Why Greece? The EU's Whipping Boy

a) 3-4 million Brits and Germans go to Greece on holiday annually, as Paul Mason (Newsnight) originally reported, Greek capitalism was a 'nice' capitalism.
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b) when you go on holiday, you dont always assume this is a country as you are in a state of suspended animation.

c) the new york banksters needed to divert attention via their corporate media away from themselves so blame the working man who dont collect receipts or declare everything to the taxman.

d) you can control the stories from Greece as it is a difficult language to understand so you provide your own newstories.

e) they want to seel austerity as an EU wide policy
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f) juxtaposing the 'efficient' Germans to the 'lazy' Greeks fits in well with a and b above.

h) I would call it a giant marketing scam by corporations....

i) the new york stock exchange just before the crucial american elections is buoyant and the dollar arrested its fall in relation to the euro..

j) it was the 'lazy' 'corrupt' Greek that brough the house crashing down, not the former tea boy in charge of Lehmans bros...

Greece-Of Mice and Men

Greece paid E480 billion from 1981 to 2010 when it joined the EU in interest payments alone!



EU GDP 12,30trillion 2011
Greek GDP was E300b

It is often quoted that the Greek economy represents 2.4% of EU GDP or 2% whatever.

When it is a lot less.

From Eurostat:
For 2011, GDP in 1-1-1999 €:
EZ: 9425315.2
EU: 12649450.7
Greece: 215088.2
Percentage-wise this means the Greek economy was 1.7% of EU GDP, but 2.28% of EZ GDP.

The amount of Greek debt in relation to the EU total and I have only provided a small amount of countries is also miniscule.

Now correct me if I am wrong if one is a father and he has a child who borrowed money from other primary school kids how could the country with one of the lowest debts in the 'old' EU bankrupt the dad?

The less than 1% bankrupted the 99%!!
Or is this just reverse psychology predating the movement against the 1%?

US Foreign Debts = E10.9trillion
Old EU- E15.7trillion (Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland

Ireland owes E1.7trillion, more than Spain yet Ireland hasn't been at the centre of the financial storm

So the nonsense parroted by 'journalists' corporate lackeys and their blog followers is clear beyond all reasonable doubt, Greece was selected for a purpose. None of the figures add up as to how the schoolboy in the primary school bankrupted the dad with such unbelievably low debts

It is indeed a story of Mice and Men...

Greece and the EU-Who props who up?

Junquer head of Euro Group Greeces problems started 30 years ago...

Greek Trade Deficits

1980 till 2008 Greece’s trade deficit with the rest of the world went up 9 times
In current prices from £5.2b in 1980 it reached E44b in 2008 and E34b in 2009
In 1980 Greece had a surplus in its farming budget at 3.3b Drachmas but from 1981 the year it first joined the EU it went to a deficit to E290m. The deficit has now gone to E3b Euros an increase of 934%

Foreign Loans by Years
Foreign loans taken out in 1990 were equivalent to E694m
In 2000 equivalent to E7.16b
In 2009 equivalent to E85b
So by 2009 the Greeks were 1,009% more in debt than in 2000 (decade of the Euro!!)
Public Debts
In 1980 it was E600m
Three decades later it was E298b
The debt went up 497times in joining the EU

EU ‘AID’ to GREECE
Four major packages
-1986-1993 for E471m
-1994-1999 E12.3b
2000-2006 E26.1b
2007-2013 E27b
If one aggregates them all they equal to about E65b
In a period of 33years from the joining the EU Greeks ‘received’ ‘aid packages’ equivalent to 196Euros a year or 0.54c a day!

Greeces Trade Deficits with the EU
Imports equivalent to E379b for the three decades of entrance
Exports equivalent to E125b
Conclusion we gave them E254b for imports received E65b in ‘aid’.
In other words for every Euro we received we gave back 5
Christine Lagarde = Greece’s Deficits are Germany’s Surpluses Oct 2010

Taken from the Greek book Ειναι ο Καπιταλισμος Ηλιθιε "Its Capitalism Stupid" Nick Bogiopoulos

Kouvelis-Democratic Left (ex-Syriza) sends in Riot Police to Break Steelworkers Strike

In what are disgusting scenes the forces of the fake left in Greece have entered a new stage in their dispicable alliance with the IMF inside and outside Parliament in destroying workers conditions.

The 9th month strike of the Steelworkers of Manesis factory on the outskirts of Athens has been broken by the intervenion of a Public Prosecutor who deemed the strike illegal and ordered the police to break up the picket line and open it up. The Democratic Left has key appointments in the Ministry of Labour and they oversaw this process. Until only recently they were one of the factions that made up Syriza. Now they are implementing the pro-Maastricht policies they all jointly voted for in 1992.

KKE Sellouts

Having kept the strike isolated and going on for 9 months whose purpose is to sap and destroy the energy of the workers there so they split and demand their 'return to work' which a few did, thus provoking the latest attempt at breaking the strike, the KKE is now calling for the rest of the labour movement to defend the sacked steelworkers. For over two years alongside the Greek TUC-GSEE they have supported the maximum of 48hour strikes and always marching on their own and inventing a new area to disperse, around Akropolis. Here though we have the KKE acting allegedly in ultra-militant fashion supporting an 'indefinite strike'. But is it thus?

As Manesis has more than one factory and as the main cause of the strike was the attempt to impose a 4hour day and maximum E450 a month salaray, the factory in Athens which employed predominantly Greeks walked out. They attempted a few times to shut down the factory in Volos (which employs 'class brothers' as the KKE now openly refers to illegal immigrant scabs) in such a manner where the controlled the events and ensured there was no conflict, ie allowing the police to run the show and they being a second line of police against the strikers. This local policy is reflected on a national level when they sent all their organised forces early one morning to defend Parliament as the second wave of IMF cuts were going through back in October 2011.

Having failed to shut down the Volos factory they continued with the Athens strike up until workers there would be fed up. By allowing the factory in Volos to continue Manesis increased his production and covered a section of the losses of production in Athens. This was well known. The emphasis therefore should have been to shut that factory down at all costs. The only strike that is illegal is one that loses. Having divided the workforce they had a golden opportuinity this week to occupy the factory, thus forcing the riot police to storm them out. When another factory in Thessalonika was occuppied the KKE refuse to follow this direct action path. Instead they were 'caught off guard' and riot police broke the small picket line at 5a am on 20th July.

One must take into account the KKE's fake left workers slogan 'Worker nothing turns without your Hands' didn't obviously apply to this concrete situation. Why didn't they occupy the factory? They would have been confronted with running it, being taken to court by they owner, so they preferred now to be on the outside looking in.

On 20th July then called for an early lunchtime demo and another the following day in the afternnoon. The demos were tiimed thus that they were over before they started, and the main thouroughfare wasn't closed. They dont want workers discussing any different strategy than theirs nor do they want to win this strike. Aound 5,000 people turned up to the demos.

They have now called for the rest of the labour movement to participate and Syriza has said they will support the demo in central Athens on the issue for the following Monday. The government is producing propaganda showing that Syriza-KKE-Golden Dawn all support the strikes as they have spoken at their meetings or handed food parcels to them, under the explanation that the government wants people to get back to work whilst they want people unemployed...

An Undeclared Popular Front.

With the Democratic Left in the Greek Labour Ministry the IMF led government continues apace in its rapacious attacks against Greek workes in an unscripted alliance with those who aren't in government Syriza-KKE. This strike is a precursor of things to come when the wholescale privatisation of the public sector starts which Kouvelis stated would happen post-haste by Xmas.

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Patriotic Left Greece 2

Marxist analysis of the crisis afflicting Greece
Authored by VN Gelis

Continuing the series with articles from the fall of 2011 till the elections of 2012



Publication Date:Jul 06 2012ISBN/EAN13:1477605606 / 9781477605608Page Count:38Binding Type:US Trade PaperTrim Size:8.5" x 11"Language:EnglishColor:Black and WhiteRelated Categories:Political Science / Government / National

D-Day (DRACHMA) ComingThe Right fought on the platform Euro or Drachma‏

-Samaras-PM and Rapanos (non-registered Economics MInister) are allegedly ill.

-Much talk is made regarding the fact that Greece joined the Euro mistakenly by other countries (and it took em a decade to find out!)

-The PM will be housebound and wont be allowed to leave his home for at least another week!

-ND has placed many of the old guard of its personnel in govt.

-Almost all the rich those with over E100k in bank accounts shipped it abroad so they voted for the Drachma in practice.

-PASOK is in open warfare within its ranks with Loverdos-Hrisohoidis in one wing and Venizelos in another, aiming to change name and also has no big names in the present govt, which was the main point of conflict between the wings.

-The Troika cant see anyone so they aint coming and due to the pre-electoral and electoral period of the last three months there has been no movement in Greece.

-Schoeble (German Economics Minister) stated that the US should like after its own house first and dont focus too much on the Eurozone and Tony Blair shouldn't ask for Germany to bailout S Europe with Eurobonds when the UK hasn't joined the Euro. If they joined we could do that. The Greeks haven't completed any of the promises they have made with the bailouts.

It appears ND will be burnt like PASOK over the next two months in order to then before or after a return to the Drachma, they hand the sunken ship over to Syriza

The crisis of the Eurozone isn't a crisis of monetary union per se, but a fundamental crisis of capitalism.

How the KKE and the Disunity of the Left aided a return of ND-PASOK

One of the main arguments used by the KKE against joining an electoral slate of the Left was that Syriza was social-democratic and pro-EU. That in and of itself was an issue but not strong enough to be used against joining an electoral slate by maintaining a separate organisational form.

The KKE sold the line that Syriza was creating a new PASOK, in other words that we have another 4 decades of tweedle dum tweedle dee politics. ND would alternate with Syriza and the KKE would be squeezed into third place. They emphasised the various PASOK figures who joined Syriza (ex-MP’s, union bureaucrats etc.) and the cover support given by the Greek CBI. All well and good so far. One in theory can’t argue with that, the facts speak for themselves.

But then again, the KKE had NO PROBLEM governing with ND alone in 1990. Then they were allegedly cleaning up the Augean stables of capitalism and the corruption of PASOK. Then we had Mitsotakis in charge of ND. Clearly a man whose history and close connections with the Bush family a figure who must be ‘better’ (or worse?) than Tsipras and with whom the KKE had no problem in governing.

If they Left had united it wouldn’t have increased its vote by 20% to 2.3 million but nearer 60% as it was going for government and could have set a minimum target of getting rid of the Troika. They would have had the support of both IG and even GD. Those that didn’t vote for the anti-Bailout proposals in Parliament would be exposed for all to see. People would have trusted them for this proposal alone.

That is why no one won outright. People don’t believe in politicians to do what they say. A big hue and cry was made over the slap to the KKE’s MP Kanelli. MP’s think themselves above normal people. Daily people are being slapped by tax demands, by bosses who don’t pay wages, by a collapsing social system. Thousands have committed suicide. This is what people are concerned about, not tv shows and fake debates.

The KKE holds the primary responsibility for this disastrous outcome as they have both the organised forces on the ground and the largest active following. Now as the results show they have been trounced. If they break apart and splinter that will be good for the whole Left. Its time they joined the dustbin of history so we can move forward.

Let no one be fooled. Whatever the make up of the new government, whether a faction of the Left joins or not, as long as they continue the same disastrous economic policies, the situation will get worse not better. If millions of Greeks demonstrated peacefully last year ending the duopoly of PASOK-ND as electoral forces which dominated with 80-85% of the electorate for 4 decades, this ain’t coming back. Next time round, the reaction won’t be peaceful. An argentinian style exit is getting closer not further away.