Greece - Socialist Action

Greek crisis deepens as banks get another bailout

5th July 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Nicky Dempsey

European Finance Ministers have just agreed to release their share of the latest bail-out funds of Greece’s creditors. This amounts to €8.7bn of a total emergency disbursement of €12bn, part of the overall €110bn agreed last year.

Greece: bail out the economy not the banks

23rd June 2011 Socialist Action 0

By Andrew Williams

A wave of industrial action and street protests has spread across Greece over the last month as opposition mounts to the government’s proposed next round of cuts and attacks on living standards.

Guns, not butter for Greece

31st March 2010 Socialist Action 0

By Nicky Dempsey

The leading countries of the European Union, led by France and Germany have insisted that the Greek government must respond to the financial crisis by a series of ferocious attacks on working class living standards. Job losses have mounted rapidly as pay has been cut, welfare and pension entitlements slashed and the retirement age suddenly increased. Yet one area of spending is exempt from this otherwise absolute requirement to reduce government spending, the military budget.

In what the Reuters news agency describes as “a bizarre twist to the Greek debt crisis, France and Germany are pressing Greece to buy their gunboats and warplanes, even as they urge it to cut public spending and curb the deficit.” France is looking to sell frigates, helicopters and fighter aircraft for €3.5bn while Germany is looking for back payments of €520mn plus €300mn for a submarine which failed sea-worthiness tests. It is reported that the deficit negotiations were used to strong-arm the Greek government into making the purchases.