Scotland after socialism?

Beneath the EU’s affront to democracy in Greece there is still the debate about whether Syriza reflects a shift to the left or whether it is just a singular reaction to a single issue which unites elements of left, right, middle and non-aligned. There is a mirror of this in Scotland as the debate around austerity always seems to end up as a debate about the constitution or national identity, as opposed to politics.
    The contradictions couldn't be more obvious. The words say: 'fight austerity, stop privatisation' and the actions bring privatisation upon privatisation and decimation of local government. Many are willing to excuse that as the result of failing to 'grasp independence' or because 'Labour did it before'. More worrying are those who actually support the service cuts, privatisations, tax freezes and business tax cuts as legitimate while still trumpeting an anti-austerity front.
   It makes for a difficult job for trade unions challenging these issues. Elements - sadly sometimes on the left - continue to try to characterise trade unions as part of the problem (the 'old order' or 'red tories') rather than the only realistic resistance we have to a mainstream political consensus that backs at least some level of austerity.
    In light of this, our attention was recently brought to a three paragraph blog from writer Ken Mcleod  which deserves wider distribution and will no doubt provoke some controversy but hopefully an interesting debate:

Greece votes for democracy

Yesterday’s referendum in Greece on the terms of the bailout offered by the European Union offered a decisive answer to those seeking to continue with the route to austerity. By a margin of 62% to 38%, the Greek people voted no, on any terms a decisive result.

Most commentators had prophesied that the referendum would reveal a deep split in Greek society between those voting for continued affiliation to the EU and those rejecting the terms imposed by the IMF and the EU. This split did not materialise.

The lesson from Greece - austerity must end

Yesterday, the Observer presaged the outcome of the Greek general election - a victory for the anti-austerity Syriza coalition - with an emphatic statement that 'the lesson of the Greek national polls is that austerity must end' Nobody would have expected David Cameron to heed that advice and his statement last night that 'the Greek election will increase uncertainty across Europe. That's why the UK must stick to our plan, delivering security at home' is consistent with his callous disregard of the impact of austerity on local jobs and services. But will Labour listen?
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/25/observer-view-on-greek-elections

Troika’s junta style policies asset stripping & crippling Greek economy

The IMF-EU troika is accelerating Greece's €20bn privatisation programme by forcing the government to cede state owned assets to a Luxembourg-based holding company that would take care of their sale to private buyers:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/29/us-eurozone-greece-privatisation-idUSBRE97S0EJ20130829
   ETUC economist Ronald Janssen analyses a study which finds the troika's scenario of economic recovery in Greece to be over-optimistic and predicts that unemployment could reach close to 35 per cent in 2016 under the current trajectory:
http://www.social-europe.eu/2013/08/greece-can-it-get-even-worse/

Into the Fire: The Hidden Victims of Austerity in Greece

Into the Fire is a powerful documentary which shows the plight of refugees and migrants in austerity riven Greece - increasingly at risk of racist violence from supporters of the fascist Golden Dawn party.
http://vimeo.com/64230453

Greek public service workers say 'no more sacrifices'

Tens of thousands of Greek public service workers staged a 24 hour general strike against austerity on Tuesday. But the Greek parliament scraped through a vote on Wednesday for on mass sackings of public sector workers as a condition of securing bail out funds from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Austerity imposed unlawfully on Greece

Professor Keith Ewing argues that the ECB/EU/IMF Troika have shown "a contempt for legality and an indifference to legal obligations" in imposing austerity measure as a condition for offering Greece financial support. He cites the destruction of "an entire collective bargaining system in Greece" and the enforcement of public sector pay cuts and wage reductions - as contrary to a treaty signed by the EU in 2008 and Greece's own constitutional rulings on managing labour relations. "The impact in Greece has been devastating, the consequences greater than on any other EU country and the impact on the national labour law system has been so dramatic that it requires some kind of legal response. Who has the right to determine the constitutional structures of a sovereign state? That's what's at issue in Greece"
http://www.ier.org.uk/blog/greek-austerity-illegal-says-uk-professor

Resistance to austerity knows no boundaries

Allison Kilkenny, writing on The Nation blog, provides an excellent round up of anti austerity protests in Greece, Portugal and Spain - all three countries are facing high unemployment, rising poverty.and acute social tensions as severe public expenditure cuts kick in:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/173275/global-austerity-resistance-continues#

Greek society on the point of collapse?

The Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, who highlighted the rise of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. Has said that Greece is teetering on the edge of collapse with its society at risk of disintegrating unless the the State is shored up with urgent financial aid, the country's prime minister has warned:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/05/greek-prime-minister-society-disintegrate.

Greece strikes against EU/ECB/IMF imposed austerity

Public and private sector workers are participating in a 24-hour strike today against harsh new austerity measures that the Greek Government is imposing on its people to secure the next instalment of a €130bn bail out from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19724284

Europe’s Debt Crisis - failing to learn lessons of history

Some old philosopher somewhere once wrote that “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.” Larry Elliott in the Guardian aptly demonstrates the truth of that maxim in his analysis of  the Eurocrats currently dealing with the Eurocrisis that has manifest itself  within the Eurozone, demonstrating the economic history is not  their strong point. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/19/eurozone-latin-america-debt-crisis-1980

Minimum wages in Europe squeezed by austerity

The European Trade Union Institute has published an interesting paper 'Minimum wages in Europe under austerity', which shows that across EU member states minimum wages have either risen only very slightly, been completely frozen or, in the recent case of Greece, cut at the behest of the IMF/EU by 22% (for young people by 32%):  http://www.etui.org/Publications2/Policy-Briefs/European-Economic-Employment-and-Social-Policy/Minimum-wages-in-Europe-under-austerity

Greece and the Eurozone - Lessons from Argentina for all of us...

In 2002, Argentina devalued its currency and defaulted on its debt. An already severe recession worsened to the point where 1 in 2 people were poor! Greece and Spain are the closest to Argentina at present - Ireland capitulated long ago - Italy will be next...

The money illusion is in a Greek crisis

There aren't many words in economics that provoke as much fear and unease as a bank run. That spectre looms in Europe, as we learned yesterday that depositors in Greece withdrew almost $900 million from the country's banks on Monday.

That giant pile of withdrawn cash comes from regular Greek citizens, as well as buys orders from Greek banks for German bunds, according to Greek President Karolos Papoulias. Papoulias also warned of "a great fear that could develop into a panic".

Never mind democracy feel the cuts

Crisis ridden Greece will hold a general election in April following Sunday's passing of an austerity bill by the Greek parliament in order to secure a £110bn bail out from the EU and the IMF. EU Economics commissioner Olli Rehn is now demanding 'written confirmation that the measures will be implemented regardless of the outcome of April's election.' The austerity measures include a 20% cut in the minimum wage, 150,000 public sector job losses and an attack on employment rights. It speaks volumes about the contempt of the EU for democracy and national sovereignity that an unelected commissioner can demand, ahead of a general election, that the Greek people forfeit their right to reject austerity and neo-liberalism:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17012604

IMF sets sights on a reduced minimum wage in Greece

As Greece and the IMF continue negotiations on a debt deal to avert economic collapse, the Washington Post reports that Chief IMF inspector Poul Thomsen is seeking to capitalise on the crisis by pressing for lower employment costs, notably a slashing of the minimum wage – a sure fire way of worsening the recession in a country where 1 in 5 workers are already wageless: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/markets/greece-imf-expect-crucial-deals-on-debt-swap-and-new-bailout-to-be-completed-soon/2012/02/01/gIQANRlahQ_story.html

Greek people rally against neo-liberal consensus

A massive rally is expected today in Athens as thousands of students and workers will join together to oppose austerity measures and commemorate the 1973 student uprising which brought down the US backed military junta. Almost 40 years on, there is a stark crisis of political representation in Greece with the banker led ‘unity’ government winning a vote of confidence in the Greek parliament yesterday by 255 votes to 38 – final proof that the ‘socialists’ of PASOK lie prostrate before the altar of neo-liberalism:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15767924

Debtocracy - a documentary on the Greek crisis

Aris Hatzistefanu and Katerina Kitidi are the directors and researchers of “Debtocracy” a full length documentary on the Greek Crisis (74 mins) and can be viewed with the English subtitles button (top right). It's distributed under Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 license and has had over 1 million views so far. http://www.debtocracy.gr/

What they say and what they mean..

In the phrase "Greek bail out" "Greek" means " Banks in France, Germany and the UK". "Bail out" means "collecting on a bet even though the horse was shot". Austerity means this http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,775301,00.html

The Shock of Debt

Countries all over the world continue to real from the banking crisis of 2008 in Greece the government faced with a total meltdown of its public services and its economy without further loans was forced into agreeing to more austerity measures.