Funny Money.

     I like one of the recent acts of the Syriza government, it would great if our millionaire cabal that infests the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, would follow suit. Of course, there's not a hope in hell of that happening, our bunch of lords and masters just love funny money.

From International Journal of Socialist Renewal:

     I must tell you that today we announced the conclusion of a judicial investigation made at the request of the anti-corruption minister. It led to the freezing of 404 million euros found in bank accounts of large investors and depositors who have failed to prove the lawful origin of the money.

Read the full article HERE:

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Syriza And Democracy.

      Syriza or no Syriza, the Greek state apparatus is still a fascist institution. It has draconian laws in place which Syriza has not even hinted at repealing. They have laws governing "criminal organisations" and "terrorist organisations" which sees legitimate protesters detained in high security prisons. Then their is the so called "hoodie law",  acts committed with concealed physical characteristics, plus forced DNA samples. Admitted Syriza has a bitter loosing fight on its hands with the European financial Mafia, but it could still be addressing these matters on simple democracy at home.

      The conditions in Greek prisons are probably the worst in Europe, this from Wikipedia: Amnesty International and other human rights bodies such as the Committee for the Prevention of Torture have repeatedly expressed concern about the prison for its overcrowding and inhumane treatment of detainees. ^[4][5] In 2007, a special committee composed of physicians of the Division of Health Inspections of the Prefecture of Piraeus and Piraeus Medical Association has reported that the hospital and the mental clinic of the prison operate without even the minimum conditions of hygiene, with aging infrastructure and big shortages in medical and nursing staff.^[6] 

      Because of these totally inhumane and undemocratic conditions, there is another prisoners hunger strike taking place in Greece. Will Syriza handle this hunger strike  any different from the way the last incumbent "managers" of the Greek state apparatus handled the last one?

Greece's only prison hospital.

View video of interior of Greece's only prison hospitals.

This from Contra Info:

On March 2nd 2015, combative prisoners launched a hunger strike in various Greek prisons. Their main demands are: the abolition of Article 187 (criminal organisation) and Article 187A (terrorist organisation) of the Greek Penal Code; of the “hoodie law” (acts committed with concealed physical characteristics); of the legal framework for Type C prisons; of the prosecutorial provision of forcible taking of DNA samples – and the immediate release from prison of Savvas Xiros (convicted for his participation in the R.O. 17 November) on health grounds.
So far, those who have joined the political prisoners’ mobilisation and collective hunger strike are three urban guerrillas incarcerated in the E1 wing of Domokos type C prison: Dimitris Koufontinas, Kostas Gournas, and Revolutionary Struggle member Nikos Maziotis – and five participants in the Network of Imprisoned Fighters (DAK): Antonis Stamboulos (Larissa prison), Tasos Theofilou (Domokos prison), Fivos Harisis, Argyris Ntalios and Giorgos Karagiannidis (Koridallos prison). The rest of the comrades who participate in the

Read the full article HERE:

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Greek Referendum.

        Is Greece heading out of the Euro? I have always felt that the Syriza plan was doomed to fail, as it was asking the European financial Mafia to be compassionate and think of the people of Greece. That bunch of money junkies will not tolerate any form of “left” government in its patch. The so called “left of centre” yes, they will always play ball with the money thugs, but a government that puts the people before the markets? No way. The Syriza group may have a mandate from the people of Greece, but that means nothing to the low life forms that make up the Troika, (EU, European Union, ECB, European Central bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers), Theirs is a world of balance sheets and profit, and there is not a column on that balance sheet for “people”. Syriza was the Oliver, asking the fatcats for, more please, not a strong bargaining position.

      Up until very recently the thought of Greece leaving the Euro had not entered the consciousness of the people of Greece, however, having been booted in the teeth, and told there's plenty more where that came from, the “exit” is being discussed, with the thought in mind, who wants more of this?

      The people of Greece are being told to look to the horizon, and see more of the same, unemployment, poverty, destroyed social services, increase in mental and physical health problems, substance abuse, suicides and homelessness. And they are asking WHY?

      I believe that the next line of thought will be a referendum on the exit from the Euro, with a very strong possibility that it will be for a, get us to hell out of this shithole. They may fear the unknown, but they are now most certainly angry and sick of the known. 

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Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

      I have always held the view that the EU would not tolerate any deviation from its financial masters' "austerity" plan. Since they don't really give a shit about the people of any particular country, they are quite prepared to see a people slide into total deprivation, as long as it protects their mountain of phoney money. People don't matter when you are dealing with balance sheets. For Greece to go to them to negotiate and talk about a humanitarian crisis, is simply to confuse the issue by talking a different language. All they would say to that is "what humanitarian crisis"?

       It has never been a negotiation on equal terms, Greece is the Oliver in this macabre play, they are simply going to the fat cats and asking for more please, under the illusion that people matter in these affairs. If you play the game according to the rules laid down by your adversaries, you are onto a looser.

      Where does this leave Greece? It leaves it still on a hiding to more austerity and deprivation. Time keeps rolling on, we have been treated to seven years of austerity, and more promised, nobody has said when it will all come good. Austerity is the new way of life, the longer it goes on, and they get away with it, the longer it will go on. Of course we are treated to phoney rhetoric of recovery is arriving at platform one SOON.

        Accept it, the grand plan is for a low wage economy throughout Europe, creating a sweatshop to compete with the Eastern sweatshops. In doing so protecting the loot of the Western financial Mafia. Unless of course, we all wake up and say we don't need to take this shit from a bunch of useless parasites, we don't have to play the game to their rules. Just as they change the rules to suit themselves, then so should we. Their grand plans are not to our advantage, nor are they set in tablets of stone.

An analysis on the latest Greek situation from Lenin's Tomb.

       The problem with Tsipras's speech goes further than this, however.  Not only is it deluded.  It recalibrates the government's language and goals in order to rationalise not just this thrashing but future routs.  Having said that austerity and the Memorandum are now left behind by this deal, the government shifts the goalposts and terms of future negotiations.

       And this is part of the reason why those who speak of 'buying time' are wrong.  Time is not a simple quantity that only one side gains from. The EU ruling classes have also 'bought time' and they have the resources and are on the offensive, while Syriza has retreated.  There are no grounds for thinking that Syriza's bargaining position will be better in four months time than it is now.  It has already weakened its stance, while its political position, after four months of continued austerity, will probably be worse.

      One can hardly pin most of the blame for this on Syriza.  They are in a weak position, and it is doubtful that any government could have obtained better against an EU determined to humiliate Greece.  Yet, the line of Tsipras and Varoufakis is simply untenable.  Their commitment to trying to resolve this crisis within the terms of the euro must fail.  They were simply wrong to think that they would have a single ally or interlocutor in the EU.  The southern European governments are even more fanatical than Berlin on this question.  Hollande, far from being a friendly face, told Syriza to shove it fairly early on: he made his decision on austerity some time ago.

Read the full article HERE:

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Who Rules, People Or Markets?

         What happens in Greece will impact on us, here in the UK, and the rest of Europe, if not the world. Today, the economic system is a world wide ponzi scheme, if one part crumbles, the rest shudders.

      Our struggle is from job centres, to housing schemes, from local issues, to international issues. The Troika, (EU, European Union, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) control Europe and the financial Mafia is tightening its grip on our world, we have to fight it on that international battlefield.

From Labour Start:

      Leading figures in the German trade union movement have issued an appeal for solidarity with Greece following the resounding election victory of the leftist Syriza party.
      It's an extraordinary statement and trade unionists around the world are being asked to add their names to those of the German trade union leaders.  Thousands have already done so.
       Please read the appeal and add your name here:

http://www.labourstart.org/go/greece

     Please share this message with your friends, family and fellow union members.

Thank you!
Eric Lee

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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:

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Democracy Doesn't Come In a Ballot Box.

     The people of Greece go to the polls on the 25th. January to elect a new governing party, and it looks likely, but not a certainty, that Syriza, a collection of left leaning groups, will win. There seems to be some considerable support from anarchists outside Greece, who are cheering on Syriza, should they be doing so? Is Syriza different, or is it just another contender in the monumental “Crooks and Liars” competition? The same competition that takes place at frequent intervals across the globe, our own home grown one takes place this coming May. If they don't get a majority, who will they go into coalition with? The Greek Communist Party has ruled itself out of any co-operation with Syriza, who else will step forward?

----Given the fact that the only other left-wing parliamentary party, the Greek Communist Party (KKE), has explicitly stated they would never support a “government of the left,” all the other potential allies for a coalition government are flanking SYRIZA from the right. There is no need to mention how a moderate governmental fraction could weaken Tsipras’ position inside the country, as well as during the crucial negotiations with the troika of creditors (EU, IMF and ECB), due to start the day after the elections.----

      Nor does Syriza represent a revolutionary stance, it will be trying to do a deal with the Troika, (EU, European Union, ECB, European Central Bank, IMF, International Mankind Fuckers) to get a more palatable arrangement for the people of Greece, a more moderate and compassionate capitalism, some crusts instead of crumbs. And so the system is perpetuated with a few moderate adjustments here and there.

----- A point that needs to be clarified is that, despite its name, SYRIZA’s program is not radical at all, at least in terms of economic issues. Proposals such as the incentives for “green development,” the relaxation of property taxation, increased public investment and food stamps for the extreme poor might have been dismissed by the European social democratic parties of the 1970s as “too moderate.” In the current European context, though, which is monopolized by the obsession of austerity, even SYRIZA’s neo-Keynesianism seems to represent some sort of radical rupture.------

 

The Obama of Greece??

 

      What the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media keep pumping out is that this is a major revolutionary event in representative democracy, when in fact it is all about a bit of disruption in the financial Mafia's policy of grinding the people down to a sweatshop economy, an irritant, a nuisance factor, that might upset some profit margins in their bubble of finance. Don't expect the collapse of capitalism in Greece any time soon, when that happens, it will not be through the ballot box in the great “Crooks and Liars” competition.

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

 

LIVING OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM.

      The only news we get about Greece from that babbling brook of bullshit, our mainstream media, is about the bailout, will they get it, won't they get it, have they done enough to get it. Have they sorted out their lazy workers and cut their wages and pensions enough to merit the European financial Mafia giving the Greek banks more cash, with which to pay back the European financial Mafia?? Very little or nothing appears about how this game of shuffling imaginary money around affects the ordinary people of Greece. Poverty, deprivation, massive unemployment, especially among the young, increase alcoholism, drug addiction, suicides, mental health problems, homelessness and broken families.      

     However, as always the ingenuity and imagination of the ordinary people in the face of adversity, comes up with solutions. Let's hope that they will continue this imaginative alternative and organise it to its rightful conclusion and bring about the collapse of the stinking system responsible for all their ills.

This from Red Pepper:

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    Greeks queue to buy cheap sacks of potatoes sold directly by farmers at cost price in the northern town of Thessaloniki. Farmers in northern Greece have joined forces with local residents to provide cheap produce for the people. Photo: Alexandros Michailidis

    The first problem is that in Greece now we have 25 per cent unemployment, with youth unemployment reaching 58 per cent and unemployment in areas that used to be highly industrialised sometimes reaching 70-80 per cent. Many industries either close because we have very low consumption or, as in the case of the big multinationals like Coca-Cola, they are leaving.
     Around 170,000 small companies have closed in the past three years. It is almost impossible to set up a new company today in Greece because you can’t get the finance. The banks are taking 80 per cent of the money that Greece is getting from the EU and IMF. But they are not lending a euro to the people.
     Unemployment benefit only lasts for one year, and then you get nothing to survive on – only help from friends and family, from social networks and working for very little in the black economy. The problem up to now hasn’t been as severe as it could have been because of very strong family and friendship networks – if someone had difficulty in paying bills, for example, others would support them. But it isn’t possible to sustain this kind of support indefinitely.

Read the full article HERE:

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CAPITALISM WILL NOT DIE PEACEFULLY.

       I keep saying we should be looking at Greece to see what is coming our way and to prepare the appropriate action to turn the situation to our advantage. Europe's problem is not the Greek "crisis", Europe's problem is the inevitability of capitalist "crisis". As far as the living standards of the ordinary people are concerned, capitalism is the "crisis". Until we resolve that problem, our lives will always be a struggle for survival while the parasites live in the lap of luxury. There is an alternative, there is a need, to start to create that society based on the needs of all our people. Any attempt at moderating capitalism is simply more of the same, just different degrees.

Taken from International Journal of Socialist Renewal:

        Speech given by Eric Toussaint at the SYRIZA youth festival in Athens on October 6, 2012 More than 3000 people were present to listen to four speakers: Marisa Matias, EU deputy, member of the Left Bloc (Portugal); Lisaro Fernandez, miners’ union leader (Asturias, Spain); Alexis Tsipras, president of SYRIZA (Greece); Eric Toussaint, president of Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt (CADTM, Belgium). 

 
       My dear friends, history is not written in advance. Several scenarios remain open to us. We can continue within the current chaotic situation, with more and more authoritarianism on the part of governments who are at the service of the banks. This can continue for years. Another scenario is possible, and is even worse – an authoritarian, neo-fascist scenario. That is a grave danger and a very present threat.
         But there are two other scenarios: under popular pressure, there can be a regulated capitalism, a capitalism of the type that was practiced in the 1950s and 1960s, a capitalism of the Keynesian type. That is a possible solution. But the fact that there are so many of us gathered here this evening shows that we feel that there is no point in limiting our struggle to an attempt to discipline capitalism. We want to go beyond capitalism. We want a democratic, self-managed socialism of the 21st century.
      Long live international socialism. Long live self-managed socialism. Long live SYRIZA. Long live the Greek people. Long live popular resistance. Long live the revolution, comrades!

Read the full speech HERE:

ann arky's home.

THE GRAND PLAN.

       The grand plan is moving along nicely, the corporate dream is on the horizon. Thanks to the Troika, Europe is moving rapidly to a cheap labour economy. Slashing of social spending, wage cuts/freeze, and high unemployment, all the necessary ingredients for the corporate vision of a European sweatshop economy. The only thing that can now stop their greed driven vision is the people, do we accept a life of deprivation for ourselves, our children and grandchildren, or do we take control and shape society to the needs of all our people?

This from The International Journal of Socialist Renewal:

By Murray Smith
October 16, 2012 -- Frontline, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with the author's permission -- It sometimes seems as if Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has been going on forever. But in fact it really only manifested itself in 2010, a result of the bailing out of private banks with public money and other public spending due to the crisis. And in May of that year Greece became the first country to ask for help and to receive so-called “aid” – really, it cannot be repeated too often, loans that must be paid back – from the now infamous "Troika", the IMF-ECB-European Commission.
This aid was conditional on Greece adopting policies of austerity and structural reforms, all regularly supervised by those who have become known as the “men in black”, the inspectors of the Troika. In an article in the UK Guardian on October 8, 2012, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the radical left coalition Syriza, makes two key points. First of all, the money lent to Greece goes into an escrow account used for repaying past loans and interest on them and for recapitalising private banks. It cannot be used otherwise, for example for useful social spending. Second,  he writes: “We believe that their aim is not to solve the debt crisis but to create a new regulatory framework throughout Europe that is based on cheap labour, deregulation of the labour market, low public spending and tax exemptions for capital."

Read the full article HERE:

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YOUR ENEMY WON'T SPEARD YOUR MESSAGE.

     The pattern is the same the world over, they talk of the "free press" but what the mean is that it's free of any really critical political action or ideas. Free press really means state mouthpiece, or corporate propaganda machine. The media is 100% behind the status quo, it is no more than a babbling brook of bullshit. So no wonder the left grouping SYRIZA, in Greece is finding it hard to get a voice, if they have to rely on that cesspool of corruption to promote their ideas and aims, they are doomed. They have to stay on the streets, reach out through networking sites, indymedia, direct action, meetings, mass leafleting and assemblies. Hard work, but there is no other way.

Graphic, by John Hartfield.

This from Teacher Dude's Grill and BBQ:

      For fans of signs and omens the sudden end of summer and onset of rainy weather that accompanied the arrival in Greece's second largest city of the leader of the Radical left Coalition, Alexis Tsipras probably made perfect sense. The sudden chill in Thessaloniki seems to be a fitting metaphor for his relationship with the press as SYRIZA has an uphill battle on their hands trying to get the party's message out in the face of intense mainstream media hostility. With most of the traditional media joined at the hip to more mainstream parties such as New Democracy and PASOK  Tsipras has no natural allies in the media, whose members often play a dual role of journalist and party supporter, an incestuous set - up that has hobbled objective reporting for decades.

Read the full article HERE:

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A WORKERS GOVERNMENT!!!

Is SYRIZA a workers government in waiting???

 This from THE COMMUNE:

          The elections in Greece have solved nothing. They have only provided a brief respite from intractable economic problems. The free food queues grow longer, as living standards collapse, the generalised political and economic crisis goes on. Larry Elliot, the economics editor of the Guardian, puts forward the view of many economic observers in Greece that the new Government is unlikely to remain in power.(1) A Guardian editorial agrees that a defeat for SYRIZA might yet prove to be a victory.(2) A view echoed in the Financial Times editorial.(3) The new government coalition will be weak. Democratic Left and PASOK will support Antonia Samaras and the New Democracy government, but not participate fully in the administration. In his victory speech, Samaras pledged to honour financial commitments to the Troika of capitalist economic powers. The New Government will have to implement a further 12 billion cuts by July 2012 . This will prove deeply unpopular with the Greek working class. So SYRIZA is a government in waiting, but can it become a Workers’ Government?

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