隨著歐洲多國的緊縮政策的推行，歐洲各地相繼出現暴動又或大型罷工，並直接影響到各大政府統治的根基。這些行動的力量固然不可忽視，如英國的75萬人大罷工，便直接癱瘓了社會上部分資本的運作。但，正如文中所指：
”It would also be foolish to underestimate the ability of the major parties to reconstitute their popular base.”The Tories' core vote is behind austerity. And they are past masters at macroeconomic manipulation intended to make just enough voters feel wealthy enough for long enough during election time. Labour, through its union affiliations and its base in working-class communities, will preserve its dominance over the left-of-centre vote for as long as there is no credible alternative. The major parties are in crisis, but a crisis is not terminal unless there are forces ready to exploit it”
不是各國政府均如我們的政府一樣那麼愚笨。他們面對這些有可能威脅其以及資本家根本利益的群眾運動時，定想扭盡六壬化解之。除了出動常見的國家機器－－警察－－之外，轉移群眾運動之目標（例如打著民族主義的旗幟將資本的剝削說為外國資本的入侵，彷彿只要外國資本撤退便天下太平）又或提出小修小補的方案欺騙人民，均是常見的手法。
而特別在沒有清晰的革命思想作指導以及更為良好的組織帶領時，群眾運動更易淪為一種怨氣之宣洩，難以對政府－－更遑論整個資本主義制度－－進行長期的抗爭。這一點，是全世界的抗爭者均必須記住的。
Austerity has hit politicians hard
Cuts have prompted mass dissatisfaction with mainstream political parties across the globe. But where is the alternative?
David Cameron, left, and Nick Clegg have suffered in the polls. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Supporters of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat pact used to say that any alternative alliance would have been a "coalition of losers". It is not much consolation today to have a parliament of losers. The latest polls show that the three big parties are losing with the electorate. The coalition is unpopular, David Cameron's ratings are slumping, the Liberals are at a nadir and Ed Miliband is dying a slow death. Particularly bad for Labour is that its credibility on the economy is worse than the Tories'.
This isn't just happening in the UK. In the US, both the Democrats and Republicans are held in low esteem. In Greece, where the two major parties may be heading toward a grand coalition of cutters, three quarters of the electorate believe neither Pasok nor the New Democracy are fit to run the country. Where once, this withdrawal from the major parties would have been taken as evidence of a disengagement from politics, that is hardly a plausible claim amid mass protests in Athens, Wisconsin, Madrid and – on 30 June – the UK.
What is happening? The short answer is "austerity". Mass dissatisfaction with the major parties is tied to pessimism about the economy, and a view that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Living standards are sliding in all of the core capitalist economies, but most of all in those countries where austerity has been most advanced – Greece and Ireland. There is a bipartisan consensus in most of these nations' parliaments in favour of some form of austerity politics, despite its unpopularity.
One might expect social democratic parties to take a different approach, to mobilise their constituencies around a defence of public services and social security. But their long years of complicity in managing neoliberalism means they are unable to think of an alternative to spending cuts. In opposition, they offer gradual and responsible austerity, but they still mean to cut, and cut deep. In government, the emphasis shifts from gradual to deep. This inability to pose the alternative is what leaves Miliband and his shadow cabinet floundering.
This process doesn't only threaten the major parties. At stake is the very legitimacy of the states carrying out these measures. Hitherto, they have relied on two key sources of public support. One is the ideology of prosperity, in which great inequalities of wealth are tolerable so long as the economy keeps growing. But in the last 30 years, that has depended on record private debt, which is no longer sustainable. The other is welfare, in which the government will provide a basic minimum of nourishment, health and education so that, in theory, all can participate in the opportunities of a market economy. If the market fails, the government will be there with a safety net. This is now under unprecedented attack.
Given the low regard in which parliamentary institutions and the major parties in them are held, it is no surprise that the political struggles of the day are taking place in civil society – streets, campuses and workplaces. On 30 June, a coalition of workers and students will be taking to the streets. Hundreds of thousands of workers will be participating in strike action to defend jobs and services.
Yet there is a warning in the latest poll results for anyone who thinks this is sufficient. Most of the public supports the government's measures on public sector pensions. This suggests that, so far, the left has not begun to shift the dominant ideological articulations underpinning austerity. The struggle is ultimately over the distribution of the social product, but these antagonisms are resolved at the level of politics. And it is partly because of the lack of a credible political force with a clearly defined alternative to austerity that the coalition has been able to ride out growing unpopularity, localised strikes and student rebellions. If social democratic parties are unwilling to define such an alternative, this leaves it to the left-of-social-democratic forces to do so. Yet so far, these forces have remained disparate, their analyses largely propagandistic.
It would also be foolish to underestimate the ability of the major parties to reconstitute their popular base. The Tories' core vote is behind austerity. And they are past masters at macroeconomic manipulation intended to make just enough voters feel wealthy enough for long enough during election time. Labour, through its union affiliations and its base in working-class communities, will preserve its dominance over the left-of-centre vote for as long as there is no credible alternative. The major parties are in crisis, but a crisis is not terminal unless there are forces ready to exploit it.
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