"It would not put the opposition in any ideological difficulty because the
opposition supports and has implemented austerity and is awaiting its chance to return to government. It also has a better relationship with the troika than does Syriza, which is not fully trusted because its popular base is strongly anti-austerity." This is an oversimplification. The Troika essentially forced an election by not dealing with Samaras until he cracked down on oligarchs and improve tax collection which he did not. They have not done what the Eurogroup and the Troika wanted and they originally thought they could get the Syriza to do that work. They miscalculated "When the balance of forces is adverse to the point that further struggle is hopeless - yours, Louis’, Heinrich, and Hans’ position - a principled union leadership would demonstrate this to its membership and reluctantly recommend acceptance of the employer’s final offer. It would not mislead its members into thinking otherwise by campaigning for a no vote, only to turn its back on that result the next day and enter into a brief process culminating in its acceptance of a worse agreement than that which was rejected, consistent with its campaign (!!!). I don’t know whether this would be considered fraud or just plain criminal negligence in a court of law. " well yes the referendum was a sham and we called it a sham at the time but the left was too far up it's own ass to listen http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/06/tsipras-bailout-referendum-sham.html "Let’s keep the theatrics out of it, shall we? There is a large body of informed opinion in Greece and outside of it, and not only on the left, which doesn’t think a exit of Greece from the eurozone would mean “mass death by starvation” or that the US and the European powers would allow this outcome in order to “punish" Greece. This includes those who don’t advocate for Greece to voluntarily leave the euro." That's because these people are morons/wishful thinkers who haven't looked at what an unplanned Grexit would entail or they're assuming humanitarian aid from the Troika the same as Schauble without recognizing that your population being directly supported by humanitarian aid from the Troika is politically destructive in all sorts of ways. There's a reason that disorderly Grexit plus humanitarian aid is Schauble's plan. That the left thinks this is their plan is crazy. In any case, I'm glad you feel so comfortable being cavalier with other people's lives. "ou begin by professing your agreement that the leadership should have resigned rather than accept to further ravage the living standards of its people. You then spend the rest of your post defending its actions on grounds it had no other option other to capitulate because of the balance of forces. " it's not a contradiction. Whomever in power should have taken the deal. The reason they should resign is because they have failed at their stated objectives and need to regroup. There's only contradictions when you actively misinterpret my words. I've never said I was a supporter of Tsipras and the fact that you think I am says a lot more about your reading comprehension than my positions. I think the referendum was a cowardly move attempting to shift the responsibility for implementing the deal that resulted from his negotiating strategy which involved no planning for an exit. As I've said many times in multiple places, you either plan for an exit/ non-negotiated default or you supplicate as much as possible and fight for scraps/ see if you can Troika support to go after oligarchs and lessen pain on ordinary people somewhat. I would have chosen planning for an exit. Tsipras's choice to not plan and be outwardly and increasingly hostile was the worst of both negotiating strategies. Additionally, you repeatedly choose to misrepresent what I've said about alternatives. I've said I wanted (and want) them to plan for a Grexit repeatedly which they haven't done. I've said repeatedly you have to build an alternative to austerity, not will it into being. I don't know how to drive. In your mind if I just have "the will" to drive I can? That doesn't mean I can never drive, it just means I need to learn how to drive. -- -Nathan Tankus -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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