How could we cope if capitalism failed? Ask 26 Greek Factory Workers.

Successful co-operatives are a viable form of economic organization and the Viome story is another proof of this.

Staff at Viome had to confront an existential quandary. The owners of their parent company had gone bust and abandoned the site, in the second city of Thessaloniki. Their plant, which manufactured chemicals for the construction industry, would be shut. There would be immediate layoffs, and dozens of families would be plunged into poverty. And seeing as Greece is in the midst of the greatest economic depression ever seen in the EU, the workers’ chances of getting another job were close to nil.

So they decided to occupy their own plant and make a living out of it. Read the full article.

How Greece Became A Guinea Pig For A Cashless And Controlled Society

As Greece moves closer to becoming a cashless society, it is clear that the country’s attitude towards cash is reckless and dangerous. The supposed convenience of switching to a cash-free system comes with a great deal of risk, including needless overreach by the state.

Greece is being used as a guinea pig not just for a grand neoliberal experiment in both austerity, but de-cashing as well. The examples are many, and they have found fertile ground in a country whose populace remains shell-shocked by eight years of economic depression. A new law that came into effect on January 1 incentivizes going cashless by setting a minimum threshold of spending at least 10 percent of one’s income via credit, debit, or prepaid card in order to attain a somewhat higher tax-free threshold.

Beginning July 27, dozens of categories of businesses in Greece will be required to install aptly-acronymized “POS” (point-of-sale) card readers and to accept payments by card. Businesses are also required to post a notice, typically by the entrance or point of sale, stating whether card payments are accepted or not. Another new piece of legislation, in effect as of June 1, requires salaries to be paid via direct electronic transfers to bank accounts. Furthermore, cash transactions of over 500 euros have been outlawed.

full article

Two Years After Resounding “No” Vote, Greece Still Says “Yes” To Austerity

Privatization, high taxes and the slashing of cherished public-sector salaries and pensions are the price Greece has paid for accepting the loans that have kept the country in the Eurozone. Its citizens are the ones now paying the price for the costly missteps made by its leaders.

A homeless person changes clothes outside a bank in central Athens. Nearly one-in-four Greeks are unemployed and receive no benefits. Poverty rates have surged here since the start of the crisis in late 2009, with nearly 36 percent of the country living in financial distress.

It has become an increasingly common sight on Greek streets, even in formerly prosperous neighborhoods. Elderly—and sometimes not so elderly—individuals rummaging through rubbish bins in search of scraps of food to eat. Beggars are now practically a universal sighting in Athens and other large cities.

More and more young Greeks are migrating abroad by the day, contributing to a “brain drain” that has totaled approximately 500,000 individuals since the onset of the crisis. In my neighborhood in central Athens, several parked cars are filled to the brim with a life’s worth of possessions, packed in boxes by individuals who have likely lost their homes and livelihoods and who now call their automobiles home. Everywhere, abandoned cars and motorcycles rust away on curbsides and sidewalks.

full article

¿ Puede Grecia recuperar su independencia de la zona euro y de Europa ?

Dimitris Kazakis*

ελληνικά

Los rumores sobre la transición hacia una moneda nacional en Grecia están en máximos. Hablamos de rumores porque, de ninguna manera, se trata de un diálogo político serio. Ninguno de los actuales partidos parlamentarios desean tal diálogo. Algunos hablan del dracma pero entienden moneda doble, que es en realidad una propuesta del alemán Schöble. Dicha propuesta, es decir la introducción de una moneda doble implica que Grecia seguirá bajo ocupación y bajo un régimen de excepción dentro de la UE. Todo mientras se condona una parte de la deuda, es la posición el partido del Amanecer Dorado (extrema derecha) que tiene la esperanza que los alemanes permitan la sustitución del gobierno de SYRIZA por un nuevo gobierno de Amanecer Dorado.

The report of the Independent Evaluation Office of IMF on Greece – interview with L. Chrysanthopoulos and C. Copetas

See here The IMF evaluation

 

Weltkarte der Staatsinsolvenzen: Diese Länder waren schon mal pleite

Παγκόσμιος χάρτης των χρεωκοπιών των χωρών 

Von Florian Diekmann

Seit dem Jahr 1800 gab es weltweit 227 Staatsinsolvenzen. Der Pleiten-Überblick zeigt: Der Fall Griechenland ist historisch einzigartig. Kaum ein entwickeltes Land hat sich je ohne Not derart in die Schuldenfalle manövriert.

Από το 1800 και μετά έχουν γίνει 227 χρεωκοπίες χωρών. Ο χάρτης δείχνει ότι η περίπτωση της Ελλάδας είναι μοναδική. Καμία ενεπτυγμένη χώρα δεν έχει χειριστεί με τέτοιο τρόπο την χρεωκοπία της χωρίς να υπάρχει ανάγκη να το κάνει.

Quelle

Διαδραστικός χάρτης χρεωκοπιών όλων των κρατών απο το 1800 και μετά

Κάνετε κλικ στην κάθε χώρα

(όσο πιο έντονο το κόκκινο χρώμα, τόσο περισσότερες οι χρεωκοπίες / με πράσινο χώρες που δεν έχουν χρεωκοπήσει / με γκρίζο δεν υπάρχουν δεδομένα / με τανκς οι χρεωκοπίες μετά από πόλεμο, με διάγραμμα οι χρεωκοπίες σε καιρό ειρήνης)

Former Bank of England Governor Confirms European Financial Crisis is Deliberate

 

In a little-reported statement given on March 1st at the influential London School of Economics in the UK, Lord Mervyn King, the former Governor of the Bank of England, confirmed that the financial crisis afflicting Europe since 2009 is essentially the result of a “deliberate” act of policy. Highly critical of the destructive economic strategies of the Brussels EU, he predicted that, in order to free its weakest member countries from the strangulating combination of austerity measures and high unemployment they are suffering from, the euro currency zone will have to be dismantled.