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*Greece* The Greek crisis, and the crisis of Syriza, IMHO shows just how impossible capitalism in one country is. Greece in not just in debt beyond the point where it can every repay even if half the country starves to death, but it has a long term negative trade balance. Greece, like the United States and Great Britain, is subsidized by the rest of the world. It consumes more than it produces. Unlike the USA and UK, Greece is not a central imperialist power. The Euro trap means that staying in the Euro zone and European Union requires the Greek government, and now this means the Syriza government, to starve the Greek working class and petty bourgeoisie to pay the debt. A Grexit on the other hand will almost certainly have a devastating impact on the domestic banking system in Greece and on Greece’s already disastrous balance of trade. In other words, unless the Germans play nice, Syriza has no short term options that will alleviate the desperate situation of the Greek people. And the German capitalists are not in the mood for playing nice because Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and even France are waiting to see what happens. What to do? Greeks are not going to have much choice but to fight each other for survival. The Greek standard of living will fall further, maybe much further. The Greek bourgeoisie will transfer whatever assets they can, and that are still in the country, someplace else. If you just look at Greece alone, either the left, inside of Syriza and/or outside of Syriza, will take power, nationalize the land, banks and whatever large scale production there is in Greece, and impose a dictatorship to guarantee basic minimum needs of the people. Or, the right – almost certainly led by New Dawn, will bathe Greece in the blood of its people, and sell the blood to the German vampires. Of course, this leaves out a lot: most importantly it leaves out the rest of Europe and it leaves out what happens between now and descent into civil war in Greece. Syriza is clearly trying to buy time. That’s why it blinked in the negotiations with the European Finance Ministers. The question is, time to do what? The first thing that is obvious is that all of Europe is on the precipice. Greece is going to default. If not last week, this summer, if not this summer, than in January. Not even Saudi Arabia’s wonderful present of lower oil prices is enough to save Greece, or the rest of Europe. When Greece defaults the train will start to roll: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary….France. The meltdown that did not happen in 2008 will happen. The Greek dilemma will become the European dilemma. Will the rise of the new European left be fast enough, powerful enough, and revolutionary enough? Only time will tell. But this is where the efforts of Marxists should be. If I were in Greece, I would be in Syriza on its left. If I were in Spain, I would be in Podemos. Best, Anthony _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
