The struggle of the Greek people is the struggle of all European democrats, of all those who believe in human progress. In the case of a potential defeat all European peoples would pay the price.
We don’t believe that the Greek people are guilty of the doubling of its sovereign debt within less than 10 years (1). Neither that it has to pay this debt which has been artificially inflated through the slashing of its social rights, through the sinking of its democracy. For years the national and supranational powers controlling the European Union have been imposing austerity measures accompanied by “structural reforms” on the Greek people which ruin the Greek economy and push the people into increasing misery.
Today, in a burst of dignity and lucidity the Greek people have voted for a far-left majority that is radically opposed to corruption and concessions, that has established a government holding the mandate of repelling the Troika’s (IMF, ECB, European Commission) diktat and of enforcing a policy of a break with this criminal austerity.
The goal of the European ruling class is not to oblige the Greek people to pay a debt; the repayment of which everybody knows is impossible, and which only has the function of draining public funds towards the banks. It’s goal is to compel the government of Alexis Trispras and Syriza to capitulation. This allows them to continue strangling the Greek people, who are condemned to indefinitely beg for increasingly costly credits and to show to all European peoples that it’s impossible to tackle the banks, to challenge the absolute power of the ruling class, to pave the way for an alternative to austerity.
It’s unacceptable that those who pretend to be speaking „in the name of Europe“ seek to break the Greek government – chosen by the Greek people -, to prevent the government from fulfilling its most basic commitments. They even dared to “forbid” it to implement the minimal humanitarian measures in favor of those in greatest need (housing allowance, food aid, restoration of electricity)! Today they claim that the government lowers pensions below the poverty line and increases the VAT on staple products. And they assert that they are ready to let Greece go bankrupt and expel it from the Euro zone, thus sooner or later from the European Union, facing the risk of a crisis with unpredictable consequences.
We support the Greek people in their mobilisation and determination to roll back this despotic and reactionary operation.
The struggle of the Greek people is the struggle of all European democrats, of all those who believe in human progress. In the case of a potential defeat all European peoples would pay the price. In the case of a potential victory, as limited as it may be, all European peoples would benefit. That’s why it is necessary for those French and European forces who have hope in the renewal of democracy to positively answer the calls of Syriza to build European solidarity around Greece and the Greek people. The perspective of a referendum urgently requires the reinforcement of this solidarity (2).
To the Greek people we say that we are on their side. Because their struggle is ours.
Signatures to: lagreceaucoeur@orange.fr
First signatories: Antoine Artous, Etienne Balibar, Sophie Bessis, Jacques Bidet, Luc Boltanski, GillesBounoure, Marie-Pierre Bourcier, Claude Calame, Patrick Chamoiseau, Patrice Cohen Seat, Jean-Numa Ducange, Jean-Louis Fabiani, Michel Husson, Michael Löwy, Marie-José Malis, Jean-Louis Martinelli, Gus Massiah, Jean-Claude Petit, Philippe Pignarre, Michèle Riot-Sarcey, Pierre Salama, Denis Sieffert, Patrick Silberstein, Francis Sitel, Bernard Stiegler, Hervé Télémaque, Jacques Testart, Eleni Varikas, Pierre Zarka…
1) Cf. L’Appel pour soutenir la Grèce qui résiste et sa Commission pour la vérité sur la dette publique: http://cadtm.org/Appel-pour-soutenir-la-Grece-qui
This call was originally published in French at: http://blogs.mediapart.fr/edition/que-vive-la-grece/article/290615/la-grece-au-coeur-de-l-europe
See also the petition at: http://www.altersummit.eu/accueil/article/no-to-austerity-yes-to-democracy