Published:
Mar 27, 2015 3:30 a.m. ET
By DARRELL DELAMAIDE
POLITICS
COLUMNIST
Market
Watch
WASHINGTON
(MarketWatch) — The simmering crisis in Greece has the potential to become
one of those seemingly small events that leads to big consequences.
The
election of a radical government by a public exhausted from five years of
debilitating recession, the war of words conducted by that government in the
face of the iron fist of establishment power in the European Union, and the
expected resolution either in the form of a total retreat by the Greek
government and its collapse or an exit from the euro all this seems relatively
small on the scale of global events.
But few
expected the assassination of an Austrian royal heir to start World War I, or
the shelling of a military depot in Gdansk by German forces in 1939 to lead to
the conflagration of World War II, or, for that matter, the strike in 1980 by
Polish trade union Solidarity in that same port city to lead to the unraveling
of the Soviet empire.
he Greek
crisis could well become a similar turning point in history.
Amid all
the posturing, dogmatism and bad faith in the standoff between the government
of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European and international monetary
officials is a genuine challenge not only to the postwar integration of Europe but the entire foundation of the peace ushered in
during that period.
So if
you’re sick and tired of hearing about Greece, think again.
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For the
first time since the early 20th century, there are the elements of a genuine
revolution brewing in Europe, a continent
plagued by violence throughout its history.
The
bumbling, short-sighted policies of the German government under Chancellor
Angela Merkel and the spineless Brussels bureaucracy
dominated by Berlin are in many ways similar
to previous miscalculations by European leaders that plunged Europe
and the world into disaster.
And it is
not helped by a U.S.
foreign policy in disarray under the weak and uneven leadership of a president
ill-equipped to deal with global realpolitik.
The Greek
government itself seems to be operating in a parallel universe of false hopes.
The economy minister, George Stathakis, said he is optimistic Greece will reach an agreement with
international lenders next week even though their stated goals remain
diametrically opposed.
he head of
the Greek central bank, Yannis Stournaras, who was installed by the preceding
government that was voted out of office, still maintains that an exit of Greece
from the euro is not an option, even though it is emerging as the only viable
solution if the country wants to get back to any form of economic security in
the foreseeable future.
Far from
finding allies in the other distressed countries of southern Europe, Greece has
accused governments in Spain and Portugal of undermining its efforts to reverse
austerity policies out of fear that the establishment parties in those
countries will meet the same fate as the Greek mainstream parties defeated in
the January election by Tsipras’s far-left Syriza.
But there
is also opposition to Athens’
course from within the governing party. Stathis Kouvelakis, who teaches
political theory at King’s College in London and is a member of Syriza’s
central committee, says the party has to face up to the reality of its recent
retreat on its election pledges and the nature of the forces arrayed against
it.
In
particular, Kouvelakis notes the successive steps taken by European Central
Bank to restrict the flow of liquidity to the Greek economy, shutting down or
limiting Greek access to various types of ECB financing.
“It should
be clear, however, that these moves would bring about a dynamic that would
breach fundamental constraints of the monetary union and would inevitably lead
to the exit from it,” Kouvelakis wrote in his latest post at Jacobin. “In any
case, the ECB’s relentless blackmail with its provision of liquidity places
onto the agenda every day the issue of regaining sovereignty over monetary
policy.”
It was the
stranglehold that prompted Tsipras in a recent interview with Der Spiegel to
refer to the ECB “still holding onto the rope that is around our necks.”
But
Kouvelakis argues that covering over the issues by renaming the troika “the
institutions” or by using weasel words like “creative ambiguity” is not going
to solve the problem.
The initial
euphoria over Syriza’s victory has quickly faded, but it can be revived, he
says, if the party faces reality.
“In order
for this to happen, however, the horns of battle have to blow again, and the
ensuing struggle has to be waged with all due seriousness and determination,”
he wrote, “not with PR stunts and rhetorical contortions.”
He cited
the widely quoted words from Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis earlier this month
before the Greek Parliament, when he said “the country is at war, a social and
a class war with the lenders” and that in this war “we will not go like
cheerful scouts willing to continue the policies of the memorandum.”
This is the
kind of talk the world needs to hear from Greek officials, Kouvelakis says,
“not the language of facile optimism that creates illusions and causes
confusion that tomorrow may prove costly.”
Who thinks
this can end well? Who knows what the consequences will be?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/greek-crisis-nears-a-turning-point-2015-03-27?page=2
