Austerity in Greece Meant to Break Workers' Resistance

[johnmalcstan]

All countries are in debt to these globalist pricks. This is all about control of the people. Wait untill they really get going with population control and then we'll see real fireworks

[kyriacos40]

It all goes down to this, the banks made a bad investment, the bail out is not for the Greek people period.The bail out is just paying interest on loans.If I was to play the stock market and I picked a bad company to invest in,I would lose money and take the loss.Ok now the banks lend money to Greece and they made bad investment and are forcing the government of Greece to get the money back to banks through austerity which will leave an economy shattered and never to recover.Default only answer

[wifferste]

The interviewee sounds too politicized. He forgot to mention one thing, Papandreou's party PASOK is a socialist party which traditionally is sympathetic to labour. But because he's trying to push through austerity measures would suggest politics is not a factor now. If it were, he'd be staying the normal course.

[azothdaco]

If Greece defaults-blame Wall Street. The 1% plutocracy get bail outs and tax cuts for their greed and Wall Street crimes; the 99% of the public sector get Austerity Programs to pay for it. ‘Austerity’ is nothing more than the name given to the scam that will allow the same corporations that created this mess to finish stealing (privatizing) what’s left of the wealth of this, and every other nation.

[Kirkh70]

As a greek Thank you for this video.Solidarity.This is our power

[despoina1951]

@Kirkh70 συμφωνώ

[twinpeninsulas]

how bout making the rich pay their taxes? send SWAT teams to raid the houses of the rich and take the valuables to pay off the debts owed the EU.

[Ilkamy]

Thanks for that good interview!

STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY NOW!

Δεν χρωστάμε, δεν πουλάμε, δεν πληρώνουμε! - We don't owe, we don't sell, we don't pay!

Solidarity with the resistance movement - the people's struggles against austerity measures and privatisation! Stop injustice, exploitation and oppression everywhere!

Fight against the "Troika" and capitalism! International solidarity for the abolition of the Greek debt!

See also: coalitionofresistance(.)org(.)­uk/category/international

[criticalviewer1959]

@Ilkamy

Thank you Ilka, for sharing this video.

I agree. Solidarity with the resistance against the troika and against the sell-out of Greece and other countries which will follow!

The freedom of human means not that a person can do what she/he wants, but has not to do what she/he doesn't wants.

"Wer sagt: hier herrscht Freiheit, der lügt, denn Freiheit herrscht nicht." - Who says; freedom dominates, is lying, because freedom does not dominate. (Erich Fried, 1921-1988)

Direct Democracy Now!

[pookeeboo]

@Ilkamy i have used the philosophy of dont pay all my life and it has worked really well for me

[dharmaatdawn]

USSR looks benign in comparison to this monstrosity

[Gary190tube]

The EU is sacrificing Greece just to keep the markets happy.

[notthere83]

ah yes, "schoolyard discipline". it is really funny/odd/awful how you can look at most social/political phenomena and draw analogies to the behavior of school children. it does not seem to matter how old and educated the participants are. they might speak eloquently but in the end, their behavior is usually as brutal and/or cruel as the dynamics one can see at a school. it seems at least at a larger scale, people never really grow up...

[CazyDayz]

the US dose not sound all that different from Greece lowering taxes and not creating new revenue sounds like republicans did it.

[lppoqql]

Greeks are TOO WEAK, they will have their balls cut off by the bankers, this is just the last scream before they are gutted, Germans OWN them now.

[audadvnc]

The New World Order agenda is to break the existing national political and economic structures, and reform them to meet the rulers' liking. They're doing a great job of it so far, and hanging Greece, Libya and Syria out to dry as a warning to the rest of world.

Barack Obama is currently the American representative for the world rulers. He could be replaced by Mitt Romney or anybody else, it would make no difference to their bosses. They will continue with their agenda regardless.

[captcrais101]

@audadvnc Romney won't win the reublican nomination because he heled create Obamacare.

[nilbud]

@26Keano You clearly don't understand the difference between a theory of economics supposition and reality. Get on that before bleating nonsense.

[superphi]

The pple voted for the government who is in charge that cause this crisis so ultimately it's the pples fault

[Joeybagadounuts08]

He says, it is the precarious nature of the banking system, there are no bad guys or good guys. So who made the banking system? Or is the banking system just some force of nature out of our control?

[OuTofJoY]

ALL undemonstrable assumptions counter to popular self interest MUST GO.

The ONLY worthwhile arguments for markets/"private property" are those which argue either as a defence of life and liberty. The rest is just pro-elite religion.

The state/markets/private property are NOT the best defense of either life/liberty.

THAT would be stateless/horizontal governance with democratic decisions about both production and distribution.

[dangerouslytalented]

Bring the banks under rule of law. They have far too much power.

[Pierrebrd]

Yeah, the Olympics were a disaster...Greece was extorted -in the countdown to meet the deadlines- to pay a much greater cost for the projects. And as always with Greece, it was forced to buy 1,2 billions worth of "security material" from the US and others...

[4fear4hunger4pride]

moral of the story. don't host the Olympics. the blue blood schiesters will milk you of every cent and leave the bill

[DontCryTry]

Yes, it's time to take away all benefits from the people and make them slaves to the banks.. Most of the marauding elites would agree with that... The alternative is of course to take back control of the banks and put them back in their place globally.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE.

[tubetib]

I hope they'll think about supplying people with food or other basic things during the crisis but I guess this is far from their concerns.

[velerephon]

Greece will mark the end of the new world order

[4werr0n3]

Greece seems to be in a constant conflict with Turkey that's y they pumped way to much cash into their military complex which they could never afford.

[colourmegone]

So follow the US model and replace education with religion and keep the people ignorant, poor and easy to control. Enact laws which give the state sweeping powers to arrest, imprison, torture and even assassinante dissidents and in a couple of generations we'll be back to the good old feudal system with a super rich elite ruling over ignorant, brutish peasants.

[Irondukesteve]

I was really looking forward to this but the sound recording is poor. Do you have a better copy REALNEWS that you can repost?

[Pierrebrd]

@ TheRealnews

How about a story on the history of Greek loans? That would make the present condition much more lucid. Try contacting some economic journalists like Dimitris Kazakis, who is very prominent these days concerning the debt critique?

Europeans are told they have to bail out Greece, but european taxpayers' money is used to pay banks and consolidate the ties between the financial sector and their political representatives. Don't "do us the favor"...don't lend money to "Greece"

[GermanInvestor]

yes, sure, its always the bad banks and the capitalist. Its about the deptors against the savers. Here we have a deptors nation that can not/want not to pay. Okay so far.

Whats discusting about this dude, that he wants to make a plot towards his socialist internation revolution. I hope he had a nice life in earlier east germany.

[OnlyGreatness007]

This guy seemed pretty certain that greece is going to default, but I want to know is the U.S. going to default.

[swirlcrop]

This is a very interesting interview.

[Sundrumify]

Thank YOU Paul for excellent interviews. No Day without the Real News. From Munich, Lisa

[davidperi]

Be interesting what my Greek friend will say about the situation tomorrow when I meet him tomorrow.

[AndrewMann552]

Greece needs a massive popular revolution! 1789 and 1917 will live again!

[Zoink555]

What a shitty sounding recording! Lucky you're the boss or they'd boot you.

[babygotblown]

paul jay you real nekkid

[MadXMax187]

Go independent Greece, the EU criminals are doomed to failure. The Euro-zone is unsustainable and will likely lead to more austerity and seizure of Greek wealth. Stay in Europe by all means, I'm sure the trade and travel is nice but is it worth your national sovereignty? I would stay in the EU and ditch the Euro it is the smart thing to do to keep healthy relations without the austerity.

[jakiner]

GO GREECE!!!

[Elin48]

The highly educated including teachers, not able to find jobs. And what are we doing here in the US, we are laying off teachers, and increasing the class sizes.

[phfrankh]

Austerity measures echoed... around the "World"

[Uhmu45]

There is nothing wrong in retiring at 60, paying out huge pensions and having wasteful public sector, when you can afford it. They can't. Either reform the system, modernize your economy, deal with the dept or go bankrupt. They wan't to be Sweden, but they don't have the economic engine behind it.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

Don't grab on something the interviewee says and build an argument around it without knowing what actually stands. Greek pensions and wages are very low compared to those of other european countries. Products are high-priced. Public sector is wasteful but in favor of politicians and their offices and high consultants. Greek middle retirement age is not lower than that of Germany. Get your facts right before arguing over something that sounds logical to you but is counter-factual

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

The question is not how high or low the pensions are, the question is what can Greece afford. Products are high-priced everywhere, inflation is running wild around the world. Our pensions and salary's are lower then in Greece, but we still cut them after the crisis, because we could not afford it. Borrowed money is meant for investment not entitlement.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

Don't recourse to generalities to escape factual error. You spoke about 'huge' pensions etc, but that's not the case. Prices are rising high and quickly but the incomes are falling and unemployment sky-rocketing, businesses closing. We are not talking about just 'cuts' but a decrease up to 40% of income and more measures are expected. You should build your argumentation on facts rather schemes whose origin is dubious but sound 'logical' to you for whatever reason.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

Moreover, the vast majority of the loans are going back to the banks. Not the economy, not development. At the same time, loans were provided on the understanding that Greece would continue to buy arms from France and Germany. Big european countries are financing their own financiers with these loans, with public and private wealth across Europe being stolen to repay odious debt and bank losses. There is long story there on Greek loans, many of which have been repaid manifold.

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

Whats wrong about the money going back to the banks?

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

First of all, it a matter of politics and law. When a government has to choose between starving its population and repaying lenders, it has the obligation and the right to defend its population. Secondly it wasn't their money in the first place. Banks pursue a predatory lending policy, out of money they don't actually have, exactly with the intent of creating unplayable debt to take over the economy and make further money out of privatizations and speculation.

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

People in Greece are starving?

No bank is interested in creating unplayable debt. Thats a bad business model. This just creates alot of risk for the bank and banks are about lowering and managing risk not making more of it. Did banks give out too cheap loans in Greece? Yes. The interest should have been higher, but there are always two sides to a loan. The one who takes the loan has responsibility's too.

[jimbobeire]

@Uhmu45 "No bank is interested in creating unpayable debt" ? Guess again. When the conditions mean that they can seize state assets or force privatisation of infrastructure or state assets, then hanging an IMF 'rescue package' around the countries neck is a profitable industry, Especially when the banks are getting bailed out by the taxpayer.

[Uhmu45]

@jimbobeire I disagree with you there. Its a mess that nobody in their right mind is willing to get in. Bankers are interested in getting back their money, bankrupting a country will not give them the money back. You seem to a very obscure view what IMF is and does.

[jimbobeire]

@Uhmu45 perhaps my 'obscure view' of international banking is influenced by my 'left wing career' having spent most of the 90s working for investment banks in Europe and Australia. Bankrupting a country can get your money back, you just do a fire sale. You can choose not to see it if you wish, but don't pretend it doesn't happen.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

Yes, a growing number of people are living below the poverty line, and more are getting there, accumulating debt and choosing between paying the bills or getting food. With growing unemployment more people depend on their families, but with growing taxes and prices and diminishing wages and pensions, they cannot afford to do so. Social benefits have been cut off. Employees are forced to work part-time, work more without money or laid-off without severance. Things are critical.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

Where have you been living? If they can create debt they create dependance and gain more from interest rates. They also make money by increasing cost of borrowing and speculating on derivatives, while they can also gain from default. As long as they can control government, to pay loans and interests through citizens' taxes, or even get bailed out with that money, while forcing privatization, increasing profitable investments and securing lower taxes, they gain HUGELY from unpayable debt

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

Nobody is forcing anyone to get a loan. If you don't want to be "dependent of the evil banks," don't take a loan! Low borrowing costs is what got Greece into that mess. Didn't see many people complaining when the cost was low. The price of money has gone up because nobody wants to lend to greece anymore, nobody trusts that they will get their investment back. Hedging is not free, its just another way to deal with risk, how can you spin that as evil? Oh god my head hurts.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

What got Greece into this mess was EU and neoliberalist policies: Europe turning a blind eye to its deficits and debt to enter €, encouraging borrowing as a blind way to achieve 'development' (cheap loans) while opening the economy and increasing imports, lowering large business taxes (more than 50%), increasing people's taxes, increasing privatizations against public benefit with huge gains for corporations with little investment. The recipe of "liquidity". The bill ισ paid by people

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

Sweden is the most neoliberal country in the world, the problem is accountability.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

I guess that is true. It's a combination of macro-economic policies and local economic and political conditions. If a government deceits its people, hides its debt and the agreements and negotiations it makes, creating gains for national and international corporations and adopting austerity measures, if it destroys local production (e.g. agricultural: used to cover more than 80% of national needs, now in a fraction of that) to favor imports, this is also a political problem. Odious debt

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

Example of international and national economic-political conditions that breed corruption and dispossession for the Greek people: Nazi Germany forced Greece to give it a loan when it occupied it. After the war the West got its compensation, but forced Greece -under the table- not to seek compensation, so as not to weaken West Germany which was to be a pillar against the Socialist Bloc. This has been an understanding that lasts to this day. If this is repaid, debt will greatly diminish.

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

Right... well good luck with that. Have a nice day sir.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

Good day to you too. Hopefully next time you will do more than repeat mainstream media reports devoid of factual details and widespread generalities -posing as insights- having little to do with the case at hand, and actually respond to messages countering your pragmatological "data". Or better yet, check the relevance and reliability of those data, if you are to take the time to comment and tell others 'how things really are'.

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

Yes, common sense is not insight.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

What is "common sense" when its arguments are based on counter-factual data, when it ignores significant data, when it lacks any knowledge or hint even of the history of the debt, of the political processes in Greece (and Europe - at least left outside of scope) of the details of economic conditions and decisions?

It is non-sense..it is pride in ignorance

You burped some sentences and I was dump enough to take you seriously. Ireland was great before the crisis...so watch out for victims

[Uhmu45]

@Pierrebrd

Common sense means that don't live beyond your means. Use loans for investment not entitlements. But yes you are right. Its everybody else fault that Greece has problems. My bad.

[Christian121y]

@Uhmu45 Please don't argue with these idiots.They just don't seem to understand the concept that if cant afford a thing you should NOT be able to buy it.Instead these fools would rather have tantrums on the streets and make a disgrace out of themselves in front of the entire history of socialism.Even fucking Karl Marx understood the inherent value of things and State-run entitlement programs were most definitely NOT his ideal form of socialism.But you try telling that to these imbeciles..

[Uhmu45]

@Christian121y

I would say its impossible to run a modern state without entitlements. Or the state of things has to be very different. People would have to save alot more for the future. And not everyone is able to do that.

[Christian121y]

@Uhmu45 "People would have to save alot more for the future. And not everyone is able to do that."

Well then quite frankly (and at the risk of sounding callous)those people need to become more productive so they can save more.And if there are cultural or sociological or even technological roadblocks standing in their way to increased productivity,then they need to demand change even with rifles if necessary.

[Uhmu45]

@Christian121y

Im not in the swim or sink capitalism camp. Right now there is no rich industrial country out there who does not take care of its elderly.

And i like democracy and the rule of law, rifle politics is the opposite of that.

[Christian121y]

@Uhmu45 Well the thing that's awkward about us agreeing on something(ON THE INTERNET NO LESS) is that I'm an anarchist(one that believes in a united front with no labels quite particularly).

So yeah.

LOL>

[Christian121y]

@Uhmu45 One of my favorite socialist quotes has always been a mocking anti-clerical quote we took from the Bible for our purposes.

"He who does not work will not eat"

This quote applies here in Greece as well.If Greece got itself into a situation wherein it honestly cannot afford it's statist entitlement programs due to the unproductive economy than YOU CANNOT AFFORD the damn programs.You don't have to be a neoliberal or a hobessian to observe this.

[Christian121y]

@Uhmu45 And if the only hope you have of even keeping SOME of your entitlement programs is accepting a bailout from the EU than I beg of you ACCEPT CONDITIONS OF THE BAILOUT.Don't gamble(pun not intended here) the future of your workers lives on the halfassery of appearing revolutionary and history changing.

But that's just my two cents.With all due respect to your position of course.

[Uhmu45]

@Christian121y

Im not from Greek and i think that austerity is needed there. It is the only way to halfway save some of the entitlements. :P

[Christian121y]

@Uhmu45 Oh.

Not to disappoint you or anything but I thought I was replying to PiereBird.

I apologize.

[johnmalcstan]

@Uhmu45 You sound as though you work for the world bank or the IMF. Such an atitude is playing into the hands of the pricks that lent the money in the first place. All this debt shit is deliberately orchestrated by the banks mentioned. Coming your way soon.

[Uhmu45]

@johnmalcstan NWO or the lizards? ^^

[jimbobeire]

@Uhmu45 Common sense means that when a private corporation is facing a loss, we don't sell our own houses to bail it out. Capitalists justify high profits by citing their 'risks'. And yet when they get it wrong, then THEY expect Socialism for their private ventures, and go demanding taxpayers money to cover their losses. IF they practice what they preach them the speculators should have been thrown to the wolves. Or do you think THEY are a special case that needs to be breastfeed by the state?

[Uhmu45]

@jimbobeire

I agree,i disagree with the "thrown to the wolves." If Lehman Brothers would have been cut to pieces and sold off, then would have had a regular economic slowdown after a bubble, not a major crisis. Many, many banks have gone bankrupt since the crisis started, they are not special.

[jimbobeire]

@Uhmu45 and yet, many of them got massive bailouts by countries that couldn't afford it, despite not being of systemic importance to those countries, especially as they were funnelling loans from other countries. But, private corporate debt has the downside, that companies have limited liability, whereas nation states sovereign debt does not, and so by getting governments to borrow to bailout corporations shifted the debt burden from private companies to the taxpayers.

[Uhmu45]

@jimbobeire

Yes, it sounds horrible if you say it this way, but keep in mind that the thinking back then was to avoid a massive meltdown of the financial system. There was a period of time when even profitable companies could not get a short-term loan. We were standing on the edge of a cliff. The idea that we had to save some of these banks sickens me, but taxpayers saved billions of people from poverty. At times there are only shity and shity-shity options, like in true Greek tragedy.

[jimbobeire]

@Uhmu45 The 'liquidity crisis' was a great way of holding governments to ransom. The money didn't simply disappear. Loans were withheld. There was still international financing available, just at horrible rates. Sorting out the failed banks decisively, letting more of them go to the wall would have removed some uncertainty. There will be a lot more people in poverty and bankruptcy once we have to start to repay these IMF and ECB 'rescue deals'.

[Gary190tube]

@jimbobeire you're right the burden has shifted to taxpayers. But the trouble is we're fucked either way. If we bail them out we get massive debt and austerity to pay for it. If we don't and the banks go under then businesses big and small are fucked and our jobs and pensions are fucked as well.

[jimbobeire]

@Gary190tube We're doubly screwed bailing them out. They wouldn't have ALL fallen if we didn't bail them, and there would have been loans available, if the signals to the lenders didn't indicate that it was better to wait, cos they could let the rates climb and climb. We've bailed out banks here, repaid the bank bonds to investors by, in many cases borrowing from the same folks, and thus we're paying them TWICE.

[dharmaatdawn]

@jimbobeire Speak of no evil about our new "religion that markets know best". It was our fault. I mean the depends we place on the financial instutut. and other trans national corp are just too great. it causes them to go into crises very often. its own demands like threads of regulations, and high taxes, and wealth redistribution just spoinls the whole free market principles. we have to have faith and believe that they do know. Economics is really really complex Science. Only genius gets it.

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

You are obviously clueless about the issues at hand, being merely able to resort to nonsensical and vague argumentation and sloganeering, evidently unable even to understand what you read (e.g. I have referred to two parameters that brought this about, national and international, but clueless as you are you can't place that, there is no content in your thoughts).

Now go ahead and read another article on Iceland and find another video to offer your deep insights. World needs your wisdom

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

The policies that brought Greece to this point have been present for decades, the large debts too. They didn't come about suddenly. And the banks knew, but they kept lending and governments were borrowing to cover previous loans. What's wrong with your argumentation is that it is full of generalities and little factual details. The history of Greece's debts and loans to the West and their renewal is historic. It would solve your questions if you understood greek, there are docs around

[Pierrebrd]

@Uhmu45

When a lender lends money knowing that the borrower cannot repay and with the intent of creating unpayable debt, when it speculates against the latter, increasing the borrowing cost, when it demands cutbacks and privatizations and then bets against repaying because of recession, when it helps hide debt to encourage further lending, when the money is not used to public benefit but spent on corruption, then you have odious debt right there. People should not be burdened with it.