Could
Greece's situation be characterized as a huge
economic-social-political "experiment"? And if so, who are
those who conduct it?
by
system failure
Greece
is entering one more year of an unprecedented economic recession and
still, no optimistic signs can be seen in the horizon. When the
financial crisis erupted in 2010, there were already many people who
spoke about an experiment that was taking place, for the first time
in a region of a developed economic zone.
Could
Greece's situation be characterized as a huge
economic-social-political "experiment"? And if so, who are
those who conduct it?
Part
2 - What happened before Greece's entrance into the neoliberal path
of destruction
When
neoliberalism started its big onslaught in the early 80s with Ronald
Reagan and Margaret Thatcher in power, Greece had chosen a different
path with the then leader of the Socialist Party (PASOK), Andreas
Papandreou.
Papandreou
has chosen the path of implementing extended social policies and
strengthening the public sector. The Popular Right mostly expressed
by the rival power (New Democracy party) in Greece was accusing
constantly Papandreou for being corrupted and for establishing
corruption in public sector by hiring PASOK supporters in key
positions.
While
corruption was indeed a significant problem in Greece, it was not
exclusively a product of Papandreou administration. It was evident
also in previous decades under various administrations. Yet, when the
economic crisis erupted in 2010, it was used as a pretext for the
'invasion' of IMF and the imposition of catastrophic policies that
brought Greece in an even worse situation. IMF's history is full of
pretexts related to corruption, in order to 'invade' in foreign
countries and rescue - not the national economies of course - but the
greedy bankers and investors.
Andreas
Papandreou knew very well that neoliberalism would one day destroy
his country. His words from a 1989 interview have been proven,
unfortunately, extremely prophetic: “In case that
we have a neoliberal solution in Greece towards 1992 and afterwards,
the Greek economy will really suffer an extremely brutal attack from
giants. We will surrender, whether we like it or not, to foreign
interests and Greece will become the hotel of Europe in case that the
laws of the market will exclusively prevail ... These are crucial
moments.”
In
the European Summit held in Cannes in 1995, Andreas Papandreou
described the undemocratic nature of the EU and the dark future of
Europe: “I want to say that, indeed, I saw the directorate
functioning because while many colleagues, PMs were telling me
privately in the corridor that I was right, no one has spoken to
cover my positions. What is the United Europe? Who governs it? What
is our role for us, as national governments? These are basic
questions. I find that we go to a kind of shrinking of national
power, but not on the altar of a collective democratic process. On
the altar of crises and interests ... I won't reveal names, who have
spoken and what they said. But I tell you that there is a clear plan
for the elimination of national governments which will not be able to
play a significant role democratically, but they will subjected to
the directions given by the directorate ...”
This
was one of the last statements of Andreas Papandreou that had sent
waves of embarrassment to people around him because many of them,
next year, were about to join Costas Simitis administration that
thrown Greece, with almost a violent manner, into the neoliberal path
of destruction.
Yet,
previously, neoliberalism made its first, short rehearsal in Greece
with one of its most fanatic supporters: Konstantinos Mitsotakis.
Mitsotakis was in charge of a weak administration and governed for a
short period (1990-1993), yet it was enough for many to understand
what the neoliberal priesthood was planning for Greece the following
decades.
It
was the time of the collapse of the Soviet bloc and neoliberalism had
crushed the last remnants of resistance in the ideological
battlefield. Being member of the Western institutions, the small
Greece would be impossible to resist against the onslaught of the
neoliberal monster. Acting like an early IMF agent, Mitsotakis'
administration rushed to cut government spending as much as possible,
privatize state enterprises and 'reform' the civil services.
Despite
the neoliberal fairy tale about the necessity of these 'reforms',
at the end, Mitsotakis delivered an economy with high unemployment
rate, sinking industrial production and dramatic rise of the public
debt.
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