Wednesday 1 July 2015

Greece; hope versus fear

Rumours of rumours. The British Financial times has just dug up a letter from Tsipras (30 June) to the Troika offering concessions. Of course we already knew that the Greek government had made a last offer on June 30. They told us. Who has decided to make their letter today's news? Angela Merkel and the Troika. Why? because they think it will undermine confidence in Tsipras among voters in the referendum on Sunday to show he was making concessions.

The European Central Bank has already turned on the screws to shake the Greek public. Barely an hour goes by without another European political pipsqueak adding their (feather) weight to the endorsement of the rectitude of Europe's worthy bankers and their assorted political apologists. The Italian Finance Minister trooped on to BBC radio (Today, BBC 4) to repeat the agreed mantra, completely dodging the frustrated interveiwer's point -
'But surely everybody knows there has to be Greek debt relief.'
These people no longer engage even in the elementary economic realities, accepted now by the rest of the world, Greece will never pay the debts. Money that they never had. Greek people will permanently labour in decades of austerity, to meet the impossible goal of repayment. That is the EU offer. And Greeks are to suffer - so the rest of us learn who sets the rules.

Rich, privileged people, mainly from rich privileged families, whose greatest day to day fear is whether they will get the seat thay want in a restaurant, have an existential fear. How long are the rest of us going to put up with it? The Syriza speaker at a quickly arranged rally in London's Trafalger Square, June 30, told the hundreds there that she had spoken to her mother in Greece about which we she would vote in the referendum. Her mother had said
'I'm going to vote fuck off!'

That is the essence of Sunday's vote. A 'no' vote may mean much bigger concessions from the Troika, including on the debt question; it may mean that the EU leaders, with a scared look over their shoulders at the bond markets, decide Greece is out of the Euro - perhaps out of the EU - or a range of possibilities in between. In the latter case it will certainly be a tough couple of years to recreate a country and a currency that can build the sort of society that Greek people want. But what is the alernative? A 'yes' vote will mean the endless prospect of austerity, chained to an unbreakable weight of debt and a country ruled by Euro-bankers.

The real question is now a question of will; of hope over fear; of whether somebody in Europe can at last tell them to fuck off; of whether we can all join in.

The screws are tightening, but the last poll shows 57% say they are voting no.

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