A Greek tragedy unfolding?
Posted by John, July 10th, 2015 - under Uncategorised.
Tags: Austerity, Greece
These are the reform proposals from the Greek government.
They accept the 26 June demands of the Troika, the demands the referendum rejected.
The question now becomes will the Greek working class accept this SYRIZA-troika austrity deal?
Will the radical and revolutionary left fight in and outside Parliament and give a lead to the working class in rejecting the deal, or even, hopefully, take their lead from a mobilised, angry and clearly anti-austerity class?
Some are arguing that it postpones the cuts to pensions till 2019. Not so. They are real cuts, and they total 13 billion euro. They will happen. For example the cuts to solidarity payments to the poorest pensioners will be implemented BY 2019, a year early. The pension age will rise to 67 by 2022.
The VAT increases start now. Privatisations will continue.
This is not ‘extend and pretend’. It is real austerity, the troika’s austerity. It cannot alter the crisis of Greek capitalism.
The actions of the SYRIZA government effectivley junk the democratic will of 61% of the population who voted no to austerity last Sunday. Many will be disillusioned.
The point is to build and mobilise the struggle against austerity now in the process of building towards a new society, a working class democratically running society where production is organised to satisfy human need.
In fighting the SYRIZA-troika austerity program Greek workers can inspire workers across Europe to reject the neoliberal prescriptions and put socialism as the alternative back on the table.
This proposal will challenge the radical left both in and outside SYRIZA and their claims about their embeddedness in the class and social movements and capacity to organise and mobilise within the class.