GREECE will either lower its standard of living, or it will exit the euro and turn decades back.’
This was the message from the chairman of the Association of Greek Banks and president of the National Bank of Greece Vassilis Rapanos in his New Year address to the Athens Stock Exchange.
Similar statements were made by the Greek Prime Minister banker Lukas Papademos and by all three political party leaders who support the IMF-EU imposed government.
The Greek government spokesperson Pantelis Kapsis stated that ‘everything will be decided in the next three months,’ in reference to the Greek coalition government’s immediate plans to push through the Vouli (Greek parliament), yet another Austerities Measures Agreement at the dikat of the IMF-EC.
The legislation will scrap labour collective agreements, impose full ‘flexible’ working conditions and further cut wages and pensions.
This legislation is demanded by the Greek government’s masters, if they are to make available to Greece yet another huge loan of over 100bn euros to keep Greek capitalism afloat and ease the international pressure on the euro.
Kapsis said that the danger that Greece will be forced to exit the eurozone is ‘quite real’ and said that ‘there are many businesses and political forces that want a return to the drachma.’
He said that a general election now will be ‘catastrophic’.
Opinion polls show that only 30 per cent of those asked were willing to vote for the two main bourgeois parties, the conservatives and the social-democrats.
The Greek government hope to come to an agreement in the next few weeks with the international bankers and with the IMF and EC on the burning issue of the PSI (Private Sector Involvement), that is how much Greek state bonds will be devalued; the IMF-EC agreed last October on a 50 per cent ‘haircut’ but this is now deemed inadequate.
What is proposed to the international banks is a 75 per cent haircut. That’s a huge blow to the banks and so they are demanding concrete guarantees, no less than the control of all industrial and mineral assets of Greece in an agreement under British Law, not Greek.
The Greek bourgeois dailies now regularly print articles on the need to prepare a fatal blow to the working class movement. The bankers’ newspaper ‘Kathimerini’ recently printed a long article titled ‘A scenario for chaos and autocratic solutions’ in which it is stated that at times of crisis ‘the first thing people look for is law and order, strong leadership and autocratic solutions’ adding that ‘some already prepare for such a role’!
The answer of the working class to this talk is the General Strike that has been called for January 19.