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1.a) Greeks Protest Against EU 'Blackmailers' Thousands urge their government to stand strong against demands for more austerity ahead of a last-ditch effort to strike a deal. by Tom Rayner, in Athens Sky News, Britain, June 18 <http://news.sky.com/story/1504115/greeks-protest-against-eu-blackmailers> Thousands of Greek protesters have taken to the streets of Athens urging their government to stand firm and reject further austerity measures being demanded by the country’s creditors. Carrying banners accusing EU leaders of being "loan sharks" and "blackmailers," the demonstrators aimed to send a message to Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras - leader of the left wing Syriza party - that his election victory in January gave him a mandate to take a tough stance against pressure to burden the country with fresh cuts. "If we accept their terms, and we have more austerity measures, things can only get worse," said Ifigemia Lanza, a young lawyer and Syriza supporter. Her comments echoed sentiments expressed throughout the crowd, with many claiming leaving the euro would be preferable to further extending austerity, which has seen unemployment and poverty rates soar. Greeks seem to be keeping their faith in Alexis Tsipras...for now . . . 1.b) Appeal on the part of META to the gatherings that are taking place across the country against the blackmailing on the part of the usurer lenders. The forces of META shall be at the Othon Street/Amalia Street corner, in Syntagma Square, Athens The country is not for sale nor shall the people be terrorised. The workers, trade unions, and the social organisations of the people can no longer stand back and watch as matters unfold; they are obliged to launch a bitter political battle for the overthrow of the Memoranda austerity policies and for the satisfaction of the needs of the people; They are obliged to take to the streets and to dynamically respond to the usurer lenders and to their demands that the country, the workers, the pensioners, the unemployed, the youth, and the people at large ‘capitulate’ in the face of the inhuman demands of capital, which require the implementation of austerity policies, of extreme neoliberal policies aimed at an increase in profiteering at the expense of the people, workers’ rights, and of democracy itself; META calls upon everyone to be present in force at the gatherings that are being planned across the country against the usurer lenders and their demands that they seek to impose upon the working class and the people at large; We are taking part dynamically and we take the lead in the class struggle for the overthrow of capital and the Memoranda policies which even to this day the usurer lenders are attempting to impose through extortion; Everyone present at Syntagma Square on Wednesday 17 June at 19.30!Tthe forces of META shall be at the corner of Othon Street and Amalia Street and at all the gatherings that are taking place across the country including: Thessaloniki, at Lefkos Pyrgos (White Tower), 20:00 Patra, at Georgiou Sq., 19:30 Volos, Ιroo Paralia (Monument by the coast), 19:00 Ioannina, Central Square, 19:30 THE ENTIRE PEOPLE CANNOT BE BLACKMAILED – THE COUNTRY IS NOT FOR SALE <http://www.marxist.com/greece-syrizas-trade-union-faction-calls-for-class-struggle-to-overthrow-capital-and-memoranda-austerity.htm> 1.c) Desperation forces Greeks back out on to the streets in Athens anti-austerity protests Greek capital sees its biggest anti-austerity demonstration in months as country's government admits it will default on the IMF if eurozone leaders fail to strike a deal by Mehreen Khan, Athens The Telegraph, June 17 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/11682338/Desperation-forces-Greeks-back-out-on-to-the-streets-in-Athens-anti-austerity-protests.html> Thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets of central Athens on Wednesday as the country lurches ever-closer to a eurozone exit. The protest in Syntagma Square marked the first major demonstration against Greece's creditors since the new Syriza government entered parliament in late January. Greece has just 13 days before its bail-out programme expires at the end of the month. Without a fresh injection of cash, Athens has said it will have no choice but to default on its loans to the International Monetary Fund on June 30. "We are here to show the rest of Europe we do not have to leave the euro but we support our government and our democracy," said Yanis, an 18-year old protester. "I'm young but I do not want to leave Greece. I love Greece and won't abandon the country. The people who created this mess should be the ones to leave." In a carnival atmosphere, Greeks young and old gathered through social media, holding banners calling for an end to the austerity policies the country has suffered under for five years. Polls continue to show overwhelming support for the euro across Greece, but the terms of this membership should not "humiliate" the country, said Panagiota Bleta, a 40-year old Athenian demonstrator. "We just want our dignity back" she said. "We don't want a deal where we stay in the euro and suffer a humiliation.It's time to create a Europe of equals, where Greece is not part of a third-speed Europe." . . . 2.a) Tsipras ready to take responsibility for rejecting aid deal by Marcus Bensasson & Nikos Chrysoloras I Kathimerini, Athens, June 17 <http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_17/06/2015_551166> Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he’s ready to take responsibility for rejecting the terms of a deal on aid if creditors demands are unacceptable. With a viable solution “the Greek government recently elected by the Greek people will bear the cost of carrying through this difficult agreement,” Tsipras told reporters in Athens on Wednesday. Without one, “we will assume the responsibility to say ‘the big no’ to a continuation of the catastrophic policies for Greece.” Negotiations between Greece and its creditors are close to breakdown as finance ministers prepare to meet in Luxembourg on Thursday that has been billed by officials as a last chance to seal an agreement on as much as 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in bailout aid. With creditors despairing of finding a way forward, Greece’s central bank warned of the dire consequences that are looming. The Athens Stock Exchange erased its gains after the prime minister’s comments, falling 1.5 percent at 3 p.m. in Athens, after dropping more than 9 percent over the previous two days. The index is on track for its lowest closing price since September 2012. . . . 2.b) Austrian chancellor sides with Greece in debt row I Kathimerini, Athens, June 17 http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_17/06/2015_551145 Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann expressed solidarity with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before meeting the leader in Athens on Wednesday in a bid to end a standoff with international creditors over a rescue package. Faymann, a Social Democrat who has taken a relatively lenient line with Greece, told broadcaster ORF that Athens had to live up to commitments under its current bailout plan but needed support to keep it from leaving the euro zone. "I know there were a number of proposals, also from the (creditor) institutions, that I also don't find in order," Faymann said in the radio interview. "High joblessness, 30-40 percent (with) no health insurance and then raising VAT on medicines. People in this difficult situation cannot understand that." . . . 2.c) No breakthrough expected at Eurogroup despite Faymann visit, Juncker call I Kathimerini, Athens, June 17 <http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_17/06/2015_551188> Expectations are low for significant progress in Greece’s talks with its lenders at Thursday’s meeting of finance ministers in Luxembourg, despite a brief phone call between European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last night. A European official told journalists that he expects the discussion regarding Greece at Thursday’s Eurogroup to be brief as creditors are expecting new proposals from Athens. The government insists it has already made adequate suggestions to meet the agreed fiscal targets. “The margins for new cuts in pensions have been exhausted,” said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras after meeting Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann in Athens. “We can’t understand the obsession of the lenders with pension cuts.” “If we don’t have an honorable compromise and an economically viable solution, we will take the responsibility to say a big no to the continuation of a catastrophic policy,” added the premier. Tsipras spoke with Juncker for only 10 minutes on Wednesday. There was no clear suggestion that either side is considering submitting new proposals at Thursday’s meeting. Asked on Wednesday during a visit to the offices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris whether he thought a deal could be reached at the Eurogroup, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said: “I don’t think so. Now it is up to political leaders to arrive at an accord.” Faymann said he coordinated his visit with Juncker and was hopeful that a solution could be found, even though he admitted it would be a difficult task. “I can’t see a solution lying before me but I see that if we are convinced we want one, we have a good chance,” said the Austrian. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the finance committee in Germany’s lower house that, while he remains hopeful Greece and its creditors will reach an agreement by June 30, the German government is also preparing for failure, two lawmakers told Bloomberg. “We can’t offer further compromises,” said Eckhardt Rehberg, a Christian Democratic lawmaker. “It’s the Greek people, ordinary citizens, who will have the biggest problems if there’s a default, with no agreement or solution.” 3.a) Audit Committee: Greece’s Debt ‘Illegal, Illegitimate and Odious’ by A. Makris The Greek Reporter, June 17 <http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/06/17/audit-committee-greeces-debt-illegal-illegitimate-and-odious> The debt imposed on Greece and its residents by creditors directly infringes the human rights of Greeks and is “illegal, illegitimate and odious,” according to the preliminary report issued on Wednesday by the Audit Committee on Public Debt. The Greek Parliament earlier released a six-page summary of the Committee’s preliminary findings during hearings conducted since April, when it was convened by Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou. The summary stressed that the entire adjustment program imposed on Greece “was and remains a politically orientated program,” while challenged arguments that the policies imposed on Greece aimed to improve its capacity to pay back the debt. It concluded that Greece was the victim of a “premeditated and organized” attack and of a “violent, illegal, and immoral mission” to shift private debt onto the public sector. “All the evidence we present in this report shows that Greece not only does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay this debt first and foremost because the debt emerging from the Troika’s arrangements is a direct infringement of the fundamental human rights of the residents of Greece. Hence, we came to the conclusion that Greece should not pay this debt because it is illegal, illegitimate and odious,” the report said. Among others, the report noted that the unsustainability of Greece’s debt was evident to all involved from the outset, yet Greek authorities and other European governments, with the assistance of the media, had “conspired against the restructuring of public debt in 2010 in order to protect financial institutions.” (source: ana-mpa) 3.b) IN DEPTH - Hellenic Parliament’s Debt Truth Committee: Presentation of the Preliminary Findings CADTM, June 16 <http://cadtm.org/Hellenic-Parliament-s-Debt-Truth> Executive Summary of the report from the Debt Truth Committee CADTM, June 17 <http://cadtm.org/Executive-Summary-of-the-report> Appeal to support the Resisting Greek people and its truth Commission on Public Debt For the People’s right to Audit public debt CADTM, May 4 <http://cadtm.org/Appeal-to-support-the-Resisting> Greece: Committee finds debt 'illegal, illegitimate and odious'; should not be paid LINKS International Journal of Socialist Renewal, June 17 <http://links.org.au/node/4468> Executive Summary of the report from the Debt Truth Committee International Viewpoint, June 17 <http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article4086> 4.a) SYRIZA MEP Manolis Glezos Steps Down by Katerina Papathanasiou The Greek Reporter, June 17 <http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/06/17/syriza-mep-manolis-glezos-steps-down> Almost a year after being elected to the European Parliament, veteran politician of the Greek Left and WWII resistance fighter Manolis Glezos, 92, announced on Wednesday that the time has come for him to finally resign from his duties as an MEP. Glezos’ resignation from the European Parliament will come into effect on the first anniversary of taking his seat on July 8. He will be replaced by SYRIZA Central Committee member Giannis [John] Milios, as Nikos Chountis that preceded on the list of finalists is currently appointed as Greece’s Alternate Minister of European Affairs. In a written statement published on his Movement for Active Citizens website, Glezos stated that he will remain an MEP until July, as he had already revealed after the European elections. “Following the reports regarding my “resignation,” I have to say that I promised that I will submit my resignation to the European Parliament one year after my election. The time has come. My duties will come to an end in July, but until then I remain being a SYRIZA MEP,” he said. Below follows the text of Manolis Glezos’s recent appeal: <http://www.marxist.com/greece-manolis-glezos-calls-on-syriza-leaders-to-end-dialogue-with-creditors.htm> “From Maximos Mansion to the Squares! “In these critical times, when the people of Greece are astounded and discovering day by day the [real] position of the lenders; now, that the threats are more evident than ever; at a time when the opposition is demanding that the government agrees to further cuts to wages, pensions and workers’ rights, and at a time when the opposition is aligning with the demands of the lenders for further tax increases and for the relinquishing of public property; at such a time, the Prime Minister must bring to an end the endless “dialogue” with the lenders, and he must meet the Greek people in the squares; he must inform and engage the people in meaningful dialogue; and together with the people, a solution exists; and it shall be one that is painful for the lenders and for anyone who has chosen to stand on the side of the lenders”. 4.b) House Speaker Angrily Returns Bank of Greece Report, Accuses Bank Governor by Philip Chrysopoulos The Greek Reporter, June 17 <http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/06/17/house-speaker-angrily-returns-bank-of-greece-report-accuses-bank-governor> House Speaker Zoe Konstantopoulou called the yearly Bank of Greece report on fiscal policy “unacceptable” and accused the bank governor of “uninhibited interventionism” as she returned it. Earlier today (Wednesday) the Bank of Greece 2015-2015 fiscal report was made public. It was presented to parliament by Bank of Greece director Yiannis Stournaras. However, when the report was presented, the special parliamentary committee investigating the Greek debt issue was in session. “Mr. Stournaras tried to sneak in the report at 10:40 am today in a way which doesn’t follow protocol while the Truth Committee was presenting its primary findings,” Kosntantopoulou said. “Mr. Stournaras has contributed to the fiscal, memorandum-based policy and has overstepped his position when the presidential elections were underway. He now tries, in a non-democratic way, to prevent the ultimate debt write-off claims of the government.,” she added. Konstantopoulou verbally attacked Stournaras, returned the USB stick with the report and asked him to bring it back in printed form. “This parliament does not use USB sticks. There were others having USB sticks in their desks and pockets,” she allegedly said, hinting at the USB stick that contained the infamous Lagarde List of tax evaders that was tampered with by the previous government. The fiscal report warns the government of the dangers of not signing an agreement with creditors, saying that Greece might go bankrupt and subsequently might be forced out of the Eurozone. It further says that recession will follow if there is no deal and Greece might end up a poor country of the European South. [Yannis Stournaras, is a Greek economist who is the Governor of the Bank of Greece. Previously, he had been the Greek Minister of Finance (under ND PM Samaris) from 5 July 2012 serving until 10 June 2014 and is on the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund. In 2000, he invited Yanis Varoufakis to become an economics professor at the University of Athens. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yannis_Stournaras>] 5) 'Making us poorer won't save Greece': how pension crisis is hurting its people Pension reform is a major sticking point in Greece’s bailout talks. But with 45% of retirees under the poverty line, many wonder how much more they can take by Jon Henley The Guardian, June 17 <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/17/greece-pension-crisis-people> Five years ago, Sissy Vovou’s pension was €1,330 (£953) and landed in her back account 14 times a year: you used to get, she wistfully recalls, a full extra month at Christmas, plus a half each at Easter and for the summer. Now it is a monthly €1,050 – and there are only 12 months in the Greek pensioner’s year. “In all,” she said, “I’ve lost 30% of my income. And I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m in the top fifth; 80% of Greek pensioners are worse off than me.” Vovou, 65, who began work at 17 in the publishing industry and ended her career at the state broadcaster, ERT, is also lucky because her son, now 40, has a good job and a regular salary. She does not need to help him out. Eleni Theodorakis, on the other hand, retired in 2008 from her job as an administrative assistant in a regional planning service, aged 55. “My pension is €942 euros a month – not too bad, really,” she said, almost shamefacedly, fishing the statement out of her handbag. “Fortunately my son is all right, just about, though sometimes he gets paid late. And once or twice, not at all. But my daughter’s husband has been unemployed for four years now. They have a baby … I give them what I can. It isn’t easy. Thankfully, my sister has a big garden. We grow things.” There are many like Theodorakis among Greece’s 2.65 million pensioners. According to a study last year by an employer’s association, pensions are now the main – and often only – source of income for just under 49% of Greek families, compared to 36% who rely mainly on salaries. With a jobless rate of about 26% – youth unemployment is at 50% – and out-of-work benefits of €360 a month generally paid for no longer than a year, pensions have become “a vital part of the social security net for many, many people,” said Vovou. “Retired parents are having to help their adult children everywhere. And now they’re demanding we cut them even more? It’s just so very wrong.” Pensions have become arguably the biggest hurdle in the tortuous, on-off negotiations between the leftwing government of the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, and Greece’s creditors: its eurozone partners, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Before they will release €7.2bn in aid that Greece needs to pay public-sector salaries and pensions and repay €1.6bn in IMF loans, those lenders want further reforms to the pensions system, including penalties to put people off taking early retirement and more cuts to even the lowest pensions. Tsipras is so far refusing to implement the measures, aimed at shaving the equivalent of 1% of GDP off the country’s pension bill, arguing they will do nothing to help Greece emerge from a slump that has seen the country’s economy shrink by 25%, and may only deepen its humanitarian crisis. There is little doubt Greece’s pensions system needed reform. The EU’s most expensive, at about 17.5% of GDP, it was made up of more than 130 different pension funds and hid widespread abuse: a pension census ordered in 2012 as part of the country’s bailout conditions turned up more than 90,000 entirely bogus claimants – mostly the relatives of long-dead pensioners – and 350,000 more inconsistent claims. Greece also had a remarkable 580 professions deemed hazardous or strenuous enough to qualify for early retirement: firemen and construction workers, certainly, but also hairdressers (because of the chemicals), wind instrument players (gastric reflux) and radio presenters (microbes in microphones). But some reforms are under way: those 130 funds have shrunk to 13, the standard retirement age for men has been lifted to 67, and, above all, since 2010 public and private sector pensions have been severely pruned, on a scale ranging from a 15%-cut for the very lowest (under €500 a month) to as much as 44% for highest (more than €3,000). Greek pensions are now, on the whole, far from exorbitant: social security ministry figures show the average main pension is €713 a month, and the average top-up pension – typically funded by an industry retirement scheme – €169 per month. Some 60% of pensioners get less than €800 gross a month, and 45% live on less than the monthly poverty limit of €665. The problems the system faces now are closely related to the country’s particular plight – and Athens is not alone in arguing that further flat, across-the-board pension cuts of the kind envisaged by its creditors are unlikely to accomplish much beyond hurting pensioners even more. The record-high unemployment rate, for example, means the pensions system is running a big deficit: contributions coming in are forecast, this year, to be roughly €2bn less than benefits going out. That shortfall has widened further because of the large number of older Greek workers seeking early retirement: demand is up 14% in the private sector and 48% in the public sector since 2009. With unemployment among the over-55s at about 20%, compared to just 6% five years ago, “I felt it was the wisest thing to do,” said Ioannis Konstatinidis, who retired four years early from a large, now privatised bank in 2012. “People were losing their jobs, salaries were being cut, and there was so much uncertainty I just thought it was better to be sure of getting at least something.” Konstatinidis has ended up getting nearly 40% less than he had counted on, however. “Our retirement will not be quite as comfortable as we’d thought. But we’re luckier than lots of people.” They are. Among the pension cuts being proposed is the abolition of the EKAS, a variable supplementary payment made to nearly 200,000 Greek pensioners to bring their monthly income up to €700 a month. (Other suggestions made by Greece’s creditors would hit people like that particularly hard: a hike in the tax on electricity, for example, from 13% to 23%). Few Greeks think further pension cuts will achieve anything. They may also be illegal: the country’s highest court has already ruled that the private-sector pension cuts pushed through in 2012 were unlawful because they “deprived pensioners of the right to decent life”. Unsurprisingly, the country’s pensioners’ unions have called for a major demonstration against further cuts on 23 June. “The government must absolutely not give in,” said Anastassios Georgiadis, of the retired postal workers’ association. “And Europe has to understand that it is not by making us even poorer that Greece will emerge from this crisis.” _________________________________________________________ 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
