From Paul Jay of The Real News Network, an interview with retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff for Colin Powell, about the disturbing rise of aggressive fundamentalist Christianity in the American military:
A transcript is posted here.
Posted in Culture, Governance, GWOT, Human behavior, Intolerance, Military, Politics, Video, Warfare
From Deutsche Welle, alarming evidence of the resurgence among the young [especially in the former East Germany] of xenophobia to levels held by folks raised under the swastika flag. Click on the image to embiggen:
Posted in Culture, Ethnicity, Europe, History, Intolerance
The first time we heard the line from The Wizard of Oz, we laughed, being of that same peculiar species.
Kansas, once the home of abolitionist John Brown [a fact seemingly forgotten by Barack Obama and the mainstream media when Barry O launched his re-election campaign in Brown's former home base of Osawotamie], has a mixed history when it comes to people with higher melanin content in their skins.
We grew up in Abilene, the great-grandson of abolitionists who abandoned their pacifist Mennonite faith to wear the Union blue in the Civil War. Though nearby Wichita’s school system was segregated, leading to the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, Abilene’s schools were integrated, largely because there were too few darker-skinned people to build separate schools. The swimming pool, however, was white only, a fact never advertised by nonetheless well known except to young children like esnl, who were told only that “Negroes don’t like to swim.”
But the language of bigotry was universal. We were perhaps nine years old before we learned that what folks called “Nigger Toes” in Abilene were called Brazil Nuts in more genteel society. And when choosing up sides, every kid used the old formula, “Eenie, meenie, minie, moe, catch a nigger by the toe. . .”
The nearest town to Abilene of any size was Salina, less than 25 miles away, and the source of frequent visits because our maternal grandmother lived there. It was also the home of the nearest movie palace, where “usherettes” clad in microskirts and tights escorted you to your seats with flashlights equipped with long translucent tubes that emitted a soft, warm orange glow. They also brought your drinks, popcorn, and candy to your seats, carried in trays suspended by straps from their necks.
The usherettes are long gone, but a story in the Salina Journal reveals that some of the attitudes we recall from childhood still remain.
Consider the case of Saline County Commissioner Jim Gile, who’s in hot water for accusing fellow commissioner John Price of “nigger-rigging” plans to repair the county’s Road and Bridge Department building:
In a recording made by County Clerk Don Merriman of the study session, Gile, who is white, can be heard to say the county needed to hire an architect to design the improvements rather than “nigger-rigging it.”
His comment brought laughter from others in the room. Salinan Ray Hruska, who attends most commission meetings and study sessions, asked Gile what he said.
“Afro-Americanized,” Gile replied.
When pressed about his comment later, the Journal reports, Giles responded, “I am not a prejudiced person. I have built Habitat homes for colored people.”
Well, that certainly clears things up, doesn’t it?
Posted in Culture, Film, History, Human behavior, Idiocy, Intolerance, Politics, Race
From the London Telegraph:
Europe’s leaders paralysed as EMU jobless rate hits record high
Eurozone unemployment reached a record 12pc in February and looks certain to ratchet higher as fiscal cuts deepen and manufacturing continues to struggle, raising the spectre of social explosion across southern Europe
From the London Daily Mail:
U.S. sees highest poverty spike since the 1960s, leaving 50 million Americans poor as government cuts billions in spending… so does that mean there’s no way out?
Pregnant women ‘more likely to miscarry as result of cuts to Government spending’
Extreme poverty could be wiped out by 2030, World Bank estimates show
World Bank head speaks of ‘auspicious moment in history’ amid criticism rhetoric is not being matched with detailed policies
IMF wants faster home repossessions
Golden Dawn wants death penalty for violent migrants
From Keep Talking Greece:
German policemen at Greek airports to check travellers bound to Germany
From a stunning and very perceptive 1999 report by Robert Fishman for Fannie Mae Housing Facts & Findings on the trends shaping of American cities, past and future.
The number one trend he saw for the first half of the 21st Century is proving right on the money:
The past 30 years have seen increasing concentrations of income and wealth at the top of the income scale, relative stagnation in the middle, and worsening poverty at the bottom. Our respondents expect this trend to continue in the next 50 years, with possible dire consequences for American cities and regions. For growing disparities in income and wealth lead inevitably to an increasingly divided metropolis. If, as our respondents believe, these growing disparities of wealth will become the most important single influence on the American metropolis in the next 50 years, some of the negative consequences are detailed in the rest of the top 10 list: a perpetual “underclass” in central cities and inner-ring suburbs and the deterioration of the “first-ring” post-1945 suburb, as the struggling portions of the middle and working classes find themselves trapped in deteriorating older suburbs. On the wealthier side of the great metropolitan divide, we are likely to see the winners in our “winner-take-all society” isolate themselves in gated communities or other exclusive preserves at the edge of the region.
Other likely trends include a home-building industry increasingly focused on high-end “trophy houses” or “tract mansions;” a similar concentration in retailing on upscale malls; office parks located near the enclaves where the top executives live-locations that often leave the bulk of the employees with long, difficult commutes; and increasing disparities between the quality of the school systems and other services in elite suburbs versus less-favored suburbs and inner cities. We are also likely to see new building focused not just on the outer edge of a region but in certain “quadrants” favored by the affluent: for example, in Washington, DC, the Northwest; in Minneapolis-St. Paul, the Southwest; in Atlanta and Chicago, the North. For the affluent who choose to live in gentrified neighborhoods in central cities, the rule of isolation will also obtain, as the wealthy use the techniques of privatization, ranging from private schools to special tax-and-service districts, to insulate themselves from the urban crisis around them.
Posted in Class, Community, Corpocracy, Culture, Development, Economy, Education, Ethnicity, Finance, Governance, History, Intolerance, Labor, Politics, Poverty, Resources, Schools, Wealth
From Britain’s Channel 4, a short, disturbing portrait of the neo-Nazi party that has gained in popularity in Greece as the economic crisis deepens:
The program notes:
Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn is increasingly influential among members of the country’s political mainstream. Student Konstantinos Georgousis filmed party members on the streets of Athens.ational Film and Television School student Konstantinos Georgousis spent a month with the organisation last summer, as Greece hovered on the abyss, for his documentary film The Cleaners.Writing about his experience of making the film, Mr Georgousis says: “I walked through every nook and cranny in the centre of Athens to find these Golden Dawn members.
Keep Talking Greece reports today on what happened next:
The tolerance towards the incredible racism expressed by members of extreme-right party Golden Dawn was of very short duration. Hours after the video started to flood Greek media and internet sites, police intervened and sent the excerpts from the documentary broadcast on UK Channel 4 News to the prosecutor.
The Department against Racial Violence of Greek Police sent some excerpts from the documentary to the prosecutor in Athens.
“In the excerpts sent to prosecutor, an MP candidate for the parliament elections on the list of Golden Dawn speaks about migrants with threatening expressions such as “We are ready to open the ovens. Because soaps are nice… “Soaps to wash the cars, soaps to clean the sidewalks…, “some table lamps out of their skin…”, “take some teeth…” (o Vima )
According to SKAI TV, authorities are seeking the MP-candidate, while the prosecutor asked to watch the whole documentary. The politician in spe could face felony charges for violating the racism law.
Greek student Konstantinos Georgousis filmed “The Cleaners -the true face of Golden Dawn” during summer 2012. He spent a month going through the streets of Athens.
Posted in Crime, Culture, Ethnicity, Europe, Governance, Intolerance, Politics, Video
From The Independent:
Amazon ‘used neo-Nazi guards to keep immigrant workforce under control’ in Germany
Posted in Corpocracy, Europe, Intolerance
While police and government officials are relieved the apparent fiery death of fired Los Angeles Police Officer Christopher Dorner, California historian and UC Riverside Professor of Creative Writing Mike Davis offers some qualifications, writing at the London Review of Books Blog:
Perhaps his brain synapses have been misfiring for a long time, but the core of Dorner’s Manifesto is a coherent account of how a police Explorer Scout realised his life’s dream as a LAPD rookie and then had his reputation and career destroyed for being an honest cop. He debunks the myth – propagated by the LA Times, Mayor Villaraigosa, and most of the liberal establishment – that thanks to Saint Bratton a kinder, gentler and more diverse LAPD now protects and serves Los Angeles.
Indeed Dorner’s eye-witness account of routine sadism, racism and conspiracy in the department is totally in line with its historical institutional culture and was inadvertently fact-checked by the LAPD’s wild shooting of two innocent women and Chief Beck’s kneejerk exculpation of the officers involved. (Those who think that there are no more Rodney Kings should look carefully at the case of the LAPD patrol woman who killed a mentally ill woman last summer by stomping on her genitals.)
Posted in Crime, Culture, Governance, Intolerance, Law, MSM, Politics
A 1979 documentary directed by Stewart Bird and Deborah Shaffer features a remarkable series of interviews with veterans of the IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World — a remarkable and brutally suppressed effort to create a new form of union.
What’s especially delightful is the youthful, enduring spirit that shines through the aging faces and resonates through their voices as they recall their participation in a movement that had given them a vision of a brighter, more harmonious future:.
And note also that the movement was destroyed in an early 20th Century version of the war on terror in which the activists were portrayed as slaves of an alien ideology deserving of the application of extrajudicial military force and none of the constitutional rights that would apply did crisis not prevail.
The full DVD is available here.
And the IWW’s still here.
From Wikipedia.
From The Independent, a headline recalling this:
Israel gave birth control to Ethiopian Jews without their consent
Posted in Culture, Governance, Intolerance, Mideast, Politics
From The Guardian:
Racial prejudice in US worsened during Obama’s first term, study shows
Number of Americans with implicit anti-black sentiments jumped to 56%, up from 49% during the last presidential election
Posted in Governance, History, Intolerance, Politics
Xenophobia flourishes in times of economic crisis, as desperation drives the economically marginalized to seek scapegoats for their misery.
In Greece, the crisis has sparked the rise of a once marginal party to national prominence, a party that evokes the same tropes and symbols as their brown-shirted German predecessors [including the Hitler salute].
What follows are two videos on the phenomenon.
From Journeyman Pictures: Backlash – Greece
From Journeyman Pictures:
As the crisis deepens in Greece immigrants have been facing a harsh crackdown by the government. And with chaos across the country, the far right party Golden Dawn are implementing their own violent backlash.
“Get out! This is my country!”, one angry local shouts. For immigrants, Greece is no longer the land of hope and opportunity it once was. In Athens they’re being rounded up by police and thrown into overcrowded detention centres. The system is chaotic and the European Court of Human Rights has recently condemned the centres for their appalling conditions. Meanwhile, the far right group Golden Dawn has sought to capitalise on Greeks’ growing discontent with violent attacks, which many Greek police seemingly turn a blind eye to. “They will kill me. I’ve become afraid for myself”, says a terrified business owner from Cameroon. In the push to round up illegal immigrants genuine asylum seekers are also suffering. One such group of refugees fled the fighting in Syria only to be firebombed by local thugs. “If we knew we would have stayed in Syria”, they say from the flat they don’t dare to leave. With Greece in the grip of increasingly violent conflicts, is the country on the brink of disaster?
The Unstoppable Rise of Golden Dawn
From vlogger EuropeanWatchman2, a pro-Golden Dawn video:
Note that chant intoned by the crowd: Blood! Honor! Golden Dawn!
While the party’s leader claims the group isn’t neo-Nazi, we would point out that the motto of the Hitler Youth was Blut und Ehre, blood and honor.
Note also that the first and foremost of the Nuremberg Laws, enacted by decree on 15 September 1935, was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor [Das Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre].
Blut und Ehre was also the title of a key ideological tract of Alfred Ernst Rosenberg, the Baltic German who was one of the earliest Nazi Party members who became head of the party’s foreign policy office, chief of it’s ideological purity arm, and Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories after the invasion of the Soviet Union. He was also author of the seminal Nazi ideological tract, Der Mythus des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts and provided the ideological justification for slaughtering Jews, Sinti, Roma, and other “subhumans” — a term also recently invoked by the wife of Golden Dawn’s leader when describing immigrants.
But they’re not Nazis, right?
Posted in Class, Culture, Europe, Governance, History, Intolerance, Politics, Video
The presidential foreign policy debate was dominated by one single issue: Whether Mitt Romney or Barack Obama would do the most for Israel.
As Stephen Colbert commented the next day, “I was playing a drinking game last night where I took a shot of Manischevitz every time someone said Israel, and by the end of the debate I was totally diabetic.”
So today we offer videos offering alternative views on that most contentious of issues.
How We Can Solve The Palestinian Israeli Problem
Sami Moukaddem, a writer and musician born in Lebanon and trained in psychology at Trinity College Dublin, writes that “In 2009 I bought a video camera with no training in film making and embarked upon making a documentary on the Palestinian/Israel problem.”
From the film’s website:
This film is about equality, which makes me on everybody’s side. It’s my belief that oppression harms the humanity of the oppressed as well as the humanity of the oppressor. While this happens in different ways, ultimately, I believe we’re all in this together.
While emotionally I resonate more with the oppressed, my aim is to find ways to empower the oppressed, and also inspire both societies of the oppressor and colluding societies, so that all are moving towards equality.
Among the interviewees are Denis J. Halliday [former United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq], British journalist Jonathan Cooke, Palestinian activist Omar Barghouti, Israeli economist Shir Hever, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Maguire, Noam Chomsky, former British intelligence [MI6] officer Alastair Crooke, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, and Holocaust survivor Hajo Meyer [who draws some ominous historical parallels].
It’s a warm, poignant, and ultimately hopeful story, and well worth your time.
H/T to Moussequetaire.
America’s Secretary of State, Benjamin Netanyahu?
A remarkable video featuring University of Chicago political scientist and international relations expert John J. Mearsheimer examining the sad subservience of Barack Obama to the agenda set by the Israeli prime minister.
The talk was delivered earlier this month at Koç University in Istanbul.
It’s a stunning and informative talk, revealing the extent of a foreign power’s control over the American foreign policy agenda, and the abject surrender of the national political establishment.
H/T to Pulse.
Mearsheimer also delivered a second address at the university, “Realism and the Rise of China,” which can be viewed here.
And a bonus video. . .
Here’s a White House video from May, 2011, of Obama and Netayahu illustrating Mearsheimer’s remarks. Pay close attention to the body language, both postures and gestures.
Posted in Deep Politics, Geopolitics, Governance, History, Intolerance, Mideast, Military, Politics, Video, Warfare
In the most bizarre day since the start of the Greek crisis, a welter of conflicting news reports left Greeks and observers like esnl reeling.
The bombshell beginning the day was an announcement from a German newspaper that the Greek coalition had won its desideratum, a two-year extension of the time needed to implement those draconian cuts demanded by the IMF/EU/ECB Troika.
Accompanying that declaration was another: The cuts were a done deal.
Accounts filled the paper and virtual pages of the world’s press and media sites and were bandied about on the airwaves.
Yet by the time the day was over, both accounts had been denied by all three members of the Troika, even though they’d also been confirmed by the Greek finance minister following the Troika’s denials.
More specifics of the cuts emerged, as did more signs of division within the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
The German money minister really sent Greek heads spinning, first by by declaring he’d be ready to fund a third Greek bailout, then by demanding that Greeks cede control over the nation’s borrowing and surrender all tax cash collected bailout funds into a eurobankster-controlled escrow account. And on the subject of banks, Greek bank employees are on strike today.
In other news, Golden Dawn has added a new category to its target list, non-citizens attending Greek universities, while Golden Dawn itself is being targeted, with three of its most thuggish parliamentary delegates stripped of immunity for prosecution for their violent actions.
Oh, and some crooks tried to steal a bridge before the Troika could.
But we’ll begin with a two-part video on Greece from The Real News Network, first on the impacts of the austerity measures already imposed:
And following up with a report on the increasing radicalization of Greek politics:
For more reports from The Real News Network, see here.
German paper reports: Greece wins a delay
Spiegel reports on the source of the report on the extension:
Süddeutsche Zeitung is reporting that Greece’s international creditors have agreed to grant the heavily indebted country two more years to reduce its budget deficit below the 3 percent maximum allowed by European Union rules. While not citing sources beyond a draft version of a “Memorandum of Understanding,” the paper also reports that Athens will additionally be given a breather on deadlines for labor market reform, energy policy reform and privatization efforts.
It is unclear whether the draft deal seen by the Süddeutsche is the same paper that news agency Reuters claims also to have seen. The news agency is also reporting on Wednesday that Greece and its lenders are moving towards a deal that would give Greece two additional years, until 2016, to reach its target of achieving a “primary budget surplus” of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). A “primary budget” does not include interest payments on debt.
Berlin officials have been quick to deny the Süddeutsche report, saying that no agreement has been finalized. Steffen Kampeter, a state secretary in Germany’s Finance Ministry, insisted that no decision will be made until a report from the troika — made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — is completed. “Anything prior to that is reading tea leaves,” he told German radio on Wednesday morning.
Confirming the original German report was the Greek Finance Minister.
Andy Dabilis of Greek reporter has the details:
Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras told journalists a deal had been agreed with PASOK Socialist chief Evangelos Venizelos and Democratic Left head Fotis Kouvelis and with international lenders, with the package set to go before the government-controlled Parliament by the end of the week, the newspaper Kathimerini said.
>snip<
Stournaras told Parliament that Greece had won more time to meet its fiscal targets and to reduce its deficit from 9.3 to 3 percent. He didn’t say how long the reprieve would be but media reports indicated it was the two years, until 2016, that Samaras had hoped for, although it’s unsure how Greece would be funded after 2014. Stournaras said without the extension the spending cut and tax hike plan would have reached nearly $24 billion.
Troikarchs deny extension claims
The first two denials came from the boss eurobankster, followed by the European Union’s top money man.
From ANSAmed:
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Wednesday said that progress is being made over how to assist crisis-stricken Greece.
Answering a reporter’s question after he appeared before the German Parliament, in the wake of a Greek minister saying an extension had been granted by the troika of the EU, ECB and IMF, Draghi said: ‘’Progress has been made but there are things which need to be defined. I can’t comment on rumors”.
A spokesman for European Economic and Monetary Commissioner Olli Rehn echoed Draghi, saying: “ Substantive progress has been made in the talks with the Greek government but there remain pending issues before an accord at a technical level can be concluded”.
Draghi and Rehn were responding to a report from Greece’s Skai TV that Athens had obtained a two-year extension from the troika on the deadlines to hit the targets set in conditions for international aid it needs to avoid a default.
The IMF then joined in the denials.
From Agence France-Presse:
The International Monetary Fund announced Wednesday that there had been progress in talks with Greek authorities but no agreement on Greece’s economic performance under an IMF-EU rescue program.
“There has been progress in recent days, but some outstanding issues remain to be agreed upon to reach full staff-level agreement. Furthermore, financing issues will be discussed between the official lenders and Greece,” an IMF spokesperson said.
The brief IMF statement confirmed the European Union’s insistence earlier in the day that there was no deal, after Greece’s finance minister announced he had agreed on a new austerity package with the IMF, the EU and the European Union and won more time to fix the debt-crippled nation’s finances.
Germany says no money till report card’s done
The folks with their hands on the purse strings appear to have been the folks who scotched the deal.
While nobody’s saying it officially, that’s the conclusion we draw from this paragraph from a report by Lefteris Papadimas and George Georgiopoulos of Reuters:
European paymaster Germany said the EU would only decide on the matter after receiving a report on Greece’s progress from the ‘troika’ of lenders – the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund – while ECB President Mario Draghi said no final decision had been made.
But even if Greece flunks, can the Troika afford not to dish out the latest €31.5 billion bailout tranche?
From Helena Smith of The Guardian:
“Even if the troika give us a negative report what are they going to do? Are they really going to not give us the installment ( to keep Greece’s debt-choked econony afloat) two weeks before the US elections with everything that entails – default, bankruptcy, global market turmoil,” asked one senior Greek official.
“These labour reforms will turn our country into Bangladesh. They have no fiscal benefit and will actually derail the adjustment program. The political system will collapse if we impose them. The Troika is demanding that we commit suicide which is why we believe this is a matter that should be solved on a political level by the PM and not here in Athens with the troika.”
More details emerge on Troika-demanded cuts
They’re draconian, as expected.
The Guardian lists some of the austerian measures included in the package:
Keep Talking Greece hones in on two measures certain to increase public outrage at both the Troikarchs and the coalition government:
And when you think ‘you’ve seen everything’, Greece’s lenders are always good for one or two additional surprises. Electricity bills will go up by 40% and public transport fares will increase by 25%. Yes. In times of harsh austerity, where many households struggle to make ends meet and the new austerity package will force millions deeper in despair.
Electricity
Electricity bill hikes will affect private households and small enterprises making use of ‘low voltage electricity’. The hikes of total 40% will be implemented in two or three steps and are expected to go in effect in Janurary 2013.
Public Transport Fares
Hikes will be at least by 25%. Cheap tickets for buses, tram and trolley will go up to 1.50 euro (from 1.20 today) and for Metro or combined for all public transport means will go up to 1.75 euro (from 1.40 today).
The public transport hikes will have to be implemented by March 2013.
Coalition divisions center on labor “reforms”
Once upon a time, the word “reform” was assumed to mean changes in government policy that enhanced its ability to serve its citizens.
No more.
In these days, when Orwellian language dominates public discourse, “reform” means changes in government structure designed to increase its ability to serve Continue reading
The cuts are on the way, with Wednesday set as the deadline for parliamentary approval. Last-minute negotiations over private sector pay and benefit cuts are being conducted by email.
Meanwhile, both Syriza and the fascist Golden Dawn are rising in public oipnion polls, with the radical left Syriza now outpolling coalition senior partner New Democracy and Golden Dawn drawing nearly three times as many nods as the formerly dominant Pasok.
Golden Dawn, meanwhile, is upping the political ante, invoking a favorite word — sub-human — often used by Hitler and his minions, and ferociously defending their use of the Nazi salute. Oh, and they’re threatening to resign from parliament when the cuts come up for a vote, a move that would trigger a new election.
Austerity-afflicted Greeks are abadoning the bodies of loved ones because they can’t afford the cost of burials, and violence is on the rise.
Capitulation to Troika by Wednesday
The Troika’s demands are the coalition’s wishes, and the deal’s all but done.
With €11.5 million in cuts and another €2 million in tax hikes, the package needed to release the next round of bailout cash means more job losses, closure of state agencies, and yet more enduring misery for the Greek people.
And it’s all being done to ensure the country gets the next €31.5 million bailout tranche.
From Ekathemerini:
Negotiations over the next few days are likely to focus on the details of structural reforms demanded by Greece’s lenders.
One of the stumbling blocks last week was the coalition government’s resistance to the troika’s request for compensation for sacked workers to be reduced and for automatic three-year pay rises to employees earning the minimum wage to be scrapped.
Sources told Sunday’s Kathimerini that the government is close to an agreement that would see employees who have been with the same employer for a minimum of 16 years maintain their right for compensation equal to 12 months pay. Athens has yet to agree with the troika on whether compensation should be capped beyond that. A decision over the automatic pay increases is also pending.
In terms of public sector dismissals, the government has proposed that 11,000 civil servants who have committed offenses or have been deemed unproductive be fired. However, it may have to agree to another 3,000 bureaucrats losing their jobs after the merging or closure of public bodies.
On Friday night, the Finance Ministry submitted a bill terminating the services of all the heads of departments at tax offices, customs and at the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE). New heads will be appointed following an evaluation, as requested by the troika.
According to a second Ekathemerini story, the coalition
is aiming to have the deal wrapped up by Thursday when the Euro Working Group meets. Eurozone technical officials will prepare an assessment on the Greek package that will be passed to finance ministers when they hold talks, possibly via teleconference, on October 29.
Greece will then strive to submit the measures to Parliament and vote on them by November 12, when the Eurogroup will hold its regular meeting. The government aims to give Parliament eight to nine days to debate the measures at a committee and plenary session level. This means the bills would have to be submitted to the House by November 3, so they could be voted on by midnight on November 11 at the latest.
More from Agence France-Presse:
The money is “vital” for Greece and is “crucial to get the economy moving again” and “meeting recurrent expenditure” such as pensions and wages, according to government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou interviewed on public television.
On Friday Samaras said in Brussels he was confident about the payment of the next installment by “the end of November” and about the adoption by the Greek parliament of new savings, while issuing a reminder that the country’s reserves are only adequate until November 16.
He said he was pleased by the “positive” statement by euro zone leaders who hailed Greece’s achievements in carrying out reforms aimed at getting its economy back on track and urged Athens to keep up efforts to stay in the eurozone.
While agreement has been reached that most of the savings will come from cuts in wages and pensions, talks are deadlocked on the steps to increase labour market flexibility demanded by the troika.
Fate of organized labor decided by email
Deciding on key issue about the fate of a nation’s private sector workforce and the folks who make the decisions have split town?
Just do it by email, the preferred communication of choice of the Men in Black.
From ANSAmed:
Talks between the Greek labour ministry and representatives of the troika (EU, ECB and IMF) on changes to private sector job contracts have resumed by email with representatives of the country’s international creditors who are putting pressure on the government, in particular, to cut by 50% redundancy payments in a retroactive measure starting on January 2012. The troika is also pushing for the reduction of the six-month lay-off notice to three months and the abolition of salary adjustments every three years.
Media in Athens reported that Labour Minister Yannis Vroutsis in a first email sent to the troika outlined the government’s proposal to leave the triennial salary adjustments unvaried because of their “immense political and social symbolic significance”.
The government also reportedly proposed to maintain redundancy payments for employees with a 16-year-long service.
Workers who are fired without notice currently get 12 months of pay. Those who have been employed for over 16 years and get up to 3,000 euros a month will get the same payment as today, under the cabinet’s proposal, while those with over 16 years of employment who earn more than 3,000 euros a month will get the same payments as those earning 3,000 euros.
Amazing, is it not, that the interests of private investors are granted the power, by supra-national organizations, to decide on the fate of private sector workers to ensure that the plutocrats get their last ounce of flesh?
The governments and the representatives of banksters conduct those negotiations by email is merely the crowning touch.
Syriza takes the lead in latest polls
The latest public opinion survey puts the leftist coalition in first place among the sentiments of Greek voters, topping New Democracy, the party of coalition Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
The other big gainer is the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, gaining nearly three times as many nods as the formerly dominant Pasok. Syriza and Golden Dawn are the most outspoken opponents of the austerity regime approved by Samaras’s coalition.
From Reuters:
Greece’s main opposition Syriza and the far-right Golden Dawn parties are surging in popularity among voters angry at a new wave of wage and pension cuts demanded by foreign lenders, a poll showed on Friday.
If elections were held today, Syriza would win with 30.5 percent of the vote compared with 27 percent for New Democracy, which leads the three-party coalition backing Greece’s foreign bailout, pollster VPRC said in a survey for the “Ellada Avrio” newspaper.
Greeks’ frustration with their political leaders has grown as the coalition prepares to push through the new round of austerity measures to appease lenders and secure more bailout aid and keep the country afloat.
Almost nine in ten Greeks were dissatisfied with their government and 81 percent believed the country was on the wrong track. The share of undecided voters stood at 60 percent, the poll said.
Backing for the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn, which has been linked to a rise in attacks against migrants in recent months, stood at 14 percent, double their take in June elections that gave the party a foothold in parliament. That would make the group the country’s third largest party.
More from Athens News:
Specifically, 30.5 percent of the respondents said they would vote for Syriza, up from 30 percent in September, while 27 percent said they would vote for New Democracy, down from 28 percent in September.
14 percent opted for Golden Dawn, up from 12 percent in September, followed by 7 percent for Independent Greeks, 6.5 percent for KKE and 5.5 percent for Pasok, down from 7.5 percent in September. According to the poll, Democratic Left is the last party to enter parliament with 5.5 percent, up from 4.0 percent in September.
One percent went for Creation Again and for Ecologists-Greens, while Laos gained 0.5 percent of the intended vote. 1.5 percent of the respondents opted for “another party”.
To a question on what party they expected would win elections today, regardless of their own party preference, 25.6 percent of the respondents said Syriza, followed by New Democracy with 11.7 percent, Golden Dawn with 6.2 percent, Pasok with 0.5 percent, Democratic Left with 0.2 percent and “no party” with 35.5 percent, while 20.4 percent declined to reply.
As for who is the most suitable for prime minister, 12.4 percent of the respondents opted for current premier Antonis Samaras against 10 percent for Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, while 52.3 percent replied “no one”.
From Keep Talking Greece, a chart of the poll results. From Left to right, New Democracy, Syriza, Pasok, Independent Greeks, Golden Dawn, Democratic Left, Communists, Recreate Greece, Greens, and Laos:
Meanwhile, Pasok’s leader bobs and weaves
Evangelos Venizelos, the former deputy prime minister and finance minister under the government of Pasok Prime Minister George Papandreou and his Troiika-appointed replacement Lucas Papademos, is struggling these days.
With Pasok thoroughly discredited in the hearts and minds of Greek voters, thanks in part to the roles Pasok played in creating the crisis during its salad days and its current role as New Democracy’s rubber stamp, Venizelos is making desperate moves to try to recapture credibility.
Fat chance.
From Andy Dabilis of Greek Reporter:
With his party falling toward oblivion, PASOK Socialist leader is continuing to defend his support of austerity measures but, in an interview with Sunday’s Kathimerini, refused to say whether he would change his mind and allow some of his members to join Prime Continue reading
Today’s America has become a surveillance state on a scale never before seen, with local law enforcement effectively merged with super-secret federal agencies in an unprecedented effort to sniff out the slightest scent of dissent.
One result, as we’ve seen in the San Francisco Bay Area, has been the merger of law enforcement efforts through federally created “fusion centers” and programs which bring local law enforcement officers [including the University of California campus cops] together with the notoriously brutal Israeli border police to learn how to beat protesters into submission.
Hell, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department is even getting its own drone, though presumably not equipped with Hellfire missiles.
In that light, consider this report from the American Civil Liberties Union’s Blog of Rights:
When Boston Police Spy on Free Speech, Democracy Suffers
By Nancy Murray, Education Director, ACLU of Massachusetts at 9:51amPsst! Check out this super-secret Boston Police “intelligence report”:
Local activists have been trying to get ‘celebrity guest speakers’ (Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon) for the March 24th demonstration, but at this time it appears that they have been unable to book any of these speakers for their event.
But some well-known speakers will be there. According to this intelligence report,” compiled by the Boston police under the heading “Criminal Act–Groups-Extremists,” among them will be Cindy Sheehan and a “BU professor emeritus/activist” whose name is redacted–it was the late Howard Zinn.
These excerpts come from one of several documents and videotapes obtained through a lawsuit brought against the Boston Police Department by the ACLU of Massachusetts and Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. We are making these criminal “intelligence” reports public today, along with a report analyzing its significance–and avideo of some of the peace activists who have been targeted.
We now have proof of what peace groups and activists have long suspected: Boston Police officers have worked within the local fusion spying center, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), to monitor the lawful political activity of local peace groups and track their movements and beliefs. This information has been retained in searchable electronic “intelligence” reports bearing labels such as “Groups – Civil Disturbance,” “Groups–Extremists,” “HomeSec-Domestic” under the heading “Criminal Act.”
Under what interpretation of the US and Massachusetts Constitutions can the non-violent First Amendment activity of groups like Veterans for Peace and United for Justice with Peace be routinely classified as a criminal act?
If you have glanced at the US Senate subcommittee report on fusion centers that came out earlier this month, you may not be surprised to hear that Boston’s fusion center has been collecting dubious “intelligence” and violating civil liberties in the process.
Fusion centers were set up in the aftermath of 9/11 to facilitate the sharing of “terrorism-related” information among local, state, and federal law enforcement and private entities. But the Senate subcommittee report finds that the nation’s 70 or so fusion centers (the exact number is in dispute–DHS, which contributed the seed funding for the centers, doesn’t know how many exist today) have not uncovered a single terrorist plot.
Indeed, the spying centers have produced “nothing of value,” and instead needlessly duplicate the “more efficient information-sharing process already in place between local police and the FBI-led Terrorist Screening Center.”
Their output is often, in the words of one government official, “a bunch of crap.”
Much of it is also “potentially illegal,” according to the US Senate report, because it falls foul of federal privacy regulations and Department of Homeland Security guidelines that forbid the routine monitoring of groups and individuals unless there is reason to suspect them of criminal activity.
The BRIC’s own guidelines say the same thing.
And yet we now know that the BRIC, local and state police and the FBI have worked together to monitor and create “intelligence reports” on groups and individuals where there is no demonstrated link to crime or terrorism. There are indications that these illegal reports have been shared around the country, just how widely we don’t know.
Given the secrecy surrounding the “information-sharing” surveillance systems that have been erected since 9/11 and the lack of any accountability mechanisms, we can’t determine exactly where reports generated by the BRIC end up. Inaccurate information could have found a permanent home in a myriad government–and even private–databases, with harm to lives that can never be repaired.
The documents we received in response to our lawsuit demonstrate that the BRIC cannot effectively police itself.
According to the BRIC’s guidelines, “intelligence reports” that do not reference criminal activity should be destroyed after 90 days. And yet we obtained reports that should never have been written in the first place and were still being retained after five years. Why should it take an ACLU/NLG lawsuit to highlight the BRIC’s failure to enforce its own rules?
We know the political surveillance revealed in these documents wastes scarce tax dollars and police resources that would be better focused on building community trust and solving actual crimes.
And we know that political spying is bad for democracy.
You can view this videotape to hear some of the peace activists who have been monitored by the police or questioned about their personal beliefs talk about the “chilling impact” such surveillance can have on such core American values as freedom of expression and assembly.
Today, we are calling on the Boston Police to cease the routine surveillance of peaceful protests and the monitoring of individuals who take part in them.
And we are asking you to join us in demanding that reforms are put in place to ensure that there will be no policing of dissent in Massachusetts.
Let’s work together to ensure that our Commonwealth–and all of America–remains a Constitutionally protected free speech zone.
And here’s the video from the ACLU:
Posted in Community, Crime, Culture, Deep Politics, Governance, GWOT, Intolerance, Law, Politics, Secrecy, Spooks, Video
We covered today’s general strike in the previous post, but there was another strike action Wednesday, called by folks whose services would be needed today, including journalists, doctors, and court officials.
While the Troika’s Men in Black departed Athens Wednesday without an agreement, reports today indicate that the Lords of Money have decided to give Athens the next round of bailout cash — but not directly. Instead, the money will go into escrow and be doled out only as the cuts are enacted. Meanwhile, the Iron Chancellor says no Grexit’s allowed [for reasons to be noted in today’s later EuroWatch].
Questions arise about the real nature of the alleged split within the coalition, Germany rules out another Greek haircut as Greek children sink deeper into poverty and the country spends millions on a racetrack.
A Fren ch bank is bidding adieu, Greek export firms implode, Greeks sink into psychological depression, and a famous singer endorses Golden Dawn.
Journalists struck the day before the general strike
We presume the timing was because the journalists wanted to cover today’s action.
From euronews:
The details from a report from Ekathemerini, posted Tuesday:
Greece has been hit by news blackout as the country’s journalists go out on strike to protest new austerity measures.
The 24-hour walkout means there will be no radio or TV news programs on Wednesday, while newspapers will not be printed on Thursday.
The media blackout comes ahead of a general strike on Thursday which is also aimed at protesting against the measures.
Doctors and court officials also joined the journalists in Wednesday’s action.
From Deutsche Presse-Agentur:
Professionals, including journalists, doctors and court officials, walked off the job across Greece Wednesday, ahead of a nationwide strike called by the country’s two biggest trade unions.
The 24-hour strike caused a news blackout while hospitals operated with emergency staff and courts closed. It came ahead of a 24-hour nationwide strike called by unions for Thursday to oppose the government’s austerity plans.
Troika leaves Athens with no deal
Final details are to be left to talks between the government and the Troika at the highest levels, presumably underway at today’s European Union summit in Brussels.
From Capital,gr:
Staff from Greece’s lenders concluded a mission to Athens Wednesday without resolving the country’s financing problems, which will be discussed “between official lenders and Greece,” a statement said, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
Officials from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — known as the “troika” — had been in Athens for weeks trying to complete groundwork to prepare their review of the country?s bailout program, which is considered to be badly off track.
But resolving the “financing issues” is not up to those staffers and Greece will have to negotiate at a higher political level with its official-sector creditors who have been at odds over who will pay for the country to stay afloat. The Greek government has requested a two-year extension to reach a primary-deficit target of 4.5% of gross domestic product, from 2014 to 2016. The extension will be costly: the Greek finance minister said it would cost some EUR12 billion but other euro-zone officials have suggested it might go up to EUR25 billion with less optimistic assumptions about the country’s growth.
Italian money minister says Greek will get the cash
And he’s also saying the Troikarchs will approve a delay in implementing the full slate of harsh austerity measures, including more pay and pension cuts, extended workdays, that six day work-week, and so much more.
From Reuters:
Greece will need more time to carry out reforms to its damaged economy but will not be driven from the euro zone, Italian Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli said on Thursday.
“It certainly can be saved and it will be saved,” Grilli told Italy’s Rai state television as the latest general strike and demonstration against repeated doses of austerity measures hit central Athens.
“It’s obvious that this process of restructuring is even harder than ours, but there are no alternatives. It will certainly need more time but Greece will be saved,” he said.
Speigel adds a qualification
Greece will get the money, but not directly.
Instead, the cash will be stashed in escrow and doled out only as each austerian measure is carried out.
Spiegel hasn’t placed the story on its website yet, so here’s a summary from Ekathemerini:
Although the German government is officially waiting for the new report from troika inspectors, unofficially the decision has already been made to give Greece the next instalment of the 130 billion euro loan by the end of November, according to a Spiegel report Thursday.
The solution being put forward by Germany and France, the German magazine reports, is to put the 31.5 billion euro aid tranche into an escrow account, a segregated account at the Bank of Greece set up as part of the second bailout to ensure that Greece honors its debts.
Bloomberg’s Rainer Buergin has this, from the usual anonymous source:
Germany is proposing to toughen Greece’s access to international aid by setting up an escrow account outside its reach to guarantee payments of interest and debt to creditors, a government official said.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who suggested that Greece will get more aid even while struggling to meet the conditions, wants a lasting solution to the country’s debt crisis to restore confidence in financial markets, the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters.
More on the apparent agreement from Heather Stewart of The Guardian:
Greece has reached an agreement on “most of the core measures” to secure the release of the next €31bn tranche of its bailout as Europe’s leaders prepared for a crucial two-day summit.
A statement from the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund said it had left Athens after “comprehensive and productive discussion” agreeing the broad outlines of the austerity measures Greece will be forced to impose in exchange for the latest payout.
Speaking in Bucharest at a meeting of right-of-centre leaders from across Europe, Greece’s prime minister Antonis Samaras said: “I’m confident we’re doing everything we have to do in order to get [a deal] and get it soon, so that we can move towards a recovery.”
The details are expected to be finalised next week and any new commitments Samaras makes will be scrutinised by the electorate, which voted him into power earlier this year on the promise of exacting more lenient conditions from the troika.
Merkel says Greece must stay in eurozone
Her declaration, issued before the start of today’s Brussels summit, via Ekathemerini:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday underlined her support for Greece to remain in the eurozone, adding that she had seen “a strong desire for change” during her visit to Athens last week.
“Many states have been implementing hard reforms and adjustment programs to tackle their specific problems,” Merkel told Germany’s Bundestag lower house a few hours before European Union leaders meet in Brussels for talks on the eurozone debt crisis.
“This is also true of Greece. I was able to see this for myself in Greece during my visit last week,” she added.
The German Chancellor said that Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was expected to give his European peers an “interim report” on negotiations with the troika of foreign lenders.
Coalition shows more signs of split — or does it?
The two nominally left junior partners of the government headed by a conservative New Democracy prime minister are having real troubles selling their members on signing off on measures that will destroy organized labor.
Given that labor has been the traditional base of leftist parties, that’s hardly a surprise.
Some legislators from Democratic Left and the socialist-in-name-only Pasok have talked openly of breaking with their parties, and party leaders responded Tuesday, indicating they wouldn’t sign off on the draconian austerity terms demanded by the Troika.
From Capital.gr:
Greece’s two junior coalition government partners vowed Tuesday to vote down labor reforms demanded by a troika of international inspectors, indicating a fresh delay could arise in finalizing a multibillion-euro austerity plan needed to open the path for the country’s next aid tranche payment.
Speaking after a three-hour meeting between the leaders of the three parties supporting the government, Democratic Left party chief Fotis Continue reading
Posted in Banksters, Class, Corpocracy, Culture, Debt, Economy, Europe, Finance, Governance, Health, Human behavior, Intolerance, Labor, MSM, Music, Politics, Video, Wealth
We begin with a spat between two key figures in the austerity game, the IMF boss and the German money minister — with the issue not how much austerity, but how soon — followed by a firm Nein from the Iron Chancellor.
The Men in Black and the coalition government are nearing the final pact on the next round of cuts, and Greek anger at the austerity lash has sent the radical Left coalition to the top of the latest public opinion polls while the neofascist Golden Dawn Party steps up its xenophobic violence.
The latest jobless numbers paint a grim picture as unemployment continues to rise and Greek cut down on medical care because they can’t afford it. German economists are calling for yet another Greek debt haircut, while the latest predictions show an even greater economic contraction than previously estimated.
Increased sales taxes have shuttered thousands of restaurants and killed at least 30,000 jobs, whiule one Greek’s job loss proved richly rewarding, both to the man and his former employer, Meanwhile, strikes continue and one of the country’s biggest business makes its own Grexit.
And we close with a bit of good news.
The Tussle in Tokyo: Lagarde v. Schäuble
The IMF boss and the German finance minister tangled over Greek austerity during the International Monetary Fund assembly in Tokyo Thursday. The sticking point wasn’t how much austerity should be inflicted on Greece, but how long the country has to comply.
First, a video report from euronews:
And the story, first from Jan Strupczewski and Koh Gui Qing of Reuters:
Germany held firm on Friday in insisting it was too soon to say Greece deserved more time to meet its budget-cutting goals even as the head of the IMF laid out the case for leniency.
Greece, Spain and the euro zone’s slow progress toward debt reform was centre stage at International Monetary Fund meetings despite Europe’s best effort to step out of the spotlight.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, sitting next to Germany’s finance minister, said Athens needed more breathing space. “Given the… lack of growth, given the market pressure, given the efforts that have been undertaken, a bit more time is necessary,” she said, amplifying on remarks made on Thursday.
In a softening of earlier advice, the IMF has argued that forcing Greece and other debt-burdened countries in Europe to reduce their deficits too quickly is counter-productive because it hurts the economy.
The shift was welcomed by some emerging market countries as well as long-time critics who say that the tough conditions attached to IMF loans inflict undue economic pain and make it harder for countries to grow their way out of debt.
More from Benjamin Fox of EUobserver:
Schaeuble hit back, saying Lagarde is contradicting the IMF’s stance on austerity.
The fund had warned “time and again” that Western economies needed to prioritise debt reduction, he said.
“When there is a certain medium-term goal, it doesn’t build confidence if one starts going in a different direction,” he added.
Finally, this from Holly Ellyatt of CNBC:
Lagarde said that heavily “frontloading” Greece with austerity measures too fast could undermine Greece’s reform program and recovery.
“It is sometimes better to have a bit more time,” Lagarde told a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday. “This is what we advocated for Portugal, this is what we advocated for Spain and this is what we are advocating for Greece.”
The Germanator declares Nein!, Nein!, Nein!
Following the clash between Lagarde and Schäuble, Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear that Germany’s not willing to show the country any temporal mercy.
From Deutsche Presse-Agentur:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffed Friday a call by the International Monetary Fund to give cash-strapped Greece more time to clean up its state finances.
“We have agreed on a procedure that makes sense and to which we will adhere to,” Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert told a regular press briefing in Berlin.
The comments from Merkel came after Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, clashed with IMF head Christine Lagarde at the IMF annual meeting in Tokyo.
Lagarde said Athens could require two more years to get its budget under control.
But said Seibert: “We are working on the implementation of the present on-going program and within the timeframe, that this program provides for.”
Cuts almost ready to roll
The long, painful sessions between Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ coalition government and the Troika’s Men in Black are nearly done.
From Athens News:
A meeting between Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and the EU-ECB-IMF troika representatives ended Thursday evening with sources indicating that the two sides were close to agreement on austerity measures for 2013-2014.
The total cost of the measures the government would take as part of the country’s austerity programme for the next two years would amount to 13.9 bn euros. Of that, 7.8 bn euros would come from further cuts to salaries, pensions and benefits.
According to sources, Stournaras and the troika have also reached agreement on taxation system reforms, expected to bring the state revenues of two bn euros.
>snip<
A likely breakthrough was also achieved on the controversial issue regarding whether or not Greek banks should pay the state the amount of 555 bn euros owed as part of 2008′s bank recapitalisation. The troika had proposed that the amount should be raised by further cuts in pensions and incomes, but eventually the two sides agreed that further talks be held with the banks. A finance ministry official said that banks do not object to pay the state the above amount.
But there’s at least one sticking point still on the table.
Keep Talking Greece reports:
Greek Finance Ministry and the Troika are at odds over a 555-million payment that Greek banks are due to make to the state by the end of the year. The Troika discovered a hole of 500 million euro plus 55 million euro in interests rates in the budget 2012. This hole was dug from the aid the banks received in 2008.
The Troika demanded that the banks won’t give back this amount, but that equivalent measures such a new emergency taxes or scrap the holiday bonuses of 1,000 euro for civil servants will be imposed.
Talks between the Greeks and the Troika ended on Thursday morning in a deadlock with “Alternate Finance Minister Staikouras threatening with resignation,” as Greek media reported.
Syriza soars in popularity
A new poll shows the lefitist coalition is rising rapidly in public esteem, while the coalition’s obeisance to the Troikarchs is stirring increasing anger.
But the same poll also shows that conservative New Democracy Prime Minister remains the public’s number one choice to fill the office.
From Keep Talking Greece:
80% of the Greeks believe the country goes to the wrong direction, while 48% are convinced that left-wing and main opposition party SYRIZA will win the elections should they take place tomorrow. In a public opinion survey (Political Barometer October 2012) conducted by Public Issue for Skai TV and Kathimerini, the citizens’s anger and outrage continue to increase (25% in September, 28% in October).
It’s also interesting to see the profile of Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) supporters:
majority of them are men, 18-24 years old, with medium education and without work.
72% are against the Memorandum of Understanding, the bailout agreement between Greece and its lenders, while 19% are in favor.
An equal percentage of respondents, 72%, states that it has difficulties to come along with their income: 42% big difficulty, 30% difficulty, 25% they manage, 3% no problem.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is still ‘the best suitable PM’ with 43% (three units more than September), while main opposition party leader Alexis Tsipras get 28% (one unit less than in September).
More on the numbers via from a greek angle:
The Golden Dawn percentage is 21%, the Communist Party of Greece has collected 20% of the people’s preference and PASOK, the socialdemocratic party member of the present Government 19%. Ms. Aleca Papariga, Secretary General of the Communist party of Greece received 39% of the vote, while Evangelos Venizelos of PASOK and Nikos Mihaloliakos each received 20%.
Golden Dawn takes another page from the Nazi script
Years ago we had the chance of spending an afternoon with Lew Ayres, a marvelous actor who starred as a young German soldier in a classic Hollywood World War I film, All Quiet on the Western Front.
The film’s pacifist sentiment and its depiction of the futility of what had been at the time history’s bloodiest conflict, deeply angered the Nazi Party, so when it played in Germany, Nazi thugs released rats and snakes into the audiences.
Screenings were quickly cancelled, delivery the brownshirts a victory.
Well, it seems to Nazis’ latter day Greek descendants have taken a page directly from Joseph Goebbels’ script:
From Athens News:
An Athens theatre will on Friday make another attempt to premiere a controversial play after Golden Dawn members, Orthodox priests and religious extremists prevented a performance of it on Thursday night.
About 100 protesters turned up at the Chytirio theatre on Iera Odos St, which is staging the play Corpus Christi by American playwright Terence McNally.
Viewing the play is “blasphemous” – it depicts Jesus and the apostles as gay men as a metaphor for the acceptance of the gay community in society – the protesters hurled racist and homophobic abuse at theatre goers and cast.
Among the crowd waving Greek flags, holding icons and crucifixes, singing the national anthem and shouting homophobic slogans Continue reading
Posted in Banksters, Class, Corpocracy, Debt, Economy, Europe, Finance, Governance, Health, Intolerance, Labor, Politics, Resources, Video, Wealth
Greece is still recovering today from yesterday’s general strike and the sometimes-violent protests that brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets in advance of the imminent approval of the latest round of pay and pension cuts that also enforce a six-day work week and longer working days. Actions were continuing today, include a police versus police confrontation outside the prime minister’s party headquarters.
The bill has to be introduced to parliament by Monday, and a week later it’s due in the Troika’s hands. Meanwhile, lenders are bristling at reports that they may have to take a second haircut, staff at medical clinics were told there’ll be no more paychecks this year, and there’s been a new round of assaults on immigrants.
Dramatic general strike paralyzes a nation
Just how many people demonstrated in Greece during Wednesday’s general strike remains a mystery this morning. But here’s a summary of the action from Helena Smith of The Guardian:
Hundreds of thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets of Greece on Wednesday as the country was paralysed by a general strike in the first mass confrontation with Athens’s three-month-old coalition government.
In one of the biggest demonstrations in the capital in recent years, as many as 200,000 marched on the Greek parliament, according to unions in the public and private sector, which called the strike to oppose new wage and pension cuts – the price of further rescue funds from international lenders.
Clashes broke out between riot police and hooded youths hurling rocks and petrol bombs at the finance ministry. The protesters, many shouting: “We can take no more. Out with the EU and IMF,” and said to be part of the crisis-hit country’s vibrant “anti-establishment” movement, then set light to rubbish cans and bus stops, sending plumes of acrid smoke above the capital. TV footage showed demonstrators running for cover in Syntagma Square, seat of the Greek parliament, as noxious fumes filled the air. More than 100 people were detained.
More from Anthee Carassava of the Los Angeles Times:
Called by the country’s two biggest labor unions, Greece’s strike action on Wednesday marked the third nationwide protest to cripple the crisis-racked country since the start of the year. It was the first major grass-roots challenge to the strength and unity of the fledgling Greek government, a shaky coalition stitched together from disparate political forces after two divisive elections in May and June.
Since then, the coalition has struggled to identify and sign off on about $14 billion in additional budget cuts demanded by international lenders in order to release about $40 billion in rescue loans for Greece, which has accepted two international bailouts to stay afloat. Without the funds, Athens could face bankruptcy and eviction from the euro currency.
Budget cuts being considered by the government include raising the retirement age from 65 to 67, scrapping benefits for the handicapped and slashing wages and pensions for the third time in three years.
With the economy worsening — unemployment has soared to 24% and wages have dropped by 35% since the start of the debt crisis here in late 2009 — many Greeks are becoming increasingly disillusioned.
And CNN offers a first-hand description from one participant:
CNN iReporter Costas Liveris, a public worker, was among those taking part in the demonstration in the capital.
Liveris, 36, has been hit hard by the country’s economic crisis, losing 50% of his salary and barely clinging to his job as the price of basic foodstuffs continues to rise.
“I’m furious because even after the elections, we got promises but nothing [from the government],” he said. “It’s the same policy but just a different party.
“For the last few hours on the protest, me and my colleagues discussed how disappointed we are. We have no hope.”
Liveris said he and his fellow Greeks stand in total support of the Spanish people who protested against austerity Tuesday evening. “It is the same policies that strangle the same people. We 100% stand with the Spanish,” he said.
Police confront police at Samaras’s party headquarters
While one set of officers gather outside New Democracy headquarters to protest pay and pension cuts and longer workweeks certain to be included in the new austerity package demanded by the Troika, they found themselves confronting other officers defending the building.
Protests were also mounted at the headquarters of the two other coalition parties.
From Athens News:
New Democracy’s headquarters was the scene of an unusual sight on Thursday morning as police officers peacefully protesting pay cuts and spending cutbacks were faced a line of their colleagues in the riot police who were drafted in to protect the building.
Uniformed officers aligned with New Democracy said the protest was part of a campaign for better conditions they started a month ago.
“We have seen our salary cut six times, after each of the memorandums and as a result of four government decisions,” said Lieutenant Nikos Karadimas, who is also vice-president of the Attica Police Employees’ Federation (EAYA), which represents all members of the force in Greater Athens.
Elsewhere in the city, delegations of Pasok and Democratic Left members from the Attica Police Employees’ Federation (EAYA) held protests in front of their respective party offices.
The coalition sets their seal on the cuts
It’s a done deal as far as the three parties are concerned, but they still have to win parliamentary approval before the deal can be done, and the vote is scheduled for Monday — by a constitutional mandate.
From Reuters:
Greece’s government has finished drafting a series of austerity cuts worth 12 billion euros to appease international lenders, officials said on Wednesday, moving Athens a step forward in concluding lengthy negotiations on the package.
Athens’ initial proposals for the cuts were partially rejected earlier this month by the troika of European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund lenders, forcing the government back to the drawing board.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and his finance minister agreed on the latest list of measures at a late-night meeting Tuesday, and will now seek the blessing of coalition party leaders and troika officials, government officials said.
>snip<
The bulk of cuts in the unpopular package involve slashing wages, pensions and welfare benefits. Angry Greeks take to the streets later on Wednesday to protest the measures as part of a 24-hour strike called by Greece’s biggest unions.
More from Al Yunaniya:
Finance ministry has a 7-day deadline to close the austerity package of EUR 11.5 billion worth of spending cuts plus EUR 2 billion in increased tax revenue, plus another EUR 2 billion from measures related to wage cuts and layoffs in the public sector in 2014, in the case the government looses the target of zero primary deficit in 2013.
If this deadline is missed, then the chances are raising the troika report to be postponed after the U.S. elections with Greece loosing big. The rest, Brussels, Berlin and troika, seem to have no reason to hurry, real.gr writes.
After the completion of the last round of negotiations last Friday and the ‘short pause’ announced by the troika, Poul Thomsen from the IMF, Mathias Morse from the EU, and Klaus Mazouch from the ECB are expected Friday in Brussels at the meeting of Euroworking Group.
Troika head representatives are expected to return to Athens next Monday, October 1, which is the deadline –according to the constitution- for the government to table the draft 2013 budget; by then, the crucial meeting of the Eurogroup will be just seven days away.
Greece’s lenders make threats over haircut hints
While the IMF and some eurocrats have been hinting that Greek bondholders might have to lose more of their equity in another round of haircuts, the investors [including government] are rebelling at the notion, setting the stage for yet another conflict.
From Dina Kyriakidou and Lesley Wroughton of Reuters:
Greece’s international lenders are at loggerheads over how to solve Athens’ debt crisis, threatening more trouble for the euro as the IMF demands European governments write off some of the Greek debt Continue reading
There’s an anti-austerity general strike today that could shut down most of the government, Mario Monti paid a visit and made meaningless pronouncements, the German finance minister is calling for patience, the eurobank says it can’t help in a bailout, the finance minister threatens to quit over cuts, doctors reveal a bloody truth, expats protest language class cuts, the suicide epidemic continues, and racism becomes a target.
Wednesday general strike challenges austerity
Government offices across the country are closed as the latest anti-austerity action challenges the government’s latest round of proposed Troika-mandated cuts.
From Ekathemerini:
A banner with the word ‘SOS’ announces Wednesday’s general strike as pedestrians wait to cross the road in Athens, Tuesday.
As government officials resumed talks on a tough austerity package ahead of the anticipated return of troika officials in coming days, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras clarified Tuesday that a two-year extension that Greece is seeking for its fiscal adjustment period would cost between 13 and 15 billion euros.
In comments made to Reuters, Stournaras sought to curb wild speculation in the foreign press about the cost of an extension for Greece — which Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung set at 30 billion euros in its report Tuesday — and about the size of Greece’s fiscal deficit. “We estimate the funding gap that would be created if we get the two-year extension at 13 to 15 billion euros,” Stournaras said, adding that the size of Greece’s fiscal deficit was 13.5 billion euros, hence the need for 11.5 billion euros in spending cutbacks and 2 billion euros in new revenues.
More from Athens News:
The country will come to a standstill Wednesday as the two main labour unions, GSEE and ADEDY, have declared a 24-hour nationwide strike. The strike includes workers such as civil servants, teachers, doctors, hospital staff, merchants, lawyers, civil engineers, and bank employees.
Public transportation including ilektriko, trolleys and busses will run from 9am to 9pm, while the metro run 8am to 9pm, and the tram will work from 6am to 10pm. Proastiakos and OSE will not run. Airlines and ferries will also be striking, and the metro branch that goes to the Athens International Airport (stops Pallini, Peania, Kantza, Koropi, Airport) will not run.
The two unions are protesting finalisation of the 11.5 euro austerity package. A joint statement issued by ADEDY and GSEE reads, “During the past 2.5 years wages, pensions and benefits have been slashed repeatedly, yet the ‘monstrous debt’ remains intact and continually calls for new sacrifices and austerity measures.”
And this, from More from Agence France-Presse:
“S0S – save the country, but above all its people,” the leading union confederations the GSEE and ADEDY said in posters strung from lamp-posts across the capital.
“Salaries, pensions and benefits have been cut again and again for 2.5 years and the ‘monster’ of the debt and deficits remains invincible, constantly demanding new sacrifices,” the unions said in a statement.
Two general strikes were held against a previous austerity package in February, but this is the first walkout to test the three-party coalition government headed by conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras that came to power in June.
Mario Monti declines to offer advice to Greece
While the Italian rime Minister’s never at a loss for words, he was strangely reluctant to offer Greece the advice in public he’s so free to press behind closed doors.
Here’s the money question and his answer from an Ekathemerini interview:
What is your advice to the Greek prime minister and the Greek people at this point, when frustration with the results of the fiscal adjustment is clearly on the rise? Do you think it is possible to obtain better terms and more time for the implementation of its program?
It would be presumptuous for me to provide advice on specific policies for Greece as I don’t follow the situation closely enough. Nevertheless, experience shows that the sacrifices are worth the effort. And the Greek people are not alone. Italy is providing nearly a fifth of the financial support to Greece as well as to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and European Stability Mechanism (ESM), despite having a high level of debt and seeing its servicing costs increasing dramatically because of the crisis in the euro area and investors’ doubts about our collective resolve to solve it. Without its contribution to the financial assistance, Italy’s debt would be a full three percentage points of GDP lower.
I welcome the economic measures recently decided by the Greek government as a clear sign of its will to reform the economy. We are convinced that Greece will respect its commitments, pursue the structural reforms it needs in order to boost growth and employment, and continue the painful but necessary process of fiscal discipline that it has embarked upon. Italy is aware of the ongoing efforts that Greece is making to overcome the crisis and it will continue to support the strong commitment of the Greek authorities at the bilateral level as well as in the European context.
German money minister calls for patience
And avoid that speculation, he says. Indeed, it was that flood of speculative investments by various and sundry banksters that brought the country down, when added to a weak and often corrupt social structure.
But that’s not what Wolfie meant.
From Agence France-Presse:
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Tuesday called for patience rather than engaging in “speculation” ahead of a report by Greece’s troika of international creditors.
“We all agree that we are totally patient in waiting for the next report of the troika,” he told reporters in Vaanta, Finland, after meeting with Finnish counterpart Jutta Urpilainen and Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager.
“Any speculation before that doesn’t make sense,” he added when asked about the possibility of restructuring Athens’ debt again.
Representatives of the troika — the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank — called time out on Friday on lengthy bailout negotiations with Athens.
The talks are expected to resume this week.
Eurobank executive says it won’t bailout Greece
All the cash has got to come from national treasuries, not the bank’s, he says.
And that would mean the biggest chunk would have to come from Germany.
From Alexandra Hudson of Reuters:
Greece’s possible financing gap can only be filled by euro zone states and the European Central Bank would not participate in any potential debt restructuring, ECB executive board member Joerg Asmussen told German newspaper Die Welt.
In an advance copy of an interview to be published on Wednesday Asmussen told the paper: “The ECB would not be able to take part in any such restructuring, because this would constitute state financing, Continue reading
