Could militarism and economic deregulation be converging? Source: Locomotive. Many people are familiar with the new labour code being pushed through in France and the uprisings that are unfolding against it. Not so many have heard about the new labour code and cross-sector restructuring that was pushed through in Bosnia last year and the massive, yet — sadly — short-lived expression of rage that followed. Very few heard anything about the new labour code that is simultaneously being pushed through in Lithuania and the opposition to it — yet.
Is there a broader tendency to be recognised here? My hypothesis is that there is. These three instances appear within a much broader and deeper constellation of assaults on our working class life, our ecology, our existence. This deeper constellation is essentially characterised by a dual movement of the devastating liberalisation of economic interest and the explosive expansion of national security budgets to regulate it; an expansion that has taken tangible form in border fortification, militarisation of internal policing, prison, military expansion and so on. The global crisis of economic governance has given way to what many have been calling the turn toward an “authoritarian neoliberalism” or, in some cases, a la Latin America, the “turn back”.
What is the relation between militarism and economic deregulation, and on what basis do I have to believe these movements are converging in “authoritarian neoliberalism”?
