EXTENDED VERSION ---------------------------------------------------------------- PART B ----------------------------------------------------------------
B. Occupation of the country by the “troika”: Commission-ECB-IMF The extreme neoliberal financial policy of Karamanlis government, the unprecedented looting of public wealth, the successive great scandals, etc., etc., that led the country’s economy to bankruptcy, with the doubling of external debt and the deficit’s surge to 14,5% of GDP, rendered Greece a weak link of imperialist EU and the target of severe attacks of international speculative and usurious capital – in combination with the intense antagonism between Dollar and Euro – leading to an inability of borrowing and the surge of spreads to overwhelming heights. Eventually, the newly-elected Papandreou government, also continuing the destructive neoliberal financial policy, is turning to the notorious and newly-created “support mechanism” of EU and IMF, with first and fore mostly the imperialist EU, as well as the government of PASOK, being responsible. During this year, the crisis and the bankruptcy of Greek economy also brought to the surface the profound crisis within the domain of imperialist EU, and furthermore, highlighted acutely the relations of servitude, dependence and exploitation of the smaller weak capitalist countries, such as Greece, by the large imperialist countries, first being France-Germany, which not only imposed to Greece a usurious interest rate of 5%, but pressed-are pressing Greece to buy military equipment manufactured in those countries. All these developments led to an unprecedented, in terms of severity, and long-lasting supervision of Greek economy by the imperialist Organizations and the placement of permanent representatives of theirs at Athens, creating a completely new situation: a new occupation of the country, without troops. It is certainly a fact that Greece’s incorporation to the imperialist EEC-EU and its entrance to the EMU had as a consequence the drastic limitation of its governments’ role (having an essentially decorative role), as well as of all small, weak and dependent EU member-states, in the outlining of financial politics, since this is determined in its basic directions by the powerful EU monopolies, and are only validated ex post facto by their local puppet-parliaments, thus deepening evern further and reinforcing imperialist dependence. The notorious “Stability and Growth Pact” of the Maastricht Treaty essentially meant an almost absolute loss of national sovereignty for the dependent member-states of the imperialist EU, such as Greece, despite the much-publicized illusory “equal” co-operation-alliance of nationally sovereign states within the EU domain. Yet, there is no doubt that the current situation is different, much worse than the previous one, and completely new, since all aspects of Greek economy are decided and determined directly and absolutely by the branches of the imperialist Organizations Commission-ECB-IMF. The recognition and realization of this situation requires the intensification of the class struggle of the working class and all broad popular masses against imperialist dependence in general, and the country’s dependence by the imperialist European Union in particular. But this new occupation – which is obviously accepted and supported by the servile government of PASOK – is disputed by the social democrats of “K”KE by considering it inexistent, beautifying in this way not only imperialist dependence but also its particular further deepening and strengthening. The appointed members of the Commission-ECB-IMF troika – these unscrupulous and stiffening representatives of European and international capital – are working out the implementation of the most extreme neoliberal measures of cutting down wages and pensions, increasing mass unemployment, poverty and immiseration of broad popular masses, measures of annihilating privatizations as well as plundering of the country’s resources and of turning them over to – mainly – foreign capital, as well as its “poor relative,” the local capital, with catastrophic consequences for the workers as well as the country. C. Violentremoval of all the gains of workers The representatives of the “troika’s” imperialist Organizations and the servile government of PASOK mounted an attack unprecedented in vehemence and intensity – the larger since the years of “the political changeover” – against the class interests of the working class and all working people, embracing all levels – an attack in favour of European and international, as well as big local capital. All the gains of the workers were demolished and annihilated violently overnight, the peak being 8 July when even the last remnants of the working class’s rights were abolished. The disgraceful “Memorandum” – a “Loan Agreement between Greek Government-European Union-International Monetary Fund” of colonial nature – besides being a monument of servitude, it moreover marks the “graveyard” of workers’ gains. The PASOK government led by its bosses of the EU-ECB-IMF-local capital, and supported by Nea Dimokratia and LAOS, is imposing the most extreme neo-liberal measures of cutting down wages and pensions, increasing of mass unemployment, sweeping privatization and looting of the country’s resources and selling them out mainly to foreign but also local capital, with devastating consequences for workers and the people. Among others, already “lying” in this “graveyard” are the 13th and 14th pension, as well workers’ 13th and 14th salary, while a pension with a 65-year age-limit and 40-year employment-limit and a way of estimating it that is leading to a 40% decrease was enacted. A structural component of the Memorandum is that it imposes the continuous clamp-down of workers’ rights when the local and foreign capital do not see an increase of their profitability in accordance with their objectives. The “update” of the Memorandum last August led to the effective abolition of sectoral collective bargaining agreements, the workers’ weapon against the arbitrariness of “employers”-capitalists. Thus, with the tolerance of the GSEE’s sold-out leadership, workers are left alone to face their bosses, unable even to negotiate collectively their working conditions. The massive cut-down in wages and pensions, the explosion of massive unemployment along with the cut-down of the meager doles, the high level of inflation above 5.5%, with unprecedented waves of high prices and the continuous increase in indirect taxes on essential goods, the cuts in social expenditure on nursing benefits of public hospitals, the intensification of class barriers in education, the further privatization of public education, the division of working rights deriving from the degree, etc., are dramatically aggravating the situation of the working class and the broad popular masses, deepening the process of their absolute impoverishmennt to the extreme and confirming afresh Marx’s theory of absolute impoverishment, which was repeatedly declared “dead” and “outdated” by the bourgeois and traditional social democrats as well by the social democrats of Khruschevite “K”KE (in 1976, S. Zorbalas, GC of “K”KE’s “Marxist” Research Center claimed that the absolute impoverishment of the proletariat did not exist in advanced capitalist countries and the USA: “without excluding absolute impoverishment, specifically in some branches and certain popular layers, such as USA’s Negroes and minorities, the proletariat’s relative impoverishment is the dominant tendency in these countries.”)2 Along with the imposition of anti-worker, anti-people measures, there is an increasing advancement of the fascisticization of social life and conservative reorganization of the bourgeois state, in order to weaken the resistance of the workers’-people’s movement, given the increasingly strong social conflicts that will inevitably occur due to the increasing repression the masses. The police state and the violent repression of any form of mobilizations have become the norm and are combined with the curtailment of democratic freedoms (new counter-terrorism bill, legalization of surveillance through electronic means). On the other hand, there is a clear aim to break the unity of workers through the promotion of racism, the perfect co-operation of repressive state apparatuses and para-statist fascist groups in the pogroms against immigrants who are an integral part of the working class, the EU’s fascist anti-immigration laws, and the ideological propaganda of bourgeois mass media in the direction of constructing a so-called fascist “socialautomation” against sections of working people mobilizing every time. The Political Committee of the "Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55" PO Box 3689, 102 10 Athens Greece Tel: +30 2108621543 Site:http://anasintaxi.awardspace.com Blog (English):http://anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com Blog (Greek):http://anasintaxi.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list Marxist-Leninist-List@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
