DESPITE last minute frantic efforts by the Greek government on Tuesday, an agreement with the EC, IMF and ECB for cash assistance was not reached and Greece did not pay the 1.6bn euros tranche to the IMF.
Thus the hated austerity accords imposed by the EC-IMF-ECB troika in 2010 expired with a default, while every day tens of thousands in Greece’s main cities demonstrate for a ‘NO’ (OXI – okhi) vote in next Sunday’s referendum on the barbaric austerity accords.
However, the gangsters in the EC and IMF have organised a counter-revolutionary movement, ‘We stay in Europe’, hysterically supported by the bourgeois media, which held another mass rally in Athens on Tuesday night. At the same time thousands demonstrated for a ‘NO’ vote in the city of Patras, western Greece.
It has become clear that the Greek working class and youth will overwhelmingly vote ‘NO’ in next Sunday’s referendum despite the treacherous role of the SYRIZA leadership. It is also clear that the privileged petty bourgeois sections – managers, lawyers, doctors, property owners etc – will be voting ‘YES’ to the barbaric austerity, seeing no alternative to the euro.
l GREECE’S Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras offered new concessions to the country’s creditors in a letter that was received by them on Tuesday evening. The letter to creditors says Tsipras is prepared to accept most of the conditions that were on the table before talks collapsed and he called a referendum.
On Tuesday, eurozone finance ministers refused to extend the previous bailout. Tsipras’ letter was being discussed yesterday afternoon. He asked for only two changes: that a VAT discount to Greek islands is maintained, and that the process of raising the retirement age to 67 begins in October and not immediately. Greece’s national broadcaster ERT confirmed Tsipras would accept a deal with only minor requests for changes. European markets surged, their spokesmen saying Tsipras ‘seems to have caved in’.
Others are saying that the EU leaders are determined to drive Greece out of the EU as an example to others and that German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble’s statement that no new bailout talks would be possible before Greece holds a referendum on Sunday, proves the point.
