SYRIZA
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The political fraud of Syriza’s referendum on EU austerity in Greece By Alex Lantier
On the eve of the referendum, the Syriza government is in full-scale retreat. If the “yes” vote carries, the Tsipras government is preparing to resign and give way to a more openly right-wing regime, dedicated to implementing whatever the EU demands. In his speech Monday calling for a “no” vote, Tsipras signaled that his government… Continue reading
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Tsipras’s Surrender Rejected As Berlin Pushes For Regime-Change In Greece By Chris Marsden
Just how far Tsipras was prepared to go was made clear in a letter sent Tuesday to the heads of the EU, ECB and International Monetary Fund. In return for a two-year €30 billion loan from the European Stability Mechanism, he was prepared to accept all of the institutions’ basic demands. He only requested a… Continue reading
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More than Twice, Less than Zero By S. Artesian
Back in January, Syriza convinced the Greek voters that it could win a write-off of the Greek sovereign debt from the Troika; that it could obtain a “significant grace period in debt servicing;” exclude public investment from the restrictions of previous agreements; rebuild the welfare state; lead the country to productive reconstruction and recovery; increase… Continue reading
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The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments By Ellen Brown
Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made… Continue reading
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Syriza’s Only Choice: A Radical Step Forward By Spyros Lapatsioras, John Milios, and Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos
The transitional “bridge Agreement” of the 20th of February is a truce intended by the Greek government and welcomed by the other side (the European “institutions”). Within the truce period (the next four months), the conditions for negotiating the next agreement will be shaped. This could mean that everything is still open. However, that is… Continue reading
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Greece Told Deeper Austerity Needed to Secure Additional Loans By Robert Stevens
Euro zone finance ministers met Monday to discuss a set of proposals from the Syriza-led Greek government based on the austerity programme both sides signed on February 20. Greece was required to submit a list of austerity measures deemed acceptable to its creditors as a precondition for receiving a pending load of €7.2 billion and… Continue reading
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The Shorty Long of It By S. Artesian
No sooner does the Syriza government reverse its “policy” regarding the extension of and compliance with the 2012 agreement and its so-called reforms, than our eternalists take hope from the very bleakness of the situation. Syriza has “bought time.” To do what, exactly? Continue reading
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The Cat in the Box: Quantum Social Democracy and the Uncertainty Principle By S. Artesian
I have to wonder what’s “wholly correct” about the approach of the “The Left Platform” if it provides an indication to Tsirpas that he should by-pass parliament and simply impose the reform package, because that “would possibly have split Syriza in a big way”? Unless it is to keep Syriza in power. Continue reading
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24 hours late, and € 240 billion short
A day late and more than a dollar short, Yanis Varoufakis submitted a “program” of reforms to the Eurozone finance ministers (Eurogroup) regarding the Greek government’s development and implementation of tax policies, public finance management, revenue administration, public spending, social security reform, public administration and corruption, instalment schemes, labor market reforms, product market reforms, better… Continue reading
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The Anti-Empire Report #137 By William Blum: A Greek Tragedy
In 1964, the liberal George Papandreou came to power, but in April 1967 a military coup took place, just before elections which appeared certain to bring Papandreou back as prime minister. The coup had been a joint effort of the Royal Court, the Greek military, the KYP, the CIA, and the American military stationed in… Continue reading
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Bruiseology By S. Artesian
You will recall that way back when in 2009 and 2010 some of us sectarian, socialism now, ultra-left types where sectarianly and ultra-leftly calling for the immediate repudiation of the debt. When the recent contest for parliamentary power took place, we, incurable sectarians/Bordiga-ists/ultra-leftists/DeLeonites, urged no support for Syriza’s program because that program did not call… Continue reading
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Gangsta Paradise By S. Artesian
It’s an ironic analogy, Syriza Greece to Weimar Germany, irony being what happens when ignorance meets history. After all, in this iteration, Greece is demanding war reparations from Germany, and Germany is adamant that Greece fulfill the terms of the 2012 Versailles agreement despite the toll the payments exact on the viability of the economy,… Continue reading
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The Importance of Being Grecian Earnest By S. Artesian
15 February 2015 — The Wolf Report: Nonconfidential analysis for the anti-investor The challenge to, and the predicament of struggle in Greece is not one of “good” or “bad;” nor of “electoralism” versus “anti-electoralism;” nor of parliamentary, or ministerial, cretinism vs. anti-parliamentary popular power (in this last case, not yet). The challenge is to identify… Continue reading
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Media Lens: Conundrum – Syriza, Democracy And The Death Of A Saudi Tyrant
It’s always a tricky moment for the corporate media when a foreign leader dies. The content and tone need to be appropriate, moulded to whether that leader fell into line with Western policies or not. Thus, when Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez died in 2013, conventional coverage strongly suggested he had been a dangerous, quasi-dictatorial, loony lefty. Continue reading
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Syriza-Anel: An unholy Alliance?
When I read the comments of what passes for the left in this historical era about the “victory” of Syriza in Greece, I feel like I’m watching a game of “Concentration” as played by those suffering from short-term memory loss. They cards are always the same, and they’re always in the same place, but our… Continue reading
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Greece: Syriza’s Challenge. Combating Post-Democracy By Binoy Kampmark
Across Europe, and more specifically, the euro-zone, a spectre did not so much haunt as totally materialise in the form of Alex Tsipras and the Syriza party. Greece woke up to a new party that had never seen office, coming within a few seats of governing in its own right. Any European party would have… Continue reading
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Greece: The Dilemmas of Democratic Socialism By James Petras
Greece is experiencing a triple crisis which has a profound impact on the economy, society and political system. The economy has experienced a deep, prolonged depression lasting six years and continuing. Continue reading
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The Real Causes of the Catastrophic Crisis in Greece and the “Left” By Takis Fotopoulos
The almost complete destruction of the lower classes in Greece is not due to the causes usually attributed to it by the “Left”.[1] In fact, contrary to the misleading “explanations” provided by this Left and the Right alike, the actual cause is the full integration of the Greek economy into neoliberal globalization, through its accession… Continue reading
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European Left selects Tsipras as lead candidate in European elections By Christoph Dreier
The fourth congress of the European Left (EL) took place in Madrid last weekend. The alliance of parties discussed a joint programme for the European elections in May next year and elected Alexis Tsipras, chairman of the Greek Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), as its leading candidate. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 