{"id":11162,"date":"2015-07-01T20:45:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T10:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=11162"},"modified":"2015-07-01T20:45:25","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T10:45:25","slug":"greece-refuses-to-bow-to-euro-dictatorship-declares-debt-illegitimate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=11162","title":{"rendered":"Greece refuses to bow to Euro-dictatorship, declares debt illegitimate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greece has refused to budge from its principled approach to negotiations over its debts, sparking an enormous furore across the globe and setting the stage for the collapse of the entire trans-Atlantic financial system. The expiry of the \u20ac245 billion bailout\u2014extended by four months in February\u2014and the deadline for payments of \u20ac1.6 billion to the IMF, coincide on 30 June.
\n Two days ago the Greeks stepped up the fight even further by declaring the debt illegitimate. A parliamentary commission established to investigate the legitimacy of the Greek debt\u2014the Debt Truth Commission\u2014released its preliminary findings on 17 June, which state the following:
\n\u201cAll the evidence we present in this report shows that Greece not only does not have the ability to pay this debt, but also should not pay this debt first and foremost because the debt emerging from the Troika\u2019s arrangements is a direct infringement on the fundamental human rights of the residents of Greece. Hence, we came to the conclusion that Greece should not pay this debt because it is illegal, illegitimate, and odious.\u201d
\nUS statesman and physical economist Lyndon LaRouche concurred, demanding that nations be relieved of the claims of the bankrupt euro system. \u201cThe solution\u201d, he said, \u201cis an international policy of Glass-Steagall banking; agreements among these nations to implement Glass-Steagall principles.\u201d
\nEven before this latest move, the EU authorities reacted to Greece\u2019s intransigence on a debt deal by threatening to shut down Greece\u2019s economy. According to a report in The Telegraph of London on 15 June, \u201cthe European Commission lashed out at the Greeks and warned that the country would collapse into a \u2018state of emergency\u2019\u201d unless a deal was reached.
\nThe article cited the German publication S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung, which reported that \u201cthe creditors are drawing [up] an ultimatum to the Greeks, threatening to cut off Greek access to the European payments system and forcing capital controls on the country as soon as this weekend. The plan would lead to the temporary closure of the banks, followed by a rationing of cash withdrawals\u201d, as was imposed upon Cyprus in 2013.
\nReportedly the central bank of Macedonia on 12 June ordered a halt to all withdrawals by Greek banks from Macedonian banks or from the central bank, in case of a Greek exit from the euro, and an 11 June conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, \u2018war-gamed\u2019 scenarios which could follow a Greek default.
\nThe EU and IMF are demanding that Greece cut pensions by \u20ac1.8 billion per year\u2014nearly 1 percent of GDP\u2014and raise another \u20ac1.8 billion per year by increasing or changing the value-added tax. Greek leaders have become increasingly defiant of their EU counterparts over recent weeks, refusing cuts to pensions or wages and demanding debt relief instead.
\nAt the debt negotiations which broke down in Brussels on 14 June, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared that, \u201cIf Europe desires the split and the continuation of subjugation, we will make the big decision to say \u2018no\u2019 and fight the battle for the dignity of the people and our national sovereignty.\u201d Two weeks earlier Tsipras had declared that the European Union was establishing a new authority with dictatorial powers to force nations\u2019 acceptance of neo-liberalism, and Greece was the guinea pig.
\nTsipras and other Greek MPs have now accused the EU of plotting regime change, or a coup by stealth, by forcing Greek leaders to drop their demands and compromise on the debt and its conditions\u2014something which would destroy the government\u2019s credibility and standing.
\nThe Telegraph of 14 June elaborated on what the Greeks have in mind instead of bowing to the Troika\u2019s demands: a 2008 Iceland-style default and nationalisation of the banks. According to the article\u2019s author, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the plan being circulated by 30 MPs on the left of the party includes capital controls, the establishment of a sovereign central bank, and a return to the drachma, or dual currency arrangement. A Syriza MP told Evans-Pritchard, \u201cThis goes way beyond the Left Platform. We are talking serious numbers. We are all horrified by the idea of surrender and we will not allow ourselves to be throttled to death by the European Monetary Union.\u201d Another Syriza MP is quoted saying, \u201cThe banks will go ape-s*** of course. We are aware that there will be a lot of lawsuits, but at the end of the day we are a sovereign power.\u201d
\nThis mindset is the real issue at stake, and it is driving the trans-Atlantic financial powers wild. As their speculation-infested system collapses, they can ill-afford nations to put their sovereignty and their people ahead of the banks which require unprecedented looting to prop up.
\nWhat they fear even more is a move by a western nation such as Greece to align with the BRICS bloc and collaborators, to independently fund its recovery\u2014as was foreshadowed in early May when Russia invited Greece to become a member of the BRICS New Development Bank. Greece may well demonstrate that a European nation can escape the neo-liberalism and austerity which is killing people in the EU, take the alternative pathway of building its way out of the crisis as demonstrated by the BRICS, and set off a stampede to the Eurozone exits.
\nThe CEC is calling for Australia to align with the BRICS also, click here to sign the petition.
\nhttp:\/\/cecaust.com.au\/main.asp?id=BRICS-petition.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greece has refused to budge from its principled approach to negotiations over its debts, sparking an enormous furore across the globe and setting the stage for the collapse of the entire trans-Atlantic financial system. The expiry of the \u20ac245 billion bailout\u2014extended by four months in February\u2014and the deadline for payments of \u20ac1.6 billion to the … <\/p>\n

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