top
Immigrant Rights
Immigrant Rights
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

We are all Greeks

by John Holloway
Greece shows us how to protest against a failed system
The rage displayed in Greek cities against austerity measures inspires all who are suffering for the benefit of banks and the rich
"We are all Greeks. We are all subjects whose subjectivity is simply being flattened by the steamroller of a history determined by the movement of the money markets. Or so it seems and so they would have it. Millions of Italians protested over and over again against Silvio Berlusconi but it was the money markets that brought him down. The same in Greece: demonstration after demonstration against George Papandreou, but in the end it was the money markets that dismissed him. In both cases, loyal and proven servants of money were appointed to take the place of the fallen politicians, without even a pretence of popular consultation. This is not even history made by the rich and powerful, though certainly they profit from it: it is history made by a dynamic that nobody controls, a dynamic that is destroying the world, if we let it.

The flames in Athens are flames of rage, and we rejoice in them. And yet, rage is dangerous. If it is personalised or turned against particular groups of people (the Germans, in this case), it can so easily become purely destructive. It is no coincidence that the first minister to resign in protest against the latest round of austerity measures in Greece was a leader of the extreme right party, Laos. Rage can so easily become a nationalist, even fascist rage; a rage that does nothing to make the world better. It is important, then, to be clear that our rage is not a rage against the Germans, not even a rage against Angela Merkel or David Cameron or Nicolas Sarkozy. These politicians are just arrogant and pitiful symbols of the real object of our rage – the rule of money, the subjection of all life to the logic of profit."

to read John Holloway's article published in: The Guardian, Feb 17, 2012, click on

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/greece-protest-failed-system/print

by marc
The financial collapse of the Greek government and imminent financial failures of other European governments is the inevitable outcome of the EU having adopted "neo-liberal" economic theory. Neo-liberal economics is just a prettied up term for the financial rape of an economy. Hopefully the people themselves will take charge of their fate rather than falling into the trap of empowering some far left or far right-wing radical government that could destabilize the region like what happened after WW1 when the defeated peoples were pushed up against a wall and turned to madness to escape.

The more austerity that gets imposed on the Greeks the more their tax receipts fall exacerbating the problem. The other day I heard that their tax collections were down by 18%. It seems as though there is a schizophrenic tragedy playing itself out with other governments interested in stabilizing Greece while the financial elites are more interested in taking the country apart than in solving its debt crisis. The banks now have such a stranglehold over its economy that the Greek govt. is being forced into a "fire" sale, liquidating huge swaths of public assets in order to satisfy its creditors. It seems nonsensical to me to expect that selling off public assets at rock bottom prices for short term gains and lowering the wages of tax paying consumers will result in a positive economic outcome but that's the absurd logic being peddled just so that some select few can benefit from the disaster the Greeks have been driven into.

to hear Naomi Klein from Greek Left Review, click on

greekleftreview.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/naomi-kleins-interview-about-papademos-government/
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$95.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network