On one day, three severe austerity budgets were issued in Europe. For the most part, the cuts fall on the back of the poorest and least able to sustain yet more “austerity.” All these losses are in theory driven by the post-World War II fear in the then West Germany that it was inflation that caused fascism. While there is no present sign of inflation–and many people think it would be a good thing if there were–austerity is creating its own form of state-directed dominance, while asserting its desire to resist fascism.

In Greece, where military dictatorship is a phenomenon of the recent past, the very unpleasant Golden Dawn are now reaching 22% in the opinion polls and have tried to open an office here in New York. Happily, Anonymous at once hacked their website. Golden Dawn are almost a parody of the jackbooted, violent image of fascism that might seem a historical relic if it were not for the shadow of recent Serbian history, not so far away. They serve perfectly as a bogeyman for neoliberal austerity across Europe, so much so that if they did not exist it would no doubt be necessary to invent them. That said, we should not minimize the threat they pose in Greece: even the neoliberal Greek government is trying to delay further cuts for fear of accelerating their rise.

It’s in Spain, France and Italy that the new paradigm is being formed. Cut after cut,  more and more regressive taxation from the detested TVA or sales tax, to more expensive parking meters and raised museum entry fees. Spain has cut the budget of the world-famous Prado museum by two-thirds. Soup kitchens abound in Spain, while the government talks of raising the retirement age and finding yet another €60 billion to bail out the banks.

While France today ventured towards making higher tax at least half of its formula, there are still €37 billion in cuts, pay freezes for the numerous public employees of the country and so on. The neo-fascist National Front lost no time in denouncing the “hyper-austerity” of the budget, while a nationwide demonstration against the EU budget treaty in Paris on Sunday is expected to draw 30,000 or more. The Front’s position again allows the austerity regime to pose the alternative “fascism or us,” while subjecting people to its own dominance.

In Italy, one day after a similar 30,000 struck against austerity, the technocrat prime minister Monti let it be known he would take another term if requested–surely we have to call this The Full Monti, a naked assault on living standards. Being unelected, Monti is impervious to democratic pressure and election results alike, although the recalcitrance of Italian corruption holds him back. Ironically, only the Mafia now stand in the way of mafia capitalism.

While a demonstration estimated by organizers to have had as many as one million participants in Portugal–ten per cent of the country’s population–did succeed in shelving some cuts, for the most part The Troika (the EU, the IMF and the World Bank) seem to welcome confrontation. They see a new form of domination in sight, in which banking escapes national controls of any kind, while governments and corporations are no longer obliged to maintain welfare provisions.

In short, the post-World War II settlement in which those that fought the war extracted major concessions from the state in exchange for not going communist is over. Now the Troika want to withdraw all protection from people and offer it to banks instead. Strikes, walkouts, civil unrest and even the break-up of nation states does not deflect them from this goal. And then, of course, there would truly be a United States of Europe.