THE entire capitalist economy of Europe took a decisive step towards total meltdown with the admission last Thursday that agreement on a Europeanwide bail-out of the eurozone lay in tatters.
Last weekend France and Germany hailed as a massive success a deal to stabilise the entire banking system and ward off state bankruptcy.
This involved ‘recapitalising’ European banks while at the same time writing off part of the Greek debt.
Central to this deal was the insistence of French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, that the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) be turned into a bank.
Sarkozy is desperate that the EFSF should have sufficient funds available, two trillion euros (£1.75 tn), to bail out the entire eurozone.
Despite the deal being agreed last weekend and due to be ratified at a summit to be held next Wednesday it has already gone down the pan, with the German chancellor Angela Merkel pulling out as details of the plan emerged.
This split has at its root the simple fact that Merkel faces growing opposition at home to Germany underwriting the economy of Europe and would suffer an almost inevitable defeat in the German parliament when it came to ratifying this deal.
With the powerful German working class becoming more and more angry at their pay and conditions being sacrificed to keep the EU banks afloat, Merkel dare not risk a vote that would bring down her coalition government.
The deal of course depends on German approval.
Sarkozy, for all his posturing, is acutely aware that the French economy is much too weak on its own to carry the eurozone.
This has created a huge crisis for the capitalist class internationally not just within the eurozone countries.
For weeks the IMF, US president Obama and Prime Minister Cameron have been demanding that the European leaders do something to prevent the contagion of collapse spreading from Greece to the larger economies of Spain and Italy.
What terrifies them is the knowledge that such a collapse would bring down not just the banks in Europe but banks throughout the world, including the US.
What these events prove beyond all doubt is that no deals or bail-outs can prop up the decaying capitalist system. For capitalism to survive it must fight it out with the working class and impose on it, by dictatorial methods, the most savage cuts that have ever been seen.
This is what is being attempted in Greece today and why all eyes are turned there.
In Greece, the Papandreou government passed an ‘austerity’ budget that would slash wages by anything up to 60% and beyond, slash jobs and end trade union bargaining rights all in order to secure a loan from the EU to pay off the interest owed by the Greek state to its bank creditors.
Whilst Papandreou might have won the vote in parliament, 500,000 workers and youth flooded Athens to demonstrate that they will not accept poverty, homelessness and degradation as the price for keeping the banks in profit.
These workers are now ready to overthrow the Greek government!
The Greek crisis and imminent revolution represents the near future for the working class of the EU and the working class of the world. There is however a crucial lesson that must be learnt quickly.
The working class of Greece have demonstrated that they have the strength and determination to get rid of the hated government of Papandreou, but what is required is a revolutionary leadership that will lead them to taking power through bringing in a workers and small farmers government that will repudiate all debt, and nationalise the banks and main industry, under workers control, through establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat.
This leadership, sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International, must be built in every country.
