The Memorandum No. 2 is reality by a vote in the Greek Parliament on the 12th February. 199 MPs, mainly of the ruling parties, PASOK and “New Democracy” (ND) decided to completely sell out the interests of the Greek population, working and young people, but especially also of future generations to the dictatorship of the Troika, that means of the international banks and finance capital. The Greek ruling class and their stooges in government and Parliament hope in this way to assert their role as junior partners in the EU and the euro-zone and to make permanent and secure their position through the subjugation and impoverishment of the proletariat and the current so-called middle classes. Their policies are based on the fact that social resistance and workers’ movement, despite a series of general strikes and mobilizations in the past two years, with the highlights of the occupation of Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament in June and the two-day strike on 19th and 20 October 2011 with some 500,000 demonstrators in Athens alone, has not yet been able to broaden and to centralize significantly their actions directed against government, capital and Troika. Due to these weaknesses of the resistance, it was not yet possible to bring down the memoranda policies being promoted in a cynical manner and ridiculing the very idea of “democracy”.
The bureaucratization of the unions under PASOK direction, prevailing since decades, the division of movement through the profoundly reformist Communist Party (KKE) that constantly appears in an extremely sectarian manner, the ongoing parliamentary fixation of KKE and the other reformist Left Alliance SYRIZA, and the continued fragmentation of the anti-capitalist and revolutionary forces, despite some efforts of their most important alliance called ANTARSYA, as well as an often helpless, violent activism on the streets are among the main factors that have made possible the disaster of the memorandum policies of the past two years.
The Memorandum No. 2 will bring an unprecedented slump in the general living conditions and the de facto dissolution of the Greek society, as it has evolved in recent decades. The unemployment rate is already above 20%, in absolute numbers over one million, the recession was in 2011 at about 7% and will reach again these record levels in 2012, while the country is saddled with ever-higher debt loads meaning already its ruin. Any perspective to temporarily weaken the systematic impoverishment or any tiny hope of economic recovery, are swept off the table by the Troika. The land is being sacrificed to the alleged stability of the euro and the sacrosanct banking profits. Human fates do not matter any longer in today’s EU and euro zone, Mammon reigns unchecked and goes literally over corpses. Destruction and decay are the (not so) new brand of the capitalist and imperialist institutions, EU and euro-zone. What is being imposed on Greece is the beginning of the general attack of big business on the living conditions and the workers’ rights in all EU countries fought for and gained in over a century.
The resistance of Sunday, 12th February
This monstrous betrayal of the national “political elite” openly manifests before the eyes of the affected people who are being transformed into mere objects of plunder, and provokes again and again angry and fierce responses. On Sunday, 12/2, the day of voting and the sell-off, hundreds of thousands, the estimates vary between 500,000 and one million, gathered in downtown Athens to protest against their degradation and the destruction of their life perspective and of the most minimal requirements of a public welfare-oriented society. The police as usual brutally attacked the demonstrators and permanently covered the demonstrators at Syntagma Square with chemical projectiles.
They tried to clear the square before most of the demonstrators arrived at the center. But the heroism of the demonstrators holding out in front of Parliament prevented this intention, and the rage of a considerable part of the Athenian people could express itself for hours, especially between 17 and 22.30 o’ clock. As usual, groups of black-clad masked protestors fought skirmishes with the police with Molotov cocktails etc. at various points in the city center. Where most of the demonstrators were pushed back by police and thus “empty zones” were created, groups of masked men suddenly appeared and set some, partly historical, buildings on fire. It remains unclear whether this occurred due to actions of police troublemakers or authentically autonomous groups.
Two PAME blocks under KKE leadership positioned themselves, as always strictly separated from the other demonstrators, at a safe distance from the focal points in front of the parliament, continuing their tradition in no case to clash with the police. This appearance of PAME is the usual ceremony but still amazes everybody with its legalism and its consistent rejection of any common action. It is not easy to answer to the question how the resistance will continue and may reach its goals. The call for an indefinite general strike may be necessary, but at this stage might not ensure the unification of actions. It is clear, however, that the economic, political and social crisis is moving toward its the boiling point and an exit will be inconsistent with the framework of the capitalist exploitation system and with the rules of the totally discredited parliamentary democracy and their governments. This solution can only be found through the self-organization of workers at their workplaces and of people in the neighborhoods and ultimately through the creation of a different type of democracy at the national level, according to the principles of councils.
The Greek and international mass media did everything to hush up the massiveness of the demonstration in downtown Athens. Instead, they focused as much as possible on reports about the fires and devastation. It is systematically obscured in particular that the policy of the first (from 05/05/2010) and the second memorandum is equivalent to a coup, which simply annuls the previously known form of bourgeois parliamentary democracy. The memoranda policies of the Papandreou and now Papadimos governments lack any democratic legitimacy, their main support is that of the police club, their only “argument” the threat of national bankruptcy (which is reality anyway) whose size and hopelessness are increasing more and more by the continuation of the dominant policies. The objective of remaining in the euro zone has also lost all its meaning as it focuses solely on the security of bank profits whereas the impoverishment of the population rapidly proceeds.
The role of Germany
Any reporting of Greece is incomplete if it does not include the role of Germany. The German politicians and ministers of the federal government play a nefarious role in the looting and destruction of Greek society. The politicians not only refuse to recognize the war reparations and debt payments that at a formal level would amount to some hundred billion euro, thus displaying a shameful historical ignorance and arrogance. They also dictate the rules of dismantling of Greece in an intolerable way. For instance by accounts under German or EU-related control on which Greece will have to pay. The German minister of finance, Mr. Schäuble, wants also to prescribe when and under what circumstances the Greek population should vote or not.
Another indication how mad the prevailing policy actually is, that it is only suitable to lead entire Europe into the catastrophe, shows a recent press release by the German Spiegel-Online, February 15th, about the assets of the Germans: “8.5 trillion euro possession - German could pay off debts in the euro zone. While governments scrape together every penny in the crisis, the Germans have amassed a huge fortune. Less of their own debt, they have about 8.5 trillion euro. That is enough money to completely pay off the debt of all euro countries. Tangible assets such as cars, furniture, jewelry and art collections are not included.”
How long will it still be possible to lead entire nations of Europe into bankruptcy, while there is enough social wealth to enable all people to live without unemployment, poverty and agonizing struggle for survival, even at a world scale? The solidarity of the people in Germany, and particularly of those who are still able to use theirs brains despite the massive and deliberate fraud, the evil propaganda of the mass media, is one of the most important keys to reverse the hopeless situation Greece and almost the entire European periphery are facing, but is also threatening the European center in a clearly foreseeable future.
Andreas Kloke, Athens, 02/19/12