Congratulations to the Greek left! The movement against austerity....

I wonder if in practise, given the alternatives, they could persuade the Greeks that withdrawal might be the only and best option.

The fact the population still feels scared by various Greek Government's management of the economy/currency back in the days of the drachma is quite telling...

Our Greens are tame, they aren't even as far left as the post-war consensus. It's the rest of the parties that are extreme.

Would you mind expanding upon this?

Sounds a bit unlikely.

This will only end badly for Greece, if only because the rest of the ruling parties can't have them look good. Europe's Cuba, perhaps?

I already made a thread about this


There are going to face an uphill battle with lots of vested interests determined to undermine them at every turn.

Also if this had been 50 years ago and Greece had been a south american country a Pinochet would be being put in place right about now.


Another angry voice on it

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/what-now-for-greece.html

In their 48 hours in office Syriza have reintroduced the minimum wage, reinstated pensions, reintroduced collective bargaining in the workplace, granted children born in Greece to migrants Greek citizenship, rehired public sector workers who had lost their jobs and stopped privitsation plans that were in progress. Not bad for two days work.

The fact the population still feels scared by various Greek Government's management of the economy/currency back in the days of the drachma is quite telling...

Smash the oligarchy!

So weird having someone like that in an actual government. I'm used to people with my kind of politics never getting anywhere...

Meanwhile back in the UK we must managed our expectations and vote for labour so they can privatize the NHS and public services more softly.

And it's all fallen into an oh-so-familiar pattern.

Governance not quite so easy, and they're already spending money when they're at the bottom of the biggest overdraft imagineable.

So it's off to the international version of Godwin's Law. Blame the Nazis. Yes, ask for war reparations, stir up the Greeks against the Germans, and distract attention away from the fact that there is no plan whatsoever except to give away money that doesn't exist.

Greece is a shopaholic with all its credit cards maxed out, no job, no friends and now about to take out a payday loan to go on a spending spree in Westfield.

It really isn't that simple. Greece did over-borrow for sure, but so did many of the other economies in a similar state of low productivity and high long term unemployment rates. One key question is exactly why the bankers were permitted to keep making such vast loans to Greece when it was perfectly clear that the EU taxpayer would ultimately pick up the bill? Behind this cynicism lies the dead hand of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, both of whom were active in Athens and Brussels perpetrating the lie that all was well in the extreme South of Europe and the banks could keep pouring in the cash.

Not to mention why Greece was rushed into the Euro in the first place as a political fix to try to stabilise them and a sop to mollify them into accepting EU entry talks with Turkey. (the latter of course failed)

I'm not saying Greece hasn't been a willing participant on some level, but there have been many manipulations and profoundly ignorant policy making by people who should and do know better.

If I was Syriza, I would be doing exactly the same. However, the hard part is going to be telling their population that they can't have it both ways and that leaving the Euro is going to be the only viable option.

What do you want me to say? I would have thought it's obvious the Greens are not even as far left as the post-war consensus. Would you agree that "left" means public/state ownership of the means of production, funded by taxation and run on a need basis, and "right" means private ownership of the means of production, funded by capital and run on a profit basis? If so, the centre ground is a fairly even mix of the two, and even you cannot argue that any of the other parties are anything other than far to the extreme right of this centre ground.

Would you mind expanding upon this?

Sounds a bit unlikely.

It's Greece's own fault that they're in this mess and an anti-business left-wing Government will do nothing more than increase borrowing and send unemployment rocketing, as well as discourage investment in sectors such as manufacturing and exports which is desperately needed in an economy which is almost entirely services based - austerity, low corporate tax rates and repayment of debt is the only way forward in economic downturn and ridiculously high structural deficit as is the case with Greece.