Greece: a warning for European workers

[Antid Oto]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Artikel is toch duidelijk. De neoliberale EU elite *dicteert* het
sociaal-economisch beleid aan de PASOK regering in Griekenland.
Wakker worden!


Cees Binkhorst wrote:
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> Antid:
>
> Dus volgens jou kan de EU het parlement en regering buiten spel zetten,
> of bedoel je te zeggen dat beiden zich 'buiten spel laten zetten' in hun
> eigen 'elitaire' belang.
>
> Groet / Cees
>
>> Antid Oto schreef:
>>
>> Greece: a warning for European workers
>> By Marius Heuser
>> 11 December 2009
>>
>> In his poem On Violence the German playwright Bertolt Brecht wrote:
>> “The headlong stream is termed violent. But the river bed hemming it
>> in is termed violent by no one.” In light of the recent protests and
>> clashes in Greece it is evident that the riverbed has narrowed
>> considerably in the course of the past year. The living conditions for
>> young people and their prospects for the future have only worsened
>> since students took to the streets in protest last December.
>>
>> The army of over 10,000 armed police assembled last Sunday to suppress
>> the protests in Athens is a demonstration of the brutality with which
>> the ruling elite all over the world is seeking to defend its
>> privileges in a period of economic crisis. In this respect, the events
>> in Greece are of great importance for class-conscious workers in
>> Europe and internationally.
>>
>> With the country facing bankruptcy, the European Union has intervened
>> in Greek political life to dictate a draconian austerity program. The
>> Brussels-based EU officials have put the thumbscrews on the Greek
>> government, repealing the country's control over its own budget “for a
>> certain period” and restricting basic democratic rights.
>>
>> For its part, the social-democratic PASOK government has pledged to
>> implement all of the demands laid down by Brussels with the utmost
>> brutality against workers and young people. In so doing, it is relying
>> on the trade unions and the direct or indirect support of so-called
>> “left” parties.
>>
>> The latest developments in Greece are indicative of what is on the
>> agenda for the rest of Europe. The European financial elite is using
>> the institutions of the EU to determine policy in specific countries,
>> circumvent democratic rights and shift the entire burden of the
>> economic crisis onto the population.
>>
>> Due to its dependence on foreign direct investment, Greece has been
>> especially hard hit by the international economic crisis. The
>> country's indebtedness has reached record levels and now threatens to
>> destabilize the euro. Leading rating agencies promptly downgraded
>> Greece following the announcement by Prime Minister George Papandreou
>> that the Greek budget deficit for this year is expected to total 12.7
>> percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Fitch downgraded the country
>> from A- to BBB+, thereby increasing the interest payments to be paid
>> by the Greek state. According to some estimates, the budget deficit
>> could rise in 2010 to nearly 125 percent of GDP—solely due to the
>> increased interest charges. Under such conditions the bankruptcy of
>> the entire county is entirely possible.
>>
>> This situation has been intensified by the greed of the Greek elite.
>> In a veritable orgy of nepotism and corruption, the country’s two main
>> political parties, the social-democratic PASOK and the conservative
>> New Democracy, have handed over billions to the elite via the
>> privatization of state enterprises. In its corruption index,
>> Transparency International currently ranks Greece as the second most
>> corrupt state in the European Union, just behind Poland.
>>
>> Broad layers of the Greek population were already suffering prior to
>> the economic crisis. In 2007, one fifth of the population lived below
>> the poverty level of €4,000 per year. Around 20 percent of school
>> leavers are unable to find work. The state spends just 2.5 percent of
>> its GDP on education.
>>
>> Now the country's huge debt burden is to be reduced at the expense of
>> workers. The corrupt ruling elite in Greece has so far proved
>> incapable of carrying out the economic measures demanded by Brussels,
>> and the EU has now decided to take direct control of the state's
>> finances. They are doing this in the closest collaboration with major
>> European banks and the international financial aristocracy.
>>
>> Although Prime Minister Papandreou has already announced his intention
>> to lower the state deficit in 2010 through severe cuts to the
>> country's pensions budgets and a 9.1 percent cut in the salaries of
>> public service workers, there are a number of indications that the EU
>> is planning much more extensive cutbacks.
>>
>> The EU Council of Finance Ministers, which had already introduced an
>> excessive deficit proceeding against Greece last spring, has
>> systematically stepped up its pressure on the Greek government. In
>> January of next year, Greek Finance Minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou
>> must submit a detailed plan to the Brussels commission for the
>> consolidation of the country's finances. The situation in Greece will
>> also be on the agenda of the December 17 meeting of the European
>> Central Bank. The ECB may further intensify pressure on the state by
>> denying Greek financial institutions the possibility of depositing
>> Greek government loans as collateral for debts.
>>
>> A number of media commentaries have sought to strengthen the hand of
>> the EU in this crisis. The Financial Times Deutschland writes: “The
>> European Union should declare its readiness to support its tottering
>> member if it unconditionally accepts in turn a consolidation course
>> dictated by Brussels. For a limited period the Greek state would have
>> to yield up its sovereignty over budget policy. That would be bitter
>> for the Greeks, but absolutely necessary, if the EU and its stability
>> pact are to retain even a semblance of credibility.”
>>
>> EU institutions, therefore, are being called upon to assume direct
>> responsibility for the budget policies of its member states—all at the
>> behest of the financial elite. Elected governments, democracy, any
>> consideration for the needs of the population: all of these factors
>> stand in the way of the necessary course of budget consolidation. The
>> tackling of the Greek state debt crisis is a warning to all European
>> workers: the ruling elite is ready to circumvent basic democratic
>> rights in order to place the entire burden of the crisis on the backs
>> of the population.
>>
>> The conservative ND government led by Kostas Karamanlis, embroiled in
>> corruption and scandals, was unable to counter the wave of public
>> opposition which culminated in the youth revolts a year ago. The
>> elections last October were aimed at bringing PASOK back into power in
>> the hope on the part of the ruling elite that the social democrats
>> would be better placed to hold the population in check.
>>
>> PASOK is incapable of doing this alone, however. The party had also
>> thoroughly discredited itself in the course of nearly 30 years in
>> government. It needs the support of various nominally “left” groups,
>> such as the Greek Communist Party (KKE), the Greens and the Radical
>> Left (Syriza). Their job is to attempt to breathe new life into the
>> worn-out PASOK apparatus. In the recent election campaign, these
>> groups unceasingly declared that PASOK represented the “lesser evil”
>> compared to New Democracy and even expressed their readiness to join
>> the former in a coalition government.
>>
>> The Papandreou government also has the support of the country's two
>> biggest trade union federations—GSSE and ADEDY—both of which are
>> prepared to support social cuts and implement them in the factories.
>> They have a long history of betraying Greek workers and have
>> frequently supported the privatization of state-owned factories as
>> well as government imposed welfare cuts.
>>
>> The government’s determination to curtail social and democratic rights
>> is very evident in the recent demonstrations. The police were
>> instructed to show “zero tolerance,” and no less than 784
>> demonstrators have been arrested since last Sunday.
>>
>> Workers and young people in Greece, however, confront not merely the
>> Greek state authorities but also the institutions of the EU and the
>> European financial elite. These interests are represented in Greece by
>> a combined front of political parties, radical groups and trade
>> unions—all of which are determined to break any resistance.
>>
>> The mass protests have their source in the intensifying social
>> contradictions in Greece. In and of themselves, however, they offer no
>> solution; neither PASOK nor the ND can be pressured by such protests
>> to cease defending the interests of the financial elite.
>>
>> The only viable perspective for combating the dictates from Brussels
>> and the associated social and political attacks consists of an
>> international orientation and above all a socialist program to unify
>> workers across national boundaries in a common struggle to establish
>> the United Socialist States of Europe.
>>
>> http://wsws.org/articles/2009/dec2009/gree-d11.shtml
>
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