Two months after the incredible “no” vote against austerity by Greeks across the country, I am sitting in a cafe with three activists near Exarchia square, Athens. A cafe which serves baklava and Greek donuts covered with local honey during the day, and raki and tsipouro by night. “In the days before the referendum, this street was heaving with people talking about politics” says Eliana, glancing down the pebbled street with intermittent vine-covered terraces demarcating restaurants from cafes.
It’s difficult to imagine that scene now. Having been voted in on an anti-austerity platform, Alexis Tsipras (head of the left-wing SYRIZA party) recently capitulated to the demands of creditors, and the streets of Athens are now eerily subdued.
Tsipras’ agreement with creditors, to continue destructive privatization policies aimed at Greek beaches, airports, and utilities companies, while also deepening cuts to public funds, has left many Greeks under the distinct impression that they are under occupation by German banks.
In the days before the referendum, and before the result, the closure of workplaces, stores and banks meant that many people came out into public spaces and cafes all over Athens, engaging in animated discussions with neighbors. “They were talking about how their lives had been affected by austerity, and under powerful pre-SYRIZA governments – governments which thought it was okay for police to torture anti-fascist protesters”, says Eliana.
Greece’s economic descent has been deeper than the US’ during the Great Depression. There have been more than 10,000 suicides, and a 25 percent loss of GDP in the Greek economy. There is little prospect of an economic recovery. It is this last fact that resulted in one of Greece’s key creditors, the International Monetary Fund, calling for debt restructuring.
Until recently, Eliana taught in Athens, earning €350 a month. She is now looking for work, while volunteering with an anti-domestic violence charity. Yiorgos, a professional cinematographer, editing for a private Greek TV channel, earns €400 per month. Another activist, a trained civil engineer, explains that – after a period of unemployment – he is now a chauffeur.
Since 2007, wages have been on a steady decline. Similar stories abound in Thessaloniki, in the north. At the Direct Democracy festival in Thessaloniki, Nikos, a carpenter, tells me that wages have been cut from over €1,000 per month in 2007 to just half that today. They are the fortunate ones. Last year, youth unemployment rose to nearly 60 percent, and nearly 30 percent of the entire population is unemployed. Many elderly Greeks have had their pensions suddenly cut. At the same time, consecutive Greek governments have paid usurious rates of interest on top of debt re-payments, directly profiting German and French banks.
Many of the disenfranchised had hoped that SYRIZA, voted into government in January 2015, would bring positive changes. How do you understand SYRIZA’s capitulation? I asked, Vasos, a collective member responsible for bringing together the Direct Democracy festival in Thessaloniki, Greee’s second largest city. He pauses to reflect, and then says: “I don’t think we can judge SYRIZA where they had no power; in Brussels, against the European Commission, and the European Central Bank – led by Germany. There, they showed how a sovereign state can be bought to its knees by creditors. We had indications of this in the past, but now we know for sure.”
This is a popular view among activists at the Direct Democracy festival in Thessaloniki, but many of the activists that express this view make an important caveat. Vasos puts the caveat like this: “We can judge SYRIZA in the areas where they did have power, in relation to the social fabric of society, where they did little –if anything – on same-sex marriage, the conditions of immigration detention condition, and women’s’ rights, where they promised so much. These are areas in which SYRIZA had power, but chose not to act.”
The Direct Democracy festival is heaving with young anarchists, socialists, and music-lovers. I weave my way between the main stage (where local Greek artists play music heavily influenced by US folk sounds), and political discussions. The initial political discussions constitute autopsies for the death of the anti-austerity SYRIZA party.
Vasos says, “We have to be honest, even many anarchists who had no faith in party politics were waiting for SYRIZA to act. We thought they would act, and then we would respond. We went quiet.” This is an important lesson for the future, he says, “while time in party politics sped up over the past six months, feeling more like two years, movement action slowed down.” SYRIZA’s pre-election pledges were comprehensive and aspirational in their aim to improve social and economic conditions. When I visited Greece in March 2015, many activists were told to “be patient” by SYRIZA officials who said that they would pursue domestic reforms once they had agreed a bailout in Brussels.
The agreement eventually reached resulted in an implosion within SYRIZA, and last month, Tsipras was forced to call a snap election. The anti-austerity members left SYRIZA and formed a new party, “Popular Unity”, which is unlikely to receive sufficient votes to be elected into parliament. Recent polls indicate that SYRIZA has a narrow lead to win the Sept. 20, 2015, snap election. However, the new and revised SYRIZA has been constituted so that it can govern over and pursue an austerity agenda, completely antithetical to its roots.
In the days before announcing a snap election SYRIZA did refuse to grant a permit for Canadian company Eldorado Gold to mine gold within the peninsula of Halkidiki, an hour and half from Thessaloniki. While visiting the mining villages, I spoke to workers of the mine who want it to remain open. They are, perhaps predictably, cynical about SYRIZA’s actions. “SYRIZA is using this as a token gesture to gain support from anti-miners in the coming election.” They fear that the closure of the mine will force them into destitution, and emigration.
Unpredictably perhaps, anti-mine activists also perceive SYRIZA’s refusal to grant Eldorado Gold a permit as insufficient. Anti-mine activists, Eli and Janis, show me around the mining site, and we’re shadowed by local police and the company’s security. All the infrastructure is in place, mountains have been carved open in what is the most biodiverse region of Europe. SYRIZA’s “no” to the mine, was symbolic, says Eli, “nothing except local mobilization will stop this now, everything is in place.”
Janis, an unemployed biological engineer, points to the considerable environmental devastation the mine has already caused, and will continue to bring. Small amounts of gold will be retrieved from tonnes of earth, using cyanide which may pollute the water, to produce raw gold to be sent to China in coal burning ships for processing, all for unncessary ornaments to then be moulded. Previous Greek governments have given away this stunning, simultaneosly mountainous and coastal region to various companies, allowed them to pollute, and have refused to collect taxes and penalty fees from them.
In Exarchia square, Eliana reflects on the referendum. The resounding victory against austerity (61:39) was a surprise to many who had participated in social movements over the past decade. However, Eliana says, “people voted against austerity, not against the Euro. There was a popular belief that policies in Brussels could be changed. There was no discussion about what would happen if they couldn’t.” She continues; “We should have talked about a Plan B. There was no Plan B.”
Media, and banks instilled fear of social and economic devastation in the event that Greek people voted “no” to continued austerity. In these circumstances, Nikos (speaking at the Directo Democracy festival in Thessaloniki) tells me that the referendum result “revealed resistance in the hearts of Greek people. But, we need Greek people to come out into the streets now, and never delegate responsibility for social change in another party again. We cannot wait, the time is now.”
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