When Corporations Rule Greece

This week had been one denouement or disaster after another for Greece and those like myself who saw in the Greek resistance to the demands of the Troika the beginnings of a renaissance of people-founded governance.

Then came the removal of Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis from the negotiations  by President Alexis Tsipras, but I kept the faith that Alexis was trying very hard to find a way to keep Greece in the EU while getting bailout terms that would give the Greek economy a chance to recover.

Next I read an article by John Pilger, the Australian writer and documentary film maker, in which he declared that Alexis Tsipras and his group were conducting a large scale betrayal of the Greek people. I have a high regard for Pilger and found his article quite disturbing. (The article is titled The problem of Greece is not only a tragedy. It is a lie and can be found at http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-problem-of-greece-is-not-only-a-tragedy-it-is-a-lie.)

 

 While he offered little direct evidence for his assertion he did notice that Alexis and the leadership came from wealthy families and were highly educated. He noted that Alexis kept saying he was trying to get “the best deal” for the people of Greece despite the fact that those people had resoundingly declared in a referendum that they wanted no deal.

Then we began to see some of the details of the deal that Alexis and the Parliament had signed off on. Aside from substantial reduction in previously reduced pensions and other public assistance, which could easily be reversed by later governments, there were the demands to privatize major government facilities such as airports and seaports. Such privatizing is a hallmark of corporate takeover of government.

Finally, came the announced purge of leftists from the Syriza government by President Alexis Tsipras. This confirmed what John Pilger had seen. In short, the takeover of the Greek government by the left was not the beginning of a long overdue change in the global economy that had elicited the support of so many, including the people of Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland. It was instead, a large scale kabuki dance led by the major financial institutions of Europe and perhaps America. As ex Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said of the deal, “Greece was subject to a programme that will "go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever".

It is, to my mind, yet unclear how this will all play out. The people of Greece may rise up and throw the betrayers out. Yanis has been very vocal in his criticism of the deal which has such long term pain and suffering for the Greek people written into it as well as a pronounced loss of self-governance to the corporate powers of Europe.

The world needed a resolute rejection of the deal offered by the Troika to give the people heart to continue and intensify the struggle for democracy. Hopefully we can still find it, perhaps in a Bernie Sanders presidency.

Bob Newhard