ABSTRACT
Large contingents of troops have been mobilised within some countries, such as the United States, Britain, France, Belgium and Italy, on various pretexts, from averting terrorist attacks to dealing with street crime and preventing an ‘invasion’ of refugees. Recent years have witnessed increasing use of the armed forces in a wide range of domestic settings, from presidential inaugurations and parades to international political summits and major sporting events, as well as to repel asylum seekers and police civilian populations in occupied countries, such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The impact of that global meltdown has since deepened. Governments and financial authorities have imposed its impact on the backs of the world working class and poor, in the form of less secure employment, stagnant and lower wages and austerity programmes. During the Great Depression ushered in by the Wall Street crash of 1929, domestic class tensions triggered social and political convulsions, conflicts, trade wars and wars between rival national powers.
