous quotation of Karl Marx: “History repeats itself first as a tragedy and then as a farce.” Just look to Italy, a country where the harder opposition against the government are comedians. This pathetic situation has distorted most of the analysis of the economic and political situation of the country, as if the real problem of Italy was only its Prime Minister, distracted by sex and trials. To understand the true nature of the Italian crisis is necessary to observe it in the wider context of the European crisis. the main reasons for the crisis are: the limits of the Euro zone, the inefficiency of the ECB which doesn’t lend anything, no significant European budget and finally the tendency of Germany to take advantage of the deficit  in Southern Europe.

Italy has deep and serious weaknesses in its economy, structural weaknesses accumulated over the decades. Industrial sector disappeared, technology was imported, public enterprise were privatized. The fatal blow came with the policies of flexibility of labour, which led to a collapse of labour productivity. Default plus exit from the Euro will not help. It should be noted that in 1992, Italy was forced out of the European Monetary System, practicing a huge devaluation of the lira. What happened after that?  Structural problems have worsened the living conditions of workers and the working class has deteriorated dramatically. What’s really missing in Europe is not the money to finance the public debt; but it is Internationalism. Only European struggles can resist austerity and deliver decent reform.

Mara Nardelli, cl. 5ªB