Sunday, July 5, 2015
Yanis Varoufakis: Why we recommend a NO in the referendum – in 6 short bullet points
Posted on July
1, 2015 by yanisv
Negotiations have stalled
because Greece’s creditors (a) refused to reduce our un-payable public debt and
(b) insisted that it should be repaid ‘parametrically’ by the weakest members
of our society, their children and their grandchildren
The IMF, the United States’
government, many other governments around the globe, and most independent
economists believe — along with us — that the debt must be restructured.
The Eurogroup had previously
(November 2012) conceded that the debt ought to be restructured but is refusing
to commit to a debt restructure
Since the announcement of the
referendum, official Europe has sent signals that they are ready to discuss
debt restructuring. These signals show that official Europe too would vote NO
on its own ‘final’ offer.
Greece will stay in the euro.
Deposits in Greece’s banks are safe. Creditors have chosen the
strategy of blackmail based on bank closures. The current impasse is due to
this choice by the creditors and not by the Greek government discontinuing the
negotiations or any Greek thoughts of Grexit and devaluation. Greece’s place in
the Eurozone and in the European Union is non-negotiable.
The future demands a proud
Greece within the Eurozone and at the heart of Europe. This future demands that
Greeks say a big NO on Sunday, that we stay in the Euro Area, and that, with
the power vested upon us by that NO, we renegotiate Greece’s public debt as
well as the distribution of burdens between the haves and the have nots.
Explore the Oldest Archive of Radical Posters
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lbc2ic?cc=lbc2ic;page=index;c=lbc2ic
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Friday, July 3, 2015
Podemos in Support of Greece
1.- Last Monday, the Greek
government presented a proposal to the Eurogroup which included important
concessions and was unanimously welcomed by the lenders as being reasonable and
viable. In the following days, however, the international creditors led by the
IMF did not accept the Greek government’s proposal to tax the wealthiest
sectors of society, restructure the debt and launch an investment plan to
revive the economy. Instead, they demanded to raise VAT on basic services and
food and required further cuts on pensions and wages. In their effort to
demonstrate that there is no alternative to austerity, the creditors only seem
to accept the money of the poor, and insist on imposing the same logic and
measures that led the country into a humanitarian disaster. The Greek economy
is asphyxiated. To keep strangling it is the precise opposite of what must be
done.
2.- Facing such blackmail and extortion, the Greek government has reacted to the ultimatum in an exemplary manner: by calling on the people to decide their own future in a democratic and sovereign way. Unlike the Spanish governments of 2011 and 2012, the Greek government has refused to violate the popular mandate derived from the January election. All the attempts at coercing, intimidating and influencing this vote by unelected powers, especially by the European Central Bank -which is willing to suffocate the Greek financial system to influence the outcome of the referendum-, constitute a flagrant and unacceptable violation of the democratic principle. We say that Europe without democracy is not Europe: all democrats should join their voices in denouncing these intolerable interferences and pressures. Democracy is incompatible with letting unelected powers govern and decide for us. It is democracy what is at stake.
3- With their intransigence,
the creditors have demonstrated that they have no interest at all in solving
the Greek debt crisis; their aim is rather to subject and overthrow a
democratically elected government so as to prove that there is no alternative
to the politics of austerity. Their blindness is such that they are willing to
put at risk the integrity and the stability of the financial system and the
European project itself, exposing them to speculative attacks whose price will
ultimately be paid also by the citizens of other countries. We will say it once
and again: they will be the ones to blame, they will be responsible for the
consequences of this disaster.
4- Syriza did not create the
tremendous economic crisis that affects Greece. It was the governments of New
Democracy and PASOK, the friends of our PP and PSOE, who falsified data and
accounts, surrendered the sovereignty of the country to the Troika, and handed
Syriza an economic and social catastrophe that is necessary and urgent to
reverse.
5.- Many international actors
have already distanced themselves from the dogmatism of the creditors. Hundreds
of thousands of people across the world have expressed their solidarity with
the Greek people in their defense of the democratic principle. We demand that
the Spanish Government and the European institutions respect the sovereignty
and dignity of the Greek people, and that they consequently guarantee that
the referendum takes place in conditions of freedom and complete normality. The
democratic will and the fundamental rights of the Greek people, which have been
systematically attacked during the long years of austerity, must be respected.
There are two contradictory
fields in Europe: austerity and democracy, the government of the people or the
government of the market and its unelected powers. We stand firm on the side of
democracy. We stand firm with the Greek people.
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