Defending Greece From “Financial Bombing”
By Peter Koenig
August 06, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" -
On 3 August
2015, Mikis Theodorakis, the Greek world famous music composer and
Resistance figure, called upon the Greek people – and the peoples of
the world – to respect Democracy – the very Democracy, born in
Greece some 2500 years ago and given to the world as a set of values
for respect for each other, for humanity – for equal rights and for
free expression.
He referred in
particular to the Greek referendum in which the Greek people on 5
July 2015 voted with an overwhelming 61% against the continuation of
the economic and financial strangulation of Greece by the infamous
troika – the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Commission
(EC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Severe austerity
imposed during the last 5 years has already caused misery and
countless deaths especially among children and elderly, because of
deprivation of vital medical services.
Instead of
respecting the vote, the Tsipras Government has ignored it, made a
U-turn and accepted even harsher austerity measures for an
additional € 86 billion debt, of which not one euro would reach the
Greek government for the restauration of its vital social services.
Mr. Tsipras’ action is anti-constitutional and illegal.
The following text
summarizes Mikis Theodorakis’ appeal to stop the Syriza Government
from selling out the Greek people’s country and stop the currently –
almost in secret – ongoing negotiations with the troika on the
modalities of the € 86 billion loan and the details of the new
austerity measures – “negotiations” to be concluded by about 20
August 2015.
Mr. Theodorakis and
his co-signatories want not only the Greek people to wake up, but
the whole world to open their eyes, as the financial sledgehammer
waged by the bankster mafia knows no scruples, no limits – and may
well hit any other country tomorrow.
A dramatic appeal by Mikis Theodorakis and
other known Greek personalities, asking for respecting the No vote
of the Greek people and defending Greece and democracy
August 03, 2015 -
In a dramatic appeal to the Greek people (and all the
peoples of the world), the music composer Mikis Theodorakis, a world
known symbol of Resistance to all oppressors and of struggles for
freedom, democracy and independence, top Greek constitutional expert
George Kasimatis, journalist and writer Dimitris Konstantakopoulos,
Dr. Dimitris Bellantis of the CC of SYRIZA and tens of other known
intellectuals, activists and politicians, ask for the respect of the
will of the Greek people, directly expressed during the referendum
of the 5th of July and for the immediate interruption of
the program of “economic assassination” of Greece and its people,
applied since 2010.
The direct mandate of the Greek citizens given
through a referendum is mandatory, according to the most basic
principles of any democratic state, of the Greek constitution and of
European Law, it is stated in the appeal. The decision of the
referendum cannot be changed by decisions of the government, of the
parliament or of European institutions. It can be changed only by
another referendum.
The respect of the will of the Greek people is the
only way to preserve democracy and civil peace in Greece and
democracy in Europe, it is also said in the appeal. It is the only
way to save Greece and its people, from a total and unprecedented
destruction. The program applied in Greece since 2010 constitutes a
huge contravention of the Greek constitution, of the European and of
the international law. It has already provoked the biggest, by far,
economic and social disaster in Europe after 1945. Its interruption
is a question of life or death for the Greek nation and the only way
to preserve the most basic moral and material prerequisites for its
survival. “It is better to stop this program in agreement with the
other countries of the EU, but if this is not possible, we should do
it unilaterally”, states the appeal.
The signatories warn that the new agreement signed
by the Greek government, under pressure and blackmail and imposed by
humiliating and illegal means to Greece, will lead, among other
things, to the looting of the public and private property of Greeks,
including their first residence, the land of the peasants and the
Greek banks and to a new wave of massive emigration of young, well
educated Greeks, in a moment the country needs them desperately.
The appeal is criticizing strongly the Greek
government because it is acting, after the referendum, as if the
Greeks had voted Yes. It is accusing it that, instead of organizing
the defense of the country, it is itself disseminating
discouragement, fear and even panic to the Greek people, in order to
justify its policies.
The appeal reminds that the two governing parties
are governing because they promised the interruption of the program
applied in Greece. It is accusing them that, during three years and
until the very last moment, they did not prepare themselves, the
people and the country for the need to resist, in the very probable
case that negotiations would fail. It is accusing them also of
blindly believing assurances they had from abroad.
The signatories call on the Greek people, in those
tragic moments of their history, “not to succumb, not to lose their
courage and their capacity of a right judgment”. They call them to
remember that their fathers and grand fathers were able to sustain,
survive, resist and win under the most terrible conditions of the
German occupation of 1941-44 and of the famine of the winter of
1941-42. They express the certainty that the Greek “sense of honor”
(“filotimo”) and the patriotism will finally win over fear and the
force of the enemy, leading to the victory of Greece, of Democracy
and of Democratic Europe.
The appeal calls also the Greek people to organize
and do everything possible to help the weakest confront the famine,
the illness, the dispossession, to help people safeguard their
dignity. It is calling Greek citizens to help sustain the most vital
state and social functions, under direct threat from the new
agreement imposed by European governments and institutions and to
resist, everywhere they can and by whatever means they can, to the
imposition of the new anti-popular measures.
The signatories of the appeal call to the Greek
people to draw “the painful but necessary conclusions from their own
experience and built a serious and credible front of resistance, not
trusting again self-described saviors, adventurers and
opportunists”.
The signatories are calling “all the peoples of
the world, to realize that the struggle of the Greek people is also
their struggle”. They are calling especially “the Europeans who
expressed solidarity with Greeks during the black period of military
dictatorship, to stop the coup d’ etat their own governments
organize in Greece”, in cooperation with IMF and ECB, under the
guidance of the international Finance, in order to impose the
dictatorship of the Creditors in Greece today, in all Europe
tomorrow”.
“If the forces that have planned and are executing
the transformation of a country of the European Union to a sort of
Iraq or Libya, through “financial bombing” will win, they will
destroy not only Greece but all human kind. In front of the new
totalitarianism of the “Markets”, the same if not more dangerous
than totalitarianisms of the ‘30s and ‘40s, we don’t have other
alternative than to unite and fight. Tomorrow it risks being too
late”, concludes the appeal.
The text of the appeal is signed by
Mikis Theodorakis
Venios Angelopoulos,
Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Athens National Polytechnic
School, member of the Central Committee of SYRIZA
Dr. Yiorgos Vihas,
doctor, member of the administration of the Medical Association of
Athens, one of the creators of the movement of Social Medicine in
Greece
Kleanthis Grivas,
psychiatrist and writer
Katerina Thanopoulou,
Vice-president of the Regional Administration of Attica (the major
agglomeration of the Athens region), responsible for social policy,
member of the Central Committee of SYRIZA
Kostas Karaiskos,
editor of the newspaper “Antifonitis” in Thrace
George Kasimatis.
Professor Emeritus of constitutional law, Athens University,
founding member and honorary President of the International
Association of Constitutional Law, legal advisor of PM Andreas
Papandreou
Father Andreas
Kefaloyiannis, from the historic town of Anogeia in Crete (cradle of
the Cretan revolutions and of the resistance to the Nazis during the
occupation)
Yannis Kimpouropoulos,
journalist
Stathis Kouvelakis,
Professor of Political Science, King’s College, London, member of
the Central Committee of SYRIZA
Nikos Koutsou, MP from
Famagusta, one of the two Cypriot deputies resisting to the end the
voting of the laws legalizing the financial coup in Cyprus, in 2013
Marios Kritikos, vice
president of the General Council of ADEDY (Union of Greek Public
Servants)
Dimitris
Konstantakopoulos, journalist and writer, coordinator of the “Delphi
Initiative”, member of the editorial committee of the international
review for self-management, “Utopie Critique”
Lefteris Konstantinides,
leading cadre of PAK, one of the main resistance formations during
the military dictatorship (1967-74), ex-deputy of PASOK
Spyros Lavdiotis,
economist and writer, ex high ranking official of the Central Bank
of Canada
Yannis Mavros, member
of the National Council for the Claiming of debts of Germany to
Greece
Yiorgos Moustakis, film
director
Dimitris Bellantis,
lawyer, Dr. in Constitutional Law, member of the Central Committee
of SYRIZA
Maria
Negreponti-Delivanis, Docteur d’Etat ès Sciences Economiques
(Sorbonne), three times elected Dean of the University of Macedonia,
Thessaloniki
Panagiotis Pantelides,
economist-researcher
Dimitris Patelis, Prof.
of Philosophy, Polytechnic School of Kriti
James Petras, Bartle
Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New
York, ex-advisor of PM Andreas Papandreou, ex-Director of the
Institute of Mediterranean Studies in Athens, advisor of various
Latin Americans leaders and movements
Eleni Portaliou,
Professor of Architecture, National Polytechnic School of Athens,
member of the Central Committee of SYRIZA
Stathis (Stathis
Stavropoulos), cartoonist
Themos Stoforopoulos,
Ambassador
Μihalis Stylianou,
journalist, director of the Greek emission of the French state Radio
ORTF during the Greek military dictatorship
Yannis Schizas, writer
Fotis Terzakis, writer
Maria Fragiadaki,
member of the Central Committee of SYRIZA, ex-member of the
direction of GSEE (General Confederation of Workers of Greece)
Stathis Habibis,
physicist
The contact mail of
the signatories of this appeal is
defend.democracy.in.Greece@gmail.com.
