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 An anti-austerity rally in Ath ens' Sy nta gm a (Constitu tion) squar e last October. Photograph: Yiorg os

Karahalis/Reuters

The reporting of the Greek tragedy over the last couple of y ears gives the impression

that economics is a master science. Yet, the mainstream economists who gave Lehman

Brothers a certificate of rude health just before its collapse, predicted tat by 2012 the

Greek economy would start growing. The economy shrank by 7% last year and a further

6% contraction is predicted for this year, with worse to come. This is the fastest slump in

recent times. The discipline of this type of economics is often closer to a confidence trick than a science.

Both Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt drew a dark picture of the times when economics

 Welcome Sotiris Karampampas, sign into the Guardian with Facebook 

 What now for Greece – collapse orresurrection?Neoliberal economics planned in Brussels and Berlin will push

Greece into third-world working conditions

Costas Douzinas

guar dian.co.uk, Monday 5 March 2 01 2 09 .00 GMT

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trump politics. Has their prediction come to pass? The slow death of Greece was a

political project from the start, with politicians accepting the prescriptions of neoliberal

economics. The country has become the guinea pig for the future of a Europe ruled by 

German capital and Eurocrats. The economic measures were planned in Berlin and

Brussels and are implemented in Athens by pliant politicians. They aim to reduce

 violently the standard of living of ordinary people, abolish the few remaining social

safeguards and create third world working conditions. Greek politics, meanwhile, has

 become an experiment in how to bring about the collapse of a system of power.

Opinion polls put the Greek Pasok party at around 10% – down from 44% in the last

elections – and the New Democracy party, which has alternated with Pasok in

government, at around 30%, with the three left parties, Coalition of the Radical Left

(SYRIZA), Communists (KKE) and Democratic Left standing at over 40%. The

popularity dive of Pasok and New Democracy is understandable: the sorry state of 

Greece is the result of their combined policies. For the last 40 years, the two partiesinflated the public sector they now attack by giving jobs to clients and contracts to

sponsors. They turned a blind eye to tax evasion and created the most generous system

of tax avoidance for the rich. They ran up the deficit and the debt and continued doing so

 well after the problems became clear. Both parties in government altered the statistical

returns of their predecessors, giving rise to the term "Greek statistics". Papandreou,

after his 2009 victory, had the deficit increased – falsely, according to prosecutor

Grigoris Peponis – by 3%, inviting the IMF-EU tutelage. The elites willed the deficit, the

debt and their consequences and, if they could, they would have introduced the austerity 

measures without the intervention of the troika of IMF, EU and the European Central

Bank.

The wholesale destruction of the weak welfare state, the massive transfer of public

assets to private hands at bargain basement prices, the largest internal devaluation since

the 1930s and the loss of national independence are part of the necessary re-

arrangement of capitalism for a period of low growth and popular militancy. The

supposed "rescue" is a test run for a new type of predatory capitalism after the failure of 

growth through the financial bubble.

The arrogance of Greek politicians made them unable, perhaps, to understand that by 

doing the bidding of their European partners, they would hasten their own political

demise. George Papandreou, the only Greek prime minister ever to resign despite once

having a strong parliamentary majority, was the third premier in his family and was

appointed to his first ministerial post in 1985. The leader of New Democracy, Antonis

Samaras also comes from a political family and became a minister in 1989. Many members of the current government are reaching what a mature democracy would

consider political retirement age. The ploys used by the two parties to distance

themselves from the unpopular measures while accepting them offer a textbook case of 

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systemic and cynical panic. Let me list some.

New Democracy, the official neoliberal party, voted against the first austerity package in

order to improve its poll ratings. But when the EU, IMF and the European Right set as

precondition for the second package that its leader, Antonis Samaras sign up, the party 

returned to form and joined the Papademos government. The right-wing nationalist

LAOS party on the other hand supported the measures from the start until its ratingsstarted plummeting. At that point, it abandoned the government and voted against the

second package. But these somersaults cannot prevent the disintegration of the parties.

Over 43 coalition MPs have defied their party 's whip and have been expelled from their

respective governmental parties. Five splinter parties have emerged so far and more are

expected in the next few days.

The appointment of the unelected banker Lucas Papademos to the premiership was

aimed at capitalising on the prestige of mainstream economists, and reversing thedistrust for politicians. When the Papademos government was formed last November, it

 was announced that elections would take place next April. Despite the bonus of 50 MPs

the Greek electoral system awards the winners, it seems that no single party will have a

 working majority after the next elections. This unprecedented uncertainty has increased

the anxiety of politicians, many of whom are asking for a postponement of the elections

and the continuation of the unelected government.

Once the politicians had failed in their efforts to convince people that the destruction of 

their lives was unavoidable, democracy itself became the target. Holding elections has

now become the main problem for a government which, paraphrasing Bertold Brecht,

 would prefer to elect a new people.

The postponement of elections following the earlier cancellation of a referendum on the

euro by Merkel and Sarkozy is part of set of measures that have turned Greece into

little more than a colony. The proposal that a commissioner should be appointed to run

the Greek economy was more than a little insensitive for a country that has suffered a

 brutal Nazi occupation. The proposal was scrapped; instead, there is to be a task force of 

inspectors based in the main ministries and a special ring-fenced account where the loan

money will be deposited beyond Greek control, to be used exclusively for repaying the

loans.

 As in 2008, the European taxpayers are bailing out European banks, with Greece

 becoming a temporary stopping point. As if this was not enough, the prioritising of loan

repayments over pensions and salaries will be inserted into the constitution, turning

sectarian ideology into legal dogma for the first time since the collapse of the SovietUnion.

 Additionally, the two party leaders have signed a letter agreeing to pursue the austerity 

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measures after the elections. Thus the most important issue in recent Greek history will

not be open for debate or voting. Social democratic, Keynesian and socialist ideas have

effectively been banned.

This is one of those rare occasions where the distance between the public and

mainstream politicians has become a chasm. The next few weeks will decide whether

this is the final stage in the decay of democracy and independence, or whether a new politics will develop. Unfortunately, the parties of the Left still refuse to collaborate.

SYRIZA promotes a broad anti-austerity front within Europe, but cannot convince the

other two. The Greek Communist party, the most dogmatic in Europe, participates in

parliamentary politics but is not interested in power unless it has full monopoly. The

europhile Democratic Left prefers to act as a receptacle for disappointed Pasok voters.

The Greek left, like the Conservative party, cannot overcome its deep trauma over

Europe.

But the Greek people who filled Syntagma and the other squares last year, practicing

civil disobedience and direct democracy, have other options. The mainstream media

present the political collapse as the end of the post-dictatorship regime, hoping that the

politicians who brought Greece to its knees can engineer its reform. But the reality is

different. Post-civil war Greece was founded on the exclusion and persecution of the

Left, and this culminated in Colonel Papadopoulos's dictatorship. This divide is now 

coming to an end as both working people and modernisers realise that the political elite

has betrayed them. For the first time, new types of political action are on the agenda. A hegemonic bloc combining the defence of the welfare state, democracy and national

independence can bring together parts of the population who were historically on

opposing sides but now express their indignation together. The necessary reform of the

state, robust tax collection and punishment of the culprits can only succeed if 

undertaken by people who are not responsible for widespread corruption and mindless

consumption. The task in hand is to rescue Greece from its "rescuers" and to create a

new model for democracy in Europe.

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