Searching for new middle class tanks and the role of federalization

by system failure

Since the beginning of the current crisis, Germany tried to present it as a Greek problem, in order to hide the responsibilities of the banks and the big capital, and the fact that Germany itself is gaining from this crisis. The propagandistic role of the mainstream German media – and also large portion of the Greek media - of mass consumption on this, is well known.   

Until now, the middle class in the European periphery, was playing the role of the “safety pillow” between the lower class of the very poor and the upper class of the superrich. Through a false – as we see clearly now – wealth and a culture of overconsumption, with the neoliberal way of the gambling economy, bubble economy and banking loan, middle class became the vast majority of the population in western countries generally.

But today, the middle class itself, is characterized by a multilevel structure, with groups of citizens who often have conflicting interests that emerge on the surface or motivated, especially during such an economic crisis. This fact is used successfully by the representatives of the new order, to prevent primarily a possible massive dynamic reaction, with unpredictable results for their plans. A typical example in Greece, is the conflict between the hotel owners – even small hotels – and hotel stuff. Another characteristic example, is that many owners of small and middle businesses, accept the cuts in the public sector wages nearly as a fair treatment, while, on the other hand, they accept with realism, the continuing strengthening of the banking monster with rescue packages of billions, waiting patiently but vainly for the gates of banking loan to open again and believing what the governments say, that this is necessary to secure deposits.

But as the prescription of austerity and fiscal discipline fails dramatically and the game of the big banks and their role in crisis is revealed more and more clearly, the European elite understands that the middle class “safety pillow” in the countries of the periphery is shrinking dangerously, and threatens to create unpredictable unbalances. The alarm has been activated in recent Greek elections, where for the first time in modern history of the country, a leftish party threatened the dominance of the two-party establishment of PASOK and Nea Dimokratia which governed the country since 1974, and is directly connected with the domestic and European elites, beyond the fact that for the first time, the same establishment lost so much power through recent elections.

The German leadership, which of course is completely controlled by the big banks and multinational corporative cartels, is now turning to its own middle class and the middle class in developed countries of north, searching for a new counterweight, so that, this geographically displaced middle class, could take the role of a new “safety pillow” against the dangerous imbalances that are rising in the southern countries and the periphery.

But the Germans now also worry, that the excessive highlighting of the national characteristics of the “undisciplined” and “wasteful” countries (the “lazy” Greeks, the PIIGS of the south and the periphery etc.), against the “good students” of the north, in a – among other things – fragmented or even multi-divided European Union, and given the significant rise of the extreme nationalist parties across the whole Europe, will create other imbalances much more dangerous, with an even greater surge of extreme nationalism and the awakening of the ghosts of the past.    

The only way to avoid this type of imbalances that might prove fatal to the initiators of the new order, is to move rapidly to a kind of federalization of the eurozone initially. It started with the statements of Merkel-Hollande speaking for “more Europe” and then with the recent statements of Schauble about “one parliament”, “one government” and “one minister of finances”.   

In this way, the middle class of the north will accept without question the hard austerity measures and the destruction of the social state in the countries of the south and the periphery, considering that these are indispensable in order to maintain its own privileges, while on the other hand, the vast majority of the people of the south and the periphery, will be discovering that it is pointless to seek for the invisible enemy attacking them in a vast federation, guided by the monster of the faceless markets, which will threaten Europe, every so often, with a total financial disaster. 

But over the time, the “Chinification” of Europe will be planned and forwarded rapidly and spread to every corner, in the name of economic competition against the huge cheap labor tanks of China, India and South-East Asia. Unless the people of Europe react massively, and understand that, the neoliberal experiment that is carried out in Greece until now, will eventually turn against them and against all those things conquered with hard work and decades of sacrifices, such as the labor rights and the social state, and through new struggles, manage to change the course of Europe, not for the benefit of the dominant politico-economic elites, but for the benefit of the vast majority of the people.