In a surprise development, Panos Beglitis, Defence Minister, a close confidante of Mr Papandreou, summoned the chiefs of the army, navy and air-force and announced that they were being replaced by other senior officers. Neither the minister nor any government spokesman offered an explanation for the sudden, sweeping changes, which were scheduled to be considered on November 7 as part of a regular annual review of military leadership retirements and promotions. Usually the annual changes do not affect the entire leadership.
When dissatisfied national populations become convinced that their democratic institutions are useless or irrelevant, they will take to the streets. How long before the resentments and the powerlessness ignite and Greece, in its desperation, turns once again to the colonels? Will we see tanks on the streets of Athens at the same time as growing neo-fascist movements in Germany and Italy?The regime of the colonels took power in 1967 in the years of instability following the ouster of George Papandreou's grandfather of the same name as prime minister.
Greece's PASOK government has tried its best to fulfil its brief as a responsible government. But the severity of the crisis is overwhelming its ability to cope, and its referendum gamble has offended its masters in Europe. There is a continent of surplus value at stake. There is an imperialist super power at stake. There is decades of institutional construction and refinement at stake. There is a whole austerity formula at stake. For that reason, I suspect there'd be corks popping in Cannes if the government fell by one means or another.Richard Seymour: Would European capital sacrifice Greece to protect profits?
Which do you trust more: democracy or financial markets?I think that the horror with which a lot of people are greeting Papandreou's decision to hold a referendum betrays the reality of the global situation: we are more ruled by financial elites than we are by democracy. It's an affront, a slap in the face to the power system, that ordinary people would get to vote on a massively important issue.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou decided in favor of democracy Monday when he announced a national referendum on the draconian budget cuts Europe and the IMF are demanding from Greece in return for bailing it out.
...We’ve been here before, remember? Here in the United States, at the end of 2008 and start of 2009. Wall Street had made lots of bad loans, and the question we faced then was whether to bail out the Street.
The difference is, we didn’t hold a referendum. Instead, the Bush administration told Congress the nation risked “economic Armageddon” if it didn’t immediately authorize a giant bailout of the Street – with no strings attached. Of course Congress hastily agreed.
...But Americans weren’t really consulted. It was an inside job.
As a result, Wall Street has prospered but the rest of the nation hasn’t.
In short, rather than an exercise in participatory democracy, the referendum is a shoddy, strategically ill-fated, morally corrupt and politically damaging ploy. Contrary to what is implied by the Greek PM’s minders, the referendum was never meant as a means of strengthening Mr Papandreou’s bargaining power over his European colleagues and the IMF. Had he cared to oppose the October Agreement, he ought to have done so in Brussels. No, the referendum is a means of extracting, first, a vote of confidence from his party’s battered MPs and, secondly, to impose upon the Greek people a hideous dilemma which identifies consent to the terrible October Agreement with a continued commitment to remaining in Europe. Rather than a gesture of granting Greeks a voice, this referendum is an attempt to gag the electorate.Yanis Varoufakis: Time to resign, Mr Papandreou
World leaders are gathering in Cannes for the opening of the Group of 20 summit today. On the top of the agenda is the Greece bailout and the European debt crisis. On Monday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou angered many European leaders by announcing his support for a popular referendum—allowing the Greek people to decide if they want to accept the conditions of the $179 billion European Union bailout. After days of increasing criticism from European leaders, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is now facing calls from within his party to resign. The Greek debt scandal has also pitted U.S. banking interests against France, Germany and other European powers. "The Americans are putting immense pressure on Europe, saying, 'We will wreck your economy, if you don't wreck Greece’s economy,’" says economic analyst Michael Hudson. President Obama is "basically telling Europe, ’Don’t go the democratic route. Support Wall Street.’"posted by homunculus at 9:43 AM on November 3, 2011
One senior official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the disorderly default that would result if Europe refused to give Athens more aid would lead to a bank run within 48 hours, a mass flight of capital and Greek citizens abroad, and instantly halt all money transactions by the Greek government.Recent GDP per capita is roughly six times higher in Greece than in those countries.
That could force Europe to fund core services such as healthcare and water. A euro zone exit would make things even worse.
"You would have to ship truckloads of euros to Greece on the sly" to prevent social implosion, the German official said, noting the EU had been forced to take similar steps in Bosnia and Montenegro, and the United States in Panama.
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posted by amazingstill at 8:47 AM on November 2, 2011