Reform II

A favorite label used regularly by policymakers and faithfully repeated by media journalists and commentators is "reforms," whose meaning is inverted, being applied to any policy dedicated to undoing popular reforms that have been achieved after decades of struggle. So the elimination of family assistance programs is labeled "welfare reform." "Reforms" in Eastern Europe--in Yugoslavia, for example--have meant the dismantling of the public economy, its privatization at bargain prices, with a dramatic increase in unemployment and human suffering. "IMF reforms" is a euphemism for the same kind of bruising cutbacks throughout the Third World. As someone once noted, "reforms" are not the solution, they are the problem.
--Michael Parenti, "Contrary Notions", page 21