Jun 29 2011

Greece Passes Raid On Public Assets

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Today Greece passed the ‘Austerity’ measure forced on it by the EU – tax hikes, benefit reductions, layoffs, and a sell off of 72 Billion dollars worth of public assets.  

Before the vote, one protester said on Wednesday that Greeks’ lives “are going to change forever” if the measures were approved. “If you belong to the middle class, that doesn’t exist anymore. There’s only rich and poor.”

Another protester, Anastasia Arvanitiki, 57, a pharmacist, said, “What they’re voting on is exactly the opposite of what they were elected to do.”

“They’ll be the worst criminals in history” if the vote goes through, she said. “We want to see them hanged.”

– NYT

Oh, those radical pharmacists. Rabble rousers, that lot.  

Outside Parliament, protesters had massed for a second day in Syntagma Square, shouting, “Traitors, traitors!” and the police repeatedly fired tear gas to maintain control after the vote. The demonstrators, the majority of whom were peaceful, came prepared with surgical masks to protect against the gas.

NYT

People have to wake up.  The corporations are coming for every damn thing you have.

California will close up to 70 of its 278 parks to help narrow its budget gap, officials said on Friday

(Reuters)

But, back to Greece.

Greece funnels billions of euros (dollars) into its military, spending more of its gross domestic product – 2.8 percent in 2008 – on it than any other European Union country, and second only in NATO to the United States.

And:

“For the past three months, there were several billions in arms contracts that we forced Greece to confirm: French frigates … helicopters, airplanes, German submarines. It’s hypocrisy,” Cohn-Bendit said at a news conference in Paris earlier this month.

“We want to make money … on the backs of the Greeks,” he said.

And:

“I honestly feel national shame each time I am forced to buy weapons we do not need – based on an objective and correct estimate of the dangers the world as it is holds for Greece,” Deputy Prime Minister Theodore Pangalos said earlier this month…

From here: http://turkeymacedonia.wordpre…

25 comments

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  1. “corporatocracy” anyway? Drop the ‘e’ ?

    • TMC on June 29, 2011 at 19:42
    • #

    policies continue to strip the middle class, decimate the poor and vulnerable while further filling the coffers of the banksters and billionaires that caused the crisis.

  3. http://www.thenation.com/print…

    Already parts of Athens look like New York City circa 1980, with shut-up shops, derelict buildings and graffitied walls. Depression is endemic; suicide rates have soared.

    Athens was once seen as Europe’s safest capital; last year there were 145 armed robberies in a single week. The city has become a mecca for illegal weapons: you can get a “used” Beretta for around 800 euros or a .357 Magnum for a mere 500. Racist violence is on the rise, as are revenge killings and turf wars.

  4. where else can you run live war games as a test for what is coming here.

  5. ATHENS (Reuters) – A smartly dressed woman waits as a young man behind a glass screen weighs her gold earrings, bracelets and rings and counts out 1,600 euros.

    “I’ll see you again soon,” she says, slipping the bills into her purse. Behind her, a grey-haired man shuffles toward the counter. “Do you buy gold teeth?” he asks.

    ……

    That is one side of the coin. On the other, many wealthy Greeks, worried by the political paralysis gripping their country, are pulling money out of the bank and buying gold, regarded as the ultimate safe haven in times of uncertainty.

    And:

    “I want to tear down the parliament building. We didn’t waste all this money, they did, and they are not going to jail,” said Dimitris Avramidis, 34, a bookstore employee.

    “I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve never taken out a loan in my life. So why should I pay now? I want people to take all their money out of the banks.”

    from http://www.nytimes.com/reuters…

  6. Euro zone finance ministers confirmed Friday that they would announce the release of a $17.4 billion, or €12 billion, installment of aid for Greece on Saturday, buying the country time to avoid an immediate default.

    – NYT

    Remember–Greece is forced to sell 72 billion is public assets, as only part of the deal, to get the 17 billion right now.  

  7. The first recorded democracy originated in Greece.

    Sparta actually developed democracy before Athens.

    It’s one of those psychological-warfare things. If they (multinational/global- corporate interests) can sabotage democratic institutions in places where democracy originated in ancient times, it weakens the morale of other (later) democracies (against that same kind of multinational/global- corporate sabotage). That’s what I think anyway.

  8. Do not put in comments late in the game — no one sees ’em!

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