Xtra News Community 2
March 29, 2024, 11:11:36 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome to Xtra News Community 2 — please also join our XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP.
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links BITEBACK! XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP Staff List Login Register  

Meanwhile In Greece

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Meanwhile In Greece  (Read 164 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Im2Sexy4MyPants
Absolutely Fabulously Incredibly Shit-Hot Member
*
Posts: 8271



WWW
« on: July 04, 2011, 01:16:16 pm »

Train drivers rise up  Grin

Will militant unions derail big fat Greek sell-offs on the rocky route to recovery?

Having voted its austerity programme through parliament in the face of mass protests, Greece will struggle to deliver on its pledges to cut costs and sell state assets worth billions.

Will militant unions derail big fat Greek sell-offs on the rocky route to recovery?
Having voted its austerity programme through parliament in the face of mass protests, Greece will struggle to deliver on its pledges to cut costs and sell state assets worth billions.

Winding its way along the Greek coastline, the picturesque train trip is nonetheless a tough one: plagued by delays, it takes six hours to cover just 110 miles, twice as long as by car. Apart from the odd tourist with a lot of time to spare, the only contented faces on board are generally those of the unionised train drivers, who take home up to 70,000 euros a year after innumerable bonus schemes are factored in – ten times what the average Greek earns.
It is, however, on such moribund pieces of state infrastructure as these that Greece’s hopes of salvation – and, ultimately, those of the Eurozone itself – are now riding. For as part of the new austerity programme finally passed by parliament last week, the loss-making Hellenic Railways Network, along with dozens of other enterprises ranging from casinos to gold mines and power stations to ports, is to be offered for privatisation. In will come up to 50 billion of the 320 billion Greece currently owes the rest of the world, and out will go the power base of the country’s overpaid, underworked public sector, whose militant unions are seen as one of the main political obstacles to reform.
However, rather like Hellenic Railways timetables, there are predictions on paper and reality on the ground. True, given that the network typically loses nearly 1 billion a year – a staggering five per cent of Greek GDP in all – unloading the entire network into private hands is an obvious money saver. Any would-be investor, though, will face war from Athnasios Leventis, president of PanHellenic Federation of Railwaymen.
“They are trying to do what Mrs Thatcher did to your railways in Britain, and we will fight this by striking and if necessary in the courts,” Mr Leventis told the Sunday Telegraph from his offices in Athens last week.
“Everything the state has spent on the railway network will be passed on to private investors, and the quality of the services will drop, with fewer trains and stations. Privatisation takes account only of numbers, not people,” he said. “Job security promotes social progress and stability, and it is something we should be promoting across the EU. It should be a union of the people, not the bankers.”If that sounds militant, it is mild talk compared to the rhetoric at the nearby HQ of the union of Greek power workers, whose 20,000 members are known as the toughest of all the Greek unions. Responsible for 90 per cent of Greece’s electricity, they regularly impose power-blackouts through strikes, to the point where some consumer groups have filed lawsuits accusing them of endangering public safety.
Wandering into their offices is like stepping into the National Union of Miners HQ in its heyday. Wall posters show Soviet-style workers iconography, including a power stack belching out a fist-shaped cloud of steam, while its spokesman, Kostas Koutsodimas, says the only difference between themselves and Arthur Scargill’s outfit is that they have every chance of winning.
“Scargill was a great man but unlike us, he couldn’t get public opinion behind him,” he grinned, lighting a cigarette. “You think powerful unions are a thing of the past? No.”
Mr Koutsodimas claims to have seen off one privatisation challenge already in 2008, when their employer, the Public Power Corporation, tried a part-sale to a German firm, RWE. Brandishing posters that tactfully compared the takeover to Greece’s Nazi occupation, workers stormed boardroom meetings several times, to the point where RWE eventually backed off, says Mr Koutsodimas.
While the firm is now sniffing around again, he reckons a German bid will be even less popular this time around, thanks to Greek anger at Bonn’s much-publicised complaints about having to fund the Athens bail-out. There could be strikes, sit-ins and, if privatisation went ahead regardless, even industrial sabotage, he warns. “Everything is on the table.”
Yet just how much public backing Mr Koutsodimas will really get in such a dust-up is open to question. Because for all the protests in Athens’ Syntagma Square, where dreadlocked radicals have staged violent demonstrations against the austerity measures, patience with the unions among the rest of the public is wearing increasingly thin.
Just like in Britain, resentment has grown at what is seen as an overprivileged public sector class – although in Greece, the differences are far starker. Bloated through decades of political patronage by successive governments, the million-strong public sector has been a case not just of “jobs for the boys”, but jobs for nearly everyone, with posts regularly dished out to party loyalists and their families and friends, and far superior perks. The special public sector worker health care scheme, for example, guarantees BUPA-style treatment compared to that available to other Greeks, for whom a bribe is normally necessary to get any way up a treatment list.
“The public sector is definitely overcrowded,” said Kyriacos Yiacoumi, 50, a private English tutor, who has barely worked in the last four years because most Greeks can no longer afford extra language tuition for their children.
“If your son is a public servant here he is a hero, with a permanent job and all kinds of fringe benefits, and often just because he knows the right people. They are not to blame though, really – it’s the politicians above them.”
Mr Yiacoumi and his wife Magda, 47, from the port of Piraeus, just outside Athens, typify how Greece’s middle class has suffered in the country’s economic woes. Fast running out of savings to pay the mortgage on their flat, they fear they may soon end up joining those in the temporary container homes down the road, built for people who lost their houses in an earthquake. Their own austerity programme has been biting for a while: dining out is a thing of the past, Magda has forsaken make-up, and clothes are increasingly bought second hand or from the local flea market.
Their two adult sons, who live with them, share a room so that part of the flat can be rented out lodgers, although in the current economic climate, there are no takers.
Even if a lodger does come knocking, though, Mr Yiacoumi will still be expected to contribute part of his rent to the new austerity package, which will reduce the income tax threshold to just 8,000 euros a year.
“We will now be asked to pay tax on that rental income which would be otherwise just enough to keep us alive,” he said. “I suppose the government is right to introduce the austerity package, although my view is that Greece is like a patient in intensive care, and this is just applying band aids.”
That the likes of Mr Yiacoumi are at least not planning to take to the streets is one piece of good news for George Papandreou, Greece’s beleaguered socialist prime minister, who now faces a major showdown with the unions to push the austerity measures through. But easy though it is to point the finger at the public sector, there is some truth to the chants in Syntagma Square that the rich, too, are to blame for emptying the national coffers. For far too long, Greece’s business elite – from doctors and lawyers through to wealthy shipping magnates – has got away with flagrant tax evasion, and many feel that the belt-tightening which the government now wants will only hit the lower classes.
“In principle, I don’t object to the austerity program, as we have to pay for what we took,” said protester Yianni Charalampopoulos, 29, who faces paying up to 400 euros extra in tax on his 1,700 euro a month IT worker’s salary. “The problem is that while ordinary people can’t evade taxes as they are taken from their income at source, it is still very easy for the wealthy.”
Mindful of such criticisms, the Greek government has set up new teams of tax “Untouchables” to probe private bank accounts – and corrupt colleagues.
Levies are also being introduced on yachts, swimming pools and other items of conspicuous consumption. But progress has been patchy so far, which is not surprising given Greece’s general record on law enforcement, says Mr Charalampopoulos.
“Last year we brought in a law banning smoking in public cafés, but nobody is enforcing that,” he said. “Inspectors come to check if ashtrays are being used, but the owners just provide plastic cups of water for people to put their ash in instead. It typical Greece – lots of laws, no enforcement.”
So, given the twin challenges of taking more from Greece’s business barons and giving less to its union barons, can the austerity package succeed?
Yannis Stournaras, a former chief economist and government adviser, is convinced it stands a chance – not least because he believes that radical privatisation is the only way to end what he sees as Europe’s last Soviet-style economy. The militants can sound off all they want, he says, but like the power union’s fist-of-steam emblem, it is all just hot air in the end.
“Forget about the strikes, they will not happen, as the decisions to privatise all these companies have been taken already,” he said. “The unions have already lost that battle, and they no longer have the backing of the people either as people are sick of them striking all the time.”
Admittedly, such optimism is perhaps only to be expected from a man considered to be one of the architects of the original move to bring Greece into the euro in the first place. But while he is also confident that the privatisation plan will reach its 50bn euros target, even Mr Stournaras has his doubts about the government’s ability to spread the tax pain evenly.
“That is a big issue. Here is a country with very rich people who don’t pay enough taxes, and I am not very confident about the government being able to tackle tax evasion. I give them only about a 50 per cent chance on that, and if they don’t succeed, then the austerity program will fail.”
Either way, though, the next few years look bleak for ordinary Greeks like Mr Yiacoumi, who face the Sisyphean task of paying ever more taxes to rebuild a system that could, in the end, still come crashing down again.
What makes matters even worse, though, he says, is that the project will be overseen largely by the same politicians who messed it up in the first place.
“Voting will change nothing, so maybe the IMF and EU should loan us leaders rather than money,” he said gloomily. “Any good politicians going for free?”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/8612737/Will-militant-unions-derail-big-fat-Greek-sell-offs-on-the-rocky-route-to-recovery.html
Report Spam   Logged

Are you sick of the bullshit from the sewer stream media spewed out from the usual Ken and Barby dickless talking point look a likes.

If you want to know what's going on in the real world...
And the many things that will personally effect you.
Go to
http://www.infowars.com/

AND WAKE THE F_ _K UP

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Im2Sexy4MyPants
Absolutely Fabulously Incredibly Shit-Hot Member
*
Posts: 8271



WWW
« Reply #1 on: July 04, 2011, 03:22:15 pm »

The Greek authorities try to terrorise, but they are terrified

Those who gather in Syntagma are being treated brutally by the enforcers of a government that fears the free-thinking on display

Share


A laser beam is pointed at a policeman during a rally in Syntagma Square, Athens, on June 30, 2011. Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters
Greek people are currently in an open and real war with a monster that in ancient mythology was known as the Lernaean Hydra. Today, the monster is called neoliberalism. Unfortunately, for us, not only has it many heads, but many long hands as well ... and unfortunately for us is not a myth but a reality.

My personal experience of this week's riots in the streets of Athens was this: after we were sprayed with hundreds of chemicals in Syntagma Square, we were pushed away towards the surrounding streets. Everywhere we went, we immediately found ourselves surrounded by heavily armoured members of the police's Delta force, who tried to scare us by pointing fingers, throwing stones and shouting abuse. A friend got injured by a stone thrown at his head. Just a few more millimetres, and the stone might well have killed him.

As we were trying to escape, I suddenly noticed that the police had caught a young guy and were starting to beat him up. I turned around and shouted at them to stop. When they saw me, four cops rounded in on me, threw me to the floor and started kicking me and beating me with batons. A friend eventually came to my rescue, but not without being beaten up in the process. While they were beating us, I screamed: "What are you doing?" They responded: "Shut up, slut." I did not feel fear then, and I do not feel fear now. I feel anger that innocent people became victims of overt and unnecessary violence.

If my experience this week shows me one thing, it is that the authorities are afraid of what has happened in Syntagma Square and in other Greek neighbourhoods over the last 35 days. They do not like the fact that people gather and talk about democracy and the economy, issues that are currently under their control. They don't want us to share opinions, instead of just accepting the media propaganda. They do not like the fact that in spite of their aggressive efforts, the demonstrators are showing no signs of intimidation.

The Greek people will not give up until the government, IMF and ECB leave their country. Less than 12 hours after we were beaten by the police, we reoccupied Syntagma Square. By 6am the young people who hold the fort there had cleaned the square and put everything back in place. They resumed their work, and by the evening the biggest rally of the week was in full swing.

Over the past 40 days the meetings at Syntagma Square have developed specific requests about the Greek economy, the state system and more generally about the future of our country. Our economics division has recently distributed a three-page brochure that informs people about what the new austerity plan means in terms of privatisation, additional taxes etc. Also, it has prepared a glossary, explaining economic concepts such as "default", so that people can be fully and properly informed in order to not be misled by the media and the government propaganda.

Much of the discussion centres on the euro, and – more so than before – people view the euro as something that has exploited rather than benefited them. The common currency is a divisive issue in a heated debate, but the consensus here is that the status of the eurozone and the euro is rapidly waning, with frequent demands to quit the euro and tell Angela Merkel to get lost.

This is a form of resistance against the terror exercised by the government. It is also noteworthy that each group often invites academics to come to the general meeting in order to inform people about the economic crisis and then answer questions from the audience.

So far no general mobilisations of unions have been announced. However, it is likely that there will be drastic reactions when the Application Act comes into effect on 1 August. Also, it is still unclear how the employees of the public companies will respond to privatisation. Right now the employees of the Public Power Corporation, the Postal Savings Bank and other public companies are in turmoil.

As for the impact of the new austerity plan on everyday life: people are most concerned about the cuts in wages; the increase in indirect and direct taxes; the property taxes that even owners of smaller properties will have to pay (many people in Greece have a small private residence in town and a house in the village); and the abolition of collective labour agreements, removing the negotiating power of workers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/02/greek-authorities-synyagma-square

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/02/greek-authorities-synyagma-square
Report Spam   Logged

Are you sick of the bullshit from the sewer stream media spewed out from the usual Ken and Barby dickless talking point look a likes.

If you want to know what's going on in the real world...
And the many things that will personally effect you.
Go to
http://www.infowars.com/

AND WAKE THE F_ _K UP
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32233


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2015, 11:25:27 pm »


from the Los Angeles Times....

Greeks reject the rule of Europe's gods of austerity

By DAVID HORSEY | 2:30PM PDT - Tuesday, July 07, 2015



IN THE mythology of ancient Greece, a host of vain, impetuous, vindictive gods ruled over human affairs and were quick to punish any mortal who dared to defy their whims. Modern Greeks seem to believe not much has changed, except the gods who hold sway in their lives are not Zeus, Ares and Aphrodite, but the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund.

For five years, that so-called “troika” of powers has imposed on Greece a strict economic austerity program that has produced a 25% drop in the country’s GDP and unemployment among young Greeks that exceeds 60%. In a recent essay, Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said, “I can think of no depression, ever, that has been so deliberate and had such catastrophic consequences.… It is startling that the troika has refused to accept responsibility for any of this or to admit how bad its forecasts and models have been.”

Instead of questioning the wisdom of their harsh regimen, the three creditor institutions — with the strong support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and large private banks — have been pushing the Greeks to do even more to tighten their belts and repay their debts.

Like all humans, the Greeks are not without flaw. The overly generous welfare policies of past Greek governments combined with the tax-avoiding habits of their wealthy class got them into an economic predicament that required rescue from European bankers and international institutions. However, having now significantly reduced pensions, cut government employment by 25% and turned their primary deficit into surplus at a huge cost to their people, the Greeks may justifiably ask, “Haven’t we done enough?”

On Sunday, more than 60% of them answered that question by voting “no” on a referendum that would have approved a new round of austerity measures proposed by the gods of the financial world. They said no, even though Greek banks have nearly run out of money and there is a real possibility that Greece could be tossed out of the Eurozone, Europe’s 19-member common currency system, and possibly out of the European Union.

Several factors drove the rejection: anger at German domination, a dubious belief that a better deal can be made, an impulse to strike back at the bankers and technocrats they blame for the impoverishment of their nation and a sense that the uncertainty of life without the euro might be better than the certainty that perpetual austerity will do nothing to make life better for Greeks.

The European politicians and bureaucrats who expect the Greeks to bow to their demands are preaching prudence and responsibility, even as they cling to a rigid economic fanaticism that offers Greece nothing but more decades of misery. Economists in every corner of the world have questioned the European leaders’ obsession with austerity and one of them, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, has equated the policy toward Greece with “extracting blood from a stone.”

Earlier this year in a CNN interview, President Obama said, “You cannot keep on squeezing countries that are in the midst of a depression.… At some point, there has to be a growth strategy in order for them to pay off their debts to eliminate some of their deficits.”

The European fans of austerity seem as foolhardy as Republican governors like Scott Walker and Sam Brownback, who subscribe to the fairy tale that tax cuts and reductions in government services will inevitably boost their state’s economy. In Wisconsin and Kansas, respectively, where the economies have tanked, Walker and Brownback have been conclusively proved wrong.

In the American system, such foolishness can be mitigated because the 50 states are part of a fully integrated national economy and because the democratic system can, eventually, deal with those who fail by tossing them out of office.

Europe, though, is different. Each member country in the Eurozone has far more latitude to sink or swim on its own, but none has control over the currency that is the heart of economic activity. The gods in Brussels and Frankfurt handle that, and they do not stand for election.

Politically, the masters of Europe’s economic system are immortals. It is no surprise they disdain the little people below who, in their weariness and misery, might have the temerity to say “no!”


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-greeks-reject-europe-gods-20150707-story.html
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
reality
Guest
« Reply #3 on: July 09, 2015, 03:14:06 pm »

Yes, I agree, the Greeks are a pack of bludgers who want to keep on bludging Shocked
Report Spam   Logged
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32233


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #4 on: July 09, 2015, 10:02:41 pm »


Then there are the German bludgers (or should that be THIEVES & THUGS) who forced Greece to lend them squillions after invading them during the biggest war of the 20th century, and who still haven't repaid the money they forceably borrowed from the Greeks.

Here's an idea.....how about Germany repays that money they forceably borrowed from Greece way back then and Greece can then use that money to repay their debts.

Fair enough?
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 
reality
Guest
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2015, 02:16:54 am »

The easiest way to understand Greece is to look at it a a very big rail worker union...full of bludgers...who want to keep on bludging..a good example of why not to have a socialist govt Wink

...long may National remain th single most popular political party in NZ....by far Shocked
Report Spam   Logged
Im2Sexy4MyPants
Absolutely Fabulously Incredibly Shit-Hot Member
*
Posts: 8271



WWW
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2015, 01:13:18 pm »

greeks being lazy is just mainstream media propaganda
i have known plenty of greeks i never met any lazy ones,
when people have no argument they need to revert to name calling

i think they should default dump the eu and join the bric nations

the eu leadership are an unelected bunch of self serving commies

mind you if they do we join the bric nations we will most likely see their leader murdered and then a military coup followed by america installing a new pro american puppet
Report Spam   Logged

Are you sick of the bullshit from the sewer stream media spewed out from the usual Ken and Barby dickless talking point look a likes.

If you want to know what's going on in the real world...
And the many things that will personally effect you.
Go to
http://www.infowars.com/

AND WAKE THE F_ _K UP
reality
Guest
« Reply #7 on: August 22, 2015, 03:58:18 pm »

..left makes promises it cant keep...gets elected by greedy socialists...shit hits fan...wow,didn't see that coming ahhhahahaha Wink

Greece heads towards fifth election in six years

3:30 PM Saturday Aug 22, 2015

Outgoing Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Greece's main opposition party launched efforts to form a new government Friday following Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' resignation, but made no progress in what appears a doomed task - which will pave the way for another potentially destabilizing election.

Tsipras resigned late Thursday and called an early election next month to deal with a rebellion in his radical left Syriza party over the terms of Greece's new bailout deal.

Although no date has been set, outgoing government spokeswoman Olga Gerovassili said Friday she expects Greeks will go to the polls on September 20.

The opposition has few chances of uniting and forming a government, meaning that after more than five years of a worsening financial crisis, Greece is headed for its fifth national election in six years. Tsipras is widely tipped to win the vote, though if he fails to secure an outright majority he could have to seek a new coalition.


His decision to call a vote so early - just hours after Greece started tapping loans from its 86 billion euro ($95 billion) rescue program - amounts to a bet that he can regain power with a new government that would not be hobbled by internal dissent.

The rebels announced Friday they were splitting to form their own anti-austerity movement.

They want to scrap the bailout altogether, arguing that the budget savings and reforms Tsipras agreed to for the bailout Iare exactly what they had vowed to fight when they came to power with Syriza in January.

About one in four Syriza lawmakers refused to back the bailout's ratification in parliament last week, which was only approved with backing from opposition parties. Faced with such dissent, it became only a matter of time before Tsipras called an election or confidence vote to confirm his mandate to implement the bailout reforms.

It will be the third time this year that Greeks vote, after January elections and a July 5 referendum on reforms that creditors were proposing during bailout negotiations.

Some analysts are concerned that the election could delay reforms needed to get rescue loans, which are only disbursed after quarterly reviews.

"A September election would occur before the first program review in October and may well hamper and delay the technical work and political decisions necessary for its completion," said the Fitch ratings agency.

"The likely pause in legislating for reforms during the election campaign coming so soon after the agreement was concluded may rekindle or reinforce some creditors' concerns about Greece's ability to meet the program's requirements," Fitch said.

So far, Greece's European creditors seemed sanguine about the election, which had been widely expected.

"The step by Prime Minister Tsipras isn't surprising" considering he has lost his majority in parliament, said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He noted that the bailout deal was signed with Greece, and not just the current government, meaning it should be implemented by whoever emerges victorious from the election.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutchman who heads eurozone finance ministers meetings, said he hoped the elections would not slow down Greece's reforms. "There is a very broad majority in the Greek parliament at the moment that supports the (bailout) package and the expectation is that that could even get stronger," he told reporters.

In Brussels, European Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said the EU executive body was confident the bailout program would be implemented.

The political uncertainty nevertheless took its toll on Greece's stock market, with the main stock index closing down 2.5 percent, a day after losing 3.5 percent on election speculation.

On Friday, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos met conservative New Democracy party head Evangelos Meimarakis and asked him to try to form a government.

Meimarakis later met with the head of the small centrist Potami party, Stavros Theodorakis, who said the best way forward for Greece was to hold elections as soon as possible.

"The way things are now...we believe it is impossible for this parliament to produce a government," Theodorakis said after the meeting.

Meimarakis has three days to seek coalition partners, after which the mandate would be given to the third-largest party in Parliament for a further three days.

The third-largest party is now the new movement formed by the 25 lawmakers who split from Syriza Friday. The group, named Popular Unity, will be led by former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis.

If, as expected, neither attempt bears fruit, parliament will be dissolved and a caretaker government appointed to lead the country to early elections within a month.

herald
Report Spam   Logged

Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Open XNC2 Smileys
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum


Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy
Page created in 0.066 seconds with 14 queries.