The financial sector through the Euro crisis hopes to further extract wealth from public sectors, driven by its goal to commodify the whole economy and nature itself.
Ten years and two wars later, Americans face the monetary and psychological costs of both militarism and Wall Street materialism, effectively bankrupting the country; not to mention the casualties of war at home, and in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Until the European Commission shows it has learnt the lessons of the 2008 financial crisis and demonstrates the political will to re-regulate the financial sector, it will be unable to resolve the crises in Greece, Ireland and Portugal
The Greek crisis has exposed the fundamental flaws in the Euro project: it stripped countries control over the price of money and allowed political elites to undermine Europe's post-war social contract.
On 8 June the EU Parliament will vote on our response to the Eurocrisis: sign this petition by ATTAC asking them to reject the neoliberal austerity package which will make the public pay for the bank's crimes. There are alternatives to austerity.
Three years since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, the banks are back making mega-profits while the burden has clearly shifted to citizens and workers. However civil society action at European level could still make a difference in reining in the financial sector.
Although initiated as a counter-forum to Davos, the World Social Forum has evolved beyond it now, focusing on the root causes of problems facing humanity and developing real alternatives as solutions.
Behind the currency wars and the worsening global economic crisis lies a largely unquestioned free trade model that both contributed to the crisis and, without radical reform, is a major obstacle to overcoming it.
