Europe

The Ghost Of Democracy Haunts Europe

August 3, 2015 John Weeks, www.opendemocracy.net Educate! Austerity, Democracy, Europe, Greece

By John Weeks in Open Democracy - Due to naivety and/or the triumph of hope over experience, I never entertained the possibility that the Syriza government would capitulate to the Troika. The capitulation arrived all the more unanticipated because the Syriza government surrendered to EU demands more draconian and more of an insult to national sovereignty than those rejected by 61% of Greek voters in the referendum on 5 July. This post-referendum package accepted by the Greek government does not result in a Third Bailout. On the contrary, by accepting it all the Greek government has gained (if that is the operative word) is a concession by its euro overlords to begin negotiations for a Third Bailout.

We Are All Greece

August 1, 2015 Helena Norberg-Hodge, www.localfutures.org Educate! Austerity, Debt, Europe, Finance and the Economy, Greece

By Helena Norberg-Hodge in Local Futures - The European Union is an extension of the Bretton Woods institutions – The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) – founded at the end of World War II. Their stated purpose was global economic integration in order to avoid another depression and to avert war. But the result was a form of economic development – based on debt, global trade and consumerism – that systematically favored corporate interests while hollowing out local economies worldwide. Sadly, many people still idealistically embrace the Bretton Woods institutions, as well as the European Union. Neither the media nor academia has focused on the role of transnational banks and corporations in promoting this economic path. Instead they continue to reinforce the notion that European “economic integration” is about peaceful coexistence among countries that would otherwise be at war with each other.

European Mining Dispute Shows Risk Of Corporate Trade Deals

July 30, 2015 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Educate! Environment, Europe, Mining, Romania, Trade Deal, TTIP

By Deirdre Fulton in Common Dreams - Offering a stark warning of how corporate-friendly trade pacts like the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) put both democracy and the environment at risk, a Canadian company is seeking damages from Romania after being blocked from creating an open-pit gold mine over citizen concerns. Gabriel Resources Ltd. announced last week that it had filed a request for arbitration with the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a body not unlike the secret tribunals that critics like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have warned against. The corporation's Rosia Montana open-pit gold mine project stalled after a series of protests in cities across Romania in 2013 demanded Gabriel's plan be dropped.

Lessons In Greek For Leftists

July 30, 2015 Steven Jonas, www.greanvillepost.com Educate! Austerity, Capitalism, Europe, Greece, Syriza

By Steven Jonas in Greanville Post - Well, Greek lesson 1: what has happened to Syriza and Tsipras shows, once again that that is not possible. The ruling class is the ruling class, and short of revolution, as Lenin so rightly noted, it will always rule, one way or another. Greek lesson 2: The Greek ruling class seems to be coming out of the mess in very good shape. They managed to make sure that the worst of the “austerity” measures, imposed by their brethren in the European Union, were carried out under the nominal governmental control of a “leftist” government rather than its “center-right” predecessor. Greek lesson 3: The international capitalist ruling class (of which the Greek ruling class is of course a part) is absolutely intent on showing the people of Italy and Spain what would await them if they were to elect a left-wing government that would attempt something along the lines of what Syriza originally intended to door seemed to.

UK High Court Rules Surveillance Law Unconstitutional

July 24, 2015 Marianne Franklin, www.theconversation.com Resist! Europe, Law, Surveillance, United Kingdom (UK)

By Marianne Franklin in The Conversation - Controversial surveillance legislation hustled through parliament last summer has been ruled unlawful by the UK High Court, which argued that the vague terms and descriptions of powers in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (DRIPA) renders the act incompatible with human rights under European law. In a 44-page ruling, Lord Justice David Bean and Mr Justice Andrew Collins criticised the lack of clarity and detail in spelling out the terms and conditions under which communications data can be intercepted by police and intelligence agencies, declaring the act “incompatible with the British public’s right to respect for private life and communications and to protection of personal data under Articles 7 and 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights”.

Challenging Germany, Leading Italian Politician Calls For Euro Exit

July 24, 2015 Stephanie Kirchgaessner, www.theguardian.com Resist! Austerity, Europe, Germany, Italy

By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in The Guardian - The populist leader of Italy’s second largest political party has called for the nationalisation of Italian banks and exit from the euro, and said the country should prepare to use its “enormous debt” as a weapon against Germany. Former comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, who transformed Italian politicswhen he launched his anti-establishment Five Star Movement in 2009, has long been a bombastic critic of the euro. But his stance hardened significantly in ablogpost on Thursday in which he compared the Greek bailout negotiations to “explicit nazism”. Grillo constructed what he called a “Plan B” for Italy, which he said needed to heed the lessons ofGreece so that it was ready “when the debtors come round”. His plan called for Italy to adopt a clear anti-euro stance and to shake off its belief that – if forced to accept tough austerity – other “peripheral” countries would come to its aid.

Europe’s Vindictive Privatization Plan For Greece

July 23, 2015 Yanis Varoufakis, www.socialeurope.eu Create! Austerity, Europe, Germany, Greece, Imperialism, Politics

By Yanis Varoufakis in Social Europe - On July 12, the summit of eurozone leaders dictated its terms of surrender to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who, terrified by the alternatives, accepted all of them. One of those terms concerned the disposition of Greece’s remaining public assets. Eurozone leaders demanded that Greek public assets be transferred to a Treuhand-like fund – a fire-sale vehicle similar to the one used after the fall of the Berlin Wall to privatize quickly, at great financial loss, and with devastating effects on employment all of the vanishing East German state’s public property. This Greek Treuhand would be based in – wait for it – Luxembourg, and would be run by an outfit overseen by Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, the author of the scheme. It would complete the fire sales within three years. But, whereas the work of the original Treuhand was accompanied by massive West German investment in infrastructure and large-scale social transfers to the East German population, the people of Greece would receive no corresponding benefit of any sort.

Lapavitsas Calls For Exit As The Only Strategy For Greece

July 20, 2015 Costas Lapavitsas, www.therealnews.com Create! Colonialism, Europe, Finance and the Economy, Greece

By Costas Lapavitsas in The Real News - And it is--it is neocolonial for many reasons. I will mention three. First, the deal proposes the establishment of a privatization fund of 50 billion Euros which will basically sell public property under foreign management. 25 billion of that, the first 25 billion, will go to the banks by the agreement. If there's anything left, and there won't be anything left because they'll never make 50 billion, it might go to repaying the debt and possibly to investment. Essentially, then, this fund will sell what it can of public property to recapitalize the banks. We've just agreed the deal that sells the family silver to recapitalize the failed Greek banks. We've also agreed to reforms of civil administration managed by the EU. We've also agreed to monitoring, and this monitoring will be very severe and it will last a lot longer than the three years that this deal will last.

Germans Protest In 14 Cities Against Merkel’s Stance On Greece

July 18, 2015 Gregory Pappas, www.pappaspost.com Resist! Austerity, Europe, Germnay, Greece

By Gregory Pappas in Pappas Post - Germans, angry at their government’s handling of Greek debt negotiations and what they perceive to be unfair treatment against Greece, have organized demonstrations in 14 German cities, including a large one outside the German finance ministry in Berlin— seat of Dr. Wolgang Schauble. Protesters have vowed to continue demonstrations, with protests set to take place outside the German Parliament and again at the finance ministry in Berlin every Wednesday, aiming to share their opposition to their government’s treatment of Greece. “I’m furious with these criminals,” a Greek teacher who has lived in Germany all her life told the Guardian. “I don’t want my taxes supporting this criminal coup.” Hannah Eberle, spokeswoman for the movement organizing the protests in Germany, told Newsweek in an interviewthat Merkel’s government’s behavior has been undemocratic and aggressive.

TTIP Will Force All Europeans To Take Greece’s Medicine

July 17, 2015 John Hilary, www.politics.co.uk Educate! Austerity, Europe, Finance and the Economy, Free Trade, Greece, TTIP

By John Hilary in Politics - If the Greek crisis has shown how the institutions of the EU will stop at nothing to force through their own brand of capitalist discipline, TTIP is confirmation that we will all soon be tasting the same medicine. This week sees the 10th round of negotiations towards the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the controversial EU-US trade deal that threatens our jobs, our public services and our democracy itself. The talks come hot on the heels of last week's pro-TTIP vote in the European Parliament, where MEPs turned their backs on their electorate in favour of a deal that will benefit only big business and the banks. The European Parliament passed a resolution on July 8 giving the green light to the continuing TTIP negotiations, despite the fact that a record 2.3 million people from across the EU have now signed a European Citizens' Initiative rejecting the deal altogether.

Understanding The Defeat Means Preparing A Victory

July 16, 2015 Transform Network, www.transform-network.net/ Educate! Austerity, Banking, Europe, Greece

By Transform Network - The Greek Dilemma and Us. Nine provisional considerations after both the popular Oxi and Syriza’s Yes to the Memorandum. This is being written after the vote in the Greek parliament and before the final decision of the Eurogroup. At the moment, everything is open, and we are certain of only a couple of things. Almost everything can change, but some things will remain true. The alternative of Grexit or a third Memorandum is not the same as reform or revolution; it is only a matter of the lack of alternatives dictated by the creditors. It corresponds to the relation of forces within Europe, which can at the moment only produce defeats. The blackmailing of Greece by the creditors leaves open two paths, both of which would be defeats. This is unavoidable.

Alexis Tsipras: Latest So-Called ‘Leftist’ To Sell-Out To The Bankers

July 16, 2015 Neil Clark, www.rt.com Educate! Austerity, Banking, Europe, Greece, Left

By Neil Clark in RT - For the so-called 'radical leftist' from Greece is only the latest in a long line of ‘radicals’ and 'leftists' to betray the people who had voted for them and cave into the demands of imperialist international finance capital. The only surprising thing about Alexis Tsipras' capitulation to the troika is that anyone should be surprised by it. In Britain, we had our own version of the Greek ‘crisis’ in 1931. And like today, it was a politician nominally of the ‘left,’ the Labour Party leader Ramsay Macdonald, who eventually sided with the bankers against ordinary working people. A ‘banker-led coup’ occurred that replaced the democratically elected Labour government with a new capital-approved National Government, which moved to introduce steep cuts in public spending and slashed unemployment pay.

SYRIZA Leaders Against The Coup

July 15, 2015 Syriza Central Committee Members, Translated Antonis Martalis, www.socialistworker.org Resist! Austerity, Europe, Greece, Syriza, Tsipras

By Syriza Central Committee Members, Translated by Antonis Martalis in Socialist Worker - The agreement with the "institutions" was the result of the blackmailing of the country through economic strangulation. It is a new Memorandum, with onerous and humiliating terms of supervision, disastrous for the country and our people. We realize that suffocating pressure was put on the Greek side in the negotiations, but nevertheless, we believe that the people's proud "no" vote in the referendum must forbid the government from succumbing to the extortionate ultimatums of the creditors. This agreement is not compatible with the ideas and the principles of the left. But most importantly, it is not compatible with the needs of the working class and the popular masses. This proposal cannot be accepted by the members and the cadres of SYRIZA. We ask for the Central Committee to convene immediately, and we call on the members, cadres and members of parliament of SYRIZA to stand for the unity of the party on the basis of our Congress decisions and our programmatic commitments.

Irresponsible German Banks Greater Threat To EU Than Greece

July 15, 2015 Μιχάλης Γιαννεσκής, www.failedevolution.blogspot.gr Educate! Austerity, Debt, Europe, Germany, Greece

By Μιχάλης Γιαννεσκής in Failed Evolution - Wolfgang Schäuble and the German leadership of the eurozone have good reasons to worry, maintaining an uncompromising attitude in the negotiations with Greece. But the repayment of Greek debt, which amounts to EUR 317 billion, is not one of the most important ones. The Greek debt is insignificant in comparison with the financial dynamite of the German (and other) banks, which in recent months gives more daily ignition signs. Only Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, is significantly exposed, holding dubious financial products known as "derivatives", worth 67 trillion euros. This amount is similar to the GDP of the entire world and 20 times greater than the GDP of Germany. Any comparison with the situation of the bank Lehman Brothers in 2008 would not be irrelevant.

German Production Is A Facade Built On Bad Loans…

July 15, 2015 Thad Beversdorf, www.zerohedge.com Educate! Austerity, Banking, Europe, Germany, Greece

By Thad Beversdorf in Zerohedge - Well Greece and China have certainly taken away the need for Russia and ISIS breaking news so there’s that….. How very nice that 2 of the top 3 global threats apparently provide the West some breathing room when we have other issues to deal with. Surely this isn’t just the media determining what should be our concern and what should not? But I digress…. I want to dig into the Greece situation to provide some clarity that I feel has been lacking in mainstream media. The Greece situation is a terrible tragedy for the Greek people. However, the real crux of the matter is out of their hands. Money that is not there cannot be used to pay down debt. And so while the referendum was symbolic it really didn’t change the course of history. The true discussion and debate has been between Germany and the ECB and this dissent between the two is becoming ever harder to cover up.

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