- Syriza’s victory is the biggest challenge to the era of “There Is No Alternative” yet. Syriza are presented as “far left”, while those they replace are presumably “moderates”. It is a fascinating insight into what the western media regard as moderation: plunging over half of young people into unemployment, almost doubling child poverty, stripping away basic social protections. The politics of despair peddled by elites mean you are supposed to regard such injustices as inevitable, irresistible, impossible to overcome. But the re-emergence of the left as a political force – at least offering the possibility of a different sort of society – represents a substantial punch in the face to an economic order that has prevailed for a generation.
Just posted a related article by Ian Welsh that is worth reading, IMHO. Greece needs to recognize that it will effectively be a financial pariah, unable to access Western money markets. It will have almost no hard currency, and no ability to buy goods which require hard currency. This is a huge problem for Greece because it has neither oil nor the ability to feed itself. Syriza MUST have a plan to deal with both these problems. Neither is insurmountable.I worry that Syriza is serious about negotiating on the debt. There is essentially no chance the Troika (well, really, Germany) will give them acceptable terms on a writedown. Negotiations should be intended only to go on long enough to demonstrate that a good deal is not possible. While they are ongoing, the Greeks should be preparing for Grexit and repatriating all the resources they can. Since Greek debt is under foreign law, debt vultures will go to the courts to seize all foreign Greek assets once Greece does default or restructure its debt.
Good to see. Does it take financial collapse before it can gain traction?
No. Financial collapse already happened from 07-09. What's happening in Greece is a result of decades of graft by people with power, made all the worse by a deep depression brought about by crippling reparations to Germany. It's a unique situation, and I'd be very surprised to see it spread to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, etc. Greece has been a kleptocracy for a long time, and by all accounts rich people don't pay taxes there. Unfortunately, EU took to blaming the common man for this. Greece probably had no business being in the Eurozone to begin with, and now everyone is paying for it. So the answer to your question is that financial collapse might be a necessary condition, but it's far from sufficient.