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| Goldman Sachs New World Headquarters (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| Coat of arms of Greece since 7 June 1975. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| the logo of syriza (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I have
been filling in my spare time in recent weeks reading a lot of thrillers,
mysteries, and the like, about which more on a later post. Before embarking on
this trivia I feel bound to write about what is really exercising me, day by
day, which is the fate of the brave new leftist government in Greece.
From what I have read (most of it on the internet, where the
freedom to express alternative opinions seems to be so much more available than
in the mainstream media) I have come to the conclusion that what the Greeks are
proposing is, in effect, the boldest move taken by any government in the last
quarter century to oppose what seems to be accepted everywhere these days as
the only reasonable economic route into the future. That global consensus, not
to put too fine a point on it, is dictated by the oligarchs (otherwise called
corporations) of the Western powers, and constitutes a root and branch defence
of a capitalism that is untrammelled by any limitations imposed in the public interest.
It is exactly this kind of capitalism that in 2008 plunged the
global economy into a severe crisis from which President Obama rescued it by
having the United States print huge
amounts of money and give it to the international bankers, adjudged too big to fail, so that their skins
could be saved and they might be free to look ahead to more profitable days. Which,
one might say, they have done, so that inequality everywhere in the world has
grown to levels hitherto unheard of, with the top one per cent gobbling up
almost the entire income that has been earned as a result of all this
skulduggery.
Greece’s earlier pathetic governments signed agreements with
the European and international oligarchs that were away beyond their capacity
to repay, and had to accept the imposition of rigid austerity on their economy
that has immeasurably reduced the standard of living of the Greek people,
thrown them into severe depression, plunged them into massive unemployment and
sucked whatever income they might have earned into the repayment of the huge
loans --- in other words, the Greek economy as inherited by Syriza is committed
to keep paying loans into European and international banks, and letting the
welfare of their citizens go to hell.
One might ask is this really what Europe wants, until one
realizes that behind all these financial machinations lies the vile hand of the
Goldman Sachs bankers ( Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, is a
Goldman Sachs guy) and their ilk. And we do know what kind of a world these
people want: virtually the world as it exists now, in which they are
desperately trying ensure the Greeks do what they are told forever.
Syriza was elected on a platform of rejecting this austerity
economy. In their first efforts to negotiate changes to this programme, the
Greek government agreed to what they thought was a pause in their repayment
schedule of four months, to enable them to set their economic ship back on a
smooth sea from which they hoped to be able to embark on a new course. Their
charismatic finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was repeatedly rebuffed and
demonized by the lords of the European economy, the so-called troika, later
called “the institutions” of the European Union, the International Monetary
Fund and the European Central Bank. Varoufakis was reputedly so exhausted after
a day of hectoring from these European plutocrats that he did not attend a
celebratory dinner that evening, which was held against him, and against his
country, as having no manners.
Thereafter, the global media has parroted the government line
that insists Greece must pay up or withdraw from the Eurozone, something they
all say they do not want.
I am indebted to a writer under the name of Talos, in the European Tribune, a serious on-line site
for the ventilation of European issues, who points out that most of what the Western
media is peddling about what is happening, is incorrect. There is no left
within Syriza which is threatening to pull away from the negotiations, he says,
although certain leftists have made the mistaken assumption that by agreeing to
the four-month pause, Syriza had fatally compromised its independence, and
violated its election pledges. Not so,
says this well-informed insider. What stands as a block against progress in the
negotiations “is neither Yanis Varoufakis' lack of proper table manners nor some sort of
inability of the Greek government to quantify their plans.” Rather, it is the
fact that there is a “very important political gulf” between the two
sides on four issues.
These issues and his commentary on
them give an excellent idea of the reactionary, plutocratic demands of the European
institutions, as of the Syriza hopes for the future:
Labour laws / wages: the Greek
government has already introduced a bill that restores labour protections and
gradually raises the minimum wage in the private sector to 2009 levels,
starting October and reaching 751 Euros/month next year. The Greek government
is also unyielding to pressures aiming to further facilitate large-scale
firings.
Pensions:
The government is adamant that no further cuts to pensions is possible and
insists on reintroducing the Christmas bonus ("13th salary") for
those pensioners under 700 Euros per month. Pensions were paid until 2010 in 14
instalments. The troika demanded that these be reduced to 12, thus enforcing a
14% cut across the board in all pensions. The average pension has been reduced
since 2010 by 30-40%.
VAT tax: the government is open to an increase in the
luxury tax, but considers VAT to be ridiculously high at 23% already for an
economy in its 5th year of depression.
Public property: SYRIZA will not proceed with privatizations other
than those already under way, and on those it wants a serious renegotiation of
terms (which are colonial i.e. in the case of peripheral airports).
On these issues, Syriza says it is immovable: they are the red line beyond which
they will not move. And these surely seem reasonable positions, especially when
one consider the list given by Talos of the legislation the government has
already passed or is in the process of passing. (My impression is that this
list has not been mentioned in mainstream Western media).
These include abolition of entrance
fee to public hospitals and making them available to everyone, whether or not they are insured; re-establishment
of collective bargaining rights and restoration of the minimum wage, in two
steps, over a year; the public broadcaster ERT has been reopened, and all
of its employees rehired and private TV channels that have been exempted from
all sorts of fees and taxes and their
monopoly over the digital TV spectrum is being ended; within the year, a
number of public employees will be rehired (including around 4500 new nurses
and doctors) to support the decaying
health system; primary residences are again protected by law against
foreclosure, and emergency aid for the most afflicted is being delivered, while
banks are being forced to remove debt burdens from the poorest people; and oligarchs
are being brought to justice for tax evasion, and a deal with Switzerland has
been initiated to tax depositors in that country.
Talos concludes his article on the
following fighting note:
“This negotiation and the fight with neoliberal
Europe can only be a marathon, in which every step will be fought tooth and
claw against an increasingly undemocratic EU establishment. SYRIZA will either
be forced to attempt to go it alone, or to remain within the EZ having created
a space in which it can cultivate an anti-paradigm to current macroeconomic
policies. If it is forced to submit, this will signal curtains for the whole
European project as a democratically legitimate endeavour and the beginning of
a very turbulent time for Greece.
“Myself, I'd rather see my children go hungry than
submit to what will have been proven to be a colonial plan to create a
permanently dependent protectorate restored to its proper oligarchic masters
and bereft of any hint of democratic legitimization.”
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