Message from Greece who suffer from austerity
Dear friends in Japan,
With the arrival of the IMF in Japan, I would like to take this opportunity and communicate to you some facts and some thoughts regarding the impact of the IMF in my country, Greece, not only for informative or solidarity reasons, but also as a very recent example of a country drugged into the neoliberal policies of mafia organizations like the IMF and the WB.
The facts:
May 2010. The Eurozone countries and the IMF agreed on a 110billion bailout loan for Greece, conditional on the implementation of harsh austerity measures. The austerity package was met with great anger by the Greek people, leading to massive protests, riots and social unrest throughout Greece.
The following year found Greece with a bigger debt, and unemployment rate reaching tragic levels. In 2011, 810,821 people were unemployed in Greece. In 2012, that number rose to 1,168,761 for the same period of time. In September 2012, the unemployment rate reached 24.5%, the second-worst in Europe, after Spain. Young people between the ages of 18-25 are experiencing 53.9% unemployment. For women, it’s even worse, at 62.1%. People who work part-time or maybe just a few hours a day are NOT counted as unemployed. It has been reported that every single day in Greece, 1,000 people lose their jobs. The situation, in fact, is even more dramatic. Analysts say that figure is closer to 3,000. Officially, unemployment is worse than it was during the Nazi occupation during WWll. With this unemployment rate and harsh austerity measures, like workers’ wages and pensions cut, mainly targeting the lower classes, the debt keeps increasing.
“Debt that a country is incapable of paying represents an opportunity for the economic elite, through the IMF, to bring that country to its’ knees, annihilate it, and conquer it. After bleeding it dry, they lead it to bankruptcy. Then come the vultures of the capital who for bread-crumps buy up everything valuable in order to later exploit it until that country becomes a paradise for capitalistic exploitation, where inhuman working conditions finally prevail. This is the IMF plan for Greece: a plan that quickly leads to the hypper- accumulation of economic and social power in even fewer hands, and drives people into misery.“* (Exerpt from Political Letter to Society by the Revolutionary Struggle)
And naturally, as long as the economic depression deepens, repression is getting tougher. During the talks in the first summit in Lisbon (19th November 2010), the Greek Prime Minister Papandreou confirmed in a statement that the role of NATO is among others, to address “ extreme political positions and movements around the world”. Moreover, the military arm of the EU, called the Common European Security and Defence, as the Council of Europe, recently ratified a resolution on “combating extremism, aiming to direct targeting social movements and civil liberties.” The last two years, huge demonstrations take place in almost every city in Greece. And in the name of “protection of the public order” thousands of riot policemen are put on the streets. There have been many witnesses of severe and brutal police attacks, including beating up, massive use of toxic tear-gas, running over the crowds with motorcycles and of course arrests, and more beating up inside the Police Headquarters.
The thoughts:
Dear friends in Japan,
We have seen that every country from which the IMF has passed, is driven to economic and production destruction. In many cases, these “beneficial intervention “ resulted in famine, decease, civil war, social catastrophe and un-repairable damage to the environment.
Dear friends in Japan,
The IMF is not an image on your TV screen. It might have worked well for the capitalist hierarchy, but for the man in the street, for the worker, for the peasant, for the immigrant, for the student, for the ordinary man who works 40hours a week and being paid 400 euros per month, for the unemployed youth, for the sick, the disabled, the pensioners..it was a disaster.
Dear Friends in Japan,
When the IMF comes to Japan, the solution will not be in the meetings, social media, in texts like this I am sending you now,
When the IMF comes to Japan, the solution will be found on the streets. And there shall I meet you all, to fight together against all oppressors: for the Social revolution, for Freedom.
Greek anarchist, currently living in Japan.
