arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

The neo-liberal offensive on public services (transportation, energy supply, distribution, telecom, etc.) has been operating along two axes: the destruction of the Welfare State and its public services on the one hand, and the increasing influence of multinationals on the political-economical decision making and the international institutions (EU, WTO, etc) on the other hand.
The crisis of the capitalist economies lead to increased fiscal pressures on profits and large capital. To keep satisfying the large capital owners, states had to impose drastic measures that were mainly aimed at the public services: they had to make savings, become more profitable and finally be privatised to feed the state incomes. Simultaneously, taxes levied on companies and labour decreased. This resulted in an even more problematic social security.
The economic globalisation did also make it possible for multinationals to have the social, political and economical agendas of states and groups of states adjusted to their own needs. This is what ultimately killed the welfare state and its public services. What counts now is the companies' and their shareholders' interests, and this is miles away from the people's needs and aspirations…
This process is visible since the early 1980's, but its consequences have never been as clear as they are now: public services are being reorganised (leading to thousands of lay-offs), profitable parts are privatised (which is causing other reorganisations and lay-offs). The free market and its competition rules dictate the liberalisation of always more public services. Education, health and other social services are nowadays in the line of fire of liberalisation and the free market logic: grants are cancelled or reduced, they have to "rationalise" and "modernise" (read: cut costs and restructure) to become "competitive". As a result, the army of unemployed and excluded people is growing every day…