Greece: From Despair to Resistance
Panagiotis Sotiris
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/598.php#continue
On Sunday 12 February 2012 the people of Greece,
in demonstrations and street fights all over the country expressed in a
massive, collective and heroic way their anger against the terms of the
new loan agreement dictated by the EU-ECB-IMF ‘troika’ (Eurpoean Union,
European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund). Workers, youth, students
filled the streets with rage, defying the
extreme aggression by police forces, setting another example of struggle and
solidarity.
Greece is becoming the test site for an extreme case of neoliberal
social engineering. The terms of the new bailout package from the
European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund,
the so-called ‘troika’, equal a carpet bombing of whatever is
left of collective social rights and represent an extreme attempt to
bring wage levels and workplace situation back to the 1960s.
Terms of the Bailout
Under the terms of the new agreement the following drastic changes are going to
be put to vote:
* The minimum wage, which up to now was determined under the terms of
the National Collective Contract signed by the Trade Union
Confederation and the Employers Associations, is going to be reduced by
22%. For new workers under 25 the reduction is going to reach 32%. This
is going to immediately affect around 25% of total workforce in Greece.
Moreover, wage maturities (the increases in wages according to the years of
workplace experience) are going to be frozen.
* This reduction is also going to affect all other private sector
employees covered by collective contracts and agreements. With most
contracts having reached or reaching their end, with a new system of
collective bargaining and mediation in place that openly favors
employers, the terms of the new agreement demand that also individual
terms of employment are going to change leading in most sectors to wage
reductions of up to 50% (until now even when a collective agreement
expired individual contracts signed under its terms could not be
altered). These wage reductions are going to be devastating, taking into
consideration that drastic reductions in public sector pay have already been
imposed and that labour cost in Greece is already down by 25%,
helped by unemployment having reached unseen before levels (the official
unemployment in November exceeded 20%).
* All pensions are going to be reduced by more than 15%, a reduction
that is following other reductions that had been earlier imposed.
Moreover, the terms of the agreement demand a new overhaul of the
pension system paving the way for more reductions and raising of age
limits. Pension reductions are not only going to affect the living
conditions of older people but will also limit inter-generational
solidarity, a crucial aspect of social cohesion in Greece.
* All forms of social spending are going to be drastically cut
including funds for hospitals and health coverage and social benefits.
Since hospitals are already in critical condition because of earlier
cuts, this new wave of cuts is expected to lead to a dramatic
deterioration of health services in a country that is already facing
deteriorating health indicators.
* A new wave of privatizations is demanded, including the sale of
crucial infrastructure such as airports and seaports and full
privatization of public utilities.
* A new wave of lay-offs of public sector employees is going to be
implemented, helped by a wave of closures of public institutions,
including primary and secondary education schools, university
departments and agencies such as the one responsible for public housing.
Moreover, terms of employment in Public Utilities (partly owned by the
State) and Banks are going to change, with all provisions for secure
employment eliminated, leading to another wave of mass lay-offs.
The social cost of this transformation is going to be immense. For
the first time since WWII large parts of Greek society are facing the
danger of extreme pauperization. And the first signs are already here:
increased homelessness, soup kitchens and a new wave of people
emigrating from Greece in search for employment. And things are only
going to get worse as traditional forms of solidarity, mainly through
family relations, can no longer cope with the situation.
It is obvious that most of these measures have little or nothing to
do with dealing with increased debt. Indeed, private sector wage
reductions are reducing pension contributions, leading to more deficits. What
is at stake is an attempt from the part of the EU-IMF-ECB troika
and the leading fractions of the Greek bourgeoisie to violently impose a social
‘regime change’ in Greece.
Race to the Bottom
According to the dominant narrative the problem with Greece is a
chronic lack of export competitiveness which demands a new approach
based on cheap labour and doing away with any environmental
restrictions, urban planning regulations and archeological protections
that could discourage potential investors. It aims at turning Greece
into a big Special Economic Zone for investors. What is not mentioned in this
narrative is that not only the social cost is going to be
tremendous but also that low labour cost competitiveness necessarily
would lead to a hopeless ‘race to the bottom,’ since there are always
going to be countries, even in the close vicinity such as Bulgaria, with lower
wages. Moreover, it is a well known fact that competitiveness
does not rely only on labour cost but also on productivity and this has
to do with infrastructure, knowledge, collective experience and ability,
exactly what is being dramatically eroded by the current economic and
social situation in Greece.
What is missing from this narrative is the crisis of the Eurozone and of the
whole European Integration project. It is becoming obvious that the problem is
the euro, as a
common currency in a region marked by great divergences in productivity
and competitiveness. The euro in a previous period functioned as a
constant pressure for capitalist restructuring through competitive
pressure, but at the same time it created increased imbalances, mainly
to the benefit of European core countries such as Germany. In a period
of capitalist crisis the euro only makes things worse, increasing
imbalances and deteriorating the sovereign debt crisis. That is why the
crisis of the Eurozone is a crucial aspect of the current global
capitalist crisis and one of the main failures of neoliberalism.
Europe: Reactionary and Authoritarian Mutation
At the same time, the European Union is going through a reactionary
and authoritarian mutation. This is the logic of the European Economic
Governance, as inscribed in the proposed new fiscal Eurotreaty.
According to this member-states are going to include austerity measures
such as balanced budgets in their national constitutions and European
Union mechanisms will have the power to intervene and impose huge fines
and funding cuts whenever they think that a member-state is not prudent
enough with its finances. And to this end the ‘expertise’ of the IMF in
imposing austerity and privatization is also used. The prevailing logic
is one of limited sovereignty and to this direction Greece is a testing
ground. Already under the terms of the bailout packages by the
EU-ECB-IMF troika, there are supervision mechanisms in place in all
Greek government ministries which dictate policies in an almost
neocolonial way. This is going to be the norm if the logic of European
Economic Governance is imposed. That is why although the current Greek
government is acting in an almost servile way toward the EU, it is only
receiving humiliating blows.
The European Union is rapidly becoming the most reactionary and
undemocratic institution on the European continent since Nazism. Talking about
a ‘democratic deficit’ is not enough. What we are dealing with is an aggressive
attempt toward a post-democratic condition, with limited
sovereignty and accountability and little or no room for political
debate and confrontation regarding economic policy choices, since these
are to be dictated by markets through the mechanisms of EU supervision.
Seeing ex-ECB central bankers becoming prime-ministers, such as Mario Monti and
Lucas Papademos, is more than symbolic.
But putting the blame only on the current aggressively neoliberal and almost
neocolonial configuration of the EU is not enough. The most
aggressive sectors of the Greek capital (banks, construction, tourism,
shipping industry, energy), are openly supporting this strategy.
Although sectors of capital have suffered from the prolonged recession,
and despite the fact that the crisis has curtailed plans for a leading
role in the Balkans, the dominant fractions are investing upon
austerity, workplace despotism and doing away with all forms of workers' rights
as a means to regain profitability. However, the problem with
this strategy is that an increase in exports cannot possibly compensate
for the shrinking of domestic demand, which can affect even dominant
sectors of capital.
The Papademos government has been trying to pass the terms of this
devastating austerity package by ideologically blackmailing Greek
society through the threat of default and exit from the Eurozone. But
the question is not if Greece is going to default but how. The measures
imposed are simply leading to some form of creditor led default – they
have already taken the steps of debt restructuring and ‘haircut’ of
previous debt – with society taking the full cost.
Radical Alternatives
That is why Greece defaulting on its own sovereign terms, that is
choosing the immediate stoppage of debt payments and of annulment of
debt, is the only viable way to avoid social default. At the same time
it is also necessary to immediately exit the Eurozone. Stoppage of debt
payments and reclaiming monetary sovereignty will help public spending
on immediate social needs and will help stop the erosion of the
productive base by imports. It is not a nationalist choice, as some
tendencies of the Greek and European Left have argued, but the only way
to fight the systemic violence of the current policies of the EU.
Moreover, it is truly internationalist in the sense of the first step
toward dismantling the aggressive neoliberal monetary and political
configuration of the EU, something which is obviously in the interest of the
subaltern classes all over Europe.
Stoppage of payments to the debt and exiting the Euro are not simple
technical solutions. They must be part of a broader set of necessary
radical measures that must include nationalization of banks and critical
infrastructure, capital controls and income redistribution. But even
these measures are not enough, what is needed is a radical alternative
economic paradigm in a non-capitalist direction, that must be based on
public ownership, new forms of democratic planning and workers' control,
alternative non-commercial distribution networks, and a collective
effort toward regaining control of social productive capabilities.
Rethinking the possibility of such radical alternatives is not a
simple intellectual exercise. It is also an urgent political exigency.
Against the current ideological blackmail and the attempt by the
government, the ruling classes and the EU to present extreme austerity
as the only solution, what is needed is not just to say no to austerity
but to bring back confidence to the possibility of alternatives.
Hegemony in the last instance is about who has the ability to articulate a
coherent discourse about how a country and a society is going to
produce, cater for social needs, be organized and governed. The crisis
of neoliberal hegemony is indeed opening up a political and ideological
space for the emergence of such a counter-hegemonic alternative, but it
is not going to last for ever. Moreover, in the absence of a positive
vision the ruling classes are aiming at individualized desperation and
sense of defeat as a means to maintain dominance. Rebuilding people's
confidence in the possibility of alternatives requires the collective
work for a radical program based upon the experiences emerging in the
terrain of struggles. This is one of the most urgent challenges the
Greek Left is facing.
Rebuilding people's confidence in the possibility of alternatives
requires the collective work for a radical program based upon the
experiences emerging in the terrain of struggles. This is one of the
most urgent challenges the Greek Left is facing.
Despite the fact that a coalition government of ‘national unity’
under Papademos was practically imposed in November the political crisis is far
from over. PASOK, the Socialist Party is facing its biggest crisis, the
conservative New Democracy is facing increased pressure from its base not to
accept the measures,
while the far-right have exited the coalition government. 22 members of
parliament from PASOK and 21 from New Democracy voted against the loan
agreement and were subsequently expelled from their respective parties,
marking a new phase in an open political crisis.
The extreme pressures from the troika, with functionaries of the IMF
such as Pool Thomsen acting as colonial Governors only makes things
worse. Even though the agreement was passed through parliament, since
the PASOK and New Democracy had a combined majority that could
compensate for dissenting parliamentarians, the political system is
being stressed to its limits. Attempts to create new political parties
are under way, including an attempt toward a “Papademos” party that
could gather all those supporting ‘regime change,’ but they are far from
gaining any momentum.
In such a conjuncture the Left is getting increased support, but at
the same time is showing the limits of its strategy and program. SYRIZA
(Coalition of the Radical Left) is still insisting in the fantasy of a
democratic EU and refuses to bring forward demands such as the exit from the
euro. KKE, the Communist Party, despite its radical anti-capitalist and anti-EU
positions, has sectarian tactics and underestimates the necessity for an
immediate transitory program. ANTARSYA the anti-capitalist Left, has played an
important role in the struggles and in articulating political goals such as the
annulment of debt and
the exit from the euro, but does not have the necessary access to large
layers of the subaltern classes. What is needed is radical recomposition of the
Greek Left, both in the sense of the collective elaboration of a radical
alternative that can create the possibility of counter-hegemony and of a
radical Left Front that could represent the emerging new
subaltern unity evident in mass demonstrations and strikes, in forms of
self-organization, in networks of solidarity, in collective experiences
of struggle.
Currently Greece is entering a new phase of the protracted people's
war against the policies of the EU-ECB-IMF troika. The 48hr general
strike on 10 and 11 February and the mass demonstrations and street clashes on
12 February have become the new turning points in the struggle. The
‘people's war’ is far from over. Facing the danger of an extreme
historical backwardness, we refuse to despair. We insist on the ‘windows of
opportunity’ for social change the current situation opens. We shall fight to
the end. •
Panagiotis Sotiris is an academic and activist who lives on the island of
Crete, Greece.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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