Greece – on the semi-periphery

Dimitri Lascaris explains the Syriza move

Posted on 2015/08/21 - 2015/08/21 by jd

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Dimitri Lascaris ‘…And there are various aspects of the Greek constitution that are triggered by this decision. Essentially the Greek constitution, as I understand it, provides that if an election is called within one year of the formation of the government then it must be held within 30 days of the calling of the election, first of all. And secondly, the opposition parties must first be given an opportunity before the election is actually held to form a government. That means that New Democracy, the neoliberal party that was last in power and that was displaced from power by Syriza, would be given the opportunity to form a government with other parties. And the leader has said that he’s going to do that. He’s going to try to do it. And if he fails, then it would go to the third-largest party, which is the neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn. They would be, then be afforded an opportunity to form a government.

I think there’s very little prospect of either of them being able to form a coalition government that would command a majority

[….] In the interim, a new government must be put in place, a caretaker government, until the election is held. And under the Greek constitution the prime minister of that government must be the president of the Greek supreme court, a 65-year-old jurist by the name of Vassiliki Thanou. And she is a vocal opponent of the bailout…’

Source: The Real News Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras Tenders His Resignation

https://youtu.be/MLbZ4lCXvXI

Paul Mason explains: Capitalism is failing, and it’s time to panic —video

Posted on 2015/08/13 - 2015/08/13 by jd

‘Unless, Paul Mason argues, we take advantage of the technological revolution we are living through and create a postcapitalist sharing society. If we let prices fall and delink work from wages, we can save the world from disaster.’

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Remember when debt relief was political?

Posted on 2015/07/12 - 2015/07/12 by jd

It always has been political.

New York Times March 1991:
‘Western governments have agreed to forgive about half the $33 billion that Poland owes them…’

via POLAND IS GRANTED LARGE CUT IN DEBT – NYTimes.com.

The International Monetary Fund Says Trickle-Down Economics Doesn’t Work

Posted on 2015/07/09 - 2015/08/13 by jd

It is a testament to the power of global state ideology and its media system that this paragraph’s contents are not more widely known – especially considering the source!

‘…"If the income share of the top 20% (the rich) increases, then GDP growth actually declines over the medium term, suggesting that the benefits do not trickle down. In contrast, an increase in the income share of the bottom 20% (the poor) is associated with higher GDP growth," the report says.

The paper looks at 159 advanced and developing economies between 1980 and 2012, investigating how income is distributed in each society and its level of national growth. It finds that when the income share of the top 20% increases 1%, economic growth is then down 0.08% in the following five years. At the same time, a 1% increase for the bottom 20% leads to increased GDP of 0.38% in the following years…’

via The International Monetary Fund Says Trickle-Down Economics Don't Work | Co.Exist | ideas + impact.

The diplomatic beatings administered to Syriza

Posted on 2015/06/23 by jd

Aditya Chakrabortty writes…

‘…The diplomatic beatings administered to Syriza since it came to power this year can only be seen as Europe trying to set an example to any Spanish voters who might be tempted to support its sister movement Podemos. Go too far left, runs the message, and you’ll get the same treatment.

Whatever the founding ideals of the eurozone, they don’t match up to the grim reality in 2015. This is Thatcher’s revolution, or Reagan’s – but now on a continental scale. And as then, it is accompanied by the idea that There Is No Alternative either to running an economy, or even to which kind of government voters get to choose.

The fact that this entire show is being brought in by agreeable-looking Wise Folk often claiming to be social democratic doesn’t render the project any nicer or gentler. It just lends the entire thing a nasty tang of hypocrisy.

via Greece is a sideshow. The eurozone has failed, and Germans are its victims too | Aditya Chakrabortty | Comment is free | The Guardian.

David Harvey Interview: Syriza and Podemos

Posted on 2015/03/20 - 2015/03/20 by jd

Sounds like Hungary.

il manifesto: In the book you predict a new cycle of revolts. Yet an appraisal of the last few years would have to say that the Arab Spring has proven a disaster, while Occupy has not been able to transform itself into an effective political force. Do you think the answer is something like Podemos, which has been able to give political expression to the 15-M movement?

David Harvey: Syriza and Podemos have opened up a political space, because something new is happening. What is it? I can’t say. Of course there will be those on the anti-capitalist left who accuse them of ‘reformism’. That may well be true, but they have also been the first forces to put forward some policies, and once we’ve started down that road then that will open up new possibilities. Finally breaking with the mantra of austerity and smashing the power of the Troika would, I believe, create the space for new perspectives, which could then further develop. I think that at this stage, this kind of parties we are seeing in Europe is the best thing that we can hope for, beginning to define the Left alternatives that we are currently lacking. They will probably be populist – with all the limits and dangers that populism entails – but as I have said, this is a movement: it opens up spaces, and what we can use these spaces for depends on our capacity to ask, ‘OK, now that we’ve got this far, what should we do now?’

via VersoBooks.com.

German WWII war reparations for Greece?

Posted on 2015/03/18 by jd

‘In an op-ed for Spiegel Online, Gesine Schwan, a former presidential candidate, said Germany "needs to clean before its own door" when it comes to its Nazi past, noting that victims and descendants have longer memories than perpetrators and descendents.

"It looks awkward when well-off Germany demands the repayment of debts from poor Greece but is itself not prepared to even speak about the repayment of a forced loan by Nazi Germany on Greece," she wrote.

[….] Greece is seeking compensation on three accounts – general war reparations, a claim resulting from a massacre of 214 people in the Greek village of Distomo in 1944 and the repayment of the forced loan that the Nazis got from the Greek central bank in 1943. The total amounts to hundreds of billions of euros.

Germany, for its part, says it has honoured its obligations, having paid Greece 115m Deutchmarks in 1960. It also argues that the matter was closed by the 1990 ‘two plus four treaty’ signed by West and East Germany, as well as the Soviet Union, Britain, France and the US.

But this has been disputed in a 2013 report by the German parliament’s research service which argued that these agreements do not necessarily fully close the matter…’

via Prominent German politicians side with Greece on war reparations.

European Commission tells Greece not to pass anti-poverty law

Posted on 2015/03/17 - 2015/03/17 by jd

‘Declan Costello, director at the EC’s directorate for economic and financial affairs, has ordered the radical left-led coalition governemnt in Greece to stop. A planned law to allow tax arrears to be paid in instalments, set before the Greek parliament on Thursday, has also been vetoed [….] Mr Costello’s letter effectively says that if the Greek parliament votes on the new law tomorrow, it is a violation of the compromise deal signed by finance minister Yanis Varoufakis on 20 February in Brussels…

via Don’t pass new anti-poverty law, commission tells Greece | Paul Mason | Paul Mason.

Eight Lessons from Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos

Posted on 2015/03/14 - 2015/03/14 by jd

Lesson 1: Clearly identify the enemy.
Lesson 2: Against the oligarchs and the “totalitarianism of the market” which serves as a cover for their interests, we, the forces of democracy, have to fight back.
Lesson 3. Inequality is objectionable, but more fundamental is people being denied the things that they need.
Lesson 4. Draw a link between what working people need and what society as a whole needs.
Lesson 5. Have a program. Say what you will do—don’t get dragged into debates about how you will do it.
Lesson 6. A program needs spokespeople, and it really helps when those spokespeople are or will be in government.
Lesson 7. Like Greeks, Americans think that their political system is broken—and they want an alternative.
Lesson 8. No mourning for golden days.

via 8 Lessons American Progressives Can Take From Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos – In These Times.

Video + Statement: Greek Anarchists occupy Syriza’s headquarters

Posted on 2015/03/09 - 2015/03/09 by jd

Greek Anarchists have occupied Syriza’s headquarters in Athens as an act of solidarity with an ongoing hunger strike.

The statement from the occupation:
‘Today Sunday 8 of March we occupy the central offices of the government SYRIZA in Koumoundourou Street.
We stand in solidarity with the hunger strikers, political prisoners in Greece, and we ask that their demands are satisfied.
1. Abolition of the Anti-terrorist Law Α’, article 187, Law 2001 (criminal organization)
2. Abolition of the Anti-terrorist Law B’, article 187A, Law 2004 (terrorist organization)
3. Abolition of the “hoodie law” (acts committed with concealed physical characteristics)
4. Abolition of the legal framework for type C prisons
5. The immediate release from prison of Savvas Xiros (convicted for his participation in the R.O. 17 November) on health grounds
6. Against the criminalization of the family relations of the members of the R.O. Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.
via Anarchists occupy Syriza’s headquarters.

Hack the Euro

Posted on 2015/03/05 by jd

Hacked Euro Banknotes Depict Bleak Images of Economic Instability.

Yes, Syriza did sell out – for up to 4 months

Posted on 2015/02/24 - 2015/02/24 by jd

‘Eurozone finance ministers agreed to consider extending financial assistance to Greece, which is formally known as the Master Financial Assistance Facility Agreement, for up to 4 months….’
via Eurogroup Summery Statement 20/02/2015

and read…

‘…The Greek authorities reiterate their unequivocal commitment to honour their financial obligations to all their creditors fully and timely.
The Greek authorities have also committed to ensure the appropriate primary fiscal surpluses or financing proceeds required to guarantee debt sustainability in line with the November 2012 Eurogroup statement. The institutions will, for the 2015 primary surplus target, take the economic circumstances in 2015 into account.

In light of these commitments, we welcome that in a number of areas the Greek policy priorities can contribute to a strengthening and better implementation of the current arrangement. The Greek authorities commit to refrain from any rollback of measures and unilateral changes to the policies and structural reforms that would negatively impact fiscal targets, economic recovery or financial stability, as assessed by the institutions….’
via Eurogroup statement on Greece – Consilium.

The Syriza backdown

Posted on 2015/02/23 by jd

The always informative euro|topics website offers a synopsis (greek word!) from four different european newspaper of the Syriza back down in the face of the German economic strangulation of Greece…

‘The left-wing Syriza alliance and the right-wing populist Independent Greeks party have forged a coalition in record time. What these unequal partners have in common is their rejection of austerity. Can Prime Minister Tsipras convince the EU to ease the pressure on Greece?…’

via Athens rebels against austerity dictates
— EuroTopics.

Word for the day: Seigniorage

Posted on 2015/02/18 by jd

George Monbiot writes about Greece:

‘…One of these radical ideas was proposed a few months ago by Martin Wolf in the Financial Times. He suggests stripping private banks of their remarkable power to create money out of thin air. Simply by issuing credit, they spawn between 95% and 97% of the money supply. If the state were to assert a monopoly on money creation, governments could increase their supply without increasing debt. Seigniorage (the difference between the cost of producing money and its value) would accrue to the state, adding billions of pounds to national coffers. The banks would be reduced to the servants, not the masters, of the economy….’
via A maverick currency scheme from the 1930s could save the Greek economy | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian.

also see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seigniorage
http://lexicon.ft.com/term?term=seigniorage

Are we an economy or a society?

Posted on 2015/02/05 - 2015/02/05 by jd

[SYRIZA] were elected on scrapping that debt but in the hope of saving the temple they are according to Paul Mason offering instead to “swap 60 per cent of its debt owed to the EU, for bonds that are paid back very long-term, and which pay no interest unless the economy is growing”
This mess illustrates not only the hostility to democracy at the heart of the EU project but also the lack of meaningful democracy in the lives of everyone in Europe. We are not equals in a society whose shape we determine together, we are slaves to market forces, forces that are fully determined to punish any section that seeks to escape its command.
via Workers Solidarity Movement (Ireland).

Why SYRIZA chose to join forces with Independent Greeks

Posted on 2015/01/30 by jd

If not the first two, then the third is the only option…

Q: Why SYRIZA chose to join forces with Independent Greeks
A: Following yesterday’s results, there are 6 political parties other than SYRIZA who entered the Greek parliament: outgoing coalition members New Democracy and PASOK, neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, the communist party of Greece KKE, a recently-formed, so-called centrist party, To Potami, and Independent Greeks. I will not discuss here the possibility that SYRIZA forms a coalition with New Democracy, PASOK or Golden Dawn, as all three are political science-fiction. This leaves us with KKE, To Potami and Independent Greeks.
via Theodora Oikonomides: SYRIZA -Independent Greeks: Strange bedfellows.