~
Recent Protests in Greece II
Sat, 2011-07-02 13:58
#1
Recent Protests in Greece II
Sat, 2011-07-02 16:54
#3
ikosmos
Just to re-iterate some views already expressed on the previous thread - reading Eric Hoffer is time that you won't get back. I'd say he was a blue collar conservative ... or a class traitor if you want to be picky. OTOH, at least having read his most famous books I can share my opinions based on experience. If I can save just one radical from being infected .... etc ... then my efforts weren't wasted. lol.
The Communist Party of Greece has a great deal of information about recent events, solid analysis of Greek and European political life, and, interestingly, have made huge efforts to bring the different Communist and Worker's Parties together from across Europe and the world.
KKE or "koo-koo-eh"
KKE - A call for struggle from the Acropolis
KKE - Lessons from the general strike
If you want to read about the shocking and horrific atrocities against the Greek people by the social democratic regime in power, the Greek Communists will provide the details. Dippers be warned.
Sun, 2011-07-03 13:26
#4
Northern Shoveler
I suspect that if I lived in Greece I would be supporting the SYN not either the commies or the social democrats.
SYNASPISMOS (abbreviation SYN) is a political party of the renovative, democratic and radical left, founded in June 1992. Its name, "Synaspismos", (Coalition of the Left and Progress) has been retained from its previous structure, which was a coalition of left and progressive parties and groups that was formed in 1989. The transformation was decided in 1991 after the CP of Greece (KKE) split from the Coalition. The name of the party was amended on June 1st, 2003 and since then SYNASPISMOS is the "Coalition of the Left of Movements and Ecology".
Synaspismos identifies itself with the ideas and values of democratic socialism, ecology, feminism and anti-militarism. It believes in pluralism and considers the defense of human rights non-negotiable.
Sun, 2011-07-03 22:24
#5
ikosmos
The Greek Communists have written about SYN quite a bit ... in which SYN is characterized as very opportunistic, keen on turning the reds into social democrats, dissolving the latter's organization, and watering down any independent socialist approach in Greece.
There are other articles there, in English, that develop this more.
Mon, 2011-07-04 11:21
#6
Northern Shoveler
I am sure they have. However I am sure that SYN has written some "glowing" things about the commies too.
Like most people I don't want either a capitalist or a comrade making decisions that should be made democratically. I prefer to not be cog in anyones machine. I don't trust people who promote either central planning by a state bureaucracy or the invisible hand of the bankers as the right way to run an economy.
I was looking at their platform not the party itself. Seems strange to me that they are supposedly trying to turn the reds into social democrats since Greece has a social democratic majority that both the communists and the SYN oppose. Clearly I don't know the actual people involved and their history so I am going on first principles. There is no central planning by do gooders or capitalists in my visions of a better future.
You may be right that SYN is also a party made up of political opportunists. I gave them the benefit of the doubt but I certainly acknowledge that in a western parliament it is conceivable that no matter what their stated positions that all or most of the parties are capitalists in disguise.
Mon, 2011-07-04 12:40
#7
ikosmos
I've been reading a number of documents on the Greek CP website (in English) the last few days. They are quite willing to criticize themselves as well, e.g., on their role of re-gurgitating Soviet views on socialism in the USSR instead of adopting more critical views and hold themselves partly to blame for the events of 1989-1991.
I doubt very much if ANY social democratic party would do that. (I've never seen any social democratic party anywhere, anytime, acknowledge their disgraceful role in supporting war in 1914 in the various countries: UK, Germany, and all the rest.) Have a look yourself and see (in the context of an assessment of 20th century socialism, why and how it was overthrown, etc.) what I mean. See "Evaluation of the stance of KKE" just past the half way part of the resolution.
Resolution by Greek CP at their 18th congress on the legacy of 20th century socialism, etc.
Mon, 2011-07-04 15:18
#8
Northern Shoveler
I don't see anywhere that the SYN self identifies as a social democrotic party. The Greek Socialists do proudly proclaim they are. As I said I have nothing to go on but what I read on line not being from Greece or able to speak Greek. I like their proposals though.
An Immediate Alternative Program for a Progressive Exit from the Crisis
1. Disengagement from the EU-IMF mechanism of “support”. Renegotiation and demand for a direct loan from the ECB and the introduction of a euro-bond. Coordination and stable alliance with the countries of the European South, which face similar problems of debt and deficits. Demand for a change of the European Treaties. Immediate abolition of the Stability Pact and replacement of it with a Pact for Social Protection, guaranteed, decent employment and sustainable development.
2. Public social control of the financial system, in favor of public interest and real economy. A first step is the immediate intervention to the banking system, through the creation of a public pylon, together with the alternative administration of the support package.
3. Mid and long-term program for the productive re-composition of the Greek economy. With targeted public investments, for an alternative model of development, and with a special attention to the agricultural economy, renewable energy sources, sustainable tourism and new technologies. We fight for a different concept and function of the public sector.
4. Political demand, on an international level, for a partial abolition of the public debt and the optimization of the conditions of payment, under the framework of its complete restructure. The problem of the public debt is not only a Greek problem; in this sense, we demand a complete mechanism of solidarity for its confrontation under a European framework.
5. Creation of a shield of social protection. With a complex of immediate social interventions, which will aim at the reduction of employment and of new forms of poverty, together with the stimulation of development. The necessary immediate interventions should focus on the following issues:
Tax reform, against the diachronic injustices of our taxation system, which will enlarge the tax basis against tax-defaulters. Taxation of the church.
Immediate reduction of all military expenditure. Withdrawal of all campaigning Greek troops from all foreign soil.
Funding of the social security system and reinforcement of its public, re-distributive character, in contrast with the dismantling strategy that is today applied by the government.
Protection of the short, mid and log-term unemployed. Special programs of employment in the social and productive sector.
Immediate reform of the employment legislation, targeting at the limitation of lay-offs and the protection of jobs.
Reinforcement of the minimum wage. Introduction of a guaranteed minimum income and guaranteed access to public goods and basic services of public benefit.
The aforementioned minimum framework for a progressive exit-strategy includes proposals for the immediate confrontation of the crisis and the interception of the attack that the society and the labor forces are facing.
Synaspismos and SYRIZA need to develop informative actions and reinforce the resistance of our society. With our powerful participation to the struggles of the trade-unions and social actors. With our contribution to the formation of wider Committees of Struggle in neighborhoods and work places, against the measures of the government and their consequences. Our Party must express its solidarity in actions, through relevant initiatives, towards those who are struck by the crisis.
Taken as a fact that we are facing a structural crisis of capitalism, the struggle for an alternative, progressive exit-strategy must be linked to the fight for a radical change of the present balance of power, for the radical change of society and socialism.
Our alternative proposal must be clarified to the people, through consecutive, systematic and permanent interventions.
We must organize press conferences and public interventions of our MPs and members of the party, in the neighborhoods of Athens and the regions of the country. It is our duty to propose an alternative way and invite our society to fight and demand it.
Tue, 2011-07-05 17:32
#9
ikosmos
Those remarks are misleading. They still support the EU, just as PASOK supports NATO AND the EU. They argue that the EU can be humanized. But the EU is an instrument of capitalist hog-tying of Greece as the Greek citizenry are discovering daily. These are proponents of capitalism with a human face.
It's also significant that the big business media, in addition to supporting the greenwashing Greek Green Party (much like in Canada), supports PASOK (as did US President Obama as PASOK supported the inter-imperialist rivalry of the USA over Russian pipelines) and, when PASOK was declining, also supported the so-called "left" SYN. They have abandoned any genuienely revolutionary view and are forces of capitalist management. And just look what ordinary capitalism has done for the Greek citizenry. There are daily demonstrations against the government, billions hiding in Swiss banks by Greek business, and a huge deficit that the citizenry is being forced to pay instead of the capitalist interests, and their stooges in government, that are responsible for it.
The positions and the political action of SYN/SYRIZA constitute a part of this effort. Its role in the curbing of people's radicalisation and the assimilation of the popular forces to the objectives of capital is expressed in various ways (support of the "EU one-way-road", spread of confusions about the role of the PASOK, intention to regroup social democracy, support of yellow trade unionism in GSEE and ADEDY, special role in the anti-communist campaign etc).
Sat, 2011-07-09 15:35
#10
Northern Shoveler
They didn't vote with the social democrats they voted against the EU reform package. I am not qualified to have an in depth discussion of Greek politics. I couldn't find any really good independent assessment of the SYN just its stated policy and the fact that they are at least not supporting the government.
If you find some independent writing about the parties that is not written by political rivals please post them because at this point I only know that I don't know and I don't trust the social democrats or tell the truth of their rivals nor their rivals to tell the truth about each other. After all that is the game of electoral politics in a nut shell.
Sun, 2011-07-10 13:08
#11
ikosmos
If you find some independent writing about the parties that is not written by political rivals please post them ...
Read 'em all and form your own opinion. I can't do that for you.
Sun, 2011-07-10 13:16
#12
Northern Shoveler
I read your links just as I used to read your other handles links. I appreciate them and find them informative but I have never found a politician's view of their rivals to be anything close to being unbiased.
Sun, 2011-07-10 18:10
#13
Press-release from #Syntagma Square to Global Community #europeanrevolution #greekrevolution
Sent us by our dear fellows of http://real-democracy.gr/en .
Dear friends, brothers and sisters,
We are the ones that have fought for a month at Syntagma square in Athens. We organize ourselves with direct democracy excluding all political parties. Our voice is our everyday people´s assembly.
We are indignant because others decide for us without us and mortgage our future; they impose loans that do not benefit the people but the banks and governments’ interests. We are indignant because they terrify us using the deterrent of bankruptcy. Not only do they try to scare us but they also try to set people against each other.
*- We do not want any more support loans.*
*- We do not want public property *to be sold off.
*- We do not want the medium-term program *to pass.
*- We do not want the socialization of losses and privatization of gains.
*Unite your voice with ours.*
They are using our sacrifices and yours so that few acquire wealth.
We are here today, you will be here tomorrow.
We take to the streets everyday.
Every Sunday hundreds of thousands of citizens gather at the squares of all Greece, Syntagma being the core....
*The People’s Assembly Syntagma 3/7/2011*
Sun, 2011-07-10 18:16
#14
Leaving the euro is the best strategy for ordinary Greeks
The Greek bailout protects the financial sector, not the ordinary Greeks. A social alternative would be for Greece to annul its debts and exit the eurozone.
By Maina van der Zwan, originally published at socialisme.nu (in Dutch)
The emergency package for Greece is meant to protect the financial sector, not the ordinary Greeks. The alternative would be for social movements to enforce an annulment of the debt and an exit from the eurozone.
What began in the autumn of 2008 as a debt crisis of banks has now mutated into a debt crisis of states. The financial press is buzzing about the impending “Lehman’s moment” for Greece and the eurozone. The second emergency package is designed to postpone that moment, but will not prevent it.
The fact is that the eurozone has failed, not least because of the structural differences between core and periphery countries. Monetary union was designed as a one-size-fits-all economic policy — while participating economies were significantly different in both size and competitiveness. Because states had to give up control over their exchange and interest rates, weaker economies did not have many opportunities to compensate for their trade deficits other than by borrowing.....
http://roarmag.org/2011/07/euro-exit-greece-ordinary-greeks/
Sun, 2011-07-10 18:20
#15
Syntagma, ground-zero of the global resistance movement
by Jérôme E. Roos on
In a truly incredible display of positive mindedness and global consciousness, Syntagma square has already proven that another world is possible.
Syntagma Square, Sunday July 10th
It’s 9:30pm. The square is slowly filling up with people. The sound installation has just been set up, protest music is blasting from the speakers and is reflected by the empty walls of Parliament. The atmosphere is jovial, friendly and unpretentious. There is electricity in the air on this warm summer night in Athens.
I’m amazed by the sheer diversity of people here. They come from all walks of life and seem to form a broadly representative cross-section of society: from the usual suspects — hippies, leftists and anarchists — to undogmatic young couples with children. Even conservatives and nationalists seem to be represented.
I’ve seen retired people sitting side-by-side with university students, middle-aged men having beers on the steps in front of Parliament, tourists from all over the world observing it all in amazement, sympathizers and activists airing their solidarity and support. I even saw an old lady — she must have been well past 80 — socializing with a bunch of protesters in their mid-20s....
http://roarmag.org/2011/07/syntagma-ground-zero-of-the-global-resistance...
Sun, 2011-07-10 23:04
#16
laine lowe
Good to see that so many Greek citizens refuse to accept the crap they are being sold. ζουν την ισχυρή αντίσταση!
Mon, 2011-07-11 22:56
#17
Greece set to default on massive debt burden, European leaders concede
Ian Traynor in Brussels
Tuesday 12 July 2011
European leaders bowed to the inevitable and conceded that Greece is likely to default on its massive debt burden, which would be a first among the 17 countries using the euro.
They also abruptly shifted tack in the eurozone debt crisis by raising the possibility of using the eurozone's bailout fund to buy back Greek debt on the markets, meaning sizeable losses for Greece's private investors and reduced debt levels for Athens.
Following 12 hours of fraught negotiations in Brussels haunted by the risks of contagion in the eurozone spreading to Italy, now being targeted by the financial markets for the first time in the 18-month crisis, the 17 governments of the eurozone pointedly failed to rule out a sovereign debt default by Greece....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/12/greece-set-to-default-mas...
Tue, 2011-07-12 11:49
#18
..a Real News video interview. includes transcript.
Greece now, US soon
July 12, 2011
Tue, 2011-07-12 13:30
#19
Jérôme E. Roos: In Greece, Crisis And Violence Stir A Collective Trauma
July 12th, 2011 By Jérôme E. Roos:
Economic collapse and police brutality bring back painful memories of years of military dictatorship and decades of financial hardship.
Syntagma Square, Monday July 11th
Quote: “My dad was literally depressed for days after seeing the images of June 28 and 29,” our wonderful host Amalia told me earlier. “He spent a year in prison during the military dictatorship [for his opposition to the regime]. He never really talks about it, I think he was badly traumatized. But he told me he had never seen anything like this. Even the dictatorship was never this violent against the people.”
Her views have been echoed by at least half a dozen protesters I have spoken to in Athens over the past 24 hours. “The whole square looked like a nuclear disaster zone,” said Lydia, a friendly lady who has been camped out on the square for the past couple of weeks. Like Achilias, a Greek journalist, she is becoming increasingly despaired by dirty police tactics, like planting drug dealers around the square in order to attract junkies and discredit the occupation.
On June 28 and 29, the Greek police was strongly condemned by Amnesty International for using illegal chemicals that are banned by the Geneva convention. Most of the gas canisters were way beyond their stated expiry date. “And they used so much of it, ” Lydia said in between intermittent coughs. “There was gas everywhere, no one could breathe. It was terrifying. I couldn’t speak for 5 days, I got really sick. It really was like a civil war.”
Last night, the situation got tense again for a moment. The mayor of Athens, George Kaminis, had warned that if protesters didn’t vacate Syntagma by 4 o’clock on Monday morning, he would send in police and cleaners to clear the square. The memories of June 28-29 and the Barcelona clean-up made Lydia adamant that this time she wouldn’t be able to stand her ground. “I can’t take anymore gas. I just can’t do it.”
In the end, the cleaning crew failed to show up. Thousands of protesters had stayed in the square to defend it in case of a police intervention, but the municipal workers, in a heartwarming display of solidarity, simply refused to take the mayor’s orders unless they received the explicit permission of the indignants at Syntagma. But the temporary anxiety caused by the mayor’s announcement revealed the deep-seated trauma of decades of police abuse.
In truth, the people here are fed up with violence. While last week’s unrest was clearly instigated by riot police and the black bloc, the peaceful majority in Syntagma ended up taking the heaviest load of the violence. In an attempt to pacifically stand their ground, over 500 people were injured by police stone-throwing, baton-swinging, infiltration, and tear-gassing.
http://roarmag.org/2011/07/greece-crisis-violence-collective-trauma/
Wed, 2011-07-13 23:06
#20
Syntagma, where the small things still matter
Amid all the grand schemes of crisis and revolution, it’s sometimes all too easy to forget about the beauty of the moment. Here is one of those moments.
Syntagma Square, Wednesday July 13th
This will be a short post. I’m not really in the mood to report or to theorize. Not because I don’t like reporting or theorizing, but because today, I feel, is a day of experiencing. Shutting up my own potty mouth for a day and actually taking a break to soak up the spectacle on display here in Syntagma.
But there is one thing I want to mention and briefly put in a larger context. It’s something incredibly small — but, as I’m finding out day after day, it’s the little things and the little people who make this revolution go round.
Of course there’s plenty of attention for the larger schemes, from the failure of liberal democracy and global capitalism to the necessity of establishing transnational linkages with activists across Europe and the Arab world — something Pedro and I are working on with our comrades at the multimedia center here.
But the real beauty of Syntagma lies not in its defiance of the powers that be or the contestation of the neoliberal world order, but rather in the small gestures of solidarity and the incredible interactions at the human level. In today’s mechanical, rational, modern world, it’s all too easy to forget what inspiring acts human beings are actually capable of — if only you empower them to unite and work on creative solutions together.
So, something beautifully small just happened. As I was sitting here at the table in the multimedia center speaking to Maria and Katerina, an African man stopped by and asked for the ‘responsible’ person (poor man probably wasn’t aware that this movement largely shuns the idea of people being ‘in charge’). In his hands, he was carrying at least four heavy plastic bags full of tin cans.
Since there are a lot of street vendors around here, the suspicious capitalist residue in my corrupted mind immediately assumed that he was trying to sell us something. But no, as so often, I was wrong. Here was a group of African refugees who came bearing beer and coffee for the people.
They came to share, in a sign of solidarity, the little they had, in order to be a part of a larger whole. In order to thank the people of Syntagma for engaging in a struggle that they experience so vividly every single day.
All of it took only 2-3 minutes max. But as I’m sitting here sipping the Alfa beer, getting ready to start moving around and socializing with people, I realized this simply had to be recorded for the history books. Amid all the grand schemes of crisis and revolution it’s sometimes all too easy to forget about the beauty of the moment.
This certainly was one of those moments.
http://roarmag.org/2011/07/syntagma-where-the-small-things-still-matter/
Thu, 2011-07-14 21:17
#21
Thu, 2011-07-14 22:44
#22
Bec.De.Corbin
Good one...
Have you noticed for the people who invented and prefected the phalanx they sure suck at it now...
Now...
And then...
Fri, 2011-07-15 15:05
#23
Rosa Vasilaki: Seeing Like A PIG – The Crisis In Greece From A Different Perspective
July 15th, 2011
Greece has made the press headlines in the past weeks more than ever in the short history of mass media and the even shorter history of globalized economies, predicaments and futures. In the civilized ‘North’, ‘Europe’ or ‘the West’ – terms which to a large extent have ceased to represent the once-called Great Powers and have increasingly become synonymous with a dominant, albeit abstract point of view, that of the ‘economy’ – Greece, the PIG par excellence, has become a metaphor for everything threatening the days of affluence of ‘global economics’: instability, irresponsibility, social unrest. In the aftermath of bin Laden’s death and after the spectacle of elimination of the mother-of-all manufactured global threats – Islamic fundamentalism – the ‘Greek crisis’ has become the name of the most fundamental fear of all: the crisis of the global capitalist economic system itself.
As a result, the omnipresent accounts of economic, political and diplomatic pundits are underpinned by a general feeling of urgency to the imminent – global – catastrophe to which we must react now. Analysts from all over the world together with a discredited, one would even tempted even to say comprador, Greek government, bombard their global publics that time is running up, that now is the time to act, that the whole world is in the verge of collapsing if the Greeks (and as an extension, the other three little PIGS) do not rush to comply with the increasingly predatory demands for the privatization of public goods, the commercialization of the State, the curtailment of social rights – in short the precarization of life itself – as requested by the authorities of the IMF and the Central European Bank.
This sense of urgency to act against the looming disaster – if we follow S. Zizek , a deeply anti-theoretical, and in that sense anti-critical move which, as we shall see below, is instrumental in discouraging any critical reflection about the situation – goes together with the deployment of an impressive arsenal of stereotypical, quasi-racist representations of the PIGS in the Western mainstream media. Hierarchical binaries, long associated with the political, economic and ideological supremacy of the West have been given new leases of live: the developed North versus the backward South, the orderly West versus the unruly Orient, the disciplined, peaceful protests in civilized Europe versus the violent and chaotic riots in the Mediterranean. Last but not least, the evocation of the image of the clean – ideologically and/or racially pure? – ‘real Europe’ versus the dirty – polluted by the seeds of rebellion and the cultural proximity to the Orient? – European periphery in the invention of the acronym PIGS says a great deal about the deep ingrained colonialist stereotyping in the heart of the EU....
http://www.thenewsignificance.com/2011/07/15/rosa-vasilaki-seeing-like-a...
Fri, 2011-07-15 15:21
#24
Rosa Vasilaki: Seeing Like A PIG – The Crisis In Greece From A Different Perspective
Quote: What could be perhaps more helpful in order to understand the predicament and promise of the ‘Greek crisis’ would be to take some critical distance from the oppressive dominant perspective. This perspective comes under the name of ‘economy’ and it has become so hegemonic, so naturalized, that the mere act of thinking outside its framework – and think for instance in in terms of collective good as explained below – automatically gets rejected as heretic, lunatic, dangerous or naïve. It is within this naturalized perspective of the ‘economy’ that the international economic and political experts scold the Greeks as bad students failing their neoliberal re-education (as D. Harvey has been persistently arguing neoliberalism is above all a political project of disciplining of the Self to the logic of ‘the market’), praise the brutality of the sweeping ‘reforms’ and the ‘boldness’ of the Greek government, deplore the ‘backwardness’ of the Welfare state, blackmail the resisting Greek people with reprisals of total disaster and represent the tremendously unfair, anti-social ‘bailout package’ as the only solution before ‘The End’ (one cannot resist to ask what kind of ‘end’ this might be when and if it occurs).
Stepping out of the objectified framework of the ‘economy’, however, would allow us to assume a different position and would enable us to see what is at stake in the ‘Greek crisis’ for Greece and for the world. It would enable us to understand the intentionality of the Greek protests rather than easily attribute them to an essentialized fiery Greek character or the presumed lack of rule of law in the Orient, and therefore reduce them to a senseless burst of violence. But let us for a moment resist the frantic calls of urgency to save the ‘economy’ and adopt tentatively the perspective of the PIGS. Perhaps then we can ask a couple of critical questions such as, what are really the Greeks and the other three (for the moment, for the company is likely to grow in the near future) little pigs so vociferously accused of? And what is the meaning of Greek resistance, what does this necessarily amorphous, heterogeneous and recently radicalized crowd so vigorously defend?....
http://www.thenewsignificance.com/2011/07/15/rosa-vasilaki-seeing-like-a...
Tue, 2011-07-19 13:05
#25
Published on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
Advice Hillary Clinton Should, But Won’t, Give to Economically-Strapped Greece
When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Greece, she praised the Greek government’s austerity measures to reduce deficits and cut spending. The U.S. and Greece face a common challenge of dealing with soaring deficits, but they also face something else in common: a refusal to deal with out-of-control military spending. And given that the United States is a major arms seller to Greece, Hillary Clinton will encourage the Greeks to slash workers’ wages and pensions, but not its enormous military appetite.
With a population of just 11 million, Greece is the largest importer of conventional weapons in Europe—and ranks fifth in the world behind China, India, the United Arab Emirates and South Korea. Greece spends a whooping 3 percent of its gross domestic product on military hardware, compared to an average 1.7% in the other European NATO countries, including nations involved in international conflicts such as Britain, France and Germany....
Fri, 2011-07-29 13:07
#26
Fri, 2011-07-29 16:48
#27
Beyond organizing a general strike here, what else can we do to help Greek comrades?
Sun, 2011-07-31 11:02
#28
Defiant statement by indignant following Syntagma eviction
by Jérôme E. Roos on July 30 2011
After 60 days of occupation, Greek police forcefully evicted the protest camp at Syntagma Square in Athens. This is the defiant reaction of the protesters.
Videos of the eviction here.
The following is a message from real-democracy.gr:
The Square is Us and We Are Everywhere
General assembly at Syntagma Square, 6:00 o’clock
Like thieves, who fear the people’s outcry and public shame, The police forces entered the square at 4 am.
The district attorney and work crews of the Municipality of Athens invaded the square, and began a wholesale destruction and removal of tents and the infrastructure of the various work groups of the square. They then took 13 people into custody, 8 of which are now considered arrests....
http://roarmag.org/2011/07/defiant-statement-by-indignant-following-synt...
Sun, 2011-07-31 11:07
#29
Northern Shoveler
A nice social democratic government ensuring public safety is paramount. After all those Greeks got an election so what if the party that is in power promised not to impose austerity measures before the vote.
Fri, 2011-08-05 21:18
#30
Greece's healthcare system is on the brink of catastrophe
Patients who cannot afford treatment and hospitals without critical supplies are among victims of the financial meltdown
Friday 5 August 2011
Adonis Kostakos is unemployed and diabetic. Aged 50, he last worked regularly four years ago in the port of Piraeus. Back then he used Greece's public hospital system to have his blood sugar checked and get his medication.
These days, receiving no unemployment benefit, he cannot afford to pay for his drugs or the new €5 hospital fee introduced as part of Greece's austerity measures.
So today Kostakos has come to a free clinic in the shipbuilding town of Perama, where he lives, to pick up his medication. The drop-in surgery run by the global charity Médecins du Monde was originally set up to cater for illegal immigrants. But today, there are only native Greeks....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/05/greece-healthcare-brink-cata...
Sat, 2011-08-06 09:02
#31
The interesting thing from this is how people who would have been considered affluent, people who thought they would be immune from the machinations of the financial sectors coup, people who thought they were buddies with those now in control now find themselves taking less for their doctoring fees.
There are lots of people in Canada and the U.S. who think they are part of the crowd who won't be touched by this continuing financial sector take over of our governments. These events and surely more to come like them, should be shown to them.
Mon, 2011-09-05 02:07
#32
Statement from re-occupied Syntagma square
by Jérôme E. Roos on September 4, 2011
Yesterday, the indignant of Greece took back Syntagma square, the heart of their movement since May 25, after having released the following statement.
On September 3rd, we are everywhere — we fill up Syntagma Square
The squares are us and we are everywhere. We are all. We started as indignant people, we have decided, and in a little while we will be revolting in masses until those who drove us here go away. Until we kick out the bankers and the market’s governments and system.
We all agree that we do not need any spokesmen in this movement, because by definition, but especially in the context of this political and economic system, they will be corrupted, cut off from the people, and will betray the people. We want to decide collectively for ourselves. We demand to take our lives into our own hands.
The 3rd of September (the day when the first Greek constitution was drafted in 1843, and also when PASOK, the ruling party was created in 1974) is a date we can retake, by giving it back its original meaning, that of the people’s needs.
The 3rd of September is an important date for us. It is also the day that reminds us of the “cancellation” of the people’s aspirations for democracy, freedom and dignity. That reminds us of the lies told and the mockery made by our government.
We do not have any illusions: we understand that we cannot have direct democracy and people’s rule without overthrowing the government, the Troika, and the whole political and economic system.
We call all citizens to the big demonstration and people’s assembly in Syntagma Square and all the country’s squares on September 3, 2011 at 19:00
BREAD-EDUCATION-FREEDOM
EQUALITY-JUSTICE-LIBERTY
THE SQUARES ARE US AND WE ARE EVERYWHERE
DIRECT DEMOCRACY
http://roarmag.org/2011/09/statement-from-re-occupied-syntagma-square/
Sun, 2011-09-25 09:14
#33
Greek austerity: new measures 'catastrophic' say protesters
Strikes bring Athens to a standstill as government announces further swingeing cuts to public sector jobs and pensions
Thousands of Greeks have poured on to the streets of Athens, furious at the prospect of further austerity in a country already reeling from previous bouts of belt-tightening.
As bus, tram, train and taxi drivers walked off the job, joining subway employees and state school teachers in a 24-hour work stoppage, unions vowed to step up their struggle against the cuts with a series of general strikes....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/22/greek-austerity-measures-cat...
Mon, 2011-09-26 07:55
#34
Greek students seize TV station during live broadcast
September 26, 2011
As police attacked protesters on Syntagma Square, a group of Greek students interrupted a live news broadcast and occupied the TV station.
http://roarmag.org/2011/09/greek-students-seize-state-tv-interrupt-live-...
Wed, 2011-09-28 20:25
#35
Nobody will bite into this, will they?
Beyond organizing a general strike here, what else can we do to help Greek comrades?
Wed, 2011-09-28 21:03
#36
Beyond organizing a general strike here, what else can we do to help Greek comrades?
..there's a call out for oct 15. we could start there.
Thu, 2011-09-29 17:34
#37
Greek protesters occupy key ministries
Greek civil servants protesting the government's austerity measures have occupied several ministries ahead of upcoming talks between the IMF and EU officials.
According to local media, the occupations began in the early hours of Thursday and will continue until Friday....
Wed, 2011-10-05 13:03
#38
Police use tear gas against Greek protesters
Greek police have used tear gas against the protesters. Clashes happened during the rallying of Greek unions in central Athens on Wednesday in a new protest over the austerity measures applied as the government struggles to avoid default. (video as well)
Wed, 2011-10-05 13:12
#39
11 million reasons why Greece is about to explode
Mass wildcat strikes, occupations and protests will culminate into a 24-hour union-led strike on Wednesday. With tensions brewing, violence is inevitable.
Greece is being strangled — and like any organism struggling to survive while being suffocated, it will kick, scratch and fight until its very last breath. This is not an endorsement of the violence we are likely to see on Wednesday — it’s a dire warning to Europe and the IMF that their brutally inhumane policies are triggering a survival instinct that could turn nasty and brutal and run entirely out of control. Greece is about to convulse in flames and teargas once more....
http://roarmag.org/2011/10/11-million-reasons-why-greece-is-about-to-exp...
Thu, 2011-10-06 21:44
#40
Are there any events scheduled in other countries to demonstrate solidarity with our Greek comrades, preferably something not on a Friday or Saturday?
Fri, 2011-10-07 06:40
#41
In a Globe and Mail piece this week, Jim Stanford says "it isn't Greece and other weak states being bailed out. It's the banks that lent money to those countries....So far, the euro rescue has focused on trying to assuage the owners of financial wealth, who we euphemistically call 'the markets'."
He suggests that "instead of doing everything to keep private financiers happy, European officials need to replace the private debt-credit relationship with a publicly managed one. The private credit system that created all that money, and lent lots of it to Greece, will eventually be socialized, in two distinct ways.
"First, the debt itself will be socialized (as the Europeans take continental responsibility for the bonds of hard-pressed member states). But, more important, the leveraged money machine that created the credit and lent it with wild abandon in the first place also will be socialized. Banks will be 'recapitalized,' a euthemism for injecting hundreds of billions of euros of ;public capital into the banking system to offset the capital that will disappear with the coming defaults. Those new funds can be created by (public) banking, through the European Central Bank; taxpayers needn't pay a cent."
In the U.S., government took responsibility for massive private debt, socializing it, and partly fincing it by the Federal Reserve's printing of money.
"Inevitably, the European system must also be socialized in some form, because the private credit machine is currently untenable...We need to find an alternative way, through public banking, to create new credit to replace the private credit now teetering on the edge of destruction. That's a proposition that German taxpayers should celebrate."
Fri, 2011-10-14 00:08
#42
..according to hudson the greek people have sent europe a message.
Greek Austerity
October 13, 2011
Michael Hudson discusses how democracy has been subverted.
http://michael-hudson.com/2011/10/greek-austerity/
Wed, 2011-10-19 13:33
#43
Skirmishes between demonstrators and the police broke out outside the Greek Parliament at the start of a two-day general strike on Wednesday as tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets in the largest demonstration in Athens in months, if not years. A crowd of dozens of youths took advantage of the moment to smash several storefronts and begin looting.
The police put crowd estimates at around 80,000 people; some news Web sites said more than 100,000. The police would not release official figures yet.
. . . .
"We must endure this battle so that the country can win, we must be calm and rise to the challenge," he said, noting that passing the new measures were crucial to clinching critical rescue funding from foreign creditors.
"The vote will boost our negotiating position, it will give us strength for the E.U. summit," he said. The key goal for Greece, Mr. Papandreou said, was "to stay in the euro zone."
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/world/europe/greek-workers-start-two-d...
Thu, 2012-02-09 16:03
#44
Greek Parties in Talks as Banks Demand Deep Wage, Social Cuts - by Alex Lantier
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/feb2012/gree-f09.shtml
"Social conditions in Greece are undergoing a horrific degeneration. Homelessness, centered in the two largest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki, has increased at least 25 percent since the outbreak and the crisis. It is estimated that up to half of Greek homeowners will not be able to pay new increased property taxes on their homes, and people are increasingly unable to afford electricity and other basic utilities.
Nikitas Kanekis of the Doctors of the World charity told MSNBC that he fears 'a humanitarian catastrophe'.."
Meeting the 'New Homeless' on Greece's Freezing Streets (and vid)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16878756
Thu, 2012-02-09 18:34
#45
Bailout Doubt: Greece Agrees to Spending Cuts Amid Euro-Worries (and vid)
http://rt.com/news/greece-cuts-euro-default-935/
"Greek lawmakers have agreed to a last ditch deal and the new spending cuts required to save the country from default. However Germany is insisting the agreement does not yet fulfill all the conditions..."
large demos are occurring (see interview)
Fri, 2012-02-10 23:26
#46
Greeks Call for Solidarity in Strikes Against Austerity
Under pressure from creditors, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the EU, the Greek government is forcing through unpopular austerity measures. The Greek Prime Minister threatened to remove any government minister who objected to the policies.
Wages are to be cut by more than 20 percent, thousands of civil servants will be laid off, and vital social programs will be severely cut. These laws punish the Greek 99% to repay the debts of the ruling class. The government has sold out sovereignty, the poor, and the working class in the interest of foreign creditors and the demands of the 1%. Bankers continue to make millions and corporations pay fewer taxes.
In response, thousands have taken to the streets and occupied the square in front of Parliament. For the second time this week, Greek workers began a general strike for today and tomorrow. Most transportation has been shut down - limited-service trains will allow protesters to attend demonstrations in Athens. Protesters around Parliament have been attacked with stun grenades and teargas by riot police. Similar protests and strikes are underway across Europe, including in Belgium, where firefighters opposed to cuts in their retirement plan broke through police lines with water hoses.
Students also occupied a school and held General Assemblies for protesters. The occupiers released a statement:
"The health structures, the educational spaces, the “welfare” benefits and anything making us productive in the dominant system are now a thing of the past. After squeezing everything out of us, they now throw us straight into hunger and impoverishment."
For years, Greece has been wrecked by the very same policies of austerity also underway in the United States and other countries. From Athens to Oakland, the 99% have awoken - and we refuse to be sold out.
Fri, 2012-02-10 23:30
#47
Building occupations spread ahead of the General Strike demonstration
In Athens, the Law School remains under occupation. The buildings of the ministry of Health and the ministry of Labour are also occupied.
The Town Hall of the suburb of Holargos in the city is now also under occupation, by the local open assembly.
In the northern city of Veria, people have occupied the local “peripheral union” (a governance body).
The prefecture of the city of Larisa is now occupied, and so is the prefecture in the city of Corfu.
In Crete, students have occupied the Polytechnic (in the city of Chania) calling the people of the city to join them at the General Strike demonstration today. People have occupied the town hall of the city of Rethymno, too.
Statement by the Occupied Athens Law School
In order to liberate ourselves from debt we must destroy the economy
The political and financial spectacle has now lost its confidence. Its acts are entirely convulsive. The government of “emergency” that has taken over the maintenance of social cohesion is failing in conserving the labour, and at the same time the consumption power of the population. The new measures, with which the state aims to secure the survival of the greek nation in the international financial world, lead to a complete suspension of payments in the world of work. The lowering of the minimum wage, now also in paper, comes in harmony with the full suspension of every form of direct or social wage....
http://takethesquare.net/2012/02/11/building-occupations-spread-ahead-of...
Sat, 2012-02-11 03:19
#48
Getting Harsher? Greek Cabinet Approves Austerity Bill (and vid)
http://rt.com/news/greek-cabinet-austerity-bill-055/
"The Greek cabinet has approved a draft bill for the new austerity measures needed to secure a $130 Billion bailout from international lenders. The new cuts include making thousands of civil servants redundant and slashing the minimum wage. The legislation was submitted to the parliament, which is scheduled to vote on it on Sunday. Six ministers have quite the cabinet, disagreeing with the harsh austerity measures.
Meanwhile, there has been violence on the streets of the Greek capital with protesters furious about the austerity measures, while a 2 day strike ahs brought the city to a standstill.."
Greece Heading Toward 'Financial Holocaust' - Keiser (and vid)
http://rt.com/news/greece-debt-holocaust-keiser-015/
"Greece's incredible debt has in fact been accumulated in the banks around the world and forced on to the balance sheet of Greece, says financial analyst Max Keiser, referring to the situation as 'financial holocaust'.."
Sun, 2012-02-12 16:57
#49
Historic cinemas, cafes, shops and banks were set ablaze in central Athens on Sunday as black-masked protesters fought Greek police outside parliament, while inside lawmakers looked set to defy the rage by endorsing a new EU/IMF austerity deal.
State television reported violence spread to the islands of Corfu and Crete, the northern city of Thessaloniki and towns in central Greece. Shops were being looted in the capital in the worst breakdown of order since 2008 when violence gripped Greece for weeks after police shot a 15-year-old schoolboy.
As parliament prepared to vote on a new 130 billion euro bailout to save Greece from a messy bankruptcy, a Reuters photographer saw buildings in Athens engulfed in flames and huge plumes of smoke rose in the night sky
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/12/greece-idUSL5E8DC0AM20120212
Sun, 2012-02-12 17:09
#50
Greek Police Union Wants to Arrest EU/IMF
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Greek+police+union+wants+arrest+offi...
"Greece's largest police union has threatened to issue arrest warrants for officials for the country's European Union and International Monetary Fund leaders for demanding deeply unpopular austerity measures. In a letter obtained by Reuters on Friday, the Federation of Greek Police accused the officials of 'blackmail, covertly abolishing or eroding democracy and national sovereignty' and said one target of its warrants would be the IMF's top official for Greece, Poul Thomsen.
'Since you are continuing this destructive policy we warn you that you cannot make us fight against our brothers. We refuse to stand against our parents, our brothers, our children or any citizen who protests and demands a change of policy,' said the union, which represents more than two-thirds of Greek policemen.
'We warn you that as legal representatives of Greek policemen, we will issue arrest warrants for a series of legal violations such as blackmail, covertly abolishing or eroding democracy and national sovereignty..."
Sun, 2012-02-12 18:27
#51
It seems that EU oligarchs have a flaw in their plan to conquer Greece. Cops on the front lines of their war on democracy want out of this class war.
All the wealthy low lives and professional bums of Europe are salivating over thoughts of snapping up valuable state assets, the best beaches and tourist spots on the cheap. Next thing they know ol' Phil Windsor of Greece, Edinburgh, Hanover, Denmark etc will want to be made welcome in Greece again as if Greeks don't have enough problems now.