[D66] The Delphi Declaration

[J.N.]

http://beta.counterpunch.org/2015/06/26/the-delphi-declaration/

June 26, 2015
The Delphi Declaration

by MICHAEL HUDSON



European governments, European institutions and the IMF, acting in close
alliance with, if not under direct control of, big international banks
and other financial institutions, are now exercising a maximum of
pressure, including open threats, blackmailing and a slander and terror
communication campaign against the recently elected Greek government and
against the Greek people.

They are asking the elected government of Greece to continue the
“bail-out” program and the supposed “reforms” imposed on this country in
May 2010, in theory to “help” and “save” it.

As a result of this program, Greece has experienced by far the biggest
economic, social and political catastrophe in the history of Western
Europe since 1945. It has lost 27% of its GDP, more than the material
losses of France or Germany during the First World War. The living
standards have fallen sharply. The social welfare system is all but
destroyed. Greeks have seen social rights won during one century of
struggles taken back. Whole social strata are completely destroyed, more
and more Greeks are falling from their balconies to end a life of misery
and desperation, every talented person who can leaves from the country.
Democracy, under the rule of a “Troika” acting as collective economic
assassin, a kind of Kafka’s “Court”, has been transformed into a sheer
formality in the very country where it was born! Greeks are experiencing
now the same feeling of insecurity about all basic conditions of life,
that the French experienced in 1940, Germans in 1945, Soviets in 1991.
At the same time, the two problems which this program was supposed to
address, Greek sovereign debt and the competitiveness of the Greek
economy have sharply deteriorated.

Now, European institutions and governments are refusing even the most
reasonable, elementary, minor concession to the Athens government, they
refuse even the slightest face-saving formula there might be. They want
a total surrender of SYRIZA, they want its humiliation, its destruction.
By denying to the Greek people any peaceful and democratic way out of
its social and national tragedy, they are pushing Greece into chaos, if
not civil war. Indeed, even now, an undeclared social civil war of “low
intensity” is being waged inside this country, especially against the
unprotected, the ill, the young and the very old, the weaker and the
unlucky. Is this the Europe we want our children to live in?

We want to express our total, unconditional solidarity with the struggle
of the Greek people for their dignity, their national and social
salvation, for their liberation from the unacceptable neocolonial rule
the “Troika” is trying to impose on this European country. We denounce
the illegal and unacceptable agreements successive Greek governments
have been obliged, under threat and blackmail, to sign, in violation of
all European treaties, of the Charter of UN and of the Greek
constitution. We call on European governments and institutions to stop
their irresponsible and/or criminal policy towards Greece immediately
and adopt a generous emergency program of support to redress the Greek
economic situation and face the humanitarian disaster already unfolding
in this country.

We also appeal to all European peoples to realize that what is at stake
in Greece it is not only Greek salaries and pensions, Greek schools and
hospitals or even the fate even of this historic nation where the very
notion of “Europe” was born. What is at stake in Greece are also
Spanish, Italian, even the German salaries, pensions, welfare, the very
fate of the European welfare state, of European democracy, of Europe as
such. Stop believing your media, who tell you the facts, only to distort
their meaning, check independently what your politicians and your media
are saying. They try to create, and they have created an illusion of
stability. You may live in Lisbon or in Paris, in Frankfurt or in
Stockholm, you may think that you are living in relative security. Do
not keep such illusions. You should look to Greece, to see there the
future your elites are preparing for you, for all of us and for our
children. It is much easier and intelligent to stop them now, than it
will be later. Not only Greeks, but all of us and our children will pay
an enormous price, if we permit to our governments to complete the
social slaughter of a whole European nation.

We appeal in particular to the German people. We do not belong to those
who are always reminding the Germans of the past in order to keep them
in an “inferior”, second-class position, or in order to use the “guilt
factor” for their dubious ends. We appreciate the organizational and
technological skills of the German people, their proven democratic and
especially ecological and peace sensitivities. We want and we need the
German people to be the main champions in the building of another
Europe, of a prosperous, independent, democratic Europe, of a multipolar
world.

Germans know better than anybody else in Europe, where blind obedience
to irresponsible leaders can lead and has indeed led in the past. It is
not up to us to teach them any such lesson. They know better than
anybody else how easy is to begin a campaign with triumphalist rhetoric,
only to end up with ruins everywhere around you. We do not invite them
to follow our opinion. We demand simply from them to think thoroughly
the opinion of such distinguished leaders of them like Helmut Schmitt
for instance, we demand them to hear the voice of the greatest among
modern German poet, of Günter Grass, the terrible prophecy he has
emitted about Greece and Europe some years before his death.

We call upon you, the German people, to stop such a Faustian alliance
between German political elites and international finance. We call upon
the German people not to permit to their government to continue doing to
the Greeks exactly what the Allies did to Germans after their victory in
the First World War. Do not let your elites and leaders to transform the
entire continent, ultimately including Germany, into a dominion of Finance.

More than ever we are in urgent need of a radical restructuring of
European debt, of serious measures to control the activities of the
financial sector, of a “Marshal Plan” for the European periphery, of a
courageous rethinking and re-launching of a European project which, in
its present form, has proven unsustainable. We need to find now the
courage to do this, if we want to leave a better Europe to our children,
not a Europe in ruins, in continuous financial and even open military
conflicts among its nations.

Delphi, 21 June 2015

The above declaration was adopted by nearly all participants in the
Delphi conference on the crisis, on alternatives to euroliberalism and
EU/Russia relations, held at Delphi, Greece on 20-21st of June. It is
also supported by some people who were not able to be present. The list
of people who signed it follows. In it there are not only citizens of EU
countries, but also of Switzerland, USA, Russia and India. Many
distinguished American scholars seem to be more sensitive as regard the
European crisis, than the … political leaders of EU themselves! As for
Russians, it is only normal and natural to bear a great interest for
what is going on in EU, as EU citizens bear also an interest for what is
going on in Russia. All participants in the Delphi conference share the
strong conviction that Russia is an integral part of Europe, that there
is a strong interconnection between what happens in EU and in Russia.
They are categorically opposed to anti-Russia hysteria, which in fact is
nothing less than the preparation of a new, even more dangerous cold, if
not hot war.



Altvater Elmar, Germany

Member of scientific community of AΤTAC. Retired Professor of Political
Science, Free University of Berlin.



Amin Samir, Egypt/France

Economist, President of the Forum Mondial des Alternatives

Ayala Iván H., Spain

Researcher, Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales



Arsenis Gerasimos, Greece

Εconomist, ex-minister of Economy, of Finance, of National Defense and
of Education, ex-UN official and ex-director of UNCTAD



Artini Massimo, Italy

Member of Parliament



Bellantis Dimitris, Greece

Lawyer, PHD in Constitutional Law, Member of the Central Committee of SYRIZA



Black William, USA

Professor of Economics, University of Missouri (Kansas City)



Cassen Bernard, France

Professor Emeritus, Université Paris 8, secretary general of “Mémoire
des luttes”



Chiesa, Giulietto, Italy

Politician, journalist and author, ex MEP, president of the
“Alternativa” association



Freeman, Alan, Canada/UK

Geopolitical Economy Research Group, Business School, Director



Gabriel, Leo, Austria

Director of the Institute for Intercultural Research and Cooperation
(IIIC), Vienna, Member of the International Council of the World Social
Forum, Coordinator of the NGO Committee for Sustainable Development of
the United Nations



George, Suzan, France

Political and social scientist, writer, President of the Transnational
Institute



Georgopoulos, Dimosthenis, Greece

Economist, sociologist, political scientist, Secretariat on Industrial
Policy, SYRIZA



German, Lindsey, UK

Convenor, Stop the War Coalition



Graeber ,David, UΚ

Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics. Author of “Debt:
The First 5,000 Years”



Hudson, Michael, USA

Professor of economics, University of Missouri (Kansas City), UMKC.
President, Institute for the Study of Long-term Economic Trends (ISLET)



Irazabalbeitia, Inaki, Spain

Former MEP / responsible for International Relationships for the party
ARALAR, Basque Country



Jennar, Raoul Marc, France

Dr. in political sciences, specialist on European law and on WTO
regulations, writer of twenty books, among them “Europe, la trahison des
élites”



Kagarlitsky, Boris, Russia

Director of the Institute for globalization studies and social movements
(IGSO)



Kalloniatis, Costas , Greece

Phd on macroeconomics, adviser to the Ministry of Labour, researcher in
the Labor Institute of the General Confederation of Workers of Greece



Kasimatis, Giorgos, Greece

Prof. Emeritus of Constitutional Law, University of Athens. Founder and
Honorary President of the International Association of Constitutional
Law, ex-advisor to PM Andreas Papandreou.



Koenig, Peter, Switzerland

Εconomist / geopolitical analyst



Koltashov, Vasiliy, Russia

Head of the economic research unit of the Institute for Globalisation
and Social Movements



Konstantakopoulos, Dimitris, Greece

Journalist, Writer, Coordinator of the Delphi Initiative



Koutsou, Nikos, Cyprus

Member of Parliament from Famagusta



Kreisel, Wilfried, Germany

Former Executive Director, World Health Organization



Mavros, Giannis, Greece

Member of the National Council for the Claiming of Germany’s Debts to Greece



Mityaev, Dmitry A. , Russia

Deputy Chairman of the Council for Study of Productive Forces of the
Ministry of Economic Development and the Russian Academy of Sciences on
Development Issues



Ochkina, Anna, Russia

Head of Department of social theory at Penza State University



Pantelides, Panagiotis, Greece

Economist, senior researcher, European Institute of Cyprus



Petras, James, USA

Bartle Professor Emeritus , Binghamton University

Ex-Director of the Center for Mediterranean Studies (Athens), ex-adviser
to the Landless Rural Workers  Movement of Brasil and the Unemployed
Workers Movement in Argentina



Pinasco, Luca, Italy

National coordinator of Proudhon Circles-Editor for foreign policy of
the journal “L’intellettuale dissidente”.



Radika, Desai, USA

Professor, Director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group,
University of Manitoba



Rees, John, UK

Co-founder, Stop the War Coalition



Roberts, Paul Craig, USA

Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury for Economic Policy,
Associate Editor, Wall Street Journal, Senior Research Fellow, Stanford
University, William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center for
Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.



Sideratos, Aggelos, Greece

Publisher



Sommers, Jeffrey, USA

Senior Fellow, Institute of World Affairs, Professor, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee



St Clair, Jeffrey, USA

Editor, CounterPunch, author, Born Under a Bad Sky



Stierle, Steffen, Germany

Εconomist, ATTAC Germany



Syomin, Konstantin, Russia

Author, TV host at All-Russia State Television (VGTRK.com)



Tombazos, Stavros, Greece

Professor of Political Economy, University of Cyprus, member of the
international “Committee of Truth on Greek Sovereign Debt” (debt
auditing committee) created by the Greek parliament



Vanaik, Achin, India

Retired Professor of International Relations and Global Politics,
University of Delhi



Xydakis, Nikos, Greece

Minister of Culture



Zachariev, Zachari, Bulgaria

President of the Slaviani Foundation



Zdanoka, Tatjana, Latvia

Member of European Parliament

Contact email: the.delphi.initiative at gmail.com

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