Crisis and the bankruptcy of Greek

economy

In the last five years, a steep deterioration in the

condition of the Greek economy has been observed –
a destructive course that has eventually led to
bankruptcy, contrary to the completely
unsubstantiated claims of both the big bourgeois and
the Khruschevite parties.

Side by side with the objective economic laws, the

implementation of the most extreme neoliberal
financial policy by the reactionary government of
Karamanlis intensified even further the already
existing problems of the Greek economy,
aggravating basic economic indicators.

In 2009, the condition of the Greek economy became

aggravated to the very extreme point that the
government of Karamanlis was not able to work out
the state budget – an economic situation
characterized by very high inflation and successive
waves of high prices, rise in mass unemployment to
around 15% and rising rapidly, a drop in industrial
and agricultural production, a tremendous deficit
increase to over 14% of GDP (more than 30 billion
Euros), an increase of the external debt to an
overwhelming level, around 120% of GDP (more
than 300 billion Euros).

The problems of the Greek economy have deepened

even more with the outbreak of the global financial
crisis. However, it has to be noted that the crisis of
the Greek economy preceded the global financial
crisis, since it had already hit, first and foremost, the
construction sector, which, as it is known, is linked
to a series of industrial branches.

The overwhelming external debt and the very large

deficit led the Greek economy to bankruptcy,
resulting in the country becoming the “weak link” of
the imperialist European Union (EU) and the object
of concerted attacks of international speculative and
usurious capital – attacks related not only to the
Greek economy, but also to the Euro, in the context
of the Euro-Dollar antagonism.

In 2009, the terrible financial condition and

bankruptcy of the Greek economy led to the
“changing of the guard,” initially the removal of
Karamanlis’s government and subsequently the
defeat of his party in the elections as well as the
entry of the country into supervision, initially by the
organs of the imperialist EU, and subsequently by
the triple austerity plan of the Commission-
European Central Bank (ECB)-International
Monetary Fund (IMF), that is, it led the country to
a new occupation, without military presence.

The new measures consisted in unprecedented

decrease in wages and pensions, increase in indirect
taxes, etc. and attack on social security rights (an
increase in retirement age limits, low pensions, etc.)
by the “troika” of the Commission-ECB-IMF, in
agreement with the new social-liberal Papandreou
government, which deepened the proletariat’s
absolute degradation to the extreme and annihilated
in one night all the gains of the working class. In
response, the working people participated in strikes
and massive demonstrations, even though the
reformist leaders of GSEE-ADEDY (General
Confederation of Greek Workers-Civil Servants’
Confederation) declared the first general strike very
belatedly, the first on May 5, and the second one on
May 20.

Yet, despite the massive participation of working

people in the strikes, there has not been UNITY on
the level of gatherings and demonstrations during
strikes, resulting in the obstruction of their
MASSIVENESS and the undermining beforehand of
the working people’s struggle against these
unprecedented measures. The UNITY of strike rallies
is a presupposition of MASSIVENESS. MASSIVENESS
cannot be achieved without UNITY, an issue directly
connected to the strikebreaking role of the reformist
leaders of PAME (the trade union controlled by the
“Communist” Party of Greece-“K”KE).

The strike-breakers-reformist leaders of PAME –

through the permanent fragmentation of strike
rallies with their separate gatherings – in the past
helped the government of the monarcho-fascist
party of Nea Dimokratia, with C. Karamanlis as
prime minister, to promote and implement all the
anti-popular and anti-worker measures; today, by
continuing the same disruptive tactic in strike
rallies, they are in the service of the
government of the big bourgeois PASOK, and
they are helping-enabling it to pass the present
annihilating measures. For it is not possible for
the reformist leaders of PAME to not understand that
with their disruptive tactic they immediately break
the UNITY of strike rallies, obstruct their
MASSIVENESS and thus render the strike rallies
INEFFICIENT beforehand.

The new, even more annihilating measures, that

were taken and “sucked dry” the poor, that it are
being planned to be passed for the social security
slaughter of workers’ rights with the further looting
of THEIR OWN MONEY, with the elimination of
provisions in health and pensions (the class
callousness of cutting two pensions per year had
already preceded this), those that the extortions of
the imperialists will continually demand, cannot be
repelled by the working people if there is no
MASSIVE UNITY, which are the qualities that can
make strike rallies EFFICIENT, that is, capable of
defeating or holding back the attacks of capital. This
was evident in the case of the great strike rally of
the reformist GSEE-ADEDY, which was the only
efficient one, forcing Simitis’s government to
withdraw the draft of the bill for Social Security in
2001. Now, the messages of the spontaneous worker
and popular response are the same. The great strike
of May 5, with a gathering of 250.000 people in
Athens alone, smashed in practice the rationale of
isolationism, disruption of unity and strike-breaking.
The participation en masse of working people within
the union blocs, the gathering was UNIFIED and
showed the way for the working class to win
demands: the way of militant unity. The militant
voice and action of the working people, the
unemployed, the youth, the pensioners, was
overshadowed by the throwing of a Molotov cocktail
into a Marfin Bank branch office, which, regardless of
the intentions of those who threw it, caused the
death of three young working people: this is a
reactionary criminal act, completely alien and
hostile to the workers’ movement. The
responsibilities of the banker Vgenopoulos and
Marfin Bank, who must be brought to court, are
also tremendous (since they blackmailed the
workers to go to work, they “locked” the door of the
bank while the workers were inside, etc.).

The working people showed once more the way to

confront the crisis:

Capitalist industrialists and bankers must

pay from their fabulous profits, along with
all tax evaders
Business taxation must be increased from
20-25% to 35-40%, with a further increase
in taxation when businesses fire workers
and do not invest productively
The fabulous landed and other property of
the Church, which does not belong to it,
must be taxed in its entirety
Indirect taxes hitting exclusively the broad
lower masses must be decreased
 Direct taxation must place the burden on
the capitalists, also natural persons,
without affecting the tax exemption of the
poor
Military expenses must be decreased
drastically
We demand unilateral suspension of usurious
debt payments – Withdrawal from the EMU-
EURO with an immediate prospect of
withdrawing from the EU

In contrast to the fabrications of the government and

bourgeois politicians that “the country has not gone
bankrupt, along with the Khruschevite social-
democrats “K”KE (Khruschevite-Brezhnevites) and
SYN (Coalition of the Left of Movements and Ecology
– Euro“communists”), who are also disputing the
existence of bankruptcy (Papariga – “K”KE: “they
are bringing back the scarecrow of
bankruptcy,” “Rizospastis” April 23, 2010, p. 6,
Tsipras – SYN: “the tale about the dragon of
bankruptcy is nice,” “Eleftherotypia” March 14,
2010), bankruptcy is a concrete and painful fact.

An analysis of the relevant economic data can only

reach the conclusion that the figures show
indisputably the bankruptcy of Greek economy:
1. an overwhelming external debt of more than
300 billion Euros, or about 120% of GDP (with a
minimal to nonexistent industrial production,
while even the “production” of waiters decreased
with the fall in tourism since last year),
2. a huge deficit of more than 30 billion Euros or
14% of GDP,
3. a usurious 7-10% interest rate with spread of
500-700 bps (an interest rate that only bankrupt
countries borrow at),
4. inability to service the external debt,
5. the triple austerity program by the
Commission-ECB-IMF and designation of
financial politics not by the elected government
but by the delegations of the imperialist
organizations, and
6. recourse to the so-called EU-IMF “support
mechanism” for a further loan of 5%.
The ND was the party that had been leading and led
the country’s economy to bankruptcy with
mathematical precision, by doubling the external
debt (more than 300 billion Euros) and multiplying
the deficit by five (more than 30 billion Euros),
leading to the country’s triple supervision by the
Commission-ECB-IMF, and has the first and major
responsibility for this reason. But the then-
opposition parties, the big bourgeois PASOK, and
“K”KE and SYN (the Nazi-fascist LAOS had identified
with the politics of ND), are tremendously
responsible as well for not revealing to the
Greek people this destructive financial course, which,
for at least the final two years of ND’s governing,
was completely clear to the naked eye.

The condition of the bankrupt Greek economy of

today is bleak, and its prospect within the framework
of EMU-EURO is at an impasse. The current bleak
condition of the Greek economy has obviously led to
the exposure of a series of bourgeois and revisionist
myths (old and new) about the relationship between
Greece and the EU, regarding 1) “equal participation
in the EU,” 2) “permanent growth within the EU,” 3)
“convergence of the EU member states’ economies,”
4) “permanent prosperity,” 5) “decrease in interest
rates,” 6) “safeguard from bankruptcy,” etc.

With these negative developments in the Greece-EU

relationship, the current complete deadlock of the
bankrupt Greek economy, along with the fact that
the big bourgeois PASOK government will not only
multiply the annihilating anti-popular and anti-
worker measures, but with the “gospel” of neoliberal
financial politics in its hands, it intends to satisfy
even more the lust of the speculators and loan-
sharks and the IMF for the total looting of any
remaining profitable sectors and savage looting of
the country’s overall wealth with the proportional
destructive consequences, known to tens of other
countries that fell into their clutches. The working
class and the people must fight for the
country’s withdrawal from the EMU-EURO and
the declaration of unilateral suspension of
external debt payments (an issue discussed in
“ANASYNTAXI” No. 313, January 1-15, 2010), in
combination with the general struggle for
Greece’s withdrawal from the imperialist EU, a
withdrawal that for the social-democrat Papariga
(general secretary of “K”KE), at this moment “is not
a solution in itself” (“Rizospastis” March 5, 2010,
p. 10) (it is the first “unwary”(?), but delightful and
characteristic strip-tease by Papariga in favor of
Greece staying in the EU, since the leadership of
“K”KE claimed until now, of course for reasons of
demagoguery, that they were in favor of the country
withdrawing from it).

The working class, the youth, the city and village

poor, must fight everywhere, in each workplace,
each space of education, residential area, and
gathering place against the awkward Khruschevite
social-democrats “K”KE-SYN, who deny the existence
of bankruptcy and say not even one word about the
tasks that derive from it, for the creation of a broad
antifascist and anti-imperialist front, which will
unite in the aforementioned goals of
confronting the anti-worker whirlwind and in
the struggle against suppression, the
curtailment of democratic gains, the
fascistization of public life, which are the
necessary “tools” of capitalists and their
political representatives in order to pass the
measures of sordidness.

June 2010

Movement for the Reorganization of the

Communist Party of Greece 1918-55