Yannis Varoufakis: The Greek economy is finished …. This is our Great Depression

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 18/06/2012

Reporter: Leigh Sales

With a pro-bailout and pro-austerity party claiming victory in the Greek election, economist Yanis Varoufakis joins us from Athens to reflect on what the result means for the economy and the Eurozone.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Joining us now from Athens is the Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis.

The obvious question is: what happens now?

YANIS VAROUFAKIS, ECONOMICS, ATHENS UNIVERSITY: Well, the derailment of the train that is the eurozone, which started with Greece and then other carriages started leaving the tracks sequentially – Ireland, Portugal, now Spain – is continuing. And yesterday’s vote is not going to change that at all. All exuberance and celebrations are completely and utterly misplaced. I’m afraid that the eurozone and

The «I am Hellene» video just doesn’t cut it

We all suddenly remembered we’re Greek, no sorry, Hellene.

You try and try to stay positive, give words of encouragement instead of criticism to what your countrymen do, but videos like this just don’t let you, do they?

Ok, the video was an attempt at promoting all the values that make Greece what it is, denounced foreign disdain for the way we Greeks view life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and especially stressed the way Hellenism underlies every important current in Western History. So why, then, did watching this video leave a taste of disgust in my mouth?

Greeks have good reasons to protest

Declan Hill, The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Sunday, December 18, 2011

Athens

‘Almost everything that you thought you knew about current-day Greece is wrong.»

That thought went through my head as I stood among a mass of demonstrators in Syntagma Square during the recent general strike. There was a festive air: souvlaki sellers amid grandmothers, students singing and lots of street theatre performances. It was unlike any of the images that I had seen; there was no stone throwing, no tear-gas or water cannon attacks. I may have been lucky but there was a wide spectrum of ordinary people marching in the demonstration. The usual suspects were there, of course: the anarchists, the Communists and the general drop-a-hat-see-me-protest lot. But there was also a broad range of others: nurses, farmers, doctors, actors and teachers.

 After the demonstration was over, I walked past the rows of gas-masked policemen (generally far nicer

Why the media lies about Greece

by Jérôme E. Roos on June 24, 2011

In a short BBC interview today, I argued that the media’s witch hunt against Greece perpetuates a false impression that the Greeks themselves are to blame.

With special thanks to Naveena Kottoor, I was able to appear on BBC World Have Your Say today, for a brief segment on the international media’s coverage of the Greek debt crisis.

Asked whether I agreed that the international media are engaged in a ‘witch hunt’ against the Greek people, I pointed out that all talk about the Greeks being profligate, lazy and spoilt is simply not true (video below, my contribution from 34m50s onwards — somehow the audio got messed up):

 

Unfortunately, however, I didn’t get the time to back up these assertions with hard facts — so I would like this to use the opportunity to do so here.

Special thanks for the data below go out to Alex Andreou and Ingeborg Beugel.

MYTH #1: The Greeks are profligate

The Question on Everyone’s Mind: What is Eurogendfor doing in Greece?

What is Eurogendfor and what is it doing in Greece?

According to their Official website, which you can find here: http://www.eurogendfor.eu/

«The European Gendarmerie Force (EGF) is an initiative of 5 EU Member States – France, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain – aimed at improving the crisis management capability in sensitive areas. Since Wednesday, 17th December 2008, the High Level Interdepartmental Committee Meeting (CIMIN) decided to

The myth of the “lazy Greek workers”

Since the crisis in Greece has hit the headlines there have appeared in the bourgeois media many stories about how Greece has too many civil servants, how the working week is very short, how people retire early on fat pensions, and so on, as if this were the cause of the crisis. Facts and figures, however, can be very stubborn things and they tell a completely different story.

During the last few days we have witnessed an unprecedented smear campaign against the Greek working class by the European bourgeois media, in particular by the tabloid press, which is specifically aimed at working class people. This campaign is aimed at deceiving the European workers and its objective is clearly to prevent them from assuming internationalist action of class solidarity towards the working class of Greece, which is being brutally attacked by both Greek and foreign capitalists.

The first myth being promoted in this campaign goes more or less like this: “these lazy Greek people,

15 things the Greek austerity vote won’t accomplish

 

Posted By David Rothkopf 

The Greek parliament’s austerity vote accomplished one thing. It advanced the possibility of a deal that will pump enough cash in the direction of Athens for the country to pay off its creditors. Here’s what it will not do:

ΒΓΑΖΟΥΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΓΑΛΑΝΟΛΕΥΚΗ ΣΤΟ ΜΠΑΛΚΟΝΙ ΜΑΣ !

 

Η πολιτική και κοινωνική κατάσταση στην ΕΛΛΑΔΑ έχει φτάσει στο χαμηλότερο σημείο που θα μπορούσε από την μεταπολίτευση και μετά.
Χιλιάδες λαού δίνει το παρόν στις πλατείες διατυπανίζοντας την αντίθεσή του και την αγανάκτισή του για τον εμπαιγμό των πολιτικών προς το πρόσωπό τους.