Syriza, The EU Institutions & Struggle For Democracy

[polly7]

By Tom Vouloumanos

June 30, 2015

On the night of June 26th, following several days of dead end negotiations with EU creditors, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras convened an emergency cabinet meeting of the SYRIZA lead governing coalition and announced in the early hours of June 27th, that the Greek government would not cave in to blackmail and ultimatums. In fact, what prompted the emergency meeting was that the Greek government was offered a final take it or leave it proposal authored mostly by the IMF. The deal that was offered completely reneged the little progress that had been made up to that point with major concessions from the Greek side and instead called for even worse austerity measures than what was asked of the previous pro-austerity government that was tossed out of office on January 25, 2015. The Greek government said that it could not sign such an absurd proposal that would destroy an economy already in shambles and a society facing a humanitarian disaster. Yet, given that its mandate was to reach a deal with the creditors and not a rupture, it said that it would give the final say to the people that have not been heard in the last 5 years of economic neoliberal barbarity: the Greek population. To the shock of the EU and Greek establishments, Alexis Tsipras announced that he would put the final proposal to a referendum on July 5, 2015.

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Greeks, after 5 years of worsening austerity, poverty, unemployment and suicides without any hope of getting out of the crisis finally had enough and voted for the anti-austerity Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). In the 5 months since being elected, the Left wing Greek government has been making reasonable yet non-recessionary proposals to the EU creditors in order to get a viable deal so that badly needed funds, which have been due to Greece since last year, be released. It has also argued that its debt is unsustainable and some sort of write down using a variety of possible technical methods should be made. During this time, it has not reversed the austerity measures imposed by the last government and has continued making its payments to the creditors. This government, and the society it was elected by, has been under financial asphyxiation. Yet, it did not bend; it maintained its red lines of no new cuts to social spending, pensions, salaries or additional regressive taxes. After weekly pronouncements of Greek default and Eurozone expulsions, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras sent on June 21st, 2015 a watered down proposal to the EU creditors that was considered a major compromise.

In fact, the proposal still did not contain cuts in social spending but rather distributive tax increases. Varoufakis had argued that given that the Greek economy had shrunk by one-fourth, what was now needed were expansionary investments and policies to get the economy towards growth. In essence, tax overhaul and social investments that would increase demand and produce jobs for a society, where the majority is now at or under the poverty line, where almost 60% of young people are unemployed and where another 200,000 young people have lost hope and simply left.

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The Greek side showed that it can meet the financial demands of the lenders but by using other means. The lenders were not just interested in the results, they were very interested in the means as well. Yet, what business is it of the creditors which method a supposedly sovereign state meets its obligations with, it’s the results that should count right? Yes, if it was about economics, but it’s not. It’s about politics, class politics. Europe is essentially governed by an unaccountable technocracy supported by the converging interests of financial institutions, oligarchs and state planners from the larger European economies. The European technocracy wants to impose a single neoliberal model on the European continent effectively neutralizing elections.

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Democracy is a threat to the European technocratic order.

Therefore, the IMF and its partners in the European establishment wanting to crush the SYRIZA government, offered it an impossible agreement.

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The longer the Greeks resist and at least attempt by any means at their disposal to survive the assault of the European technocratic order, the more likely it will inspire other Europeans to rise up as well. Nothing less than the end of a cruel neoliberal order may be at stake, which opens a space for alternative bottom up economics in a life after austerity.

Let us hope that the Greeks find the strength to say NO on July 5, 2015 with the same determination that they said NO in 1940. Another world may indeed be possible.

Complete article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/syriza-the-eu-institutions-struggle-for-democracy/


An older article:

Syriza Against the Machine

By Tom Vouloumanos
Source: teleSUR English
April 13, 2015

The German state is simply the most powerful guarantor of the privileges of this European establishment, after the US of course. As such, the German establishment convinced large sectors of the German working class that they have common interests and that they are bailing out their southern European neighbors who are too lazy, too corrupt or too disorganized to run a modern successful economy. The European Media made sure that simple facts were not known to the public of the northern European states. They were not told that the loans to Greece were not for bailing out Greeks but for bailing out European banks, as these loans simply financed debt repayments. With each loan, the debt increased further, forcing more loans on condition that the country privatizes its resources, destroys its social state, throws people into unemployment and poverty. All of which shrink the economy decreasing the country’s ability to service its debt and pay its creditors, forcing it to borrow even more conditional bailout money, further increasing its debt and accelerating austerity and so on and so forth; a vicious cycle that is leading to the third worldization of the European periphery countries.

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In an interview on a popular TV political talk show, Ston Eniko hosted by Nikos Hatzinikolaou, Panos Kammenos, leader of Syriza’s junior coalition partner, Anel (Independent Greeks) and Defense Minister, admitted that “they don’t want an agreement!” Kammenos explained that Varoufakis meets with European officials, proposes and negotiates a series of reforms, the officials agree, then three days later 25 more points of discussion are emailed to the Greek government. This has been the modus operandi of the European officials since the February 20, 2015 truce. No matter how many reforms Varoufakis presents to these officials, they are unacceptable as they are not austerity reforms. The Greek government has been working hard showing that it can increase revenue by tackling corruption, tax evasion and off shore accounts. It has provided clear number crunching evidence that its measures would be far more efficient for increasing government revenue than privatizations, pension cuts and other austerity measures which are destroying the Greek economy and torturing the population in the midst of an EU engineered humanitarian crisis. Greece has been coming to the table with viable plan, after viable plan thinking it would get sensible responses but it has realized that the goal of the European establishment is to make the Government of the Left bend and follow orders. The political plan is austerity; it has nothing to do with economic data, it has everything to do with who wields economic power. Syriza and its junior partner’s unpardonable sin is that they have stood up to this establishment.

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Yet, the destabilization tactics do not stop there.

When Syriza came to power, it immediately got rid of the barricades that surrounded the Parliament building and announced that it was going to close down the type C jails where many anarchists are held as well as scrap the draconian anti-terror laws. Syriza activists were involved in many of the street demonstrations of the last years that were met with riot squads, teargas and police brutality. Nevertheless, there have been odd occupations in recent weeks by small groups of anti-authoritarian activists of Syriza’s headquarters and the offices of the left alternative radio station it owns, Sto Kokkino, with demands that Syriza move on issues it already has announced it will move on. Moreover, Sto Kokkino has been a leading voice in reporting state repression against anarchists, left activists and migrants. When a small group of anarchists raised banners on the steps of parliament, the Syriza Parliamentary President, Zoe Konstantopoulos, in the face of inflammatory calls by the opposition to crack down on the “terrorists”, refused to send in the riot police and defended the right of citizens to protest and dissent. So why is Syriza being targeted? It has long been known that many of the most violent elements in protests and demonstrations, known as Koukoulofori (hooded ones) have been agents provocateurs on the payroll of the riot squads, called MAT for Units for the Reinstatement of Control, a group that Syriza plans to dissolve. The presence of Nazis, fascists and right wing fanatics in the police force has been a reality in Greece, since the collaborationists were absorbed into the para-state apparatus after the German retreat in WWII in order to hunt down the Left wing guerrillas that liberated the country. Some of these para-state elements, have infiltrated many radical left and anarchist groups, one may suspect that these last actions have been encouraged and prodded by reactionary elements within the police who are worried about Syriza’s commitment to purge the Nazi and fascist presence within the Greek gendarmerie (in the 2014 euro-elections, 50% of police officers voted for Golden Dawn).

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If the EU and ECB creditors continue to tighten the noose around Greece’s neck and demand that the Greece continue to bleed its population and sell off its property and resources, refusing sensible but non-recessionary economic reform plans, and holding out on cash flow until it surrenders, then the Greek government will simply hold out on paying back its debt repayments to the European creditors and instead meet its payroll, education, health and other requirements. Kammenos said as much on that same talk show. Syriza’s argument is that there is no mechanism to kick Greece out of the euro and if the European institutions consider Greek holding back on payments until it receives its next tranche of loans as a default well then a bankruptcy within the euro would mean that the entire debt Greece owes will be written off. The Syriza lead government has been able to meet its debt payment requirements without any new loans all the while continuing to pay for its internal requirements. This of course, is no way to live as the state is in a socially dire situation but there is no reason to make things even worse with more austerity measures.

Complete article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/syriza-against-the-machine/