Greece

Newsletter: Transformation – Elections & Movements

September 20, 2015 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Newsletter Black Lives Matter (BLM), Bolivia, Democracy, Ecuador, Elections, Great Britain, Greece, Honduras, Jeremy Corbyn, NED, Occupy, Podemos, Scotland, Spain, Syriza, United Kingdom (UK), USAID, Venezuela

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers for Popular Resistance - The United States has unusual challenges for movements working in the electoral system. The two party system is deeply embedded in law and political consciousness so it is very hard for a party challenging Wall Street to be successful. Wall Street and big business are the dominant funders of both parties, the corporate media echoes their message and debates managed by the two parties through a phony “debate commission” keep out alternative views. People challenging that system have little opportunity to get their message out and be viable in the rigged US democracy. The relationship between movements and elections is complicated to navigate but to succeed we will need both an electoral and non-electoral movement that are independent of the corporate duopoly.

Greece Into The Elections – What Stage Are We At?

September 19, 2015 Stamatis Karagiannopoulos and Fred Weston, www.marxist.com Educate! Elections, Greece, Politics

By Stamatis Karagiannopoulos and Fred Weston in Marxist - Greece goes to the elections on Sunday, the outcome of which will be determined by several factors, an important one being the sense of betrayal and disappointment among many of the SYRIZA voters, but there is also a process of radicalisation taking place on the left. The outgoing government started the biggest privatisation plan ever, worth 50 billion euros. They have raised the age of retirement to 67, cut the minimum pension to 350 euros. They are also cutting by 100 euros disability pensions. Ordinary people have lost the equivalent of almost two wages because of the increase in VAT. After the elections, in line with the dictates contained in the third Memorandum that Tsipras signed up to in August, we will see a barrage of austerity measures passed through parliament.

The New Colonialism: Greece & Ukraine

September 9, 2015 Jack Rasmus, www.informationclearinghouse.info Educate! Colonialism, Europe, Greece, Ukraine

By Jack Rasmus in Information Clearinghouse - A new form of colonialism is emerging in Europe. Not colonialism imposed by military conquest and occupation, as in the 19th century. Not even the more efficient form of economic colonialism pioneered by the U.S. in the post-1945 period, where the costs of direct administration and military occupation were replaced with compliant local elites allowed to share in the wealth extracted in exchange for being allowed to rule on behalf of the colonizers. In the 21st century, it is “colonialism by means of financial asset transfer.” It is colony wealth extraction by colonizing country managers, assigned to directly administer the processes in the colony by which financial assets are to be transferred. This new form of colonialism by direct management plus financial wealth transfer is now emerging in Greece and Ukraine.

Latvia And Greece Kick Monsanto Out, Opt To Ban GM Crops!

September 7, 2015 Amanda Froelich, www.trueactivist.com Resist! Food and Agriculture, Greece, Latvia

By Amanda Froelich in True Activist - First Scotland opted to ban GM crops from its country, citing fear of GMO crops contaminating its food supply, then Germany followed suit. Now, both Latvia and Greece have booted Monsanto from their countries and banned the only GM crop presently allowed to be grown in EU countries, Monsanto’s MON810 GM Maize. If it wasn’t clear before, it seems quite evident that the tide is turning. Big biotech companies are losing influence by the day, and the addition of two more European countries in favor of banning GMOs is evidence of that. Under the EU law signed in March, individual countries can seek geographical exclusion from any approval request for GM cultivation across the EU. Every request to ‘opt out’ of GM cultivation has to be approved by not only the European Commission but also the company making the application, Monsanto.

Greece Is For Sale – And Everything Must Go

August 22, 2015 Nick Dearden, www.globaljustice.org.uk Educate! Austerity, Europe, Greece, Privatization

By Nick Dearden in Global Justice - I've just had sight of the latest privatisation plan for Greece. It's been issued by something called the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund – the vehicle supervised by the European institutions, which has been tasked with selling off an eye-watering €50 billion of Greece's ‘valuable assets’. The fund was a real sticking point because the European institutions wanted to move it to Luxembourg, where they could keep a better eye on it. Anyhow, it's still in Athens, and this document, dated 30 July, details the goodies on sale to international investors who fancy buying up some of the country. We've attached it to this blog to give a flavour of what’s up for grabs at the moment.

Syriza Rebels Form A New Party

August 22, 2015 BBC News, www.bbc.com Educate! Elections, Europe, Greece, Syriza

By BBC News - Rebels from Greece's governing left-wing Syriza are to break away and form a new party. Prime Minister and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras stood down on Thursday, paving the way for new elections. The move came after he lost the support of many of his own MPs in a vote on the country's new bailout with European creditors earlier this month. Greek media reports say 25 rebel Syriza MPs will join the new party, called Laiki Enotita (Popular Unity). The party will be led by former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who was strongly opposed to the bailout deal. At a press conference in Athens, Mr Lafazanis said he was ready to respect the result of a referendum held in July, in which 61% of Greeks said they would not support the terms of the bailout.

Germans To Run Greek Airports In Wave Of Bailout Privatisations

August 19, 2015 Associated Press, www.AP.org Educate! Austerity, Germany, Greece, Privatization

By Associated Press in The Guardian - Greece has agreed to sell to a German company the rights to operate 14 regional airports. The deal is the first in a wave of privatisations the government had until recently opposed but must make to qualify for bailout loans. The decision, published in the government gazette on Monday night would hand over the airports including several on popular tourist island destinations to Fraport AG, which runs Frankfurt Airport, among others across the world. The deal, worth €1.23bn euros (£0.9bn/$1.37bn), is the first privatisation decision taken by the government of Alexis Tsipras, who was elected prime minister in January on promises to repeal the conditions of Greece’s previous two bailouts. The government initially vowed to cancel the country’s privatisation programme but Tsipras caved in to win a deal on a third international bailout for Greece, worth €86bn.

Greek Parliament Approves Bailout Causing a Rebellion In SYRIZA

August 16, 2015 Sharmini Peries, www.therealnews.com Educate! Alexis Tsipras, Austerity, Bailout, Greece, Syriza

By Sharmini Peries for the Real News - It has been I think a dramatic 48 hours, even by the standards of the Greek crisis. As the, within hours--perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration. A day or two of the bailout negotiations having been announced as concluded, the parliament, the Greek government tabled a 400-page bill which basically gave to the parliamentarians less than 24 hours to digest and debate. Just before the debate began, 11 members of Syriza, the Left Platform of Syriza led by Panayiotis Lafazanis, the former energy minister and I think the putative leader of the Left Platform, issued a letter in which they called for the formation of a national anti-bailout movement, and asked for a nationwide mobilization at every level of the political organization of the Left Platform to oppose the bailout.

Greek Bailout Goes To Servicing The Debt

August 13, 2015 Interview of Dimitri Lascaris Sharmini Peries, www.therealnews.com Educate! Debt, Europe, Greece, Left, Syriza

Interview of Dimitri Lascaris by Sharmini Peries in The Real News - Well, the headline is that a deal has been struck for Greece to borrow on top of its mountain of debt, which everyone now acknowledges is unsustainable, a further 86 billion euros in new loans over three years. Virtually all of which I think one can reasonably anticipate is going to be used to service the existing debt of Greece. So this is very much an extension of the five-year long exercise of extend and pretend that the Syriza government criticized so vehemently before coming to power.Underneath that headline, the next point of importance which I think the government is stressing and they're going to characterize and they have begun to characterize as a victory of sorts is the primary budget surplus targets which have emerged. They actually are significantly lower than those that everyone anticipated would be incorporated into the agreement based upon the deal that was struck in broad strokes on July 13 in Brussels.

Alexis Tsipras: “Austerity Is A Dead End”

August 10, 2015 Kostas Arvanitis, www.transform-network.net Educate! Alexis Tsipras, Austerity, Finance and the Economy, Greece, Syriza

By Kostas Arvanitis for Transform Network - We have to be objective in our conclusions. These have been six months of great tensions and emotions, and self-flagellation helps no one. Feelings of joy, pride, dynamism, determination, and sadness have surfaced. But I think that at the end of the day, if we try to look at this process objectively, we can only be proud to have led this fight. Under adverse conditions and with a difficult balance of forces within Europe and the world, we tried to assert the point of view of a people and the possibility of an alternative path. Ultimately, even if the powerful were able to impose their will, what remains is the absolute confirmation on the international level that austerity is a dead end. This process has established a completely new landscape in Europe.

Social Democracy Or Revolutionary Democracy: Syriza & Us

August 6, 2015 Michael A. Lebowitz, www.socialistproject.ca Strategize! Austerity, Colonialism, Greece

By Michael A. Lebowitz in Socialist Project - 1. For several years, Syriza has been the hope of the working-class in Greece, Europe and in every country suffering from neoliberalism and austerity. It was sending a message that a better opposition was possible; and as such it was an inspiration to similar anti-austerity struggles (in particular, that of Podemos in Spain). 2. European and Greek capital was determined to kill that messenger. Accordingly, it was and is relentless in its determination to send a quite different message: TINA, there is no alternative to neoliberalism and austerity. 3. Despite its programme as a party, the platform on which it was elected to govern and a strong popular vote endorsing its rejection of the demands of European capital, the Syriza government totally capitulated and accepted a colonial status for Greece. 4. It is never too late (or too soon) to unleash the creative power of the masses.

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.

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.

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.

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