Antarsya: Summit decisions on Greek debt will bring more austerity measures

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Stop payments! • Cancel the debt! • a whole—precisely because it represents tacks it is only necessary to note that the Nationalize the banks under workers a manifestation of the general contradic- Memorandum No. 1 reduced the deficit 10 Socialist Action SEPTEMBER 2011 control!

ATHENS, July 27—The decisions of the EU summit of July 21 do not represent the “salvation of Greece”—as the prime minister hastened to explain of the Memorandum and the Midterm Program, and the mass media—submissively dependent on the government—has parroted ever since. Nor will they offer a means of avoiding the likelihood of bankruptcy. Least of all are they intended to grant a breathing space to the Greek population; quite the opposite.

These decisions basically represent a restructuring of the Greek debt as well as an admission that the debt problem as such has not been dealt with at all, that it is more intractable now than ever. The Greek government will not be able to pay off the debt despite the brutal social cuts that were made with the first Memorandum, the cruel austerity measures, the dizzying rise in unemployment, and the closure of thousands of companies.

The measures associated with the decisions of the EU summit are geared to save time and protect the interests of banks and the international lenders. The national bankruptcy facing Greece has simply been deferred to the future. In addition, it has become clear that the current debt crisis concerns not just Greece, but the eurozone and the EU as ... Libya ‘victory’

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gaged in combat missions in Libya. A growing body of evidence reveals that they were.

The imperialist-led conquest of Libya was reported in the kept media in the tradition of all imperialist wars. Gadhafi’s forces were demonized even though he was George Bush’s praised leader little more than a year ago. But much of the media hyperbole aimed at justifying the U.S. war proved to say more about the TNC than it did about Gadhafi.

The Aug. 14 New York Times article entitled “Waves of Disinformation and Confusion Swamp the Truth in Libya” is revealing not so much in its ridiculing of Gadhafi’s statements that he would “fight to the last soldier” but rather because a few skeptical reporters provided a rare glimpse into TNC politics. “The rebels have offered their own far-fetched claims, like mass rapes by loyalist troops issued tablets of Viagra.

Although the rebels have not offered credible proof, their claim is nonetheless the basis of an investigation by the International Criminal Court.”

Furthermore, says The Times: “And there is the mantra, with racist overtones, that the Qadaffi government is using African mercenaries, which rebels repeat as fact over and over. There have been no confirmed cases of that; supposedly there are many African prisoners of war held in Bengazi, but conveniently journalists are not allowed to see them. There are, however, African guest workers, poorly paid migrant labor, many of whom, unarmed, have been labeled mercenaries.”

The Times has referred to this anti-Black African racism promoted by TNC spokespersons on several occasions, as if to caution the “rebel” leaders that it counters the democratic image they have been encouraged to promote.

What lessons can be drawn from the impending imperialist victory in Libya? First and foremost, as the mass mobilizations in Egypt and Tunisia and now Libya have more than amply demonstrated, there are no shortcuts—not to mention imperialist interventions—in defeating dictators. The construction of mass revolutionary socialist parties, deeply rooted in the organizations and struggles of the masses for equality and freedom, is the first prerequisite to victory. There will be no sustained victories against capitalist regimes, liberal or dictatorial, unless these are complemented by coordinated struggles on a regional, if not international, basis.

Second, imperialist interventions in all of their manifestations must be vehemently opposed. The right of self-determination of all oppressed nations, even those led by heinous dictators, must be supported as against imperialist interventions. Imperialism’s defeat in any confrontation with oppressed nations weaktions and crisis-prone tendencies of global capitalism. Today Greece is the victim. Tomorrow the same is likely to happen in Spain and Italy.

Similarly, the measures themselves— along with the new loan package of the EU, the IMF, and private banks—tighten the chokehold of debt. The total debt Greece has committed to pay off for the next 30 years has been dramatically increased. The interest alone reaches a height of 450 billion €, which is far above the current total debt of 350 billion.

At an average interest rate of 5 percent, the Greek budget will have to pay €15 billion annually simply to cover interest payments. In this way, the treaty on “international economic control” that was completed with the Memorandum and the Midterm Program is being extended dramatically.

The overseers of the international institutions, the Troika, will continue their activity in the coming decades to enforce and monitor a relentless austerity policy, along with the selling off of public enterprises and state property. Greece remains the laboratory for the application of the most aggressive capitalist neoliberal prescriptions.

The Papandreou government has chosen to pursue the most brutal attacks on the living standards of broad popular layers. To illustrate the scale of these atby 6% of GDP, but now, with the Memorandum No. 2, a reduction by 10% is required. During the entire term of the current policies, therefore, we will see no “growth” and no “wealth.” There will simply be further Memoranda and more Midterm Programs, tougher austerity, rising unemployment, “internal devaluation,” more privatization, and a continuing policy of social destruction.

Precisely for this reason there can be only one answer at the present time: The resolute and complete reversal of this policy—i.e., the fall of the PASOK government and of the right-wing “New Democracy,” which again would like to take the helm, plus the fall of the entire political system composed of “willing” representatives of this cruel policy. The massive uprising in recent months by broad segments of the population, the general strikes and the great movement to occupy public squares need to continue to the point where it becomes uncontrolable.

The next steps must lead to the immediate organization of resistance to fend off attacks by Health Minister Loverdos and Minister of Education Diamantopoulou, aimed at leveling the hospitals and schools, also to prevent the selling off of state-run enterprises, new pay cuts, and the layoffs in public and private sectors.

The “social bankruptcy” the rulers want to impose on us must be opposed with Agence France-Presse / Getty Images ens its capacity for future interventions and opens the door wider for others to follow suit. While revolutionary socialists have every right and obligation to criticize and oppose dictatorships everywhere, these criticisms are subordinate to the defeat of imperialist intervention and war. Revolutionaries are not neutral in such confrontations. We are always for the defeat of the imperialist intervener and would-be colonizer.

A critical element in the program of the United National Antiwar Coalition is opposition to any and all U.S. intervention. UNAC is united in organizing massive mobilizations to demand “Bring All U.S./NATO Troops, Mercenaries and War Contractors Home Now!” Its constituent organizations have a variety of views, which are sometimes conflicting, on the regimes of many countries, from Iran to Libya, as well as Iraq and Afghanistan. These differences are properly addressed by the various constituent organizations’ publications and activities. But the basis of unity in action, of the united-front-type formations that are critical to the organization of the masses to stay the hand of the imperialist warmakers, is defense of the right of self-determination of all oppressed nations—even those headed by hated dictators.

We live in deeply troubled and contradictory times— in which the worldwide capitalist offensive remains largely unchallenged on a scale necessary to change the present relationship of forces. But history repeatedly demonstrates that the working-class majority will once again rise to challenge its oppressors and once again boldly pose the question of which power shall rule—theirs, in the interest of the tiny parasitic few or ours, in the interest of all humanity.

Today, the imperialist-led war in Libya continues, with massive NATO bombing supporting the TNC troops’ efforts to conquer pro-Gadhafi cities. But we are compelled to recognize the tragic truth that a severe defeat has been inflicted on the Libyan people. To Square in Tripoli.

sented by the mass mobilization: • Immediate withdrawal from the Memorandum and the Midterm Program! A relentless fight against their practical implementation! • Immediate suspension of payments on the debt and debt cancellation! • Withdrawal from the Euro! Anti-capitalist disengagement from the EU! • Nationalize the banks and corporations under workers’ control! No to the privatizations; no to the sale of public enterprises and public property; no to environmental destruction in the name of “investors” and “debt repayment”! • Radical redistribution of social wealth in favor of the workers! Prohibition of layoffs! • Escalate the battle; expand the strikes; for the emergence of a workers’ and popular movement and the unity in action of the left to promote radical change and the overthrow of the existing conditions; for the emergence of a genuinely anticapitalist and revolutionary left!

Such an approach is required if we want to open the road to a genuine alternative. The combination of a new round of actions by the militant trade-union movement with a broad mobilization of those involved in the occupations of public spaces can create new organs of militant action and of self-organization by activists against the rotten bourgeois political system.

The militants of ANTARSYA and of the anti-capitalist left will participate with all their energy in this great struggle. n ANTARSYA is an alliance of the anticapitalist revolutionary left in Greece. This article was translated by Andreas Kloke.

(Left) Pro-TNC soldiers stand guard at Martyrs our sisters and brothers in Libya, we can merely assert that the crisis-ridden imperialist beast can only provide new opportunities to build fighting mass movements and the essential mass revolutionary socialist parties capable of uniting all the oppressed in a common struggle against imperialism and all its agents. The Libyan masses will rise again!

In contrast to the massive mobilizations during the Arab Spring in North Africa that forced the ouster of hated dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, the Libyan people are saddled with an even greater evil—direct neo-colonial intervention into their country’s affairs.

This is not to say that the victories won by the Egyptian and Tunisian masses are secure. Imperialism’s satraps continue to rule in these nations in the form of the still-powerful military regimes. The work of revolutionaries in Egypt and Tunisia is far from completed. Indeed, it has just begun. Whatever space has been opened by the massive mobilizations can and will be quickly closed if the still-existing capitalist state power remains in place. The coming revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, and in all other nations, can only be secured with the abolition of the capitalist system, whose inherent logic is oppression, war, and destruction.

Today the imperialist boot is on the ground in Libya and deeply implanted. The Libyan masses have not been liberated. Thousands have been killed. Imperialism’s sights are now focused on doing the same in Syria and eventually in Iran. The liberation struggle in these countries also rests in the development of mass revolutionary socialist parties there, not with imperialism’s “humanitarian” interventions and not with any reliance on the present entrenched and brutal local capitalist exploiters.

Here in the United States, we must restate our revolutionary obligation to the world’s people to oppose our own imperialist government and all its wars, and to warn once again that American imperialism is incapable of serving anyone’s interests other than the elite ruling-class few. The Obama administration is a glaring example of this fundamental truth. It has exceeded the Bush administration in virtually every measure with regard to the attacks on workers at home and abroad. Any illusion that it is capable of doing otherwise will prove fatal to the coming mass struggles that will challenge the capitalist system as never before.

• Bring the Troops Home Now: Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan!

• Stop the U.S./NATO War on Libya! Imperialist Troops, Warships, Aircraft, Mercenaries Out Now!

• Self-determination for All Oppressed Peoples! n