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Debate Rages in SYRIZA Over Austerity Plan Sharmini Peries interviews Dimitri Lascaris The Real News Network, video and transcript, July 11 <http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14226> . . . LASCARIS: Well, I think we are witnessing what could fairly be described as one of the worst political debacles in modern European history... . . . LASCARIS: ...The other question is even if you believe that Greece is better off inside the Euro, you disagree with people like Syriza MP Costas Lapavitsas, one must ask the obvious question, will this deal actually prevent a Grexit? And anyone who thinks that this deal, which is going to cause further economic contraction in Greece, further social inequality, further increase, probably in the debt--certainly there will be an increase in the debt-to-GDP ratio. Further unemployment. But somehow magically this is going to prevent a default. I think they need to have their heads examined. If anything, this is going to accelerate a default on the other debts that Greece has. And when that default happens, there will be an end to liquidity assistance by the European Central Bank, assuming that it ever restores the liquidity assistance, and that's going to result in a failure of the Greek banking system and the need to seize the banking system and issue a parallel currency. So as a matter of fact this deal, if it passes, will not prevent a Grexit. Whether you think a Grexit is in the best interest of Greece or not is rather secondary at this point. It won't prevent a Grexit. We're going to be right back having this same discussion in a few months' time, maybe perhaps next year... So ultimately what we're doing here is we're engaging in precisely the game that the Greek government so rightly and eloquently condemned prior to taking power, the game of extend and pretend. That's what this is. It will not prevent a Grexit. It will simply delegitimize the government, drive it into the arms of neoliberal parties who have historically protected the very oligarchy that the Syriza party purports to want to destroy, and rightly so. And simply destroy any sense of hope within the Greek populace, and potentially result in a great deal of social unrest. Effectively Syriza, the leadership, has caused the economy to experience extreme hardship, has set back the economy of Greece quite significantly, to an unknown degree, for nothing. Because they could have gotten this deal without capital controls. They could have gotten this deal without pushing the European Union and the creditors to the limit that they did. PERIES: And what is in the minds of those who are favoring what they have just tabled to the creditors? What are they hoping to do? Is this crisis management, is this a stopgap measure? Is it buying time? LASCARIS: I'm going to be as charitable as I can. I think they are overcome with fear. That's all. That's the--that's the most charitable interpretation... I'm going to be charitable and say I think they're simply overcome by fear and that they actually did want, genuinely wanted to stay within the Eurozone and strike a more humane deal. But even on the most charitable interpretation the way they've gone about this has been a complete and utter disaster from a political and economic perspective. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
