Key
points from the article by Owen Jones in Guardian
“Another
war looms in Europe: waged not with guns and tanks, but with
financial markets and EU diktats. Austerity-ravaged Greece may well
be on the verge of a general election that could bring to power a
government unequivocally opposed to austerity. Momentous stuff: that
has not happened in the six years of cuts and falling living
standards that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers.”
“But if
the radical leftist party Syriza does indeed triumph in a possible
snap poll in the new year, there will undoubtedly be a concerted
attempt to choke the experiment at birth. That matters not just for
Greece, but for all of us who want a different sort of society and a
break from years of austerity.”
“What
misery has been inflicted on Greece. One in four of its people are
out of work; poverty has surged from 23% before the crash to 40.5%;
and research has demonstrated how key services such as health have
been hammered by cuts, even as demand has risen. No wonder the
country has experienced a political polarisation that has prompted
comparisons with Weimar Germany. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn – which
makes other European rightist movements look like fluffy liberals –
at one point attracted up to 15% in the polls; though still a menace,
its support has thankfully subsided to half that.”
“Syriza’s
manifesto proposes that repayment of debt could come through economic
growth, rather than from budget cuts. It wants a European new deal
backed up by an investment bank; an all-out war against the tax
avoidance endemic in Greek society; an emergency employment
programme; a raised minimum wage; and the restoration of collective
bargaining. In alliance with anti-austerity forces such as Spain’s
surging Podemos party, Syriza wants the EU to abandon crippling
austerity policies in favour of quantitative easing and a growth-led
recovery.”
“And
then there’s the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude
Juncker, a man who hardly has an inspiring democratic mandate and is
best known for questions over his former country’s tax avoidance
policies, who has already made it clear that the Greek people should
not vote the wrong way. 'I think that the Greeks – who have a very
different life – know very well what a wrong election result would
mean for Greece and the eurozone,' he has said. 'I wouldn’t like
extreme forces to come to power.' There are rumours that, if Syriza
does win, Greece could be deprived of all EU funding. Apocalyptic
talk of capital flight and bank runs abound. Markets and elite
politicians alike have their guns pointed at the Greek electorate.”
“So
2015 could finally be the year when austerity meets its reckoning
across the continent. Or it could be the year that a democratic
challenge to economic madness was strangled to death. It is a game of
high stakes in which the futures of millions of people could be
decided.”
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