Syriza, Then What?

 Queue at unemployment centre Athens.

     Today, January 25th, is election day in Greece, and there is an array of theories of what will happen. Leading the polls is Syriza, a gathering of left leaning groups, who have stated that if elected they will scrap the austerity ideology of the financial Mafia. In reply, other states in the EU are saying, Greece must "pay its way". as puppets of the financial Mafia, that's what you would expect them to say. What, "pay its way"  translates as, is more misery and deprivation to be heaped on the people of Greece. A people who in the last few years have seen their social structures decimated. In a country of just over 11 million people, austerity measures in Greece have resulted in approximately a million people with no access to healthcare, leading to soaring infant mortality, HIV infection, mental and physical health problems, and suicide. Between 2009 and 2011, the hospital budget has been slashed by 25%. In a 2000 report by the World Health Organization, the Greek healthcare system was ranked 14th worldwide in the overall assessment, above other countries such as Germany (25) and the United Kingdom (18), Ours in the UK, could go the same way if the financial Mafia say so.
       The education system in Greece, is in tatters, pensions have been cut, taxes increased, and new taxes implemented. Unemployment at present is running at 25.8, with youth unemployment at 50.6, health insurance is linked to working, disappearing after one year unemployed. There is an epidemic of homelessness, and it is not unusual to see, not individuals, but families sleeping rough. This is what the financial Mafia and their minders, EU governments, want to continue, as Greece is forced to pay to help prevent the moguls of the financial Mafia from loosing any money.

Scenes from Athens.

      I have never taken part in any government elections in my entire life, I usually refer to them as the "Crooks and Liars Competition", which leaves us under the control of the best crooks and liars of that particular season.

        However, the situation in Greece is so dire, that anything that can help alleviate the suffering and misery of so many innocent, ordinary people, must be worth a try. I have no doubt what so ever, that the financial Mafia, will have plans to kick the shit out of any left leaning group that gets power in Europe. So if Syriza wins, we can expect all sorts of dirty tricks to try to discredit them. Make no mistake, the lives of the people of Greece are of no concern to the ruthless financial Mafia. To them, more suicides, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, and deprivation, is a price worth paying, to protect their wealth and power.

        An interesting article from Lenin's Tomb:

      We can have all sorts of hypotheses about how things will work out with Syriza in office, trying to implement an anti-austerity agenda.  There are semi-plausible arguments that Berlin will ultimately be inclined to throw Syriza a bone, the better to avoid generating a new, unnecessary crisis.  I think this overestimates how rational the EU elites are, and underestimates their vindictiveness.  I think if the situations favours it, they will want to continue to make an example of Greece one way or another, and demonstrate that this left populism stuff isn't going to fly.  I think they will be brutal in the negotiations, and that whatever concessions they offer will be deliberately insulting.  My guess is that only if Syriza has the strongest mandate possible, an outright parliamentary majority, coupled with a renewed mobilisation of social and workers' movements to try to fulfil the party's promises, will the EU be inclined to cut them a half-away decent deal.  Yet even the more pessimistic scenario wouldn't preclude real gains that shift the balance of power in favour of workers, democratise the state, humanise the immigration system, and so on.

However the point, now as before, is to test these hypotheses by getting Syriza elected.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

SHY POLITICIANS!!!

         I suppose the one good thing that has come out of the IMF (International Mankind Fuckers) impoverishment of the Greek people is the fact that the mainstream Greek politicians can't show their faces in public. At the approach of an election this makes it difficult for them. 

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ.

As an MP I served the people well and still they don't like me!

Or Far From the Madding Crowd as perhaps the elections should be named, considering the fact that few, if any of the members of the coalition government are able to campaign in public. Instead of the mass rallies that usually mark elections in Greece, both PASOK and New Democracy politicians have been careful to hold meetings behind closed doors with just the party faithful present.

With just two weeks to go the national election campaign has been so low key as to be considered to be virtually non-existent,. No election centres have been set up and campaign billboards and handouts are nowhere to be seen. This is partly a financial matter as the two main parties owe 240 million euros and only last week did they manage to pass legislation to reschedule their debts (a privilege they ruled out for lesser mortals, or voters as they are know locally).Instead of a country plastered in posters and drowning in flyers PASOK and New Democracy have reserved their efforts for TV talk shows and the internet. Both choices are problematic; TV has been shedding viewers for years, especially among the young and more educated and social media is not a comfortable environment for politicians unused to debating with voters except on their own terms. Indeed their ham fisted attempts to replicate traditional electoral methods online have been met with derision and biting humour by Greek language bloggers and Twitter users.

Continue READING:

 ann arky's home.