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Letter of Greek students in The Netherlands

They spoke about us (and about you) without us (and you)…

We are Greek students in Dutch universities and we take this initiative to write you this letter regarding the event that took place on Monday, 6th of June at the Faculty of Economics of UVA. We write this letter in order to provide our perspective on the situation in Greece and its interconnection to the Dutch public financial sector.
We would have liked our position to be heard during the recent event that took place at your faculty, but we did not have the opportunity even though we tried. The event was in Dutch, despite us asking politely for it to take place in English so that international people could understand and participate. We also kindly requested to speak, but we were not allowed to do so. Your colleagues, surprisingly enough, were also not allowed to speak; the reasons for this seem dubious.

While the world was watching the US economy and its financial institutions stumbling under the crisis, we knew little about what was coming towards Europe. What the European public did not know was the amount of US mortgages purchased by the European banks. These loans created the current conditions, centering the economies on these debts.

Regarding the situation in Greece through the years, on the one hand, the State (like the majority of developed states) borrows huge amounts of money to finance the Greek banks, the large companies (e.g. mega projects for the 2004-Olympics that produced a 5-billion deficit) and the Greek and international military industry (Greece is one of the most popular clients of these industry by spending 100s of millions in armaments) and also, to re-pay the previous loans. Since 2008 the subsidies and guarantees that the Greek state has given to the banks, amount to 140 billion. In addition the Greek State was spending (and still spends) huge amounts on weapons and maintenance of an overmanned army (Greece has 100.000 soldiers while Germany has 200.000). At the same time, the vast majority of the upper class was engaged in a large scale tax evasion that was encouraged by the State. A very characteristic calculation claims that if the Greek taxation was in the average of EU in the period of 2000-2008 the revenues of the Greek State would have increased by 95 billion euros. All this resulted into an unprecedented increase of the budget deficit.

As this crisis evolved, the global and domestic capitalists (the speculators) saw in Greece a great opportunity to make huge loads of money and the EU saw an opportunity of applying a ‘shock-therapy’ of ultra-neoliberal policies for the first time in the European Union. With the full agreement of the EU, the socialist Papandreou-government transformed the sovereign-debt problem into a borrowing crisis and in May 2010 this government presented the EU-IMF 110-billion loan as the only and ultimate solution. This loan was accompanied by full-range austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit and create a competitive neoliberal economy. One year later, the consequences for the Greek people are devastating. Unemployment rose from 7.7% in 2008 and from 9.5% in 2009 to 16.2% in early 2011. Salaries of civil servants and pensions are cut by an average of 15%. Collective wage agreements and employment protection are abolished. Now, the minimum wage is 590 euros and taking into account the inflation the mean wage decreased 9.3% in 2010 and it is predicted that it will fall more 6% in 2011. The first memorandum did not manage to stimulate Greek economy at all. This type of policies in Greece which were also implemented in the past in Chile, in Argentina and other countries, has the same results: the austerity policies destroy not only the lives of millions of people but also the economy as a whole. It also happened in Greece: after the agreement in May 2010 until today, 250.000 more unemployed occurred (40% increase) and around 62.000 small and medium enterprises closed.

In this context, the Dutch government and media present Greece as being in an entirely different situation as the northern countries. It stigmatizes Greek people, characterizing them as lazy, unproductive and prone to tax evasion. In this way, the Dutch system also justifies the less-harsh austerity measures that are applied in the Netherlands. The austerity measures of the right-wing government are beginning to have an impact on public transportation, which in some regions will be suspended by 40%. Moreover, the educational system, through the introduction of higher financial obligations for the students and lower public funding, will be less available to the average youngster. The measures prepared for the Health care system, the Social security system and other public sectors are going to have even greater consequences. A good example is the rising of the retirement age for the normal Dutchman from 65 to 67, while the people responsible for the crisis are again getting big bonuses.

Regarding the working issues, according to official data* from the OECD and Eurostat (2011), the Greeks work longer hours that the Northern Europeans (in Greece it is 2119 hours per year, while in Germany it is 1389). While long-working hours in Northern states would imply greater financial benefits, in Greece these hours are paying the debt and the financial aid to banks (in Greece, in the last two years, 78 billion euros were given to banks). Given this background, we are in front of a new trend in Southern Europe: the youth deprived of a future in their own countries.

From all the money that the EU (including the Netherlands) lends to the Greek State, not even a single cent went to the pockets of the Greek people. All these money that the Dutch government gave as a part of the loan to the Greek State ended up to the banks saving them from bankruptcy. In the agreement between Greek State and troika (EU-IMA-ECB) it is not allowed to spend the money on anything else but the refinancing of old debts. The numbers give evidence: in the last 10 years, the Greek state borrowed 490 billion. From this money, 450 billion were used to service old debts; 18-20 is the cumulative budget deficit of these 10 years. For the rest 20 billion, no evidence has been provided on where they have been spent.

Against this situation, which threatens and deteriorates the living standards and the rights of all the European people, there is only one solution: all the European people have to unite and struggle against these austerity measures and cuts that European governments decide and implement. We have to struggle for changing this system that makes the poor people poorer and the rich people richer, for showing them, that they cannot decide anymore for us, without us, and that this has to be subverted. We have to struggle for living with dignity by our work, without the constant terrorism of unemployment, for having public and free health and education, for not working until we die! We have to decide for us and not let others decide for us; a message, which comes from the occupied European squares, by the people who started to react and to decide collectively! We will not pay the crisis that they created!

Archontaki Ioanna, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Chala Foteini, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Daniilidis Alexandros, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Gkliati Mariana, Universiteit Utrecht
Goniadis Giannis, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Kaldeli Eirini, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Kanterakis Alexandros, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Kapitsinis Nikos, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Kontakis Apostolos, TU Delft
Liangoridi Elektra, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Logkaki Anna, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Maniatakou Foteini, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Mixalakea Taygeti, Universiteit Utrecht
Polidora Eirini, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Roumelioti Stavroula, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Roussos Konstantinos, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Sidirourgos Lefteris, Centrum Wiskunde en Informatica
Tselekis Kyriakoulis, Universiteit Utrecht
Tselios Kostas, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Tsoumani Olga, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Tzagkaki Kalliopi, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Vasilakis Giannis, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

*http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/20752342-2010-table8/index.html?contentType=/ns/KeyTable,/ns/StatisticalPublication&itemId=/content/table/20752342-table8&containerItemId=/content/tablecollection/20752342&accessItemIds=&mimeType=text/html

In the last period, we have witnessed an upsurge of false publications for Greek people. Besides providing numerous inaccurate information which cannot stand to any serious criticism, these publications have an extra role, they aim at pressing Greece to sell off immediately €50 billion state property and to enforce even harsher austerity measures.

THINGS ARE NOT AS THEY SAY…

Minister de Jager and some journalists argue fiercely that Greece is in need of a new loan because the austerity plan of 2010 was poorly implemented. Indeed, the state revenues decreased and the budget deficit remained high (10.6% in 2010). However, the reason for this is not the poor implementation of the austerity plan but the austerity policies themselves. The austerity policies imposed the reduction of pensions and wages (btw, we wonder whether de Jager could ever live on the Greek minimum wage, €592 a month…), the massive lay-offs and the large increase of the VAT, all these lead to a severe decrease in consumption and to a complete economic stagnation. Since May 2010, 65.000 businesses closed down, while construction works dropped by 73%. The unemployment climbed to 16.2%, while for young people it reached 40%. Within 2010, the GDP of the country dropped by 6.8% if measured at the trimester level and in 2000-fixed values.

As for collecting taxes, the reforms that were imposed alongside the austerity policies only increased the tax burden of people that were always paying taxes: the poor, the private sector employees, the civil servants and the small businessmen and professionals. The large companies and the rich professionals were bothered neither by the Greek government nor by the EU. The actual tax rate for companies is Greece is 15%, the lowest in Europe. 4.000 off-shore companies are active in Greece and they pay absolutely no taxes. According to Global Wealth Databook (Oktober, 2010), the result is that 60.000 Greeks own land and housing property with a value of approximately $736 billion and ‘mobile’ property of about $340 billion.

As there is long history of imposing such austerity policies to many countries, the Greek government, the IMF and the EU knew very well that the declared aims of these policies were meant to fail. The answer on why these policies were implemented is given by the ex-president of the Bundesbank, Karl Otto Pohl (Spiegel , 18/05/2010). According to him, the bail-out plan «was about protecting German banks, but especially the French banks, from debt write offs. » …. «Looking at that, you can see what this was really about – namely rescuing the banks and the rich Greeks». What minister de Jager, the ‘respectful’ journalists and Geert Wilders are hiding is the fact that not a single cent from the money that the Dutch state is giving as a loan to Greece has ended at the Greek people. The loan may only be used to finance old debts. In other words, the EU-governments are financing the banks using the Greek crisis as an excuse. The result of this bail-out will be to transfer the burden of an unsustainable debt on the rest of the European countries. As everybody has noticed, Ireland and Portugal followed Greece in the road of ‘bail-out’. Spain and Italy come next…

SECOND BAIL-OUT: SAME RECIPE, WORST RESULTS

Currently, the EU and the IMF came with a ‘new’ plan. As the first round of austerity policies failed, a second one is launched that will be even harsher. Salaries will be cut by 40%, the labour market will be completely liberalized, the last remaining welfare benefits will be abolished and taxes on the poor and the middle class will further increase. The result can only be worse than the previous ones: the economy will be completely destroyed. No matter how much the people will suffer, the new austerity plan will ensure that Greece will never be able to repay its debt. However, the banks will not be harmed as the largest part of the debt will have been transferred to the European governments.

The ‘novel’ part of the ‘new’ plan is that it includes selling off state property to finance part of the debt. This extravagant part of the plan serves only the interests of foreign and domestic companies that want to get state property almost for free. The first evidence of this is already clear: Deutsche Telecom bought 10% of the Greek Telecommunications Company (OTE) for €400 million, while in 2008 it had bought another 30% for €3.8 billion. But even if the full privatization plan materialized, it would mean that Greece would gather €50 billion. To bring this in perspective, the state debt is currently €340 billion and according to the plans of the EU, in 2015, it will amount €500 billion…

WE DO NOT WANT ANY MORE LOANS!

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people flood the squares in Greece to put an end to these austerity policies and topple the Papandreou-government. For these people, the solution does not lie in getting new loans or in imposing new austerity measures and privatizing health, education and public transport. The banks should pay for the crisis that they created and they want to sustain at the expense of the living standards of the people.
The Greek people need the solidarity of all European people. This solidarity means stopping the EU from granting a new loan to Greece. It means writing off sovereign debts and not ensuring their repayment. It means stopping austerity policies in Greece, in the Netherlands and in the whole Europe. It means retaining the public and social character of education, health care, public transport and the welfare state. It means rejecting the effort of de Jager and Wilders to divide nations and join forces for a common future. Using the declared aim of the indignados in Spain, in Greece and other countries, it means fighting for real democracy, where the will of the people and not the bank profit has the first place.

As for minister de Jager and the bankers, we should warn them that the agreements that they have made and will make with the Papandreou-government will not be respected by the people. We, the people have decided to take our future in our own hands and will not let it go!

WE DO NOT OWE! WE WILL NOT PAY! WE WILL NOT SELL!

We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers
People, Spanish, Greek, Dutch and others, who have been gathering at the Dam square in Amsterdam for the past weeks, for protest and assemblies, have called for a protest tomorrow, Sunday June 5th, at 18:00.
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Info-evening on the situation of and in Greece, with Greek speakers, a showing of the documentary “Debtocracy” and open discussion afterwards.
When: Wednesday June 8th, 19:00
Where: Bookshop ‘de Rooie Rat’, Oudegracht 65, Utrecht

Since 2008, the strongest and most important crisis of the system takes place and its negative effects are visible at all levels of socio-economic life in the EU and the USA. This crisis originated from the globalized financial sector and was caused by the banks and large enterprises. The way governments have chosen to tackle the crisis is adopting measures which worsen the life of the people.

Currently, the crisis has mainly developed into a sovereign-debt crisis. This was caused by the billion of euros spent by governments to bail out the banks and the financial companies that have heavily invested in ‘toxic’ financial products in the virtual financial economy. The huge sovereign debts and budget deficits emerged as a result of the neoliberal policies that are based on two pillars:

- States loan huge amounts of money from international markets mainly in order to finance projects that are profitable for large enterprises (and not to sustain the welfare state as it is mainly said) and to refinance older state debt.
- States do not apply progressive taxation and actually in most cases they tax much less the upper class and the large companies.

A situation like this has developed in Greece the last 20 years. On the one hand Greek State (like the majority of developed states) borrow huge amounts of money to finance the Greek large companies (e.g. mega projects for the 2004-Olympics that produced a 5-billion deficit) and the Greek and international military industry (Greece is the popular client of these industries by spending 100s of millions in armaments). Since 2008, the subsidies and guarantees that the Greek state has given to the banks amount 140 billion. At the same time, the vast majority of the upper class was engaged in a large scale tax evasion that was encouraged by the state. A very characteristic calculation claims that if Greek taxation was in the average of EU in the 2000-2008 period the revenues of Greek state would have increased 95 billion euros. All this resulted into an unprecedented increase of the budget deficit.

As this crisis evolved, the global and domestic financial capital (the speculators) saw in Greece a great opportunity to make huge loads of money and the EU saw an opportunity of applying for the first time in the EU a ‘shock-therapy’ of ultra-neoliberal policies. With the full agreement of the EU, the socialist Papandreou-government transformed the sovereign-debt problem into a borrowing crisis and presented the EU-IMF 110-billion loan as the only and ultimate solution in May 2010. This loan was accompanied by a full-range austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit and create a competitive neoliberal economy. One year later, the consequences for the Greek people are devastating.

Unemployment rose from 7.7% in 2008 and 9.5% in 2009 to 15.9% in early 2011. Salaries of civil servants and pensions are cut by an average of 15%. Collective wage agreements and employment protection are abolished.

The issue is that the declared aims of these policies are far from being met. Thousands of companies are closed, inflation is increasing and state revenues are collapsing as large companies try to get as much money as possible from the people and they still pay no taxes. The state debt rose to 340 billion or 153% of GDP and it is widely accepted by economists that Greece cannot sustain it. This is because the EU-IMF loan aimed at saving the Greek and European banks and not the Greek people. The loan aimed at giving the time to the banks to sell of the Greek sovereign bonds to the ECB and thus transferring the burden to all citizens of the Eurozone-countries.

The solution that the Papandreou-government and the Troika (EU-ECB-IMF) came up to was that the austerity measures were not enough and that the Greek people have to suffer even more. Now, the second round of reforms is coming with the government selling off state property and reducing salaries of civil servants even more. The banks are going to get another subsidy of 30 billion with the new EU-IMF loan.

In the Netherlands, Dutch media and government attack with the worst way to Greek people characterizing them lazy and unproductive, and prone to tax evasion. In this way, they also justify the less-harsh austerity measures that are applied in the Netherlands.

In current socioeconomic system the debts can show how bad the performance of a national economy is, always in the terms of system; this is a mechanism for new and harder measures which on the one hand deteriorate more the position of the workers and youths, the freedoms and sale of all the public goods and on the other they contribute to the reproduction of the system.

So, debt is the expression of all the choices of governments at the national and international level in this period. The high debts that occur in almost all the states could be characterized only as fake for the majority of the society and could not be separated to odious and non-odious in cases of corruption. These debts cannot be managed with a friendly way for the workers and cannot be disconnected from crisis and the new aggression of capital in order to overcome the crisis. We did not create this debt! We do not recognize it! We will not repay it! The hundreds of thousands of people that flood the squares of Greece, Spain and other countries these days show that the people will not play their game.

To discuss all the aspects of Greek situation and crisis, we organise a documentary event showing the documentary “Debtocracy” that focuses on the ‘Greek crisis’, which is an independent production by 2 Greek journalists (one was dismissed from his tv post when it came out) and based on the support of Greek people. The documentary will be followed by an open discussion on the topic. The initial speakers will be two Greek people (one living in Greece and one living in the Netherlands).

Official site of “Debtocracy”: http://www.debtocracy.gr/

UPDATE from occupiedlondon.org/blog “From the Greek Streets“: “Update on the health of the 30-year old demonstrator; spontaneous marches in Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraclion against police brutality; assemblies in Athens start now“

General strike and marches in Greece; riotcops beat one demonstrator so badly his life is in danger
Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the government in Athens today and many more in other cities as well. A 30 old demonstrator has been heavily wounded by the riot police during the protest march organized by the trade unions that took place in Athens. His life is in danger.

The riot police [..] attacked the block of the demonstrator’s that belonged to the trade union of the people working as waiters, cooks, catering etc. with extreme violence.

The hospitalized demonstrator has been beaten so badly during an unprovoked attack of the riot police that his life IS HANGING IN THE BALANCE. He is still in surgery and he has been undergoing surgery for the last hour.

Extensive use of tear gas have been conducted prior to the riot police attack.

There have been also 12 badly wounded demonstrators who have received heavy wounds on the head, but at least they are in non-critical condition. The wounded demonstrators include people of all age groups.

Below the translation of the statement of the medical doctor’s trade union of the hospital where the demonstrator is undergoing surgery:
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