Following the Agreement Between the Greek Government and Its Creditors: Questions and
"Following the Agreement Between the Greek Government and Its Creditors: Questions and Answers" -- by Dominique Ferré (from Informations Ouvrières, February 25, 2015)
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Following the Agreement Between the Greek Government and Its Creditors:
Questions and Answers
By Dominique Ferré
[reprinted from Issue No. 340 – February 25, 2015 – of Informations Ouvriéres [Labor News], the weekly newspaper of the Independent Workers Party (POI) of France]
What did the Greek government agree to with the European institutions?
The Greek government agreed on February 20 to come up with a "program of reforms" that it will implement in exchange for a four-month extension on funding and "financial support."
Late in the night of February 23, the Greek government sent its program of reforms to Brussels. This program must now be reviewed and approved by the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- that is, the three institutions that make up the Troika. It must then be approved by the finance ministers of the Eurozone.
What "reforms" has the Greek government committed to implement?
As this article goes to press, the detailed program has not yet been made public. The only thing disclosed thus far is an “overview” distributed by the Greek government. It’s a document that the daily French newspaper Le Monde characterized as an attempt to "reconcile two contradictory positions: austerity and anti-austerity."
"Athens promises to wage a fight against tax evasion, corruption, smuggling of gasoline and cigarettes, and the reorganization of the public service to decrease the bureaucracy," in the words of Agence France-Presse (AFP), “while reaffirming a whole series of measures in favor of the poor: free electricity for 300,000 families in need, free healthcare services, distribution of food aid and transportation vouchers for low-income people.”
An illustration of the seemingly contradictory character of the measures to be implemented is the following:
"Privatizations -- which had been excluded categorically from an earlier ‘to-do’ list by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras -- have been reinstated in the new government’s list of commitments, and this includes the port of Piraeus," writes Le Figaro on February 24. The Tsipras government had initially announced a halt to the process of privatization of the port, reversing a concession that been promised by the previous Sampras government to a Chinese company. But, as Le Figaro also notes, there is also a "return of the collective-bargaining agreements and a 200-euro increase in the minimum wage.”
What is the meaning of the "fight against cronyism and corruption" in public administration?
In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, Greek Deputy Minister of Administrative Reform Giorgos Katrougalos stated, "I'll make use of the technical advice of the Task Force to deal with cronyism in the public sector, and I will ask ADEDY [the public service trade union] if it would agree to cooperate with this Task Force by accepting its technical assistance, for example, in relation to the system of evaluating civil servants, a system that must be clear and effective.”
“The problem,” Katrougalos continued, “is that previous systems were designed not as tools for a genuine assessment of performance, but rather as an excuse to lay off employees. It is therefore necessary to clearly differentiate between layoffs and evaluation, the latter being a means to improve public administration and not a punishment.”
In this regard, a trade unionist was quoted asking the following question: "With all our colleagues, we fought against the ‘evaluations’ of the Samaras government. Is it the role of trade unions to ‘cooperate’ with the government (whatever its political stripe) and with the international institutions to help them organize a system to evaluate our wages?"
What are the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), the IMF and the Eurogroup saying about the measures?
On the morning of February 24, the European Commission announced that the list of measures sent by the Greek government was "sufficiently complete to be a valid starting point. . . . We are particularly encouraged by the strong commitment to combat tax evasion and corruption.” The EC went on to add that Greece must now "be more specific in its commitments." The spokesperson for the Eurogroup stated that, "this list is a first step, it is not a new Memorandum."
This balancing act is explained by the fact that the European institutions -- in deep crisis and facing the risk of a meltdown -- need to be able to count on the involvement of the Greek government, without which they cannot carry out their agenda, on behalf of finance capital, against the workers and people of Greece. That was the message of Obama, who on CNN called for "the continued implementation of the reforms” and “the continued payment of the debt" – taking a hard line, but understanding at the same time that everything still could blow up in Europe.
What were the reactions in Syriza?
The New York Times (February 22) ran a lead story under the headline, “Greece’s Leaders Face a Revolt at Home as They Try to Appease Creditors.” Manolis Glezos, a member of the European Parliament for Syriza, recalled the meaning of the Greek elections of January 25, 2015, in which “the people voted for what Syriza promised -- that is, to abolish the austerity plan." Giving voice to the growing anger, he went so far as to state: "I apologize to the Greek people because I participated in creating this illusion.”
But does this mean that the Greek people are back to square one; that they are in the same situation they were in before January 25?
First, as noted by many activists, the Tsipras government -- in keeping with what Syriza had pledged before the election -- has always stated that it would not pursue leaving the Eurozone or breaking with the European Union. On the other hand, nothing has been settled.
Panayiotis Lafazanis, the minister of Transportation and Energy, said: "Any transitional arrangement must be compatible with the government’s program." But that’s the rub: While Brussels and the IMF welcomed some of the measures taken by the Tsipras government, other measurers, such as the return of the collective-bargaining agreements, which had been annulled in recent years, and the raising the minimum wage to its pre-crisis levels pose an altogether different problem. In the words of the French financial daily Les Echos, these measures announced by Tsipras, “destroy the competitive gains achieved with great pains since 2010.”
What have been the reactions of the Greek workers and people?
While not knowing the details of the measures, the workers, youth, and trade unionists expressed conflicting views.
“I'm relieved,” a Syriza voter told Le Monde. “I feared a sterile confrontation that would cut us off from Europe." Her cousin, however, took a different stance: "I voted for them to put an end to austerity -- not for them to extend it for four months or more!"
Within the working class, the announcement of the first measures that represent a partial break with the Memorandum has led many organizations to reassert their demands. Thus, following on the heels of the statement by POE-OTA, the union of municipal employees, ADEDY, the federation of government workers, denounced the drive by the ECB, the European Union and the Eurozone "to ignore the will of the Greek people." The ADEDY statement called for “the cancellation of the Memorandum and all its measures” and for “the immediate cancellation of the debt."
A few hours after the Greek prime minister's speech, one thing is certain: The Greek people have not given up fighting for the mandate that they gave the new government on January 25. Sofia Sakorafa, another member of the European Parliament for Syriza, stated, “The people gave a mandate for the Memorandum to be annulled. We have no political justification to do the opposite.”