by V N Gelis
Vngelis said…
IMF measures in Rumania will take effect soon, strikes called.
IMF measures in Rumania will take effect soon, strikes called.
12/8612/_Teachers_announce_general_strike Estonia about to join the bankrupt EURO... as well. The endless myths circulated in the capitalist media have been that Greece has the lowest average pension age in the whole of Europe. Also the highest pensions in proportion to previous incomes. 1 in 2 British people are economically inactive in their 50's. Economic inactivity in the UK is around 25% of the working age population a figure which is double the actual whole labour force of Greece combined (around 4 million)
The minimum wage will drop from around 670E to 560E.
Average pensions are around 500-600E without a housing benefit component included. Unemployment pay can only be received for a total of 6 months if someone has worked for 2 years steady. Then one has none. Unlike once more the northern European states which have various forms of benefits which are re-branded but essentially serve the same purpose: unemployment pay.
Hence EU monetary policy for Greece is to strangle it, block all means of survival of the nation and turn them into pariahs in their own country by breaking it apart (Kallikratis plan) so it becomes an EU region, run by some EU commissioner somewhere...
Thu 13, May 2010 @ 09:28
Vngelis said…
If one looks at the EU budget and Greece.
Greece pays the highest proportion out of any state of its income into EU coffers.
It now has the highest VAT rates which go to EU coffers. It apparently is a net recipient of around E8billion whilst contributing E4billion. The extra E4billion is for CAP.
But such figures don‘t factor in the $5billion per annum spent on weapons to two EU countries, France and Germany.
Whilst France and Germany spend 70% of the EU budget they also allow tonnes of agricultural imports to flood the EU markets thus destroying Greek agriculture yet this wasn't the reason for joining the EU. Then it was sold as supporting domestic products first over imports into the EU. That was forgotten as usual.
Investments made by the Greek state stolen from Greek pension funds into the 'stabilisation' programs of the EU into the neighbouring Balkan states, the propping up of Albania proper via the presence of around 1.5million Albanians in Greece isn't also factored into any of the Enron style accounting systems of the EU. So as to show that Greece is a net recipient not a net contributor propping up France and Germany they turned accounting on its head and are presenting the Germans as those who sustain fiscal discipline and aren't responsible for the bankruptcy of Greece but the Greek working class.
Heard that one before, in the place of the EU commissioner, place the Gaulaiter and you see history repeating itself. First time round as tragedy, second time round as farce... Fri 14, May 2010 @ 12:47 Chris Ssaid…
The marxist economist Hillel Ticktin spoke to Yassamine Mather about the Greek bail out and what it means for capitalism in Weekly Worker today: http://cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1003942 Thu 20, May 2010 @ 13:42 Bill jsaid…
So what does it mean for capitalism? It‘s far from clear from Ticktin's article. He says that capitalism cannot solve its problems in which case its crisis is terminal. He also says that capitalism's crisis is not terminal, in which case it can solve its problems. Perhapsit‘s just fair to say that capitalism can have its cake and eat it... Thu 20 May 2010 @ 15:45
…If we want to move beyond generalisations like the working class will have to overthrow capitalism in order to achieve socialism, surely what we
really need to know is, what will the depth of the crisis be? How will this affect the Eurozone? Will it mean the breakup of the EU? Can the Greek working class resist the cuts? etc.etc.. As far as I can tell Ticktin does not
answer a single one of those questions. In which case one surely has to question that value of an article which purports to do just that?
Thu 20, May 2010 @ 23:22
VNGelis said… No crisis in history is terminal for it only takes another form one way or another. As a social system capitalism is on its way out whether we like it or not.
Capitalism can 'survive' if it forces generalised open slavery on everyone. The market is king, but the emperor has no clothes. They told us the bailouts would solve the banking crisis and here we two years later back to the future. The FTSE has now fallen to below 5,000 which are where it was in October 2009 at the onset of the bank bailout, the currency has been devalued by 25% and an RBS banker on the front page of City AM states that despite the $1trillion Euro bailout, we are on the verge of Great Depression Mark II. Is that happening?
Is the Euro bailout using historical analogies the collapse of the Austrian bank in 1931 that further weakened global capitalism last time round, or is the Euro bailout manageable? The markets will decide, they are king, but the workerswon‘t become direct slaves, they are king.Let‘s see how this impasse resolves itself by fighting to stop the crisis being dumped on us on behalf of the banksters, the corporate media and the corporate politicians... VNGelis said…
Of course it ‘s possible that the Eurozone will collapse and there will be another bout of recession. But how possible is it? Not too possible I think, given the scale of the bail out and the experience of Lehman's failure Bill J
VNGelis said…
I subscribe to Lenin‘s maxim on this one. For a Capitalist United States of Europe to exist it either has to be a reactionary formation or unrealisable. Ex-Chancellor Kohl stated in a public meeting to Germans as reported by ex-UK ambassador Christopher Meyer that the EU is in the national interests of Germany, pure and simple. The project of the 3rd Reich has therefore now morphed into a new 4th Reich with the same implications as before. We cannot have monetary union which doesn't morph into fullblown economic and political union. In order to have the other two therefore national parliaments have to be abolished or lose any political rights when setting economic policy.
The bailouts have failed. Unemployment continues to increase in both the US and the Eurozone as a whole. There are obviously variations on the amounts, but the IMF has entered Europe for a purpose. To impose depression economics, pure and simple. Anyone saying the opposite is covering for them...
Sat 22, May 2010 @ 14:50
VNGelis said…
Euro unlikely to last five more years...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284462/Euro-hits-new-loweconomists-predict-break-5-years.html Was the German buyout of E Germany the reason for the current malaise? While losing more than a million inhabitants, East Germany benefited from 1.5 trillion euros of investment since 1991, and much if not most of this has been financed by ―foreigners‖ (non-East
Germans).http://voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/4180
So did this amazing amount of money benefit West Germany? http://ecommerce
journal.com/news/16736_german_debt_may_top_2_trillio...Here Germany is the 5th highest...
http://www.optimist123.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/d... Here Germany‘s central govt debt has gone from $690 billion in 1999 to $1.6billion a decade later.
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=GOV_DEBT
What was it in 1989? According to this report what has happened net financial assets are minus in relation to net fixed assets when both were in surplus in 1990...In this report on page 8 we see what?
Bundesbank report states govt to debt ratios were 40% up till 1999, they then increase to around 70% because of unification. The Euro therefore wasGermany‘s response to the crisis of swallowing up E Germany. http://www.bundesbank.de/download/volkswirtschaft/mba/2010/201004mb a_...
Fri 21, May 2010 @ 12:35
Eyewitness Account: Greek Hauliers on Indefinite Strike Against IMF Decrees
On 8 September Greek hauliers held a truckers‘ march into the centre of Athens with their horns blowing. They were reacting to the decision of the Minister of Transport two days earlier that he has reneged on an agreement made to
end the August strike that outlined a transitional period of reforms of the Hauliers terms and conditions of employment. He now insists on the immediate implementation of all the changes without negotiation. As the scene is set for a resurgence of the strike in August we publish here an eyewitness account by V N Gelis of last month‘s strike and the role of the union leaders in ending it.
―You are taking our livelihoods not simply our licenses‖ became the battle cry of 35,000 Greek road hauliers who launched an indefinite strike which lasted a whole week before its sell out by its leaders.
When the hauliers met for their mass meeting in the Peroke Theatre in central Athens their despondent voices were heard from one wall of the theatre to the other. They characteristically wore a black armband and came to hear the President of the Federation of Georgiatos who wanted to tell the crowd the proposal of the Minister Reppas that ―dialogue will continue only after the cessation of the strike‖. They forced the leaders to continue the strike...
They rejected the government‘s plans to open their service up to multinational competition. It was common knowledge that the multinational COSCO which bought the Greek ports on behalf of China asked for 30,000 new licences for transporting goods with Chinese personnel who will be paid a maximum of €300 for their work.
They tried to find a ―compromise solution‖ but their proposals were ignored by the IMF who now essentially runs the Ministry of Transport. The leaders of the union asked for the pensions of hauliers to reach the amazing amount of €680 a month, to allow for three years for the law to be implemented and not backdated to last June, and the implementation of it for all hauliers to be over a five-year period not a three year period as 5,000 hauliers bought their licences recently and the 35% drop in their value will affect them disproportionally.
New licences were bought for around €300,000 a 35% drop will mean they are now currently worth €200,000 but the debt will remain at the amount for which they were bought.
The Minister of Transport Reppas replied with so-called development tax rebates and allowing each driver to take another licence which will not be worth anything anyway. Even if the majority of the Federation wanted to announce the ending of the strike under these circumstances of a mass meeting with all present, it was impossible as there was nothing on the table.
The KKE‘s representative at the Peroke theatre greeted the leadership of the hauliers without raising a single point of difference with the government plan despite being selflabelled as the ―class struggle union‖
So how did the union leaders get around selling out the strike? Four or five days into the strike after two mass meetings and two large demos to the Parliament – and with trucks also parked on many motorways up and down Greece – the government brought forward an ―emergency order‖ which basically allows the military to act as strike-breakers.
This has only been used once or twice before since 1974 against port workers in order to break their strikes. This was the perfect excuse the union misleaders needed to sell out the strike. Why?
Supermarkets had mass shortages of goods. In two supermarkets I visited they had run out of the basics seven days into the strike. There were many fuel shortages in petrol stations. Hospitals couldn‘t get supplies. More importantly the tourist industry was going to get crippled which is Greece‘s main earner in the summer months.
Whilst the hauliers appeared on TV stating no one can force them to go to work and they won‘t accept the provisions of the ―emergency order‖. Army conscripts were also heard to voice reservations that they didn't want to act as strike-breakers. This could pose bigger problems for the government in the future as without the army on your side you lose the ability to threaten people.
So sensing this situation could get out of control, where people in other occupations joined this strike against the IMF and its PASOK quislings, the union leaders met behind closed doors one fine Sunday morning and then the media announced the ending of the strike.
A strike was sold out without being actually defeated and it showed it was a spark that could have lit a more general fire, but the union leaders and the parties of the Left were found wanting once more.
Thu 09, September 2010 @ 13:50 Greek Hauliers have started an indefinite strike again. They are alleged to have attacked the president of northern Greece's CBI during the Thessaloniki trade fair. Their sell out president condemned the violence of the Hauliers but not the violence of the riot police who teargased them.
A video of the event has appeared in this paper.
http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=11424&subid=2&pubid=29520948
Sun 12, September 2010 @ 18:48
Hauliers Strike Update...
Blockades have occurred on national motorways and many demos in various cities over the last week.
Lamia was cut totally off in the centre. Different things are occurring in different parts of the country.
Truck drivers act against the line of the union sell-outs. Much will be decided as to whether people will rally to the autonomous movements ofhaulier‘s blockades and whether this will take some organised form or will provisionally go backwards.
Hauliers have started blocking the motorways without a general plan of action. In every blockade autonomous groups are being created under which they decide to go against the official union policy of Tzortatos & Co.
In the Metamorphosis blockade an area on the outskirts of Athens they decided to block both sides of the motorway and at the same time allowed cars to go through the pay tolls by occupying them and allowing them to go through for free.
Truckers have also called for open mass meetings with all the layers of workers and pensioners affected by the IMF measures in the Haidari blockaded which was voted for unanimously. They announced their decision using mobile phones to other truckers around the country, and they want them held at their union offices on Tuesday 12th September 2010
They have also forced scabs to stop working and the one of the union leaders has condemned this via the mass media. Kiousis who owns 35 trucks (and with the ‗liberation‘ of the profession will want to acquire more) attackedthe strike breakers under the guise of the ‗right to work‘. Alongside him was the Hauliers Leader-Tzortatos owner of 17trucks who under pressure of the deranged and corrupted journalists of the IMF mass media pressurised him to support the strike-breakers.
This evening on SKAI TV it was reported that in 3 blockades they are also proposing in the open mass meeting to be held on Tuesday to have all night camps outside of Parliament and to call all the people with them and to not leave until victory.
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 17:28
Strike-breakers on this video showing their demobilised trucks after strikers cut off their electrics.
http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/summary.asp?catid=17632&subid =2&pubid=13636752 The vote for the 'opening of the professions' one of the IMF imposed measures is going to occur on Wednesday. The KKE hasn't called for any direct support to the Truckers or any of their mobilisations although they are holding a demo outside Parliament on 23rd September when the vote is to go through.
If the truckers march into the centre of Athens with 2,000 trucks as some have stated they will then the situation may go out of control of the union misleaders.
At the same time the President of the Greek CBI has stated that 5,000 containers are blocked at ports all over Greece and much produce may go rotten.
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 19:08 Video of strikers trying to block scabs plus map of all the road blockades around Athens.
http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/summary.asp?catid=17632&subid =2&pubid=13636752#toppage
Also how the strike is affecting the market with tonnes of stock remaining in the ports
Sun 19, September 2010 @ 19:28
Greek Truckers rally outside Parliament
Greece: truck driver"s blockade centre of Athens to halt liberalisation measures
After their union leaders tried to bury the resistance of the trucke
rs in July a new wave of strikes erupted in defiance of the threat of emergency decrees being issued to truckers. Some 19 points around Athens have been blockaded by trucks. Waves of militant rank and file truckers have demobilised scab trucks by blowing their tyres or cutting their electrical connections, so demobilising the engines. The government has tried everything via the mass media to condemn the militant truckers; they even tried to impede the road blocks but it became pretty impossible to stop truckers with 20-plus tonne trucks with engines revving and threatening to squash puny police cars. In the end the police escorted the truckers into various points around Athens– that is, opened the roads for them.
Ta NEA (daily organ of the Lambrakis press - the biggest establishment paper) condemned the actions of the police and demanded to know why the government not confronting the truckers? "Are they allowing them to get away with everything until they get tired and go home?" In the meantime 6,000 containers are stranded in the ports and their perishable contents rot. More stuff arrives daily and has nowhere to be parked.
3,000marched in the afternoon to parliament and the police for the first time in the last 10 years refused to teargas them - which has been standard policy. The reason is clear. They are frightened to attack since they fear provoking more generalised conflict. All train workers of the national railways OSE have also walked out early for a week's strike against ta court decision which tried to deny them the right to strike. So having camped outside parliament on Tuesday night the truckers are waiting for their numbers to swell prior to Wednesday's vote which aims to ratify the IMF's agenda of the full liberalisation of middle class professions, hauliers, taxi drivers, solicitors etc.
If the truckers manage to bring trucks to the centre of Athens and confront the parliamentarian IMF quislings then they may bring about the defeat of the government. The big disaster is the role of the Left once more. Not a single big organisation– the KKE or the Euros Stalinists– have sent as many supporters as they can to support the truckers. 50 members of PAME marched along the pavements in 'solidarity' with the truckers and then dispersed. They have called for rallies against IMF imposed price rises (VAT rates, electricity, water etc.) AFTER the vote in parliament takes place. Divide and rule is the only strategy of the union misleaders. Unifying struggles and supporting the middle class hauliers now they are under total attack isn't for them.
