2016 Postmortem

Jefferson23

(30,099 posts) Tue Jul 7, 2015, 08:12 PM Jul 2015

Bernie Sanders: ‘I Applaud the People of Greece’

Bernie Sanders, Joe Stiglitz, and Dan Cantor on the necessity of voting “no” to austerity measures.

By
John NicholsTwitter
July 6, 2015

The bankers and finance ministers of Europe, and their allies on Wall Street and in Washington, framed Greece’s referendum vote on whether to accept or reject austerity in stark economic terms.

But Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras framed the fight in entirely different terms—those of a struggle to renew democracy. And the Syriza leader and Greece’s anti-austerity government won on those terms.

Tsipras argued that the Greek people had a right to vote for a future that was different from the one dictated by distant bankers and bureaucrats.

The Greeks agreed with their elected leader, voting by an overwhelming 60-40 margin to reject the terms demanded—primarily by Germany and the International Monetary Fund—that the Greeks accept new austerity cuts in return for an extension of bailout funds. There is no question that, as The Guardian’s headline declares, Greece’s “no” vote “signals [a] huge challenge to eurozone leaders.”

But what will be portrayed in much of the media as a crisis is also an opportunity. There is an opening here for ending failed austerity policies and developing a more humane and functional economics that combines development, growth, and economic responsibility. This is what the voters of Greece want, and it is what Tsipras and his ministers are proposing.

http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-i-applaud-the-people-of-greece/