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maybe the election is rigged
CBC:
With 99.83% reporting:
ND 129
Syriza 71
PASOK 33
Independent Greeks 20
Golden Dawn 18
Democratic Left 17
KKE 12
PASOK needs to do the decent thing and disband. It's their fault that the ND's are in contention to create a pro-misery coalition.
Greece: What Can Be Done? - by James Petras
http://www.countercurrents.org/petras180612.htm
"No capitalist or politician of the old order provides any redeeming argument. In the past they plundered the economy; in the present they extract and transfer wealth abroad. And for the future they can only promise more of the same. To effect a transition requires that we first face the negative legacy of the past in order to see what proposals are viable and necessary..."
Athens Workers and Youth Discuss Greek Elections Result
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun2012/gree-j19.shtml
"...A young and unemployed man also told us impassionedly, 'If the cuts will continue - and they will drink our blood - the people won't fear anything anymore."
TNN: What Did the Greek Elections Decide? (and vid)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...
"Costas Lapavitsas: Elections were a moral victory for Syriza as votes held up under ferocious pressure; the new pro-bailout government will not be able to service its debt as austerity measures deepen, and eventually Greece will leave the Eurozone.."
The Greek Election as a Manifestation of Europe's Hobbesian Moment
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2012/06/19/the-greek-election-as-a-manifestati...
"...The Greek people voted in favour of a simple proposition: Bow to a loan agreement that is commonly known to be unsustainable but which Europe insists upon. Why? To buy time in the hope that the rest of Europe, will, in the meantime, find some workable solution within which Greece may have a future...
The end result is a postmodern variant of Thomas Hobbes' state of nature which guarantees that the euro's life will prove nasty, brutish and short."
Greek Conservative Leader Samaras Sworn in as new Premier
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/06/20/247117/greece-forms-new-government
"The leader of Greece's conservative New Democracy party - Antonis Samaras has been sworn in as the debt-ridden country's new prime minister. Evangelos Venizelos added that the details of the three-party coalition government backed by the pro-euro PASOK, conservative New Democracy and the small radical Democratic Left party will be finalized later on Wednesday. All the three parties have expressed support for Greece's commitments to international bailout creditors.."
This is taking austerity to extremes.
From Crisis to Resistance in Greece
http://socialistworker.org/2012/07/05/crisis-to-resistance-in-greece
"Antonis Davanellos, a member of International Workers Left, known by its Greek initials DEA, one of the founding organizations for form the SYRIZA coalition, talked about the state of the crisis in Greece, the developing resistance and what lies ahead..."
Seeds of Hatred Sprout in Soil of Greek Crisis (and vid)
http://www.rt.com/news/hatred-migrants-greece-attacks-874/
"Gangs are attacking immigrants all over Greece - a fact ignored by authorities, says Human Rights Watch. Some are allegedly linked to the far-right Golden Dawn party. Migrants are blamed for crimes and for eating into shrinking government subsidies. Yanis Varoufakis, an economist and lecturer at Athens University, says that 'the serpent's egg of hatred begins to hatch whenever people lose hope and those spreading the hatred end up as the only winners. It should act as a warning for all of us that whenever a social economy implodes, as opposed to just going into a recession, scape-goating becomes the order of the day..."
Unemployment rises to 24.4% as poll shows that Golden Dawn is now the third largest party.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g95rFNbQrI9QsE-GQzf8nV7BLmdw?docId=CNG.230ef1109cfdd13762e5b185cc6bb6e8.101
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-06/greek-poll-shows-anti-bailout-syriza-ahead-in-voter-preference
Syriza [becoming a party] – reality is forcing us to forget the old ways of working (ceasing to be an electoral coalition)
Greece: Syriza shines a light (social support)
We've all been lied to and constantly since WW II. We were promised middle class capitalism based on consumerism. The greatest weapon of the cold war era, as it turns out, was a parade of filthy lies concerning a way of life that will be unsustainable for the other 80-85% of humanity. And I think the rest of the world is beginning to realize they've been lied to. The promise of capitalism is a monumental lie.
A Second Greek Man on 'The Lagarde List' Has Been Found Dead
http://www.businessinsider.com/greek-men-on-lagarde-list-found-dead-2012-10
"The so-called 'Lagarde List' - the name given by the Greek press to a list containing 1,991 names of wealthy, Swiss bank-account-possessing Greeks who are being investigated for corruption and tax evasion - is causing a major stir in Greece right now. Since Friday, two men on the list have turned up dead in apparent suicides...."
This is really sad. Apparently in Greece you now lose health insurance after being unemployed for a year, which must now be very common. Some doctors are trying to help uninsured patients in their spare time, but for conditions like cancer it's clearly and painfully not enough.
As the head of Greece's largest oncology department, Dr Kostas Syrigos thought he had seen everything. But nothing prepared him for Elena, an unemployed woman whose breast cancer had been diagnosed a year before she came to him.
By that time, her cancer had grown to the size of an orange and broken through the skin, leaving a wound that she was draining with paper napkins.
Love or Nothing: The Real Greek Parallel WIth Weimar - by Paul Mason
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20105881
"...We came here expecting riots. Instead we find ourselves looking at what happens when riots die away and horrified inertia sets in.."
General Strike in Greece
http://www.countercurrents.org/cc0611121A.htm
"Greek workers begin a 48-hour strike on November 6, 2012 to protest against a new round of austerity cuts that unions say will devastate the poor. 'They should go to hell and beyond,' said Arais Metaxopoulou, a 65 year old pensioner, expressing the anger many Greeks feel toward their political class. 'They should ask me how I feel when I have to go to church to beg for food. I wouldn't hurt a fly but I would happily behead one of them."
Chaos in Athens: Greece in for New Round of Austerity as Protests Rage (and vid)
http://rt.com/news/greece-austerity-bill-protests-144/
"At least 100,00 protesters are estimated to be gathered in front of the Parliament buildings."
Austerity kills. Literally:
Greek hospitals are in such dire straits that staff are failing to keep up basic disease controls such as using gloves and gowns, threatening a rise in multi-drug-resistant infections, according to Europe's top health official.
Greece already has one of the worst problems in Europe with hospital-acquired infections, and disease experts fear this is being made worse by an economic crisis that has cut health care staffing levels and hurt standards of care.
With fewer doctors and nurses to look after more patients, and hospitals running low on cash for supplies, risks are being taken even with basic hygiene, said Marc Sprenger, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
"I have seen places...where the financial situation did not allow even for basic requirements like gloves, gowns and alcohol wipes," Sprenger said after a two-day trip to Athens, where he visited hospitals.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/05/greece-austerity-disease-idUSL5E8N4FW220121205