Shame on Europe for betraying Greece: Capitalism is triumphant as EU states sacrifice the Greek people in a desperate attempt to appease the gods of speculation

by William Wall for Critical Legal Thinking, part of the Guardian Comment Network guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 February 2012 11.41 GMT

‘We condemn Greece to misery and poverty to keep Standard & Poor’s off our backs. But we have miscalculated.’

Photograph: Argyropoulos/Sipa/Rex Features

The behaviour of the EU states towards Greece is inexplicable in the terms in which the EU defines itself. It is, first and foremost, a failure of solidarity.

The «austerity package», as the newspapers like to call it, seeks to impose on Greece terms that no people can accept. Even now the schools are running out of books. There were 40% cuts in the public health budget in 2010 – I can’t find the present figure. Greece’s EU «partners» are demanding a 32% cut