Austerity wrecks economy and society Interview with Axel Troost, German LINKE MP 16 January 2015
[ Axel Troost, the financial policy speaker of the parliamentary group DIE LINKE in the German Bundestag, met with leading Syriza politicians. In this interview, he explains why a debt cut is not the most immediate issue, and how Syriza aims to re-build the mismanaged Greek state. The primary challenge, he says, is an end to the devastating austerity policy. ] [...] The left internationally should understand this: unlike Venezuela under Chavez, a Syriza government will not introduce large-scale nationalizations and the like. They will take immediate measures in social policies and labor market regulation, they will help deeply indebted small and medium-sized enterprises and thus re-vitalize the domestic economy, and they will try to put the state back on a solid financial footing. The rich and the big income earners are to contribute their fair share to this, which would be quite a novelty. And Syriza wants to put an end to decades of clientilism. Q.: How does Syriza aim to accomplish this? Syriza´s program rests on four pillars, the first of which is to overcome the humanitarian crisis and the fight against poverty. This includes securing general access to health care and energy, but also subsidies to tenants, food vouchers, preferential rates for public transportation and raising state pensions for seniors who currently receive less than 430 Euros per month. This part of the program has a volume of two billion Euros. The second pillar is a re-invigoration the economy. Most people don´t know that many small and medium-sized enterprises in Greece have not been able to pay their taxes and social security deductions and are now deeply indebted to the state. But these enterprises are the core and the backbone of the Greek economy. Syriza intends to set up regional arbitration boards that are to negotiate with these firms with a view to bringing them back to the market so they can process orders and employ people. In addition, the minimum wage which until 2010 was brokered between employers and unions, is to be set at 751 Euros again. And Syriza has four legal motions ready to be passed by parliament that would take back the recent restrictions of employment protection and the right to strike, and reinstate labor market and collective bargaining regulations, all of which were razed under pressure from the Troika. The third pillar is a labor market program. Syriza aims to create 300,000 jobs for the longterm unemployed. And this may sound odd in other countries: participants are to be selected by computers to avoid that the clientilist tradition is continued and only political cronies benefit. The fourth pillar – this may touch the core of your question – is the institutional and democratic re-structuring of the political system. This means that the tax administration is to be re-structured, tax investigation and new rules are to be introduced to abolish the custom that in the aftermath of every election the heads of tax offices were replaced according to political affiliation. If I were to present Syriza´s tax proposals to my colleagues from the other parties in the Bundestag´s Finance Committee, no one would be shocked or claim that Greece was now on the brink of socialism. Q.: Let´s talk about the debt problem a little more. What implications do the elections in Greece have for a possible departure from austerity? The public credits have made it possible for Greece to meet its interest payments. What the debt crisis introduced as a novelty is that debtors in order to re-finance their debt, constantly need lenders willing to loan at reasonable conditions. This makes debtors susceptible to blackmail when this follow-up financing is unavailable. As I said, Greece needs follow-up financing of 22 billion Euros this year. And it has to move the IMF and the ESM to provide this financing. This leads to a conflict over principles. In this conflict I advised Syriza to argue against the devastating austerity dictates and the Troika´s completely preposterous conditionalities firstly, and not to fight immediately for a debt cut for Greece. It will be easier to mobilize support for this demand among European progressive parties, trade unions and social movements. It is possible to organize a solidarity movement for Greece if it is aimed against austerity. Q.: A departure from austerity would require critical majorities at the European level. Do you think it´s realistic that we will see those soon? That is certainly difficult. First of all, the German government, that is Merkel and company – and company meaning in this case also the social democrats - are determined to stay their course no matter what. Others like France and Italy but also Monsieur Juncker have realized that the present course of action has led an economic catastrophe because we are now faced with a real risk of deflation and unemployment remains high. They are now trying a course that still prescribes austerity to public budgets and aims to implement further “reforms” in the labor market and the pension systems, but also considers growth necessary. Hence the so called Juncker Plan which is intended to stimulate private investments. They at least recognize that austerity doesn´t work and that it wrecks the economy and society. This is a movement that we can tie in with and explain that in Greece we are not going to see major investment programs. These are not at the center of Syriza´s platform, but rather the four pillars I just sketched. And with sufficient support from the left inside and outside the parliaments of the countries of the Eurozone, we may achieve a situation where the implementation of Syriza´s policies which the majority of the Greek people want is tolerated. full: http://www.transform-network.net/blog/blog-2015/news/detail/Blog/-7c8ad08d18.html +++ Left Industrial Policy - Productive Transformation For Europe First Report – October 2014 By Maxime Benatouil and Elisabeth Gauthier This is the first report of a new project dedicated to a Left Industrial Policy - Productive Transformation for Europe. It aims at presenting the preliminary results of the work undertaken by a Transform! interdisciplinary Working Group composed of economists, trade unionists and historians – as well as its cooperation with relevant actors of the political Left towards a progressive EU-wide industrial and investment policy contributing to the social, ecological and democratic transformation of Europe. 1. Introduction The intention is to bring together the different approaches and the project groups in a common working environment at the level of the European Left. This paper attempts to sum up the assessments of Axel Troost (Vice-chairman of DIE LINKE, Member of the Bundestag), the Brussels office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Gabriel Colletis (Professor for Economics and industry specialist), and transform! europe. Ever since the outbreak of the crisis, the work on alternatives has been central for transform! europe. By launching an interdisciplinary and permanent working group of economists, trade unionists and historians (first meeting Rome September 2014), Transform! wishes to develop a project dedicated to a “Left industrial policy – productive reconstruction for Europe”, one of the key issues for the future of Europe. [...] more: http://www.transform-network.net/en/blog/blog-2014/news/detail/Blog/-0ed412f973.html pdf: http://www.transform-network.net/uploads/tx_news/LeftIndustrialPolicy_14.pdf _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
