The global economic meltdown began in 2008 ago as a result
of neo-liberal policies of banking deregulation which provided conditions for
their reckless gambling and the creation of ‘casino capitalism’. However, the
western governments decided they should not let the banks pay the price for
their recklessness by going bankrupt. The
governments argued the banks were ‘too big to fail’, and a few trillion dollars
from national savings were poured into them.
This created another crisis – a socio-economic crisis – since that money
had to be retrieved. This process of retrieval
targeted ordinary people who had played no role in the financial meltdown. But the World Bank and IMF decided to impose a
policy of ‘austerity’ on them, and this led to the impoverishment of the middle
and working classes and the gradual dismemberment of the welfare system, which
further impoverished the already poor.
Greece was the first victim of such a policy in Europe and five
brutal years of austerity only ensured that the country could never have a chance
to stand on its own feet. The victory of
Syriza, the left-wing party that committed itself to resisting austerity replacing
it with policies of growth was the Greek people’s response to austerity.
This was an anomaly in the EU’s policy of austerity. Hence, in order to nip the bud so other peripheral
EU countries like Spain, Portugal and Ireland do not use Greece as a model to
follow, the decided to force Syriza to bow to the demands of Brussels (read:
wild capitalism). In response, Syriza called for a referendum on whether Greece
should accept the suggested austerity package. The EU, primarily Germany (a country
which has benefitted enormously from the Eurozone) decided to go for regime
change and cut the flow of capital into Greece. This forced the government to
close the banks across the country and ration the amount of money people can withdraw
from their savings. The EU also resorted
to massive fear tactics in other spheres, predicting a nightmare scenario for
the Greek people should they say NO. In other words, short of military
intervention, the EU used all anti-democratic at its disposal in order to
blackmail the Greek people.
Despite this, the majority of courageous Greek people voted
NO to blackmail. We don’t know what is
going to happen next, but whatever happens, the NO vote has massively boosted
the morale of other people in other countries who are in their daily lives paying
the price of casino capitalism, which through crisis and out of crisis has made
ginormous fortunes. The NO in Greece tells
us that the country, more than ever, values its independence and realizes that
without independence it will be only a third-rate vassal of “core” countries
like Germany.
The whole world should look at Greece. It is here where the
fight-back against savage neo-liberal policies begins and we should do our
utmost to support them.
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