Syriza can’t just cave in. Europe’s elites want regime change in Greece

It’s now clear that Germany and Europe’s powers that be don’t just want the Greek government to bend the knee. They want regime change. Not by military force, of course – this operation is being directed from Berlin and Brussels, rather than Washington.

 ‘There’s no suggestion of genuine compromise. The aim is apparently to humiliate Tsipras and his government in preparation for its early replacement with a more pliable administration.’

But that the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the troika of Greece’s European and International Monetary Fund creditors are out to remove the elected government in Athens now seems beyond serious doubt. Everything they have done in recent weeks in relation to the leftist Syriza administraton, elected to turn the tide of austerity, appears designed to divide or discredit Alexis Tsipras’s government.

The Euro Intercepts

Press Release Top German NSA Targets Top German NSA Intercepts

The United States National Security Agency has been massively targeting phone numbers of top German ministers and public officials responsible for commerce, finances, economics and agriculture – including even Angela Merkel's personal assistant. WikiLeaks publishes today, 1 July 2015, a list of 69 German government telephone numbers from a high-priority NSA target interception list demonstrating economic and political espionage against Germany for almost two decades. WikiLeaks is also publishing classified interception reports resulting from the surveillance, showing the US and UK spying on German officials discussing their positions and disagreements on the solution to the Greek financial crisis.

11 things about the Greek crisis you need to know

Greece's long-simmering economic crisis has finally boiled over into a full-fledged political and financial meltdown — banks are closed, Greek citizens' ability to withdraw cash from ATMs is limited, a default on Greece's debts to its fellow European countries looks overwhelmingly likely, and the odds of the country being forced to leave Europe's single currency look very strong.

Yet for all the drama, Greece itself is a rather small and economically marginal country. Consequently, a lot of the commentary about the Greek crisis sheds less light on the actual situation in Greece than it does on the political opinions of the writer. If you actually want to understand Greece, though, these are the key facts you need to know.

In Defence of Greece: 6 Myths Busted

Events in Greece are coming to a head. Over the weekend the leadership of Syriza offered the Greek people a referendum on whether to accept austerity measures – including cuts to pensions and public sector spending, and labour market de-regulation – as the conditions for obtaining funds with which to service its debt repayments. However, by all accounts Greece may be forced to leave the Eurozone before the end of the week. As Syriza has been consistently represented in the mainstream media as an irresponsible and ideologically-driven leftist government, it is important to unpack the seemingly common sense arguments against Syriza.

Κίνα, ο υπερ-επενδυτής με τις γεμάτες τσέπες

Ο υπουργός Οικονομικών των ΗΠΑ Τζακ Λιου και ο αντιπρόεδρος της κινεζικής κυβέρνησης Γουάνγκ Γιανγκ σε οικονομικό φόρουμ στην Ουάσιγκτον

Μια δήλωση του επικεφαλής της Ενωσης των Κινέζων Βιομηχάνων στην αίθουσα υποδοχής του Δημαρχείου του Αμβούργου το πρωί της Παρασκευής 19 Ιουνίου άφησε εμβρόντητους τους γερμανούς επιχειρηματίες που είχαν προσκαλέσει και φιλοξενούσαν την πολυμελή κινεζική ομάδα. «Δεν με εκπλήσσει τίποτε από όσα ακούω για την Κίνα, αλλά αυτό ήταν υπερβολικό, εξωφρενικό» δήλωσε ο εκπρόσωπος μεγάλης σιδηροβιομηχανίας του Ρουρ που βρισκόταν στην αίθουσα. Ο κινέζος βιομήχανος - ένας 60άρης και κομματικό στέλεχος του ΚΚΚ, όπως μαρτυρούσε το σήμα που φορούσε στο πέτο του σακακιού του - μόλις είχε πληροφορήσει το ακροατήριο ότι η Κίνα είναι έτοιμη «αμέσως αυτή τη στιγμή» να διαθέσει σε «ουσιαστικές επενδύσεις στην Ευρώπη» το ποσό των 850 δισ. ευρώ. Και για να μην υπάρχει καμία αμφιβολία για το αστρονομικό ποσό, καθώς έβλεπε τους γερμανούς επιχειρηματίες και βιομηχάνους να έχουν μείνει άναυδοι, προσέθεσε: «Καταλαβαίνουμε, είναι τεράστιο το ποσό για τα γερμανικά μέτρα, ίσως και για τα συνολικά ευρωπαϊκά». Και συνέχισε: «Σας θυμίζω ότι ο (κινέζος) πρόεδρος Σι Τζινπίγκ είχε δηλώσει τον περασμένο Φεβρουάριο ότι ως το 2020 θα διαθέσουμε για πολυετείς επενδύσεις στο εξωτερικό ένα τρισεκατομμύριο δολάρια».

The moral crusade against Greece must be opposed

‘This is our political alternative to neoliberalism and to the neoliberal process of European integration: democracy, more democracy and even deeper democracy,” said Alexis Tsipras on 18 January 2014 in a debate organised by the Dutch Socialist party in Amersfoort. Now the moment of deepest democracy looms, as the Greek people go to the polls on Sunday to vote for or against the next round of austerity.

 ‘Greece is being sacrificed to maintain a set of delusions that enfeebles us all.’ Illustration by Robert G Fresson

Unfortunately, Sunday’s choice will be between endless austerity and immediate chaos. As comfortable as it is to argue from the sidelines that maybe Grexit in the medium term won’t hurt as much as 30 years’ drag on GDP from swingeing repayments, no sane person wants either. The vision that Syriza swept to power on was that if you spoke truth to the troika plainly and in broad daylight, they would have to acknowledge that austerity was suffocating Greece.

Greek Debt Crisis: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt

Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country's already bloated deficit.

dpa

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou speaking at a conference in January.

Greeks aren't very welcome in the Rue Alphones Weicker in Luxembourg. It's home to Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office. The number crunchers there are deeply annoyed with Athens. Investigative reports state that important data "cannot be confirmed" or has been requested but "not received."

The Greek Butterfly Effect

Many times nothing happens for a long time. Then all of a sudden everything happens at once. Like a dam break. It builds slowly and then it bursts. Example: Who would have ever thought the Confederate flag would be taken down across the South during the same week that a rainbow flag is symbolically hoisted across the entire country? Just because things seem unthinkable doesn’t mean they won’t happen.

Take the global debt construct as another example. For decades the world has immersed itself in ever higher debt. The general attitude has been one of indifference. Oh well, it just goes higher. Doesn’t really impact me or so the complacent rationalize.

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras calls referendum on bailout terms

In a dramatic move that will put Europe on tenterhooks, the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras told his fellow citizens last night he would call a referendum on the bailout accord that international creditors have proposed to keep the debt-stricken country afloat. 

 Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras returns to his office at the Maximos Mansion in Athens. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Following an emergency meeting of his cabinet, Tsipras said his leftist-led government had decided a package of austerity measures proposed by the country’s creditors – made in a last-ditch effort to avert default – would be put to popular vote. The referendum will take place on Sunday 5 July.

«Βόμβα» για σχέδιο Grexit το 2012 στο πόρισμα για τις υποκλοπές και το σχέδιο δολοφονίας Καραμανλή

Για «σχέδιο εθνικού νομίσματος» επί Μνημονίου, το 2012, γίνεται λόγος στο πολυσέλιδο πόρισμα όπου καταγράφονται τα ευρήματα της πολυετούς έρευνας για όσα παρασκηνιακά φέρονται να συνέβαιναν την περίοδο διακυβέρνησης του Κώστα Καραμανλή και το σχέδιο δολοφονίας του, με το οποίο έκλεισε την ανάκριση για την υπόθεση των τηλεφωνικών υποκλοπών και το αποκαλούμενο «σχέδιο Πυθία» ο επίκουρος Ανακριτής κατά της Διαφθοράς Δημήτρης Φούκας.

Ο δικαστικός λειτουργός καταγράφει στο πόρισμα του στοιχεία που συνέλεξε κυρίως για την επίμαχη περίοδο της πρωθυπουργίας Κώστα Καραμανλή σχετικά με διεθνείς σχέσεις της χώρας, ενέργειες που αποδίδονται σε Έλληνες πράκτορες αλλά και σε πράκτορες ξένων μυστικών, επαφές πρώην αξιωματούχου το 2012 για «εθνικό νόμισμα», αλλά και αναφορές σε τηλεγραφήματα του wikileaks.