Greece #3

Turkish Fighter Jets Test Greece’s Territorial Claims

Turkish fighter jets have increased dramatically their incursions into Greek airspace as crisis-stricken Greek air force has to respond and confront the invaders.

According to an extensive Politico report, through these incursions Turkey challenges their neighbor’s territorial claims.

“The main reason for the [conflict] is sovereignty concerns over the Aegean region,” said Mustafa Kutlay, an assistant professor at TOBB University of Economics and Technology in Ankara.

“The Turks are trying to enforce sovereignty over disputed islands and bring Greece to the negotiating table,” said Thanos Dokos, director-general of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy. “What’s worrying are the low-altitude flights, often by helicopters, over these islands.”....

Mr. Magoo wrote:

Who was the Maharishi?  DO NOT say "the Professor".

The Movie Star would obviously be Mia Farrow.

Europe Is a Financial Colony Not A Democracy

Sahra Wagenknecht, Die Linke

https://youtu.be/YYDxog12fZI

Looks like about 1/4 were undecided. And Syriza has dropped about 10 points since the last polling

The Pseudo-Left Covers Up For Syriza's Betrayal

http://wsws.org/en/articles/2015/07/24/pers-j24.html

"Wednesday's vote in the Greek parliament, in which Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras rammed through over 900 pages of European Union (EU) austerity measures dictated by Berlin, completes a devastating betrayal of the Greek people by Tsipras's SYRIZA ('Coalition of the Radical Left') party.

Virtually overnight, SYRIZA has embraced austerity as if it were the most natural policy in the world, trampling its electoral pledges. The consquences will be horrific for millions of Greek workers already facing hunger, joblessness and lack of medical care.

SYRIZA is based on a political model common to countless pseudo-left and petty-bourgeois organizations. Recovery from the impact of the betrayal in Greece is possible only through a scathing exposure of the class and political role of the pseudo-left..."

Now the Greek government signs a status of forces agreement with Israel.

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/greeces-syriza-military?utm_campaign=truea...

from Varoufakis...

That would have created a parallel banking system while the banks were shut as a result of the ECBs aggressive action to deny us some breathing space.”

via Global Research

http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/jul/27/business-live-chine...

And here’s the official statement from James Galbraith, the US economist who worked with Varoufakis on his continency plan:

I spent five months from early February through early July in close association with the Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, and was part of the Working Group that did contingency planning for potential attempts to asphyxiate the Greek government, including aggressive moves to force the country out of the euro.

Since a great deal of public confusion has now arisen over this effort, the following should be stated:

1.  
   1. At no time was the Working Group engaged in advocating exit or any policy choice. The job was strictly to study the operational issues that would arise if Greece were forced to issue scrip or if it were forced out of the euro.
   2. The group operated under the axiom that the government was fully committed to negotiating within the euro, and took extreme precautions not to jeopardize that commitment by allowing any hint of our work to reach the outside world. There were no leaks whatever, until the existence of the group was disclosed by the former Finance Minister himself, in response to criticism that his ministry had made no contingency plans when it was known that forces within the Eurozone were planning the forced exit of Greece.
   3. The existence of preliminary plans could not play any role in the Greek negotiating position, since their circulation (before there was a need to implement them) would have destabilized government policy.
   4. Apart from one late, inconclusive telephone conversation between MP Costas Lapavitsas and myself, we had no coordination with the Left Platform and our Working Group’s ideas had little in common with theirs.
   5. Our work ended for practical purposes in early May, with a long memorandum outlining major issues and scenaria that we studied.
   6. My work in this area was unpaid and unofficial, based on my friendship with Yanis Varoufakis and on my respect for the cause of the Greek people.

..food for thought

The Syriza Dilemma

quote:

The central problem is that even the most detailed plans now being advanced are presented as a set of alternative policies, but in fact amount to demands for an immediate political revolution. They fail to confront whether this is possible given the balance of forces inside Greece, as reflected in mostly unreconstructed institutions of the state itself, as well as by the continuing public preference for staying with the euro. Concrete political analysis, rather than a technical response to a political problem, is what is needed in the present moment.

The best that can be hoped for right now is the development of sharper clarity, even among those in Syriza who understand the need for a rupture, and the recognition that this rupture must go beyond simply a rupture with the euro — it must be a rupture with the European Union as a neoliberal free trade and free capital zone.

The Left Platform’s Plan B shrinks from tying these two imperatives together. Moreover, the fact that it is presented as a set of policies that could be readily imposed from the pinnacle of the state reflects what most politicized social movement activists and creative cadre inside the party dislike about the top-down strategic approach of the Left Platform.

As we have argued, a real Plan B would need to be designed with all this in mind, and it would need to include a political plan for improving both the capacities of the party and the government to better contemplate, and successfully lead, such a rupture through both the state and the society....

Greenpeace Greece Launches Crowdfunded Solar Campaign

Greenpeace activists from Greece, Italy and Spain spread a 600 square meter arrow banner today, reading “Oil is fueling Greek debt,” pointing at a Greek oil-fired power plant under construction on the island of Rhodes, to reveal one of the most unacknowledged causes of the Greek crisis; the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels.

This protest launches Greenpeace Greece’s new crowdfunding campaign to draw international support toward debt-ridden Greece’s most significant investment opportunity; its sun. All proceedings from the campaign will be used to install solar panels throughout communities that face serious energy problems....

Syriza and its leadership are being rightfully questioned over their actions. Whether or not they were of the Manchurian type (as Inglesia of Podemos is said to be) or later co-opted is a matter for the Greeks to sort out. What is apparent is that Greece is up against the Washington Consensus. Ms. Victoria Nuland paid visit to explain this to Tsipras, Varoufakis having already determined this and abandoned ship. The threat is an existential one to Europe financially and structurally by Greecian example and therefore against Washington's interests as master of European ceremonies. Nuland must have spelled this out. Yes there must be massive reorganization if the E.U. experiment is to continue or the forces of instability will eventually pull the Union apart. This may be inevitable anyway depending on how the geo strtegic struggles between western and eastern oligarchs plays out. If Greece had left the Union and gone with the Drachma and sought Russian and Eastern help all hell would have broken out. Gladio operations and assassination would no doubt have been unleashed or outright regime change instituted for which Syriza and its leaders werre not equiped or ready to challenge the western powers as Nuland foretold no doubt. The status quo of debt can kicking and further austerity practices was the only way forward and until the Greek people actually revolt their servitude to the Euro/Western elite rulers is to be generational in scope. The example will not be lost on other Euro nations leaders facing similar financial outcomes. It is either knuckle under or revolt with the resulting struggle that will follow when throwing out the old guard of financial and political rule.

iyraste

..fundamentally i don't agree with panitch on some things and i'm not sure about gindin. for him i would want to hear more. where i disagree with panitch the most is that he believes (as you do i think) that people need to eventually hold government power. i disagree and my position is that we need bureaucrats and technicians that implement decisions that are arrived at a grassroots level not politicians speaking for us in parliaments. 

..you had expectations that syriza would take a leadership role i did not. i've mostly argued that syriza was a space for whatever it was that the movements wanted/want to do. at one point it was possible, if syriza had wanted it, to negotiate an exit because at that particular moment germany wanted greece out. instead syriza called a referendum which pissed germany and others off and that moment went away. it's true i didn't count on syriza conceding to the point the have now it's done and what now. trying to replace syriza i would say is an incredibly risky venture. and there is no certainty that it can even be done.

..what the p & g piece does, imho, is opens a possibility where at some levels syriza via the membership in conjunction with the movements create a path to break totally with europe, assist where it's needed most and create the structures for an alternative economy. (plus do a 10000 other things) what p & g correctly point out is that syriza is not a monolith. and there is a possibility (this discussion is already going on according to panitch) for the syriza membership to work with some government members to produce connections and some funding. the very least, i'm hoping, this can produce from syriza is keeping the police under control. and that is a lot for those on the ground. edit

Europe faces second revolt as Portugal's ascendant Socialists spurn austerity

Europe faces the risk of a second revolt by Left-wing forces in the South after Portugal’s Socialist Party vowed to defy austerity demands from the country’s creditors and block any further sackings of public officials.

"We will carry out a reverse policy,” said Antonio Costa, the Socialist leader.

Mr Costa said a clear majority of his party wants to halt the “obsession with austerity”. Speaking to journalists in Lisbon as his country prepares for elections - expected in October - he insisted that Portugal must start rebuilding key parts of the public sector following the drastic cuts under the previous EU-IMF Troika regime....

people need to eventually hold government power......

this is really at the focus of my search for solutions to build transformative politics and so eliminate the bureaucratic centralist oligarchic/government system, which I can assure you is not an academic exercise....

transforming the system means economics and technology...which means we need working capital!

I am open to any strategy that may work...but lean to the idea of building rural community base and gaining control of local governance.....

this is how we can build cooperative grass roots ventures, to replace fossil fuels, develop permacultural systems, systems of natural healing and preventative health, alternative transit etc.

Yes this is an essential discussion! Which I assume may now also be taking place in Greece. If alliance between dissident SYRIZA members and civil society development community is on the table...we need to hear about it!

Hubris and humility in academic activism

quote:

It’s very easy to clap at a Grexit plan when you do not personally have to live with the direct consequences of such a plan.

Let us not forget that Greece has a long experience of neo-colonial involvement by scholars of whatever political persuasion who seem to have been inspired by Greece. Germans; Anglos; Americans; French. Just read a little bit about the history of katharevoussa and the Greek language and the making of the Greek nation state – I recommend Gourgouris’ excellent book, Dream Nation.

Hanging out in Parko Navarinou and going to Steki Metanaston can be fun and make you feel like you are “really there.” But I’d also suggest checking out social centers like Lampidona in Vyronas, or other neighborhood squats, social centers, and kafeneia where older people, kids, and non-academics also pass their time, and who do not always talk about “politics” but may nonetheless be doing very important political work. (Also … I can’t help but feel nostalgia for the time when Steki Metanaston was more clearly a safe gathering place for newly arrived migrants; it seems instead to be becoming a playground for an international “intelligentsia” who now find Greece interesting.)

Talking to activists and academics in Greece does not mean that you are talking to “the people.”
If you don’t speak Greek well you miss a whole lot. We all know that knowing a language matters, but it is easy to forget this when so many Greeks speak such excellent English (and French and Italian and German). But the very people with whom we would like to be in solidarity – the marginalized, the poor, the less educated – most likely do not speak English. So in short, you may talk to academics and some activists, but you will likely miss the most important venues for conversation. As is the case everywhere….

 Yes people do need to eventually hold government power. And, given how fast and furiously various societies internationally are being 'taken down', asset-stripped, conquered and destroyed, a 'hold' on this growing predator power should be prepared with some urgency. The bottom up, grass-roots approach, with a focus on building self-sufficiency and independent political agency by people-power, seems eminently sensible and straightforward to me. As the Greeks know and we have forgotten the predators are dangerous and eat nice people for breakfast. As BRF rightly observes it is above all necessary to want, understand, plan and implement a revolt against servitude.

More on that here from the much maligned KKE, whose analyses and predictions have come close to what has come down, whether or not they're everyone's cup of tea.

On the Situation in Greece and the Anti-People Role of Syriza

http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/ON-THE-SITUATION-IN-GREECE-AND-THE-ANTI-...

"The experience of the 5 months of SYRIZA's governance demonstrates that it did not want to nor was it able to prepare the people for a confrontation against the memoranda and the monopolies, both Greek and European, precisely because it had no orientation for resistance and conflict.

On the contrary, it deceived the people that it could pave the way for pro-people changes inside the predatory alliance of the EU. The developments are a very clear expression of the failure of the so-called 'renewed' or 'governmental left', or the theory that the EU can change its monopolist and anti-people character.

The line of struggle of the KKE and its robust and consistent stance, which rejected participation in such 'leftwing governments' that are really governments of bourgeois management, have been borne out.

On the basis of this specific experience and overcoming the bourgeois mass media offensive, the workers in Europe and all over the world must try to find the truth and utilize the developments in Greece so they can draw useful conclusions.

They should examine and study the KKE's line of struggle, penetrating the wall of misinformation of the bourgeois and opportunist forces that concern themselves with the management of capitalist barbarity and work systematically to manipulate the workers..."

Kos, Bodrum, Desperate Refugees and a Dying Child  -  by Andre Vltchek

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/31/kos-bodrum-desperate-refugees-and...

"Paragliders are flying over the stunning emerald sea. Summer hordes are descending on a Greek island of Kos from all corners of an increasingly aggressive European Union. On the faces of visitors, there seems to be no regret, no shame that Europe just raped and humiliated Greece, forcing its government to cancel democracy, instead succumbing to the dictates of the mighty Germany and other dictatorial powers.

A few minutes away, in a local hospital, which is part of Greece's collapsing national healthcare system, an Iraqi child is suffering, perhaps dying from cancer. He is only 3 years old.

Greece, itself battered, damaged, humiliated and destroyed by the European Union, does not seem to be able to translate its own experience to some global context.

Remember, this 'Iraqi' boy in the hospital, he is your child too, Greece. But if you don't act, he will turn into your spectre."

The refugees camp  in  Pedion Areos Park, Athens

A solidarity initiative for refugees held its second open meeting in one week as volunteers came together to form work groups that gathered emergency relief packs and distributed food, water and humanitarian aid to refugees who have taken shelter at Pedion Areos park in downtown Athens.
 
On Wednesday the Region of Attica has called for a further meeting with the participation of relevant ministries, Athens Municipalities and the NGOs working with migrants in order to decide on the location of a new Reception Centre within Attica to accommodate for the refugees....

Yanis Varoufakis reviews events:

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/08/02/in-conversation-with-el-pais-claudi...

epaulo13 wrote:

The future will be determined by the management of defeat

quote:

Though democracies face no impasses, societies do

My starting point is an unpopular one: my belief that the referendum of 5 July has already registered as one of the most devastating mistakes in the history of the Left. It promised and bore a "No" which was quickly converted into a "Yes" the following day. It shut down banks, the consequences of which have already been felt and will likely continue to be experienced for a long time, and it drove creditors to an even more punitive and vengeful stance towards Greece, all of which resulted in the following week’s onerous agreement. The fact that the Left in Greece and abroad saw in the referendum an awakening of democratic national dignity does nothing to neutralize the consequences mentioned above. Colin Crouch, one of the most prominent political theorist of our time, actually spelled it out: "you have become our heroes! Now you should not turn into martyrs." (Efimerida ton Syntakton, 7 July 2015).

Thus, the referendum bore much damage. Its positive consequences – the resignation of New Democracy’s Leader, Antonis Samaras, the emerging climate of democratic solidarity in support of Greece, and the global stigmatization of German brutality –, are not enough to counter the damage. The referendum forced the desperate national vehicle into a head-on collision with the wall of intransigence erected by Greece’s creditors. While recognizing that this collision was almost unavoidable from the offset given the creditors' real objective was to politically liquidate the Left-wing government, I would suggest that anyone invested in the public good, would have done well to try to minimise the drastic impact of such a crash. There remains a notable difference between a high-speed crash and a cruising-speed collision....

Totally agree. It was a tactical and strategic disaster for the left. But it was a success for Tsipras. It forestalled a Grexit by making conditions so bad, that even a No vote did not prevent him from totally caving.

The Political Bankruptcy of Syriza's Left Platform

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/08/01/pers-a01.html

"On Thursday, the Central Committee of Greece's ruling Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) party gave the green light for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to negotiate more austerity with the European Union.

It postponed discussion of an 86 Billion euro bailout of Greece until a Syriza party congress in September, after negotiations on the bailout are to have been concluded."

¨The Political Bankruptcy of Syriza's Left Platform¨........

thanks for this....for anyone trying to learn from other struggles what can and must not be done in Canada...surely this is a challenge to the so called left caucus idea to join social democratic parties and work from within...

when push come to shove, they will have to toe the line to protect the interests of the Party!

Democracy Rising

The Global Center For Advanced Studies in collaboration with the School of Economics and Political Science of Athens organized the international conference "Democracy Rising", that took place from the 16th to 19th of July at the premises of the Law School of Athens. A cool-headed evaluation would presuppose a greater temporal distance. Yet, this way, we would miss to conceive the dynamics of the conjuncture in which the Congress took place and we believe that the later should be evaluated within it. This is what we aim to do in this article, hoping that will be a thought-provoking feedback for similar future initiatives that we consider necessary....

Image: ‘Hope Dies Last’ (by the great WD). Athens 2015