The Power Of No: The Greeks Expose Neoliberalism’s Anti-Democratic Agenda

By
Chris Trotter
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57
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THE UNFOLDING CRISIS in Greece has stripped Neoliberalism of its protective disguise and the world is recoiling from its ugliness. In normal circumstances the true purposes of the world’s neoliberal elites are masked by their use of opaque economic jargon. In the case of Greece, however, the social science of economics has been turned against them by some of its most impressive exponents. Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman have told the world that what is being done to Greece has nothing to do with economics, and everything to do with politics. A whole country is being driven to the wall in a desperate bid to destroy its left-wing government. Neoliberalism simply cannot allow the Greek Prime Minister’s, Alexis Tsipras’s, powerful lessons in democracy to go unpunished. If his Syriza Party is allowed to defeat austerity in Greece, what is there to prevent Podemos from defeating it in Spain? Or Sinn Fein in Ireland?

Hence the ugliness. Deprived of credible economic arguments for insisting that the Greek government persist with an austerity programme that has already shrunk Greece’s GDP by 25 percent and kept upwards of 60 percent of her young people out of the paid work force, the EU’s neoliberal elites – particularly the German holders of the neoliberal franchise – have been forced to resort to outright lies and childish insults.

Germany’s 72-year-old Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schauble, has clearly been unable to cope with his 54-year-old Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis. Everything about the free-wheeling Greek economics professor offends the unyielding German ideologue. Varoufakis has been unsparing in his criticism of Germany’s inability to grasp the necessity for Greek debt relief (which even the IMF now acknowledges). It’s an act of insubordination which Schauble and his colleagues are resolutely determined to punish. But, so unchallenged has neoliberalism’s ideological hegemony been since the collapse of Soviet-style socialism that it finds itself unable to adequately respond to Varoufakis’s neo-Keynesian populist critiques. Schauble’s greatest fear is that, like the little boy in the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, the Greek Finance Minister will draw the world’s attention to the fact that the neoliberal German Emperor is wearing no clothes.

With Schauble and his neoliberal colleagues forced on to the defensive by the combined diplomatic and intellectual onslaught of Tsipras and Varoufakis, mobilisation orders were swiftly issued to neoliberalism’s reserve units located in the global news media. These latter lost no time in launching vicious attacks against the Syriza leadership – especially Varoufakis – and redoubled their blatantly racist denigration of the Greek people as a whole. This latter tactic had been in operation ever since Greece’s creditors had forced successive Greek governments into slashing the living standards of their own people. Cast as indolent Mediterranean grasshoppers (so unlike the hard-working Teutonic ants, whose borrowed Euros they had fecklessly frittered away) the Greek victims of neoliberal extremism were told that they had no one to blame but themselves.

Even at a distance of 17,000 kilometres from Athens, New Zealand’s neoliberal journalists and commentators have been working hard to maintain the two central arguments for neoliberalism’s assault on Greece. That the Syriza Government’s position is economically untenable; and that, in any case, the Greek people had it coming and richly deserve everything they have got. To pull this off they have had to studiously ignore the highly critical contributions of leading economists, while attempting to preserve the fiction that Greece has no alternative except to swallow still more of the austerity poison.

The most disturbing aspect of the mainstream news media’s adherence to the neoliberal line has been its willingness to go along with ethnic defamation. Just substitute the word “Maori” for “Greeks” in these neoliberal tirades and the full racist character of the attacks becomes clear. Newspapers and networks that would never allow contributors to get away with calling Maori lazy, good-for-nothing, ne’er-do-wells with no one to blame for their poverty but themselves, were quite happy to have it said of the Greeks.

It was, however, Tsipras’s decision to put the question of whether or not to persist with the EU’s austerity programme to a referendum that stripped away the last vestiges of Neoliberalism’s technocratic disguise. Now they were required to openly disparage not just Syriza, not just the Greek people, but democracy itself. In extremis, the neoliberals had no choice but to demonstrate, in a fashion that people who value democratic principles could not miss, that the interests of those who are both empowered and enriched by their control of the markets; and the interests of the people whose lives are cheapened and constrained by the operations of those same markets; have always been, and are still, on a collision course.

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The decision of the Greek people has shown us that Neoliberalism can be challenged. Whether it can be beaten will require more than the bravery of a single nation. To defeat the neoliberals’ greed and cruelty, not just Greece but the whole world will have to find the courage to say: “No!”

 

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57 COMMENTS

    • Me to as we saw art 7pm this day Yanis Varoufakis resigns.

      As the toxic table of the Germany’s 72-year-old Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schauble and his henchmen, had already made an agreement not to deal with these Greeks while Yanis was sitting at the table, and this shows how toxic the EU masters really are when they wont deal with a duly elected MP across the table.

      They are fascists and are out to wreck Greece at any cost so best Greece exit this toxic mess that is about to implode.

      • Yeah, it’s called stacking the decks. They want to hold ‘negotiations’ with their friends in the ruling elite, not a pesky elected representative of the people. Just looked up his Wikipedia entry. I thought it was quite impressive.

  3. In a nutshell, Chris.

    And it could happen here with NZfirst, Winston the Nationalist,if
    enough Kiwi’s woke up to what’s going on.

    We cannot let 2017 election go by without the ‘last ditch stand’ to
    break free from the mould that is designed for us (west) that will
    seriously affect our offspring for decades to come.

    Cheers.

  6. Look no further for an example of the neoliberal media in N.Z that fits your description than Mathew Hooton on National Radio this morning.
    According to Hooton the Greeks deserve all they get because they are all lazy. It’s that simple apparently!
    The only thing simple here is himself.
    He has used the same adjective many times to describe ‘socialists’ or ‘the left’ or ‘The Labour Party’.
    I would have loved to see him say that to my father, who from a very early age right through to his death at 81 worked himself to a standstill every day of his life.
    Without exception the neoliberals that i know have either had a ‘silver spoon’ upbringing, had some sort of ‘leg-up’ either financially or by ‘door opening ‘ contacts, early access to inheritance, or had plain old good luck.
    There are so many people i know that have had none of the above advantages, are working very hard long hours and are wrecking their health just to keep their head above water. These people sit on ‘The Left’ and therefore, according to Hooton, they are lazy!
    If Hooton wants to keep ‘clipping the ticket’ on the ‘commentators’ circuit he’d better up his education dramatically before making a complete fool of himself .
    He could start by reading Immanuel Kant ,one of the most influential philosophers of the 18th century.
    Here’s a basic question that Kant posed.
    Two men were given a shovel each and the task of shifting 5 cubic metres of gravel each from the ground and onto a truck.
    1 of the men was physically blessed, 6ft 5″ and had the build and strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.
    The other was 5ft 5” , weedy , and not blessed with the ability to develop much muscle and therefore strength.
    The big guy cruised through the job in 4 hours , stopping for 15 minutes every hour for a cup of tea and to read a bit more of his book.
    The little guy toiled furiously, stopping only every 4 hours for 5 minutes to gulp down some water, before finally knocking the job out in 12 hours.
    The question is Mathew , who worked the hardest ?

    • i agree Grant. All these Neo libs think the same and disguise this through political generalisations where they can scapegoat certain groups. i think Hooton needs to read a bit more to get some more enlightened views… It also appears to me that these Neo libs are also not very academic. Thats my view anyway.

    • The question to your analogy shouldn’t be who worked hardest but who worked smartest and was more productive. The weedy guy should never have been attempting to compete with the stronger guy. Essentially he was wasting his time. Instead he should have found an area where he had skills that the stronger guy lacked. He certainly shouldn’t have argued that he should be getting paid the same or even more than the stronger guy. That is where Greece has fallen over. The weaker guy has attempted to argue they deserve the same level of pay than the stronger guy.

      • The weedy guy hired the strong man, hid in the bushes while the strong man worked, got to the pay counter first, got paid for both of them, then gave the strong man 25% of the money. Now who is deserving?

      • Either that or have the weaker guy put to death for being a leech on the Aryan, eh Gosman…

      • Oh Gosman, you best be quiet.
        I can see that this is way over your head.
        You know the old saying , better to be thought of as being a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt !

      • The weaker guy has attempted to argue they deserve the same level of pay than the stronger guy.

        So… no pay-parity between women and men then, eh? Based on your rules of the game, that’s how you seem to be calling it, Gosman

    • Yes, I heard Hooton on the “Political Commentators” show with Kathryn Ryan, and my jaw dropped, when I heard his rant. It made me ask again, why was Martyn Bradbury banned from Radio NZ National, and why do they put up with an idiot, well a nasty shit stirrer, like Mathew Hooton?

      His comments on Greece and the Greeks was the nastiest I have so far heard, besides of some snide comments by Sean “Plonkers” on “Radio Live as Dead”, who cheered on a caller into his talk back show, rubbishing the Greeks.

      Prejudice is wide-spread, but having this broadcast via radio, and possibly TV, that shows how one sided and overly tolerant the media has become, towards the right wingers we have.

      Kathryn Ryan has discredited her show with continuing to have BOTH those right-wingers on the panel, as Mike Williams seems to mostly be sharing the right-leaning views, and even supporting much of what Key and Nats do, these days. He did disagree with Hooton on the Greek crisis this time, but mostly even Mike is showing how far he has moved to the right, while he is to my info still a Labour member.

      But are we surprised? It is a disgrace, our media, and Radio NZ should after all these years think about getting some younger, fresher and smarter blood to give us political commentary and views every Monday late morning. Time for a change, and send Mike and Hooters off into early retirement, they do NOT represent many of the common people and their views anyway.

  7. The greek Syriza party is a great example for NZ left, they are working together as a collective, a true coalition of the left all sharing a common goal. Check out their amazing 40 point program. Can we show the public of NZ that Key is the emperor with no clothes. How are we a rock star country with so many people living here in austerity? Locked out of ownership, the rich are treating the rest of us as their serfs. They have their hands in all the cookie jars. This is an amazing victory lets hope it takes off around the world like wild fire.

    http://links.org.au/node/2888

  8. Hehehehehe….cant stop smiling at the irony that Greece , the country that was the father of western democracy is STILL , …..teaching us all a bloody lesson.

    If it were not for the hardship of the Greek people…it would be hilarious.

    And as for these …….miserable neo liberals and their fan boy media pack…saying that the Greeks are lazy?

    Have these ignorant pricks never heard of Alexander the Great ?…I don’t think there ever was a neo liberal who could lay claim to his exploits yet.

    And can you REALLY compare a man like Matthew Hooten with a giant like Socrates ?

    L0L !!!

    Like comparing a mouse with an elephant !!!

    And since when have we heard of any original thinkers that changed world history among the ranks of the neo liberals?

    And by that I mean for THOUSANDS OF YEARS – not just a few hundred years of autocratic despotism bullying the serfs.

    Yes….indeed…it is time for the bonny – comeuppance of these arrogant neo liberal dogs.

    And it took the Greeks to show us the way.

    Well done Greece and in particular the democratic Left.

      • @ Gosman: “Alexander the Great was a Macedonian. At the time they weren’t really regarded as Greek.”

        This is incorrect: it seems that you don’t know your history, either. In Alexander’s time, Macedonians were most certainly regarded as Greeks. Macedonians were allowed to compete in the Olympics, and the Greeks extended this privilege only to those peoples they considered also to be Greeks.

        You’ve raised a pointless diversion here. What Grant said above: better to keep stum and be thought a fool, rather than open your mouth and remove all possible doubt.

    • WK:

      “And it took the Greeks to show us the way. Well done Greece and in particular the democratic Left”

      Absolutely correct Mr Katipo!

      In a while we will see exactly where they are going….not a particularly good place I suspect.

      PS
      In more recent times I don’t think the Greeks can claim total originality as being leaders down the Socialist path, because Chavez’ Venezuela got there first. 😉

      • Chavez?….Chavez???…..is that the extent of your views on socialism?

        Just Chavez?….hmmm.

        Er…..sorry to break it to you mate….but your leaving out about 100 years of European thought which developed into modern day times….

        You seem a little lacking in that account. You need to read more.

      • @ Andrewo: “In a while we will see exactly where they are going….not a particularly good place I suspect.

        PS
        In more recent times I don’t think the Greeks can claim total originality as being leaders down the Socialist path, because Chavez’ Venezuela got there first.”

        Also to you what Grant said above: better to keep quiet and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all possible doubt. Now get back to that maths homework you told your mother you were doing.

  9. The Greeks have had generous entitlements for workers for many years, the age of retirement is set at 62 years of age apparently despite having some of the highest numbers of elderly citizens in the entire world. Yet people are blaming the bankers.

  10. An excellent blog Chris.

    How excellent?

    Excellent enough to flush out the lurking neolibs in this blog anyway 🙂

  11. The neo-liberal principals of (appropriately) Hanover Finance have set the benchmark for the payout on ill-advised investment.

    A small proportion of the lenders should expect 4% – 10% return and be grateful for that. The rest should expect nothing.

    Sauce for the gander.

  12. Greece is showing us what debt servitude looks like as we approach the event horizon of the credit singularity. The developed world has become beholden to their bankster masters, tragically both at the public and private level. We willingly invited these fuckers into our lives by demanding more from our government than we were prepared to pay for with our taxes and buying shit we couldn’t afford without saving because we just had to have it NOW. Ridding ourselves of these parasites is going to take a whole lot of effort and pain, and yes that means austerity – but that definitely should not entail in any way the sort dictated to US by THEM. We dug ourselves into this nightmare and we’ll dig ourselves out.

    • Nitrium

      Those are solid conservative values that make complete sense to me.

      In an orgy of self-entitlement the average westerner has buried himself deep in debt to buy stuff he doesn’t need. More than that, he’s even voted in governments that do it for him!

      Now the rope has gone taught he whines about the evil bankers who tricked him. Yeah sure – rather than man-up to his own failings he weakly seeks to blame others.

      • Yeah right, the bankers are like faithful, holy men, pure and innocent, it is the nasty, greedy customer, pushing them to give them money, to spend irresponsibly, is that what you are saying?

        I remember well the years before the GFC, here in NZ, where every bank teller was trained to ask you every time you made a normal deposit or withdrawal, or asked for some personal service, ask you whether you were aware of this “great deal” they were offering.

        They were doing it all the time, the banks could not work hard enough to entice people into more credit, into consumer loans and so forth. The same applied to many retailers, hey, we have 12 months, no 24, ahem 36 months “interest free” credit, come and buy from us.

        It still goes on now, just not quite as willy nilly, since the GFC forced them to be a bit more careful, so to not make too many losses.

        And I know many who borrow for essentials, as WINZ is now tough as nails, if people need special needs grants while on low benefits, and unable to get basic services or even food. So people use their credit cards.

        Yes, consumerism is an ill of western “culture”, but do not blame every one to be that so-called middle class over-spender. Some borrow and pay extra with interest, to get pleasure and fun early, others have to, given increased income disparity and grown poverty.

        It will soon get worse, with the economy now slowing, and the last hired will the the first one fired, as usual, adding to the poor.

  14. As David Graeber reminds us in ‘Debt’, money is a social agreement about exchanging value. The problem is that at this point in history the nature of money and its systems of exchange are not being decided by voluntary agreement (as one would expect in a democracy), but imposed by whoever is in control of the state and its mechanisms of enforcement. The problem, in Greece as in Aotearoa, is not merely “banksters”, but the level of integration that has been achieved over both the increasingly globalized banking system and the twitching remains of the “nation-states”.

    Think about all the attempts in Aotearoa over the years to create community-led alternatives to corporate banks. In every case, the state has been used to impose regulatory red tape which severely limits their effectiveness, and drives people back into the hands of the corporates banks:
    * State-owned and trust banks: sold to corporate banks (with a handful of exception like KiwiBank)
    * credit unions: subject to such strict banking regulations that they can’t extend any credit to their members that a bank or credit card company wouldn’t, have to keep their reserves in a trading bank anyway
    * green dollars exchanges : even though green dollars shouldn’t be taxable, as they’re not legal tender, and can’t be used to pay tax, treated by IRD as taxable, which makes it much less attractive to use them
    * timebanks: IRD has indicated that if people accept time credits in payment for something they normally do as a trade, they may be taxed, severely limiting a timebank’s ability to facilitate really useful exchange
    * BitCoin: as with BitTorrent, a combination of demonization (remember the Silk Road, think of the children!), FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/bitcoin-is-unsustainable), and heavy-handed state regulations which equate start-ups which offer services around the BitCoin protocol with trading banks, to the benefit of the banks.

    This is just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are more examples.

  15. That’s a big NO from me!
    Can we ship a few Greeks over here, so NZer’s might get encouraged to stand up and oust OUR hopeless neolib government!

  16. The Greek debt crisis and the hard line by the Eurozone leaders, and the creditors, is not simply explainable with neoliberalism and strategies based on it. It is largely also a POLITICAL crisis, as Chris points out. The problem is, that if Greece gets easier terms, then there will be other governments in other countries facing problems making similar demands, to get concessions.

    That is what the leaders in Germany, France, Netherlands, and other places are so afraid of. The whole Eurozone is built on a flawed system, where they brought in one currency, but did not bring in an aligned or even universal taxation system, welfare system and so forth. When every country sets its own interest rates, has different tax rates, different welfare payments and also wage rates and so forth, it becomes difficult to maintain one currency.

    Greece’s problems are mainly a result of the GFC fallout, and Greek banks and also the Greek government and some businesses having “invested” in dodgy finance instruments, besides of having taken too long to “reform” some of their systems.

    But also the flawed Euro system is to blame. Greek banks and Greek citizens could borrow at lower interest within the Eurozone, but once the debt got out of control, the downgrading of their economy, the higher interest charged, the accrued debt and interest becoming unbearable, that has ruined the country.

    If the Eurozone collapses, and if things go wrong from here on, it may, then we will have a return to a fractured, more nationalistic Europe, which few of us would love to see.

    So the challenge is one for the whole of Europe, and they must forgive the Greeks a substantial percentage of the debt, which can go in hand with further reforms, some investment and thus giving their economy a boost.

    Neoliberalism can only be attacked globally, and it shows again, changing the government in one country may feel great, also succeeding with a referendum, but that does not change the rest of the globally interlinked financial and trading systems. As so much debt has been “socialised” within the whole of Europe, there is little sympathy by many citizens in Germany and other places, to forgive Greeks their debt. Sadly it needs to be done, and they have to swallow it.

    The “leaders” in Europe fear the backlash of their voters, that is the reality, hence their unreasonable position so far.

    There is a last chance to solve the crisis in the coming days or one to two weeks, and Merkel and colleagues will be well advised to come to the party. As for Mr Schauble, he has been a hard as nails politician most of his life, and having suffered paralysis after a shooting many years ago, he moves around in a wheel-chair. Perhaps the life experiences he gathered contributed to his unforgiving attitude and comments.

    I doubt that he has the final say in all this. Angela Merkel is too much of a consent seeker, a diplomat, to let her hardline political travelers cause a disaster, for Greece or for the rest of Europe.

    We will soon see what the outcome will be.

    • Political ? Political? What political?

      Of course its political !!! It always was !!!

      Neo liberalism is just a TOOL that’s being used !!! And that’s all it ever was !!!

      And those who really play around with changing govts like clothes don’t give a damn about ‘ money ‘.

      Hell !!! – they know its pulled out of the air because they’re the ones who do it. !!!

      And who said a united Europe was a good thing anyways? – for a long time the British didn’t want a bar of it. A lot still don’t. Precisely because it always WAS a fractured affair. Some nations have more resources in a natural sense …and therefore they will gravitate to whatever suits their country’s particular needs in welfare, taxation etc…

      Sure the politicians might fear a knock on effect if poorer nations start to ‘act up’ like Greece – but those planning on an ultimate financial crash or nations breaking away don’t – in fact , this is EXACTLY what will happen.

      You’ve got to destroy a system to replace it. And that is exactly the goal.

      You think there’s a centralized Europe now? brother – you aint seen nothing yet !!!!

      That’s why they hate Putin and the BRIC nations so much…. real fly in the ointment .

      And ultimately – that’s where the final play off for humanity will come to its conclusion. In a major confrontation in the middle east between these two major world blocs.

  18. So is what you are saying here, is that the Key Neolib Government, the offspring of Rogernomics, is deliberately driving New Zealand into Greek-style indebtedness?

    NZ Neoliberal Debt

    At what $$ figure will NZ be forced to undergo “austerity measures” by the IMF (or whomever NZ is borrowing this money from)?

    At what $$ figure will NZ be forced to sell Stewart Island and Waiheke Is by the IMF (or whomever NZ is borrowing this money from)?

    At what $$ figure will NZ be forced to postpone tax cuts bribes by the IMF (or whomever NZ is borrowing this money from)?

  19. New Zealand’s economic situation is no different from those in Greece. You can use all the fabulously long words you like but the fact is New Zealand is owned lock, stock and barrel by the Rothschild Family. Our national debt is so big as to be unpronounceable (English’s “balancing the budget” is a giggle.) New Zealand has a gold reserve of ZERO. Rothschild owns the New Zealand Reserve Bank, which effectively means its Governor is a spokesman for the Rothschild Elite and the decisions emanating out of the extraordinarily secretive meetings of The Bilderberg, which our P.M. attends but doesn’t give us a d-brief. The majority of high street banks are owned by Rothschild. The World Bank and IMF are controlled by the Rothschilds. Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, U.K., Australia and New Zealand, to name a few, are all dancing to the tune called by the Rothschild Elite and in the not too distant future we in New Zealand will be on our knees. Key as one of the bankster old boys will smirk his way out of that too. To his credit, Key has turned N.Z. into an effective spy base.

    I thought I was just imagining deliberate “economic upheavals” (like the dairy industry) and the deliberate dumbing down of our children in the educational system and with mind-numbing video games until I stumbled across youtube david icke. Interesting and I suggest you listen to what he says and come to your own opinion.

    Time to straighten our spines and stand upright otherwise we’ll be on our knees like our brothers and sisters in the Middle East and Europe.

  20. anyone else see the same greek agenda being played out in nz?
    started with muldoon now key and co indebting nz to be slaves to the 1%

    New Zealand needs $160 billion to $200 billion of business investment to meet the government’s goals for boosting exports and research and development spending, requiring a better strategy to lure overseas funds and entrepreneurs, says Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11477081

    • Jennifer G, at the moment, this neoliberal agenda is favouring the 10%.

      TPPA is about to be ratified, even though the terms of trade are secret here.

      Once they sell off state houses to Aussies and once the arse falls out of milk powder prices and dairy farms are sold to Chinese or corporate investors, THEN , the neoliberal agenda will favour the 1% new world rulers.

      • its not a self perpetuating ideology, seems to be based on blind greed as they shoot themselves in the end. if the (now) fake money system were to fail their fake trillions will too.
        the plot seems to be alienate the lower class from the middle class – get the middle class to revere the upper class, as they have control of the media while the middle class slowly drops to the lower class as the upper 10% harvest the wealth, till theres a real elite group, then theres an unworkable ultra lower class that can barely survive, they start a revolution as they have nothing to loose, bad things happen to the ultra rich, its happened that way over and over

  21. Lets look at the money they lent to Greece,the money come from the loan that they gave Greece so there was no assets to give this loan to Greece,the asset was the loan so when they raised or lowered the bonds to junk the interest went up,so really they destroyed there assets or the ability for theme to pay the interest on the loan that they created,money for nothing,creating wealth from thin air-this is the core of the worlds problems.

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