22 June
Markets and stockbrokers are celebrating as Greece capitulates to the dictatorship of Capital. Will Varoufakis resign? How will the Greek parliament react? There’s no way this can be claimed as a ‘compromise’ though no doubt Tsipras will try. The Greek conservatives will be laughing and Samaras is capable of saying that he would have rejected these proposals. The EU has to be opposed strongly by the Left and I for one will be voting to quit when there is a referendum in the UK. The notion that the EU is progressive is risible. The European Left can fight for an alternative Europe (and I agree) but its not going to emerge from the bankers brothel in Brussels.
23 June
Athens: The pro and anti Troika street demonstrations have been relatively small so far. Largest was 10,000. Pensioners march today today had 3,000 people or thereabouts. The overall mood seems to be one of resignation. But the action will move soon to the Greek Parliament.
A 3-day Emergency session of Parliament will precede the final vote on Monday. That the SYRIZA left is angry and bitter is beyond question. But will they vote against en bloc? That would mean resignations from the government. More likely is that 15-20 will either vote against or abstain. More than enough for the Troika impositions to require votes from other parties: The polluted Potami
members have already said they would vote for ANY deal approved by the EU elite. So has PASOK. We still don’t know which way ANEL (the junior coalition partner) will go and as for New Democracy, they will require a push from Brussels and a French kiss for Samaras from the banker’s pimp Juncker to get them on side. Strong reports that Varoufakis might resign. He is certainly encouraging (in private) the Syriza Left to vote against the new Memoranda.
24th June
ATHENS: Tsipras summoned to Brussels because SYRIZA’s total abandonment of its programme isn’t enough! The IMF wants more
cuts and doesn’t think that the tax concessions will work. The TROIKA keep pushing the Greek government which is already on its knees. ND leader Samaras has said that what is being offered is ‘a very bad solution.’ He too is on his way to EU HQ in Brussels. Its obvious that some (Berlin in particular) don’t mind at all if Greece defaults and quits the Eurozone. I have it from reliable sources that Schauble offered Tsipras an amicable Grexit and 15 billion to see Greece through the first phase. IF this is true it should have been accepted.
25th June.
ATHENS: Reading yesterday’s Le Monde in an Athens cafe I saw two long articles. Habermas denouncing Syriza for being nationalist and defending the EU and praising MarioDraghi, etc. A long interview with Melenchon arguing against Syriza defaulting because it would hurt FRENCH banks. I had heard that Melenchon was in a state of degeneration but hadn’t realised that the political cancer had affected his brain. The sooner this imbecile is replaced by his group, the better…
The new proposals added by the IMF yesterday haven been rejected by Greece. Having forced SYRIZA to abandon its programme they want to destroy the party altogether. There is no other meaning to what’s going on in Brussels. As it is the proposals offered by the Greek government have already divided the party. If they accept what is now being proposed it will be a dual suicide: for Greece and SYRIZA. Today is crucial.
Being defeated by the enemy is one thing. Being defeated by one’s own illusions in the EU and the accompanying strategic blindness is worse because then your own supporters retreat to passivity. If Samaras regards what is being stuffed down Greece’s throat as ‘ a bad solution’ one assumes his party will abstain. If this is the case then the SYRIZA left is in a very strong position.
There is also talk of a snap election. Why not a referendum with one question: SHOULD GREECE REMAIN IN THE EUROZONE AT ANY COST?
26th June
ATHENS: More and more people I meet and talk to are a bit disgusted by the EU politicians. Quite a lot favour a Grexit to stop the torture. Some fear that Tsipras and Varoufakis will now accept anything to stay in. I think the German elite share this fear and Schauble and Merkel say in public that the flagrant injustice of the Troika is too soft. The only reason for this nonsense is that they want Greece out of the Eurozone asap and are now preparing their own Plan B to offer the Greek leaders. Where is Syriza’s Plan B? Non-existent. The punishment being meted out to the Greeks gets worse because their leaders are moving about like bewildered puppets. Or at least they give a very good impression of doing so.
As for the small-state actors in this tragedy (Tusk, Juncker, et all) they are truly disgusting, trying to outdo each other in expressing their loyalty to the Germans and the French. The folds of their flesh mirror a gross corruption and one wonders if there is any real mental activity deep in the cavities of their brain. Or are they just robots?
When Schauble or Merkel speak, the sycophants smile and nod. When they speak they do so in a nauseous symbiosis that fuses them all into a single sensibility. The suffering Greek people where the existing pensions are below the official poverty line, matter not a damn to these rogues assembled in Brussels. I hope that the Greek Parliament will reject the EU imposition. I say EU because apart from Greece all other countries support the Catastroika’s proposals. So much for all these ghastly photographs on display: Juncker stroking his victim’s face; Renzi playing the clown with Tsipras as Merkel watches. Too much. Stop smiling Tsipras. You’re not at a wedding but a funeral and there is a difference.
Meanwhile a suggestion with full acknowledgement to Aristophanes. Lysistratas (and their male equivalents) of modern Greece—and here the partners of Tsipras and Varoufakis should take the lead— call a sex strike till they decide to take on the EU scumbags. Don’t sleep with them, don’t eat with them. March to the Acropolis, women and men of Greece with your tambourines and only word on your lips: NO, OKHI….
Tariq Ali’s latest book is The Extreme Centre: a Warning.
