How the IMF Broke Greece
Page 15
As Marxists, we should welcome such a development, whilst fighting to try to ensure that the basis upon which this new state is constructed is as favourable to workers as we can possibly achieve. But, as a nationalist, VN Gelis cannot think in terms of such an international struggle by workers, because her/his mind is imprisoned within national borders, and as such s/he ends up advocating the preservation of the existing reactionary capitalist states as though that were in some way preferable.
S/he says: ―Where national sovereignty is threatene d, economic decisions are passed to the control of unelected bureaucrats.‖ But, within the confines of a global capitalist system, the question of national political sovereignty is irrelevant in such matters, especially for tiny economies such as Ireland. The reality is that both Greece and Ireland were already threatened by decisions made by people who were unelected, other than by their shareholders - not people in the International Monetary Fund or in the EU, but by the managers of the huge global bond funds, who refused to buy Irish debt other than at increasingly exorbitant interest rates!
Moreover, while s/he is right to point out that the officials at the European Central Bank and in the EU commission are unelected (although of, course, the finance ministers who ultimately brokered this deal are elected), s/he fails to recognise that the state officials within any capitalist state, including those who run the national central banks, are likewise unelected. Why does s/he think that an unelected Irish bureaucrat determining Irish economic policy is any better than an unelected EU bureaucrat?
The answer here is not to present national capitals or national state bureaucracies as somehow preferable, but to fight for a consistent democracy within the EU itself. In fact, even a consistently bourgeois democratic EU would be better able to withstand the pressure from specific sections of capital than would an Irish workers‘ state. If we really want to talk about exercising democratic control over economic decision-making, then it is inconceivable that this could be achieved on any basis less than something of the size of the current EU. That is one reason we should welcome its development.
http://boffyblog.blogspot.com/ Arthur Bough
Arab Revolutions harden protestors‘ resolve in Greece‘s Eighth General Strike
23 February. On the surface it all looked the same; another day, another general strike, the eighth since the massive 24-hour general strike in May last year which ended with the death of two bank workers. But underneath, the political climate has changed and there is a growing determination to kick-start a more sustained, generalised struggle.
Greece has now had eight general strikes in 10 months, but for the first time demands were raised by a section of the wider political forces of the left to turn Sindagma Square into Tahrir Sq. in Cairo. Moreover, three new elements have been added to the scene: two significant social movements (WE WONT PAY, KERATEA) and the creation of a new political formation SPITHA (Spark).
This latest general strike was as big as the one in May and ended after five hours of battles and tonne‘s of tear gas being sprayed repeatedly to disperse the crowds. The police deployed their new little toys (noise bombs as well as smoke bombs) where you get the feeling you are in the middle of a war zone as well as the using riot police on motorbikes to ram into demonstrators. Police brutality was pervasive.
Of course, Greek politicians and the media which condemned government violence in the Arab world had no problem supporting the same at home. The irony wasn‘t lost on the protestors who did everything in their power to liberate any youth that were snatched by police.
The riot police and its special sub-sections the DIAS contingent (they use motorbikes) charged at protestors in the most violent and gangster fashion. Inevitably, one of them couldn‘t swivel around fast enough and was attacked for trying to ram into crowds and he ended up burning from a Molotov cocktail that was thrown at him.
Arab Revolution Since the last Greek general strike we have had the significant developments of the Arab world just across the Mediterranean. Greeks have been watching with frustration as their own struggles have led nowhere despite the fact that since December isolated and sectional weekly walkouts by transport workers, various walkouts by pharmacists and also hospital doctors as well as some walkouts by teachers have taken place.
It has become difficult to get to and from work for hundreds of thousands of workers and it is hard for many to get prescription medication due to the IMF-imposed economic―restructuring‖. Unemployment has hit 15% officially and the economic situation goes from bad to worse. The promised ―light at the end of the tunnel‖ recedes ever further.
Thessaloniki, the country‘s second city, officially now has 25% unemployment and it is no coincidence that a section of the strikers parked a coffin on Athens‘ Sindagma Square with a big banner stated ‗We Are Dying‘. Alongside this the government has announced it has to find €50bn by selling off whatever the country now owns. Finally, they want to cut all social benefits after six months and to abolish all collective wage bargaining and thereby get rid of the 8-hour day and introduce Sunday working.
We Won’t Pay Constant and incessant price rises (20-40%) in public transport has led to a movement which is supported by the wider forces of the left. Numerous non-payment mobilisations have occurred, either during some workday mornings or on Sundays when dealing with motorway tolls. They gather at various stations (bus and metro) and cover all ticket machines and ask for passengers to refuse to pay.
This has met with wide popular support so far and provoked the IMF spokespersons of PASOK in parliament to call those who refuse to pay, ―cheapskates‖ – unlike MPs of course who have no problem accepting bribes for public sector contracts (eg. Siemens) and who, due to parliamentary immunity, have never been prosecuted.
They want to change the laws now and prosecute the ‗we won‘t pay‘ movement so citizens can be imprisoned or have their assets frozen. This movement has the possibility of gaining a mass following as the crisis deepens and it is showing unity on the ground in struggle by the various forces of the Left. But it still is at its early stage of development.
Keratea
An area on the outskirts on Athens has been chosen by the PASOK government arbitrarily to become a new landfill site as the old ones are now full. Without asking the population or even informing them, they started to stake out the site and move trucks in to do the work.
No one is informed that their area will change and the decisions are imposed from on high. None of these drastic changes ever affect the rich suburbs of north Athens where most of the politicians and businessmen live. As such Greeks have protested on the main highways leading into Keratea and for over two months a police/riot police occupation has occurred with running battles nearly every Sunday, house to house searches and imprisonment of youths with trumped up charges.
But thousands of citizens have refused to yield ; they have marched continuously, they have blockaded courthouses to pressurise judges to release their imprisoned friends and they have created a movement which the left has come to support in a limited way, with concerts and solidarity appearances at the militant roadblocks.
Spitha The citizens‘ movement around Spitha and the personality of the Greek composer Theodorakis is the newest political development which has been supported by the Lawyers Union, the pharmacists etc. and it attracted a few thousand on the day of the general strike. They ended up at the head of the Greek TUC-ADEDY (public sector union) led march which was literally a few hundred metres behind the KKE-PAME led demo. They marched from the offices of the Greek TUC- Pedion Areos Sq. whilst the KKE started from Omonia Sq. This division has continued now eight times.
Spitha marched under a banner which said:‘No to the Sellout of our Lives and the Sellout of Greece’ ‘Greece Belongs to the Greeks’ They chanted a variety of slogans: ‘Bread Peace Freedom, the Junta didn’t Finish in 1973’
‗No to the new junta‘ The people don‘t forget they hang traitors‘
‗Papandreou the people
don‘t want you take the Troika (IMF-EUECB) and Go!‘
‗Cancel all Payments to Foreign Bond Holders‘
‗National Independence, we owe Nothing to USA Germany‘
‗Papandreou you will have Mubarak‘s Fate‘ They called on all to occupy the square and they achieved this for many hours but the police were well organised and teargased the area for a long time, thus making it impossible to breathe. Alongside Spitha, Alavanos who leads one of the three splinter groups of the old Euros also called for Sindagma to become like Tahir, he stayed in the square personally for some time. This is the first time a leader of the Left has asked for this since last May.
Is it sincere or a way of maintaining his own supporters in check? We will see in the next wave of battles.
KKE
Once more the KKE marched quickly and swiftly having a second round of police (its own) in front of the police in Parliament. Citizens who were in Sindagma Square criticised them by being ironic see you on 25th March (which is independence day) for being a Parade, i.e.they march past Parliament, they don‘t even make speeches there anymore on platforms and they quickly dispersed as if they are leading sheep. Most of their supporters had their heads down when confronted by this tactic which has been inaugurated by the KKE since last May.
Their leader Papariga announced on TV the night before they are expecting provocations and they don‘t want their contingent attacked and they want to demonstrate peacefully. Parliamentary careerism till the end even when the Greek Parliament no longer dictates economic policy but just implements every new demand from the IMF and the EU.
Despite it appears the recent developments in the Arab world, the majority of the leaders of the Greek Left have learnt nothing and they do not appear to want to change course. If they had called for the people to remain in the square and had campaigned for it previously combined with something more than another 24 hour strike, the passion, courage, determination of the Arabs to fight against all odds would have appeared in an EU country. It didn‘t occur this time round, the numbers of people on the ground and the solidarity shown to each by the individual demonstrators against the constant police charges, indicate that the Greeks may have been defeated by the government cuts, but their spirit isn‘t broken. In the next wave, it‘s the spirit of the people to march united until the IMF-government programme is defeated.
Mon 28, February 2011 @ 12:13
VNGelissaid…
Committees Against Non-Payment website:
http://www.epitropesdiodiastop.blogspot.com/
Website of militant citizens of Keratea http://lavreotiki.com
Spitha Movement http://www.mikis-theodorakis-kinisi-anexartitonpoliton.gr
Main Speech Mikis Theodorakis http://tinyurl.com/6jp6s9q
Mon 28, February 2011 @ 19:11
VN Gelis said…
Extensive battles again today in Keratea, police and protestors injured http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&aid=270079&cid=4 There have also been protests by a theatre director called Kollatos outside the ex-PASOK Prime Ministers house in the posh district called Kolonaki in the centre as well as outside another PASOK's MP's house former Defence Minister Tzohatzopoulos who has ended up with 76 properties one of which is on one of the most expensive streets in Athens, Areiopaigitou opposite the Acropolis. Around a 1,000 protestors stayed for some time chanting slogans against them. A section of the media has noted that the people are self-organising themselves outside the traditional parties... Sun 06, March 2011 @ 18:36
Greece: The 'Wall' and Illegal Immigration Demos Against Illegal Immigration Hit Athens…
A 44year old Greek just about to take his wife to a maternity word in central Athens was killed in the early hours of the morning for his personal belongings. Tonight a demo has occurred and riot police have been called out. Greece was created post-war in the image of America but it never fully industrialised as joining the EU was supposed to lead to that, not turn it into a failed state of Europe, with all that entails.
The Euro project could not work if one had different countries and different policies as credit occurred on a national basis and developed through local knowledge and history based on specific trading conditions and you have different national histories, culture, traditions. Selling Greek products cheaper in Germany than in Greece whose average wages are less than half German ones and when you have imbalances in the welfare state where Greeks do not have welfare payments beyond one year implies that once people run out of money and sell off what they can, starvation hits the door. In Argentina after the growth of the piqueteros movement (this has yet to start in Greece but will emerge by those who don‘t wish to migrate but stay and fight) the government there introduce a family payment to arrest a situation of dual power developing.
Societies abhor vacuums and this disenfranchisement will force people into action. The Left is slowly starting to realise by pressure from below that this crisis isn‘t going away as Argentina collapsed by 11% of GDP before a social explosion occurred. We aren‘t there yet, but well on the way...
VN Gelis
Tue 10, May 2011 @ 23:32
GREEK CITIZENS OF ATHENS NO TO THE ECONOMIC IMMISERISATION OF GREEKS
NO TO THE EXPULSION OF GREEKS FROM THE CENTRE OF ATHENS
NO TO THE ILLEGAL TRADING OF SHOPS BY IMMIGRANTS
THE WEALTH OF THE COUNTRY BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE THROW THE TRAITORS OUT AND THE IMF
REACTION-RESISTANCE-INSURRECTION Leaflet produced by residents of St Panteleomonas district in central Athens
Battles ensued for hours up to and including riot police throwing tear gas into the main church on the square.
What preceded it was a march by the Soros funded NGO's who were attempting to hold a rally in the main square but were disallowed by the local population. Unable to get through the police tear gassed and tried to disperse the Greeks from the square. They failed abysmally as they refused to leave the square and fought back valiantly against superior forces...
The quisling government of Papandreou announced to much fanfare that Greece was going to build a wall in Evros – border region with Turkey to stop the porous borders which sees Greece receiving hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who are then stuck in the country with no visible means of support. This has led in recent years to many conflicts with the indigenous population in many of the central Athenian districts.
Eyewitness Account: Keratea in Struggle Against EU Landfill Regulations
Situated in the middle of a green agricultural belt on the way to historical Lavrio (an area that goes back to ancient times) there has been a battle going on between the few thousand citizens and the dictats of the ruling IMF political party PASOK. Despite the fact that 4.5 m Greeks abstained out of a total electorate of 6m in October‘s regional and local elections, a battle has been waged since November over the decision to place a landfill right in the middle of an archaeological area and an area of natural beauty. The fate of the IMF government may actually be hanging on a thread. A rural area of Athens has been under constant riot police occupation for over 4 months. Daily battles ensue with riot police, tear gas, smoke bombs and baton charges has been the reality for many in that area. How no one so far has died has actually been a miracle.
Keratea Resistance Festival 8-10th April Supported by the local mayor and the embattled citizens who have built roadblocks and occupation buildings the intellectual middle classes came to support the citizens with shows, art, poetry, plays, music. More than 50 different participating organisations, with around 35,000 people arriving in the embattled zone came over the three day period. Provisional camp sites were set up, mobile toilets, the traditional souvlaki barbeques and copious amounts of wine, beer and ouzo. The working people of Athens showed their solidarity to the citizens.
Riot police in their tens have been stationed in the area for up to 16 hours a day, attacking citizens, hitting pensioners, arresting young people and generally trying to implement the dictats of the government which without co
nsultation decided where to place a new landfill despite court rulings that they cannot be placed on archaeological sites. But the government that wanted to sell off the Acropolis to pay the foreign banksters has no such reservations. Citizens in Keratea described how the riot police invaded their round the clock blockade at 345am and beat the few citizens up there to a pulp by stating at the same time, ‗you will all die‘ go home.
Due to the success of the resistance festival the citizens of Keratea proceeded to a new wave of struggle by digging up the main roads passing between Keratea and Lavrio with road diggers in the middle of the night. When the riot police found out about it the next day they stormed the citizens reaching right up to their houses with many injured on both sides and many going to hospital. No media outlet has gone to interview ANY citizens about the events. It is becoming clear, that without a resolution of this issue the government‘s dictats are being questioned fundamentally. That implies that either they have to win, or fall
The Left refuses to campaign for the departure of PASOK Officially only two leaders of the Left (Alavanos-Euros and TheodorakisSpitha) have gone to Keratea, the KKE has abstained despite its paper support of their struggle in their paper Rizospastis (Radical) and a large mobilisation of the supporters of the left, hasn‘t been called for. Instead evening style protests where you only hear speeches are made in different Athens squares by different union federations on different days and different times.