Tagged with Alexis Tsipras

We need a Europe that’s for a better life, not one for advancing powerful interests

Greek NoLike so many others, I long ago got used to being pilloried as “anti-European” for daring to say that the “Europe” we were urged to sign up to was no such thing, but was a particular arrangement cooked up by the powerful and foisted on the people of that often benighted continent without bothering either to consult them or to take count of their wishes.

As the Greek crisis unfolds, and as it strips bare the pretensions of those powerful forces who talk with less and less conviction of the European ideal and of democratic rights, we can surely no longer be in any doubt. The “Europe” in whose service so much sacrifice is now demanded is a cartel of bankers, financiers and right-wing politicians who have no interest in democracy, or jobs, or the living standards of ordinary people. As the Greek people suffer, and plead “no more”, it is not the travails of the Greeks – or, for that matter, the Spanish, or the Portuguese, or the Italians – that weigh with Europe’s powerful; their sights are fixed on maintaining austerity and discipline, on adhering to ideology and doctrine. Continue reading →

Explaining the Euroland-Greece agreement

by Jacques Sapir (translated from the French by Tom Gill)

The agreemenyannis-varoufakist reached on Friday 20 February between Greece and the Eurogroup has led to conflicting commentary. It is necessary, in order to understand this agreement, and to analyze it, to put it into context, both in the short and in the long term.

This agreement was intended to prevent an immediate crisis, created by the election of the government of Alexis Tsipras less than a month ago. In addition, this agreement deserves to be observed under the microscope. Greece has achieved several things:

  • Greece is no longer required to achieve a primary budget surplus of 3% this year. Only budget balance is required.
  • The “contract” which runs over four months is explicitly designated as a transition to a new contract, which of course remains to be defined.
  • The ‘Troika’ no longer exists as an institution, although each component continues to exist. Thus it is the end of the ‘men in black’ coming to dictate terms to Athens.
  • Greece can now write it own agenda of reforms, and she’ll write them herself. The institutions will give their opinion, but they will not be able make particular reforms an urgent requirement for Athens.
  • A more discreet advantage is that the Greek Government has broken the Eurogroup’s facade of unanimity and forced Germany to unveil its position.

Continue reading →

Tsipras versus Cameron: people versus bankers

Cameron and TsiprasDavid Cameron became the first elected politician in Europe to criticise the election of the Syriza government in Greece and was quickly followed by George Osborne. This might seem odd as Britain is outside the Eurozone and has limited direct influence over its policies. But the urgent and unrestrained nature of the criticism is very revealing about what is at stake in the anti-austerity struggle and specifically the very different roles being played by the British and Greek governments.

The Syriza government represents the popular will to end austerity. Only the parties of the left increased their vote in the recent election, and that was overwhelmingly to Syriza’s benefit with a rise of 9.4%. But entirely new parties and even parties of the traditional right adopted similar anti-austerity rhetoric in an effort to shore up their vote. The election showed the Greek popular majority wants to end austerity. Continue reading →

Syriza has interesting allies: Vladimir Putin and Mark Carney

1024px-Vladimir_Putin_official_portraitBy their friends shall ye know them? This old adage has got some folks feeling a bit uncomfortable as the new Syriza government apparently cosies up to Mother Russia. This is by no means a new thing. Last year Alexis Tsipras provided Putin’s interventions in Ukraine with some political cover. Interesting friends of Syriza are by no means confined to the Kremlin, however. Someone else saying warm words is Peter Spence, economics correspondent for The Telegraph. And today out comes an establishment someone else to give Syriza’s message succour: Mark Carney of the Bank of England has attacked Eurozone austerity. Whatever next, eulogies in The Sun and Mail? It’s only a matter of time before Rupert Murdoch calls for the top 100 monopolies to be nationalised. Continue reading →

The German Chancellor and Grexit

Tsipras election rallyThis article by Jacques Sapir originally published on his own blog is translated from the French by Tom Gill

A Greek exit from the Euro, following the election on 25 January, is no longer unthinkable, Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted in the German weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday. This is an important statement, which can be analyzed in two different ways, neither of which are opposed to the other.

The first reading is that Frau Merkel, with Germanic subtlety, has decided to put pressure on Greek voters. Yes, if you “vote the wrong way,” an exit from the Euro in your country is possible. So, be prudent. If unsubtle, it is certainly more effective than the call by Pierre Moscovici, the European economic and financial affairs commissioner (and former French finance minister) to vote for the continuation of reforms. Continue reading →