The Streetlamp Doesn't Cast Her Shadow Anymore: Griff says; Greece

Saturday 18 February 2012

Griff says; Greece - Time for action!

It cannot have escaped your notice this week that the people of Greece are facing an unprecedented economic and political crisis. They are being driven to poverty and mass unemployment by the demands of the 'Troika' – the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund which has undemocratically imposed Lucas Papademos, the former Vice-President of the ECB, as Prime Minister.

Hospitals in Greece are running out of basic medicines, nearly half of all young people are unemployed, workers in some sectors have not been paid for months, and many are forced to resort to soup kitchens or scavenge from rubbish dumps.
Now the Troika has demanded a cut of 23% to the minimum wage, the sacking of tens of thousands of public sector workers and the decimation of pensions which have already lost nearly 50% of their value. International capital is asset stripping an entire country and ripping apart its social fabric. We have seen this pattern before. Friedmanite, fundamentalist, free-market capitalism is tearing our world apart. The process began in Chile in 1973, when the CIA sponsored coup d'état toppled Chile's democratically elected president Salvador Allende and brought the military dictator General Pinochet to power. Almost immediately the libertarian Chicago Boys instigated their iniquitous economic programme and introduced the world to the debauched philosophy of neoliberalism. Since that time,this perfidious ideology has ravaged the globe. We have seen it destroy developmentalism and the economies of the global south. It has poisoned the political and economic systems of South Africa, China and Russia and continues to work its depraved and destructive effect on the western democracies. Its mantra, 'privatisation, stabilisation, liberalisation', is simple, repetitive and malignant, and it seems to hypnotise political leaders, who forget the promises of their manifestos and instead go on to cut social welfare, privatise essential utilities, and open up internal markets to outside capital. These actions remove wealth, power and social support from the ordinary mass of people and instead place it in the hands of a tiny, self-serving politico-corporatist elite. Neoliberalism is the ideology by which the modern day corporatocracy destroys the social fabric of our countries, and the ordinary workers of the world must wake up and cut the head off the beast or risk sleep-walking into a nightmare future of corporate crypto-fascism. The first thing we must do is say NO to austerity.

Right now, Greece is at the cutting edge of the austerity measures that are being introduced across Europe. All the evidence shows that while these measures may protect the interests of the rich, they just make matters worse for the majority of the population. What happens in Greece today we will see in Portugal tomorrow and in Ireland the day after. In Britain, the Coalition government is pursuing similar measures which will see workers earnings cut, working longer for a smaller pension, and the dismantling of the NHS along with other public services.

The Coalition of Resistance and The People's Charter have launched an appeal for solidarity with the people of Greece (Click here to see the founding statement). They are asking for you to get involved and take action now. Please visit their websites to see how you can help. If you can do nothing more, at least take a moment to add your name as a signatory to the statement 'here'. The Coalition of Resistance and the People's Charter are also proposing that an emergency delegation of trades unionists, politicians and campaigners go to Athens to meet with unions and other organisations there. This delegation will report back on events in Greece and outline the concrete ways in which we can help the people of Greece in their struggles against austerity.

This new campaign will require the devotion of considerable resources. Please consider giving a donation to COR. This can be done through paypal (click here) or please send a cheque made out to Coalition of Resistance, to CoR, c/o Housmans Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX.

Let us show solidarity to the workers of Greece in their hour of need. Only by acting together can we throw off the shackles of corporatocracy and regain our stolen democracies. Together the working people of the world can build a better future for our children.

An MP3 of this Greek version of this beautiful song can be downloaded 'here'. The song Bella Ciao was sung by the left-wing anti-fascist resistance movement in Italy, a movement composed of anarchists, communists, socialists and also by militant anti-fascist partisans. Here is a translation of the lyric:

One morning I awakened