[p2p-research] Fwd: ZNet Daily Commentary: The Walrus and the Carpenter By Chris Spannos

[Michel Bauwens]

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Date: Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 12:25 AM
Subject: ZNet Daily Commentary: The Walrus and the Carpenter By Chris
Spannos
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The Walrus and the Carpenter

February 23, 2010 By *Chris Spannos*

Chris Spannos's ZSpace
Page<http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/chrisspannos>/
ZSpace <http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/>

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes-and ships-and sealing-wax-
And cabbages-and kings-
And why the sea is boiling hot-
And whether pigs have wings."

- *The Walrus and the Carpenter
*Lewis Carroll



(Wednesday, Feb. 24) -- Scrambling to stabilize the current Greek financial
crisis inspectors from the European Commission, European Central Bank, and
International Monetary Fund descended on Greece the
eve<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8533240.stm>of today's 24-hour
general strike. It was the second such strike in two
weeks, with as many as 2 million workers expected to take action against the
Papandreou governments forced "austerity measures." The workers do not want
to pay for a crisis they did not create themselves. Yet Papandreou is
eagerly imposing these measures anyway so that Greece can
become<http://www.papandreou.gr/papandreou/content/Document.aspx?d=6&rd=7739474&f=1724&rf=-1856302628&m=12805&rm=12743400&l=1>"credible
again."

European Union (EU) panic over Greece, a nation whose entire population (11
million) is less than the official number of US unemployed (15 million), is
not overblown. The worry is that Greece's financial problems, which include
a gross debt forecast for 2010 at 125% of its GDP, may lead to the first
national debt default in the EU's 11-year history and threaten default
contagion across Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Spain - collectively known as
PIIGS - the most heavily-indebt
countries<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8510603.stm>in Europe.
These countries, like Greece, have experienced government
cut-backs and labor unrest.

Against this back drop of debt and crisis the Eurozone is in a frenzy to
save its sinking currency. The euro is now in a nine-month low. But the
crisis is about more than money. Many worry that the crisis could deal a
blow to the stability of the EU and global economic recovery. Gideon Rachman
of the Financial Times
notes<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/900dc6f8-201a-11df-81a2-00144feab49a.html>that
the current situation could initiate a "crisis of confidence" for the
EU, which in-turn could mean that the "powers it has acquired" on everything
from immigration to social policy would come into question, "The Greek
crisis is about the very basis on which European unity has been built for
the last 60 years. It threatens not just the euro but the entire edifice of
the European Union. The risk for Europe now is that if the EU does not move
forward politically in response to the Greek crisis, it will move backwards
- and the long process of European integration could start to unravel."

Greece is at a cross-road and the direction it takes is likely out of its
own control. One road, a path that third-world countries are usually pushed
down, is where "austerity" policies are forced onto the country so that it
becomes beholden to new debtors and owners. The other road is that taken by
privileged first-world nations who are allowed to pursue some form of
bailout and development. The EU has given Greece a March 16 deadline to show
"improvements" in its budget, which translate to reduced deficit spending by
imposing further "austerity measures."Cuts in state funding already enforced
include the freezing of public sector wages and hiring, slashing bonuses,
hiking consumer taxes, pushing the age of retirement back two years, and
increased fuel prices. Greece now has to convince Brussels that these cuts
are enough to reduce its budget deficit by 4 percentage points this year to
8.7 percent of GDP.

Whether Greek economic recovery arrives in the form of a multi-billion
dollar EU or IMF bailout, loans at lower interest rates, the purchase of
billions in Greek bonds, or the United Arab Emirates investing in a Greek
development fund, all currently being considered - just as before the crisis
as after, Greek society is being managed *for* the sake of the economy *rather
than* Greek society managing the economy for the citizens *themselves*. The
average Greek, not elites - like the average person everywhere - pay the
price when forced to bail those out who created the crisis, with further
wealth and power extracted from their already disempowered lives during
times of business as usual. Key economic decisions will not be made by
Greeks as a whole but rather forced upon them by speculators, bureaucrats,
and managers.

Like much of the third-world and also workers in the first-world, Greece has
been victim to global capital and financial speculation. Although the
investigation by the EU statistics agency Eurostat revealed that Goldman
Sachs "helped" Greece join the EU
using<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8529111.stm>a complicated
"currency swap" in 2001, masking the extent of its public
deficit and national debt, speculation against the euro and Greece
continues.

Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel, quoted by Business Week at her Feb. 22
speech in Hamburg,
acknowledges<http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-23/merkel-slams-euro-speculation-warns-of-resentment-update1-.html>that
Euro debt "is now becoming the object of speculation by precisely
those
institutions that we saved a year-and-a-half ago" and that, "That's very
difficult to explain to people in a democracy who should trust us." Alluding
to Goldman Sachs, Merkel criticized those banks "that brought us to the
brink of the abyss" and said it would be a "scandal" if those same banks
were found to have helped Greece obscure its finances. The lesson, of
course, is that we *should not* trust them.

In a country familiar with 20th Century occupation and dictatorship,
regardless of where any bailout comes from, Greece is more likely to feel
déjà vu from 21st Century neo-liberal colonization imposed from above by
Brussels than what is passed off as supposed benevolence in the form of "EU
solidarity." While a classless and self-managing alternative to capitalism
may be far off in the future, the current EU crisis should lay bare the
imperative for worker and consumer control over domestic and international
economic institutions with new objectives for serving human needs rather
than the needs of capital.
 ------------------------------

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