Alain Badiou, Jean-Christophe Bailly, Étienne Balibar, Claire Denis,
Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Ranciere, Avital Ronell.
Save the Greeks from their Saviors!
February 22, 2012. Translation into English by Anastazia Golemi.
http://www.egs.edu/faculty/alain-badiou/articles/save-the-greeks-from-their-saviors/
At a time when one Greek youth is unemployed. Where 25,000 homeless
wander the streets of Athens. Where 30% of the population has fallen
under the poverty line and where millions of families are forced to
place their children in the care of someone else in order for them not
to die of hunger or cold, where refugees and the new poor compete for
trashcans at the public dump, the “saviors” of Greece, under the
pretext that “Greece is not trying hard enough”, impose a new aid plan
that doubles the lethal administered dose. A plan that abolishes the
right to work and reduces the poor to the most extreme misery, at the
same time as it makes the middle class disappear.
The goal is not about “saving” Greece. All economists worthy of this
name agree on this point. It’s about gaining time in order to save the
creditors at the same time it leads the country into deferred
collapse. Above all it’s about making a laboratory of social change
out of Greece that, in a second generation, will spread throughout all
of Europe. The model experimented upon Greece is one where public
social services, schools, hospitals, and dispensaries fall into ruin,
where health becomes the privilege of the rich, and where vulnerable
populations are doomed to a programmed elimination while those who
work are condemned to the most extreme conditions of impoverishment
and precarity.
But in order for this neo-liberalist offensive to achieve its ends, it
is necessary to install a regime established an economy of the most
basic democratic rights. Under the injunction of saviors, we see
throughout Europe technocratic governments installing themselves with
disregard for popular sovereignty. This is a turning point in the
parliamentary system where we see the “representatives of the people”
giving carte blanche to the experts and bankers, abdicating their
supposed decisional power –A kind of parliamentary coup d’etat, which
also uses an amplified arsenal against popular protest. Thus, when
members have ratified the convention dictated by the troika (the
European Union, the European Central Bank and the International
Monetary Fund), diametrically opposed to the mandate for which they
had received power, without any democratic legitimacy, it will have
committed to the future of the country for thirty or forty years.
Meanwhile the EU is preparing to establish an account which would be
paid directly to aid Greece but only so that it is used for servicing
the debt. The revenue of the country should be the "absolute priority"
devoted to repay creditors, and, if necessary, paid directly to the
account managed by the European Union. The agreement stipulates that
any new bond issued under it shall be governed by English law, which
involves material guarantees, so that disputes will be adjudicated by
the courts of Luxembourg, having Greece waive in advance any rights to
appeal against an entry determined by its creditors. To complete the
picture, privatization is assigned to a fund managed by the troika,
where the title deeds of public goods shall be placed. In short, it is
the widespread looting, characteristic of financial capitalism which
here offers itself a really beautiful institutional consecration. To
the extent that sellers and buyers sit on the same side of the table,
we have no doubt that this enterprise of privatization is a real treat
for the buyers. But all the measures taken so far have only dug Greece
into deeper sovereign debt. With the help of rescuers who lend at
exorbitant rates, it has literally exploded into free fall in
approaching 170% of GDP, while in 2009 it represented more than 120%.
It is likely that this cohort of rescuers - whenever presented as
"final" - had no other purpose than to weaken further still the
position of Greece so that, deprived of any opportunity to propose
itself the terms of a restructuring, is reduced to yield to all its
creditors under the blackmail of "the disaster or austerity."
The worsening of the artificial and coercive debt problem was used as
a weapon to attack an entire society. It is proper that we speak here
of terms related to the military: we are indeed dealing with a war
conducted by means of finance, politics and law, a class war against
society as a whole. And the spoils that the financial class wrestles
away from the "enemy", are the social benefits and democratic rights,
but ultimately it is the very possibility of a human life that is
taken. The lives of those who do or do not consume enough in terms of
profit maximization strategies, should be no longer be preserved.
Thus, the weakness of a country caught between speculation and endless
devastating bailouts, is the backdoor through which a new social model
erupts conforming to the requirements of neoliberal fundamentalism. A
model destined for all Europe and maybe elsewhere. This is the real
issue and why defending the Greek people can not be reduced to a
gesture of solidarity or abstract humanity: the future of democracy
and the fate of European nations are in question. Everywhere the
"pressing necessity" of "painful but salutary" austerity will be
presented to us as the means to escape the fate of Greece, while it
really leads us right into the middle of it.
Up against this attack against society, faced with the destruction of
the last pockets of democracy, we call our fellow citizens, our French
and European friends to speak loudly. Do not leave the monopoly on
speaking to the experts and politicians. Can we remain indifferent to
the fact the German and French leaders in particular have requested
Greece to be banned from elections? Does the systematic stigmatization
and bashing of a European people not deserve a response? Is it
possible not to raise ones voice against the institutional
assasination of the Greek people? And can we remain silent in front of
the establishment of a forced march towards a system that outlaws the
very idea of social solidarity?
We are at the point of no return. It is urgent to fight the battle of
numbers and the war of words to counter ultra-liberal rhetoric of fear
and misinformation. There is urgent need to deconstruct the moral
lessons that obscure the actual process at work in society. It becomes
more than urgent to demystify the racist insistence on the " Greek
specificity " that allegedly is the supposed national character of a
people (laziness and cunning at will) the root cause of a crisis in
global reality. What matters today is not the specifics, wheher they
are real or imaginary, but the common: the fate of a people that will
affect all others.
Numerous technical solutions have been proposed to overcome the
alternative of "either the destruction of the society or
bankruptcy" (which we see today really means "and the destruction and
bankruptcy" of the company). Everything must be brought to the table
as food for thought for the construction of another Europe. But first
you must report the crime, bring to light the situation in which the
Greek people is because of "rescue packages" designed by and for
speculators and creditors. When a movement of support is woven around
the world, where Internet networks buzz with initiatives of
solidarity, are French intellectuals the last to raise their voices
for Greece? Without further delay, multiply articles, media
appearances, debates, petitions, demonstrations. For any initiative is
welcome, any initiative is urgent.
As for us, this is what we propose: quickly move towards the formation
of a European community of intellectuals and artists in solidarity
with the Greek people in resistance. If we can’t do this, then who
will? If we don’t do this now, then when?
Vicky Skoumbi, Editor-in-Chief of the journal, “Alètheia”, Athens,
Michel Surya, director of the journal «Lignes», Paris, Dimitris
Vergetis, director of the journal, “Alètheia”, Athens. And : Daniel
Alvara, Alain Badiou, Jean-Christophe Bailly, Etienne Balibar,
Fernanda Bernardo, Barbara Cassin, Bruno Clément, Danielle Cohen-
Levinas, Yannick Courtel, Claire Denis, Georges Didi-Huberman, Roberto
Esposito, Francesca Isidori, Pierre-Philippe Jandin, Jérôme Lèbre,
Jean-Clet Martin, Jean- Luc Nancy, Jacques Rancière, Judith Revel,
Elisabeth Rigal, Jacob Rogozinski, Hugo Santiago, Beppe Sebaste,
Michèle Sinapi, Enzo Traverso.
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