An anarchist talks on the Greek Crisis "The people had enough"

[Joanne98]

The following is an interview on the Greek crisis with Constantinos Avramidis – a Greek resident in Ireland, member of the Workers Solidarity Movement and of the Post Workers Union.

1. Can you give us some background of the economic crisis in Greece?

First of all, you have to start with the last government though they’re not responsible of the whole thing. There was a lot of money getting lost, scandals, black holes… not that they were the first government to resort to this corruption, remember that a Socialist government put us in the Eurozone by manipulating the economy and the real state of it. As usual, no one has been properly convicted or prosecuted, but last year there were lots of arrests. The main issue were the forest fires, because they had been using that scorched land for development and it was a big scandal since it was not happening for natural causes. And then you had young Alex who was killed by the police and the collapse of the world banks and their impact on the Greek economy, all adding to social discontent. But no one was really talking of the domestic economy: the people in government were fixing the figures, they were hiding information, and things were actually far worse than they told the public.

Conservatives and Socialists alike knew the situation was quite bad, but then the country was into elections in October. The Socialists knew the country was in a very bad condition and that they could not afford to pay pensions and wages, so we were basically bankrupt. The IMF and the World Bank were willing to give money, for a price, you know. The newly elected Socialists got elected promising economic reform away from Neoliberalism, they promised public and social spending, etc. The people fell into the trap. They gave a 100 day programme for all this to happen. They promised to attack corruption, but nothing of this they promised ever happened, because there was no money! And they did not admit it even though they it knew before hand, but it was all about electoral promises. So they turned to the EU to ask for a loan. The EU headed by France and Germany were not willing to just give them a loan, so they said they would get the money from the IMF. Now, Greece was the first country to get money from the IMF being within the EU, so that has consequences for all of the Union.

2. How bad were the conditions imposed for the loan?

The IMF after giving the first amount of money, what they were asking was for a number of reforms such as reducing public service spending, and to reduce the pensions. So they slashed bonuses and salaries, so 30% of the average income is gone for workers. Pensions were also reduced up to 30%; so people who had been given credit for houses, cars, and other things, are starting to lose them.

The second condition is that they have to reduce significantly salaries on the private sector workers, who were already screwed as they were. So the result is that for the first time in 36 years we have a general strike, where 300,000 were marching in Athens alone. This month we will have another general strike, actually tomorrow, so in two months we will have two general strikes, something that has never happened before in recent times. Now you see housewives coming onto the streets with pits and pans, common people that can’t make a living, is not just the left coming out to the streets.

http://www.anarkismo.net/article/16658

Interesting that the IMF is demanding reduction of wages for the PRIVATE SECTOR WORKERS!

[Hannah Bell]

1. bears repeating: reduction of wages for the PRIVATE SECTOR WORKERS!

[DBoon]

2. that can't happen here, right (nt)

[Hannah Bell]

3. no, nothing can happen here...all is sunshine & lollipops.

[proudohioan]

9. And I will gladly repeat that: reduction of wages for PRIVATE SECTOR WORKERS!

I'm reading "Low-Wage Capitalism" by Fred Goldstein right now, and it's making my blood boil!
:grr:

[customerserviceguy]

4. Or, Greece can simply withdraw from the euro zone

and watch the drachma inflation that results. The piper's going to have to be paid someday.

[girl gone mad]

5. They should follow the course set by Argentina.

No country has ever thrived under the auspices of the IMF.

There will be pain, but long term they'd end up better off.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/05/should-greece-follow-argentinas-playbook.html

[customerserviceguy]

6. Interesting article, thanks for posting it

But I see critical differences between Greece and Argentina. Argentina is pretty much a wholly self-sufficient country, spanning a broad swath of latitudes, and thus able to maintain year-round food production on its own. When you produce food, you've always got something to bargain with when it comes to trade with countries that have what you need. Add to that the fact that they have their own oil reserves, and are even able to export it, and you have the basis of a nation that can go it alone, on its own, without IMF interference.

I'm not sure Greece is in the same position. Maybe somebody here can shed some light on it, I feel that the Greek financial crisis is going to drag down the whole world, to some extent.

[bread_and_roses]

10. The question is who pays the piper? Workers or the economic elite and banksters?

I don't know which direction you're coming from and this is not an attack on you in any event. But I will say again what I've said elsewhere here: it is a mark of how thoroughly serf-ified the US worker has become that so many on a "progressive" site seem to have a problem with workers paying for the excess, fraud, corruption, greed and profiteering of the upper 2% globally who now have some utterly astonishing % of the world's entire wealth. They maintain a class of bourgeoisie enablers in relative comfort (those predictable pundits among them) and try their damnedest to crush workers around the globe to further gorge their own bloated class.

The Greeks seem to have some glimmer of this dynamic, unlike most here who spout free-marketeer propaganda because they've never heard anything else their entire lives - or that's my kind take on them.

[Blue_Tires]

7. kick for later...

[Hawkowl]

8. The IMF is a criminal enterprise

It is simply a loan sharking arm of the banksters operating under the auspices of participating governments. After taking the IMF money, Greece should simply tell the banksters (which caused Greece's problems in the first place) to go fuck themselves.

I believe Greece probably has more leverage then it realizes. Being part of the Eurozone, it can threaten to spread the protests to other countries. It can point out that it is simply the tip of the iceberg. First Iceland, then Greece, now Spain and Portugal are being threatened by the banksters. Who's next? Italy? France? When THAT happens, then we will really see some pitch forks come out for the banksters.