By Jane West
As the Euro-crisis unfolds and Greece heads to new elections, the left party, Syriza is capturing the support of most of those in Greece who want to reject the austerity programme imposed by the EU.
It is striking that the impact of the world developments, and particularly the growth of the left in Latin America, has clearly interacted with this political leadership of resistance to austerity in Greece. It was recently reported in the Guardian, of Syriza's leader, Alexis Tsipras: 'one of his heroes is Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, with whom he shares the same birthday.'
By Nicky Dempsey
The outcome of the Greek elections represents a decisive popular break with the politics of austerity. Persistent mass mobilisations over several years since the crisis began have resulted in a crushing defeat for the traditionally dominant parties in Greek politics. Parties who in different ways claimed to be opposed to the terms of the Greek bailout won a majority. After a prolonged period in Europe in which ruling parties carrying out cuts have been dumped at the first electoral opportunity, this is the first time since the crisis began that any country has registered a majority vote for parties against austerity.
The Coalition of Resistance and the People’s Charter are appealing for support for a campaign against the extreme 'austerity' measures being imposed on the Greek population.
The statement, set out below, should be given widespread backing and can be signed here.
By Tom O’Donnell
The foolish vanity that the current crisis in the European economy and financial markets was confined to the so-called ‘peripheral’ economies of the Euro Zone has been exposed as complacent self-delusion. Among the recent development the large Belgian-French-Luxembourg bank Dexia is threatened with bankruptcy despite already having been bailed out by the governments. Crucially, yields on French and Belgian government debt have climbed to reflect the increased risk of taxpayer funds being used for further bank bailouts. Their yield premia over Germany is now equivalent to the premium paid by Irish and Greek governments as the crisis began to unfold. The crisis has migrated from the ‘periphery’ to the ‘core’.
By Brian Jones
The working class of Greece obviously still faces a huge uphill fight against the savage austerity measures being imposed on them to pay for the crisis created by the Greek capitalist class. The new ‘bailout’ package for Greece agreed by the Eurozone countries only represents the mildest of ameliorations of the terms of the previous such package – 21 per cent effective reduction in the size of debt on Greece’s bonds, reduction of interest rate for bailout funds from 5.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, and extension of the period of repayment. But nevertheless it contains a crucial lesson – struggle pays.
By Tom O’Donnell
The outcome of the latest EU summit is an unqualified success for the German bourgeoisie against both its external competition in the United States and its internal rivals, especially President Sarkozy. However, it is unlikely that this will bring an end to the European crisis and further decisive measures will be required.
By Nicky Dempsey
Open disagreements have broken out between the EU Commission and the European Central Bank on the issue of whether Greek government debt should be ‘restructured’ or ‘reprofiled’ in some way. Debt restructuring would require that the bondholders, mainly European (including British) banks, take some losses on their bonds by having their value written down. ‘Reprofiling’ is a much more modest proposal which may involve little more than extending the life of the bonds, so that interest and capital repayments are drawn out over time.
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.
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