Middle class civil war in Greece: latest update and conclusions

by system failure

Latest news from the front of the civil war in Greece between groups of middle-class, show that the government frequently uses the weapon of social automatism to break a compact massive social reaction against catastrophic austerity measures on the majority of citizens. This tactic seems to remain highly effective as it brings controversy between various social groups and highlights conflicting interests by bringing them on surface.

While the anxiety of parents for their children's success in national exams for their entrance to higher education universities and institutions culminates, as they seek for better future opportunities inside the storm of financial crisis, the government took advantage of this fact by passing a legislation against teachers in a critical and carefully chosen time, just before the national exams. In this way managed to open another front in the civil war of the middle class conducted in Greece (http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2012/11/a-new-doctrine-with-old-recipe.html), and turned candidates of higher education and their parents against teachers who threatened to react within the exams with a nationwide strike.

But beyond this new front opening between groups of the middle class, the ruling regime managed to achieve two more things.

The first is that, immediately after the first surprise move of this legislation just before the national exams, the government made a second hit against teachers with the measure of conscription. As part of the experiment "Greece" conducted by the economic elites using politicians-puppets, other "useful" sub-experiments are tested, such as that of civil conscription, creating a precedent and imposing slowly this idea to be used in future if necessary without resistance and other obstacles. In the experiment "Greece", the measure of conscription paves the way for similar actions in other countries, initially in those who are under a memorandum condition, in order to suppress mass resistance and prevent general strikes. Under the pretext of economic crisis, we are entering into an era of undemocratic procedures simulating authoritarian regimes, just as the financial elites want, in order to impose policies that serve their interests, eliminating the smallest possibility for “uncontrolled destabilization."

The second is that, the regime achieved another bigger victory, breaking into even smaller pieces the middle class, as managed to turn Civil Servants' Confederation (ADEDY) against Middle Education Teachers' Federation (OLME), since ADEDY rejected the proposal of OLME for a general civil servant strike on Friday May 17, the opening day of national exams, bringing conflict even between different categories of civil servants. The fact that ADEDY went to 24-hour general strike in response to the measure of conscription against teachers, just shows that each guild is strictly entrenched behind its own interests, making selective movements in the field of strikes and demonstrations, and civil servants see the extent of conscription measure as a threat against their future mobilizations.

Of course, the governmental regime exploited the fact that the head of ADEDY is Kostas Tsikrikas who served as secretary of teachers' PASK, a wing close to PASOK, the socialist party that ruled during most of the last nearly 35 years and inflated the number of trade union formations, thereby creating the conditions for splitting a solid united front of workers, a fact which the current neoliberal regime - in which PASOK participates despite its huge election losses – exploits successfully. The fact also that Tsikrikas is a teacher has a special symbolism, and gives even greater weight to government's victory against labor.

How to prevent riots without even one bleeding nose. This could be an indicative text title in a manual among the papers of a public relations bureaucrat in Brussels, who will provide valuable services to the European authorities, for a high salary and bonuses of course.

Conclusions from the Greek experiment, under such a text heading, could be summarized as follows: Place your own people in the leadership of some unions, then activate conflicting interests among groups of middle class, and finally, impose authoritarian crackdown measures on the occasion of these conflicting interests and therefore minimize the possibility of reaction from the multi-divited middle class and labor.

But while investigating the results of the experiment, the elites are working also towards the gradual disappearance of the power of political institutions and the imposition of a centralized economic power by a powerful central bank across Europe that will serve specific interests, while hiding behind technocratic procedures, numbers, economic targets and indexes, covering the real purpose, which is the establishment of a peculiar economic empire that will be managed by an unknown, unapproachable financial oligarchy.