And over the weekend, activists in Europe protested outside banks in France and Germany to mark the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, whose bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, is seen as the start of the global financial crisis. Millions of people in the United States and around the world lost their jobs, homes and life savings, even as the U.S. government bailed out some of Wall Street’s biggest failing banks. The financial crisis also sparked massive global anti-capitalist movements, including the Occupy movement, the M-15 movement in Spain and the massive anti-austerity movements in Greece. This is activist Aurélie Trouvé, speaking at the protest in France this weekend.
Aurélie Trouvé: “The government should make it so that we can take the money from the wealthiest, from financial institutions, for this ecological and social transition. Today they make us believe that the money isn’t there, but I assure you that with an efficient tax on financial transactions, with a real fight against fiscal evasion, we will have the means and the needed money for this ecological and social transaction.”