The
Greek people’s efforts to end the economic depression, recover their
sovereignty and reverse the regressive socio-economic policies, which
have drastically reduced living standards, have been thrice denied.
First, the denial came as tragedy: When
the Greek majority elected Syriza to government and their debts
increased, the economy plunged further into depression and unemployment
and poverty soared. The Greek people voted for Syriza believing its
promises of ‘a new course’. Immediately following their victory, Syriza reneged on their promise to restore sovereignty –
and end the subjugation of the Greek people to the economic dictates of
overseas bankers, bureaucrats and political oligarchs. Instead Syriza
kept Greece in the oligarchical imperialist bloc, portraying the
European Union as an association of independent sovereign countries.
What began as a great victory of the Greek people turned into a tragic
strategic retreat. From their first day in office, Syriza led the
Greek people down the blind alley of total submission to the German
empire.
Then the tragedy turned into farce when the Greek people refused to
acknowledge the impending betrayal by their elected leaders. They were
stunned, but mute, as Syriza emptied the Greek treasury and offered even
greater concessions, including acceptance of the illegal and odious
debts incurred by private bankers, speculators and political kleptocrats
in previous regimes.
True to their own vocation as imperial overlords, the EU bosses saw
the gross servility of Syriza as an invitation to demand more
concessions – total surrender to perpetual debt peonage and mass
impoverishment. Syriza’s demagogic leaders, Yanis Varoufakis and Alexis
Tsipras, shifting from fits of hysteria to infantile egotism, denounced
‘
the Germans and their blackmail’ and then performed a coy belly-crawl at the feet of the ‘Troika’, peddling their capitulation to the bankers as ‘
negotiations’ and referring to their overlords as . . . ‘
partners’.
Syriza, in office for only 5 months brought Greece to the edge of total bankruptcy and surrender, then launched the ‘
mother of all deceptions’ on the Greek people: Tsipras convoked a ‘
referendum’ on
whether Greece should reject or accept further dictates and cuts to
bare bones destitution. Over 60% of the Greek people voted a resounding
NO to further plunder and poverty.
In Orwellian fashion, the megalomaniac Tsipras immediately
re-interpreted the ‘NO’vote as a mandate to capitulation to the imperial
powers, accepting the EU bankers’ direct supervision of the regime’s
implementation of Troika’s policies – including drastic reductions of
Greek pensions, doubling the regressive ‘VAT’ consumption tax on vital
necessities and a speed-up of evictions of storeowners and householders
behind in their mortgage payments. Thus Greece became a vassal state:
Nineteenth century colonialism was re-imposed in the 21
st century.
Colonialism by Invitation
Greek politicians, whether Conservative or Socialist, have openly sought to join the German-led
imperial bloc known
as the European Union, even when it was obvious that the Greek economy
and financial system was vulnerable to domination by the powerful
German ruling class.
From the beginning, the Greek Panhellenic Socialist Party (
PASOK) and their Conservative counterparts refused to recognize the
class basis of
the European Union. Both political factions and the Greek economic
elites, that is, the kleptocrats who governed and the oligarchs who
ruled, viewed entry into the EU as an opportunity for taking and faking
loans, borrowing, defaulting and passing their enormous debts on to the
public treasury!
Widely circulating notions among the Left that ‘
Germany is responsible’ for
the Greek crisis are only half true, while the accusations among
rightwing financial scribes that the ‘Greek people are spendthrifts’ who
brought on their own crisis is equally one-sided. The reality is more
complex:
The crash and collapse of the Greek economy was a product of an entrenched parasitic rentier ruling
class –both Socialist and Conservative – which thrived on borrowing at
high interest rates and speculating in non-productive economic
activities while imposing an astronomical military budget. They engaged
in fraudulent overseas financial transactions while grossly
manipulating and fabricating financial data to cover-up Greece’s
unsustainable trade and budget deficits.
German and other EU exporters had penetrated and dominated the Greek
markets. The bankers charged exorbitant interest rates while investors
exploited cheap Greek labor. The creditors ignored the obvious
risks because Greek rulers were their willing accomplices in the ongoing pillage.
Clearly entry into and continued membership in the EU has largely
benefited two groups of elites: the German rulers and the Greek
rentiers: The latter received short-term financial grants and transfers
while the former gained powerful levers over the banks, markets and,
most important, established cultural-ideological hegemony over the Greek
political class. The Greek elite and middle class believed ‘
they were Europeans’ – that the EU was a beneficent arrangement and a source of prosperity and upward mobility. In reality, Greek
leaders were merely
accomplices to the German conquest of Greece. And the major part of the middle class aped the views of the Greek elite.
The financial crash of 2008-2009 ended the illusions for some but not most Greeks. After 6 years of pain and suffering
a new version of the old political class came
to power: Syriza! Syriza brought in new faces and rhetoric but operated
with the same blind commitment to the EU. The Syriza leadership
believed they were “
partners”.
The road to vassalage is rooted deep in the psyche of the political
class. Instead of recognizing their subordinate membership in the EU as
the root cause of their crisis, they blamed ‘
the Germans, the bankers, Angela Merkel, Wolfgang Schnauble , the IMF, the Troika... The Greek rulers and middle class were in fact both victims and accomplices.
The German imperial regime loaned money from the tax revenues of
German workers to enable their complicit Greek vassals to pay back the
German bankers… German workers complained. The German media deflected
criticism by blaming the ‘
lazy Greek cheats’. Meanwhile, the
Greek oligarch-controlled media deflected criticism of the role of the
parasitical political class back to the ‘
Germans’. This all
served to obscure the class dynamics of empire building — colonialism by
invitation. The ideology of blaming peoples, instead of classes, is
pitting German workers against Greek employees and pensioners. The
German masses support their bankers, while the Greek masses have elected
and followed Syriza – their traitors.
From Andreas Papandreou to Alexis Tsipras: Misconceptions about the European Union
After Syriza was elected a small army of instant experts, mostly
leftist academics from Canada, the US and Europe, sprang up to write and
speak, usually with more heat than light, on current Greek political
and economic developments. Most have little knowledge or experience of
Greek politics, particularly its
history and relations with the EU over the past thirty five years.
The most important policy decisions shaping the current Syriza
government’s betrayal of Greek sovereignty go back to the early 1980’s
when I was working as an adviser to PASOK Prime Minister Andreas
Papandreou. At that time, I was party to an internal debate of whether
to continue within the EU or leave. Papandreou was elected on an anti
EU, anti NATO platform, which, like Tsipras, he promptly reneged on–
arguing that ‘
there were no alternatives’. Even then, there
were international and Greek academic sycophants, as there are today,
who argued that membership in the EU was the only realistic alternative-
it was the ‘
only possibility’. The ‘
possibilistas” at that time, operating either from ignorance or deceit, were full of bluster and presumption. They
denied the underlying power
realities in the
structure of
the EU and dismissed the class capacity of the working and popular
masses to forge an alternative. Then, as now, it was possible to
develop independent alternative
relations with
Europe, Russia, China, the Middle East and North Africa. The
advantages of maintaining a protected market, a robust tourist sector
and an independent monetary system were evident and did not require EU
membership (or vassalage).
Above all, what stood out in both leaders, Andreas Papandreou and Alexis Tsipras, was their profound
misconception of the
class nature of the
dominant forces in
the EU. In the 1980’s Germany was just beginning to recover its
imperial reach. By the time Syriza-Tsipras rose to power (January
2015), Germany’s imperial power was undeniable. Tsipras’
misunderstanding of this reality can be attributed to his and his ‘
comrades’ rejection
of class and imperial analyses. Even academic Marxists, who spouted
Marxist theory, never applied their abstract critiques of capitalism and
imperialism to the concrete realities of German empire building and
Greece’s quasi-colonial position within the EU. They viewed their role
as that of ‘
colonial reformers’ –imagining that they were clever enough to ‘negotiate’ better terms in the German-centered EU. They
inevitably failed because
Berlin had a built-in majority among its fervently neo-liberal
ex-communist satellites plus the IMF, French and English imperial
partners. Syriza was no match for this power configuration. Then there
was the bizarre delusion among the Syriza intellectuals that
European capitalism was
more benign than the US version.
EU membership has created scaffolding for German empire-building.
The take off point was West Germany’s annexation of East Germany. This
was soon followed by the
incorporation of
the rightwing regimes in the Baltic and Balkans as subordinate members
of the EU – their public assets were snapped up by Germany corporations
at bargain prices. The third step was the systematic break-up of
Yugoslavia and the incorporation of Slovenia into the German orbit. The
fourth step was the takeover of key sectors of the Polish and Czech
economies and the exploitation of cheap skilled labor from Bulgaria,
Romania, Hungary and other satellite states.
Without firing a shot, German empire-building has revolved around
making loans and financial transfers to the new subordinate member
states in the EU. These financial transactions were predicated upon
the following conditions: 1) Privatization and sale of the new member
states’ prized public assets to mainly German as well as other EU
investors and 2) Forcing member states to dismantle their social
programs, approve massive lay-offs and meet impossible fiscal targets.
In other words, expansion of the contemporary German empire required
austerity measures, which transformed the ex-communist countries into
satellites, vassals and sources of mercenaries – a pattern which is now
playing out in Greece.
The reason these new German ‘colonies’ (especially Poland and the
Baltic States) insist on the EU imposing harsh austerity measures on
Greece, is that they went through the same brutal process convincing
their own beleaguered citizens that there was no alternative –
resistance was futile. Any successful demonstration by Greek workers,
farmers and employees that resistance to empire was possible would
expose the corrupt relationship between these client leaders and the
German imperial order. In order to preserve the foundations of the new
imperial order, Germany has had to take a hardline on Greece. Otherwise
the recently incorporated colonial subjects in the Baltic, Balkan and
Central Europe states might “re-think” the brutal terms of their own
incorporation to the European Union. This explains the openly punitive
approach to Greece – turning it into the ‘Haiti of Europe’ analogous to
the US’ long standing brutalization of the rebellious Haitians – as an
object lesson to its own Caribbean and Latin American clients.
The root cause of German intransigence has nothing to do with the
political personalities or quirks of Angela Merkle and Wolfgang
Schnauble: Such imperial leaders do not operate out of neurotic
vindictiveness. Their demand for total Greek submission is an
imperative of German empire-building, a continuation of the step-by-step conquest of Europe.
German empire-building emphasizes economic conquests, which go
hand-in-hand with US empire-building based on military conquests. The
same economic satellites of Germany also serve as sites for US military
bases and exercises encircling Russia; these vassal states provide
mercenary soldiers for US imperial wars in South Asia, Iraq, Syria and
elsewhere.
Syriza’s economic surrender is matched by its spineless sell-out to
NATO, its support of sanctions against Russia and its embrace of US
policies toward Syria, Lebanon and Israel.
Germany and its imperial partners have launched a savage attack on
the working people of Greece, usurping Greek sovereignty and planning to
seize 50 billion Euros of vital Greek public enterprises, land and
resources. This alone should dispels the myth, promoted especially by
the French social democratic demagogue Jacques Delores, that European
capitalism is a benign form of ‘
social welfarism’ and an ‘
alternative’ to the savage Anglo-American version capitalism.
What has been crucial to previous and current versions of
empire-building is the role of a political collaborator class
facilitating the transition to colonialism. Here is where social
democrats, like Alexis Tsipras, who excel in the art of talking left
while embracing the right, flatter and deceive the masses into deepening
austerity and pillage.
Instead of identifying the
class enemies within the EU and organizing an alternative working class program, Tsipras and his fellow collaborators pose as EU ‘
partners’ ,
fostering class collaboration – better to serve imperial Europe: When
the German capitalists demanded their interest payments, Tsipras bled
the Greek economy. When German capitalists sought to dominate Greek
markets, Tsipras and Syriza opened the door by keeping Greece in the
EU. When German capital wanted to supervise the take-over of Greek
properties, Tsipras and Syriza embraced the sell-off.
There is clear class collaboration within the Greek elite in the
destruction of nation’s sovereignty: Greek banker oligarchs and sectors
of the commercial and tourist
elite have acted as
intermediaries of the German empire builders and they personally
benefit from
the German and EU takeover despite the destitution of the Greek
public. Such economic intermediaries, representing 25% of the
electorate, have become the main political supporters of the
Syriza-Tsipras betrayal. They join with the EU elite applauding
Tsipras’ purge of left critics and his authoritarian seizure of
legislative and executive power! This collaborator class will never
suffer from pension cuts, layoffs and unemployment. They will never
have to line up at crippled banks for a humiliating dole of 65 Euros of
pension money. These collaborators have hundreds of thousands and
millions stashed in overseas bank accounts and invested in overseas real
estate. Unlike the Greek masses, they are ‘
European’ first and foremost – willing accomplices of German empire builders!
Tragic Beginnings: The Greek People Elect a Trojan Horse
Syriza is deeply rooted in Greek political culture .A leadership of
educated mascots serving overseas European empire-builders. Syriza is
supported by academic leftists who are remote from the struggles,
sacrifices and suffering of the Greek masses. Syriza’s leadership
emerged on the scene as ideological mentors and saviors with heady ideas
and shaky hands. They joined forces with downwardly mobile middle class
radicals who aspired to rise again via the traditional method: radical
rhetoric, election to office,
negotiations and
transactions with
the local and foreign elite and betrayal of their voters. Theirs is a
familiar political road to power, privilege and prestige. In this
regard, Tsipras personifies an entire generation of upwardly mobile
opportunists, willing and able to sellout Greece and its people. He
perpetuates the worst political traditions: In campaigns he promoted
consumerism over class consciousness (discarding any mobilization of the
masses upon election!). He is a useful fool, embedded in a culture of
clientelism, kleptocracy, tax evasion, predatory lenders and spenders –
the very reason his German overlords tolerated him and Syriza, although
on a short leash!
Tsipras’ Syriza has absolute contempt for democracy. He embraces the ‘
Caudillo Principle’: one man, one leader, one policy! Any dissenters invite dismissal!
Syriza has utterly submitted to imperial institutions, the Troika and
their dictates, NATO and above all the EU, the Eurozone. Tsipras/
Syriza reject outright independence and freedom from imperial dictates.
In his ‘
capitulation to the Germans’ Tsipra engaged in histrionic theatrics, but by his own
personal dictate, the massive ‘NO to EU’ vote was transformed into a YES.
The cruelest political crime of all has been Tsipras running down the
Greek economy, bleeding the banks, emptying the pension funds and
freezing everyday salaries while ‘
blaming the bankers’, in order to force the mass of Greeks to accept the savage dictates of his imperial overlords
or face utter destitution!
The Ultimate Surrender
Tsipras and his sycophants in Syriza, while constantly decrying
Greece’s subordination to the EU empire-builders and claiming
victimhood, managed to undermine the Greek people’s national
consciousness in less than 6 months. What had been a victorious
referendum and expression of rejection by three-fifths of the Greek
voters turned into a prelude to a
farcical surrender by empire collaborators. The
people’s victory
in the referendum was twisted to represent popular support for a
Caudillo. While pretending to consult the Greek electorate, Tsipras
manipulated the popular will into a mandate for his regime to push
Greece beyond debt peonage and into colonial vassalage.
Tsipras is a supreme representation of Adorno’s authoritarian personality:
On his knees to those above him, while at the throat of those below.
Once he has completed his task of dividing, demoralizing and
impoverishing the Greek majority, the local and overseas ruling elites
will discard him like a used condom, and he will pass into history as a
virtuoso in deceiving and betraying the Greek people.
Epilogue:
Syriza’s
embrace of hard-right foreign policies should not be seen as the ‘
result of outside pressure’, as its phony left supporters have argued, but rather a
deliberate choice. So far, the best example of the Syriza regime’s reactionary policies is its signing of a military agreement with Israel.
According to the
Jerusalem Post (July
19, 2015), the Greek Defense Minister signed a mutual defense and
training agreement with Israel, which included joint military
exercises. Syriza has even backed Israel’s belligerent position against
the Islamic Republic of Iran, endorsing Tel Aviv’s ridiculous claim
that Teheran represents a terrorist threat in the Middle East and
Mediterranean. Syriza and Israel have inked a mutual military support
pact that exceeds any other EU member agreement with Israel and is only
matched in belligerence by Washington’s
special arrangements with the Zionist regime.
Israel’s ultra-militarist ‘Defense’ Minister Moshe Yaalon, (the
Butcher of Gaza),
hailed the agreement and thanked the Syriza regime for ‘its support’.
It is more than likely that Syriza’s support for the Jewish state
explains its popularity with Anglo-American and Canadian ‘left’
Zionists…
Syriza’s strategic ties with Israel are not the result of EU ‘pressure’ or the dictates of the ‘Troika’.
The agreement is a radical reversal of over a half-century of Greek
support for the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people
against the Israeli terrorist state. This military pact, like the
Syriza regime’s economic capitulation to the German ruling class, is
deeply rooted in the ‘colonial ideology’, which permeates Tsipras’
policies. He has taken Greece a significant step ‘forward’ from
economic vassal to a mercenary client of the most retrograde regime in
the Mediterranean.
Translate
The investment future in China is cloudy these days.
The
U.S.
plans to step up cooperation with Turkey against ISIS in northern
Syria.
Specifically, American and Turkish warplanes will increase bombing runs
in an effort to create a 60-mile “buffer zone” along the Turkish
border.
They’ll coordinate the efforts with Syrian rebels on the ground in
hopes of increasing their effectiveness.