Greeks Say 'NO!' To Neoliberal Economic Blackmail

Catarina Principe and Syriza - the Greek leftist party - were instrumental in ensuring the 'NO' vote on Sunday - against further Neoliberal austerity.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as repeatedly doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Given this definition,  the Greek people - by nearly a two-thirds majority - opted to end the insanity imposed by the European Neoliberals which had austerity as its main theme: basically raise taxes, institute public spending cuts and pension cuts in return for a very temporary bailout. The Greeks - living in the original cradle of democracy- said 'NO' and told their creditors to stick it up where the Sun doesn't shine.

They'd already been pushed to the edge of despair by a failed Neoliberal program of austerity which even the IMF admitted wasn't working. Indeed, since the austerity was imposed Greece's economic growth has contracted an additional 25 percent. There was no end in sight to this trend, or mounting debt, so why the hell vote for a new round? But to read the neoliberal response you'd have believed all their oxen were gored at once.

There was Gunther Krichbaum, for example, blabbing (WSJ, p. 8, July 6):

"For a successful operation the one who wants to be rescued must allow himself to be rescued. As Greece obviously doesn't want this, there's no option left for those who want to rescue it."

Uh, yes, there is Sparky! It is coming up with a more equitable bailout-rescue program. One that doesn't repeat the insanity of the past five years and only dig the Greeks in deeper. Moving away from a program that even the IMF admits doesn't work. Can you process that?  The point is Greece does want help but not to have a millstone tied around its collective neck and drowned.

Even the WSJ (p. A8) admitted that:

"Playing hardball with Greece by calling it into default on its loans to bailout funds that are financed by other Eurozone economies could backfire on creditors and increase losses face by these governments."

So it's in their interest to work with Greece for their mutual benefit, not a "handout".  The Germans and Merkel, above all, ought to be amenable to this after we in the U.S. helped bail them out in the wake of WWII  and massively forgave war debts - while implementing national reconstruction with the Marshall Plan. This was something for which we even paid much higher taxes to ensure the future German nation wasn't saddled with debt.

Having been the beneficiaries of such generosity in the past, could not the Germans find it in their hearts to be a bit more generous now to a Eurozone member whose departure would definitely bring instability? A rational person would believe so.

If as the WSJ notes (ibid.) interest reductions and extended (bond) maturities are "often not enough to resolve a debit crisis"- then what about outright forgiving debt? After all, it's been done before via the IMF and World Bank with African nations in the 1980s.

Indeed, one expert cited by the WSJ (ibid.) observed that "the Eurozone's extend and pretend strategy never cuts it".    A really successful restructuring "always requires the creditors to take a loss on the face value of their debts."

Good thinking! But amidst Neoliberal palaver and hysteria, as in today's WSJ's top editorial ('The Greeks Say NO', p. A12), one beholds reason and judicious response taking a backseat especially when the basis of the Greek 'No' is deliberately couched in lies and fear. The former was embodied in the insinuation that the creditors' offer was just fine and dandy and ought to have been swallowed as the "better choice" and the fear mongering by raising the specter the Greeks will let thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East flood in then send them to other European countries.

If this is the best that we can expect from the organs of Neoliberal finance capital, then there is not much more room for rational discourse than there is with the brainwashed defenders of the Warren Commission. In each case the rational person reaches a dead end.

See also:

http://www.salon.com/2015/07/07/thomas_piketty_to_angela_merkel_%ef%bb%bfhistory_will_remember_you_for_your_actions_this_week/


And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/dave-lindorff/62948/is-this-taking-democracy-too-far-the-greek-people-have-said-no-to-austerity-and-economic-blackmail

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/daniel-patrick-welch/62934/oxi-means-no-or-at-least-it-should

A Youthful European Leftist That Millennials in the U.S. Could Emulate!

Catarina Principe exudes the kind of Leftist energy we need in the U.S.

Catarina Principe is an energetic young Leftist from Portugal who exudes the youthful zest for life and energy we desperately need in the U.S. While the crazies in the Rightist Tea Party just celebrated their fifth anniversary - still holding 'Don't Tread on Me' signs they don't fully grasp, the left movement in the U.S. remains dormant after the Occupy movement fizzled out. Maybe we need Catarina to cross the 'pond'  and get things moving here!

What is so special about this twenty-nine year old firebrand? What isn't?   Start with the fact she's been a dedicated leftist since the age of 15 - unheard of in the U.S. where kids of that age are more enmeshed in selfies and twitter than political movements. Principe rose to lead her student union and then organized a protest at her high school against corporate education reforms. She also pushed for the introduction of (real) sexual education classes, not the bilge passed off in the U.S. as such. The girl, in other words, was way ahead of her time and leading the charge - not rotting away in some social media vacuum.

She joined the Left Bloc in 1999, an organization which includes radical elements from across Portugal and which today claims eight parliamentary seats.  (She moved to Germany in 2011, forced out by the same economic collapse that's brought activists like her to the forefront of European politics).

As reported by 'In These Times',  Catarina was recently in Athens to celebrate the election triumph of Syriza (Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás) the acronym for the Greek coalition of the radical left. The ascendance came after years of austerity measures imposed by your typical right wing government - one which could also materialize here in the U.S. if voters are stupid enough to insert a right wing President (like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or Rand Paul) into power.

Recall the right wingers had brutally stripped away the pensions of the elderly to bare bones sustenance so they were literally begging on the streets or raiding garbage cans for food. Job cuts increased the misery- as well as shuttering numerous government services, leading to the collapse of health system as well.. All of which provoked violent rioting in the streets and ultimately the triumph of Syriza. 

The Greek people, unlike Americans, basically said 'Enough is enough!'   But it just didn't happen. People, especially the youth, had to get off their butts and basically engage with the political system. No surprise then for the last five to ten years it's been the scene of very intense mobilizations that  have not only introduced an entire generation to politics but also created the social structures that allowed Syriza to grow. No similar organic development occurred here in the U.S. as with Occupy Wall Street. Perhaps because it didn't spread across enough age groups.

In her interview, Catarina makes two points on the difference between failed and successful movements: 1) the ability to coordinate social movements, so different ones don't act at cross purposes, and 2) the ability to engage in grassroots community organizing - extending to trade unions and the rest of society.

There are lessons here if the  Occupy movement is ever revived, and one hopes the youth in the U.S. can emerge as activist, engaged and coherent as the groups (including Podemos) that came together in Greece.

Greece's problems are by no means resolved, but there is at least a better leverage position available now than when the austerity fetishists were in charge and driving a race to the bottom - bargaining with the larger EU for ever more 'bottom' at the expense of the people. As Catarina noted, the same United Left didn't succeed in Spain because of being too invested in the same austerity politics. Just like pregnancy, one can't be "a little committed to austerity".

Americans, take note!