"History is knocking at our door," declared Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Syriza in Greece, during a speech to thousands of supporters in Athens last night. Tsipras was joined on the podium by Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Spain’s anti-austerity Podemos movement. The question about whether the anti-establishment rebels had continental ambitions ended to the strains of Leonard Cohen’s 'First We Take Manhattan, Then We Take Berlin'. Tsipras, putting his arm around his foreign compatriot Iglesias, as both joined thew roaring crowd in chanting the chorus line: "And then we take Berlin".
"The wind of democratic change is blowing in Europe." said Spain's Iglesias. That 'wind' has progressives far beyond Europe holding their breath. Greece, the birthplace of democracy, is voting for all of us. The Irish Times said Tsipras "received one of his biggest cheers of the night when he said that he will press for the repayment of a forced war loan from Greece to Germany during the second World War.
Germany - whose debt was suspended after World War I and then dropped altogether (courtesy of the Lausanne Conference) in order for the country to stand back on its own two feet - demands that any new Greek govt obey, pay, and impliment more austerity measures. In reality Germany is being as much a mouthpiece for all global money interests not just Germany's.
With the lead in at least six polls (of between 4% and 10%), Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has come out swinging for the anti-EU vote this morning saying, "... he'll end Greece's catastrophy...that he'll refuse to honour commitments made by the previous government...that he will negotiate with his European peers but not with Merkel"
Greece has 'nothing to lose but its chains' to paraphrase Marx, the Bankers and Billionaires Club, including its large German contingent, like the chains right where they are. If Greece becomes insolvent and leaves the euro, the Federal Republic would expect a loss of up to 76 billion euros,” said economics professor Timo Wollmershäuser. That's just Germany, the Greek government debt is up to €330 billion. And a lot of debt nowadays is ensured in the derivative markets. So if Greece actually leaves the euro that would mean that a lot of credit default swaps would come due. And that could actually bring down the euro, and could also bring down the whole financial system, worldwide.
Sounds great to me, if Greece and other Mediterranean countries will hopefully follow the Icelandic example. They can dump the the euro, devalue their own currency and start their way back to real prosperity with tourism and exports. Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal have it all, so do we here in Canada, and we both, we are all, locked in a mortal battle with what Ellen Brown describes as the Vampire Squid. With Syriza set to make history in Greece and the dominoes lined up, The Bankers and Billionaires Club is watching closely, me too.
