World must build solidarity with No movement; Greek must not accept conditionality’s of troika; Khaliq Shah CADTM.

Awami Workers Party, Lahore, held the first of a series of lectures on the Greek debt crisis and its relevance to Pakistan on Friday.

Abdul Khaliq Shah of the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debts (CADTM) was the key speaker of the event.

Farooq Tariq, AWP general secretary, said the series has been organised to provide a context of how the agenda of neoliberalism has left imprints throughout the globe. He said, “What we were witnessing is a consistent attack by the neo-liberal establishment on a small country [Greece] which has decided to take a stand against the establishment’s economic policies.” He added that the July 5 referendum showcased the will of the people. “In turn, the banks and monetary institutions attacked the left government in Greece.”

He said this was relevant to Pakistan, for several reasons. “We are seeing the first form of naked opposition to ruthless privatisation, austerity and attack on basic rights. By following policies of structural adjustment, a small ruling-elite and establishment benefit while the rest of the citizens are left with a growing divide between the rich and the poor and dealing with banks," Tariq said.

Abdul Khaliq Shah said large countries in the European Union had started a Jubilee Debt Campaign in 2000 under the banner of multi-debt relief initiative to cut off each other’s debts. He said the crisis in Europe was not financial or economic in nature, but entirely political. Europe’s elite realised that Syriza’s victory of was not going to be confined to Greece. He said experts were predicting a similar crisis in Italy, Spain and Portugal.

He said every debt crisis had preceded a radical uprising in the EU. Banks in EU work on speculative investments, they don’t support real economy.

Students from the Democratic Students Alliance, the National Students Federation and various other workers fronts attended the lecture. Ahsan Bhatti, youth secretary AWP Lahore chaired the meeting.

Farooq Tariq