We are deluding ourselves, if we believe that the global financial oligarchs are lying awake at night dreading the prospect of Greece defaulting on its debts. The image of well groomed, ashen faced ‘suits’ huddled in smoke filled boardrooms, loosening their collars, necking black coffee and engaging in feverish speculation are well wide of the mark. That is not how these people operate. ‘Capital is King’ and every event, no matter how seemingly cataclysmic, can be twisted into an opportunity.
Greece will default sure as ‘The Great Escape’ will be on television over Xmas. It’s a question of when not if. Bloomberg, which controls one third of the 16 billion dollar global financial data market, estimates the default risk at an eye watering 98%. The obvious question which follows such a risk is ‘what will actually happen?’.
Firstly, not actually a great deal. The capitalist ‘child catchers’, who seek to terrorise us into submissive compliance, have groomed us to believe that the consequences of such an event are so horrific that they can never actually be allowed to happen. Rivers will cease to flow, mothers will eat their babies, the sky will become dark as hell and a plague of locusts will consume entire communities. This is a culture so entrenched in the sanctity of greed that it will endorse bombing civilians in oil wars, torturing opponents and detaining people without trial but reneging on debt is a bridge too far.
The beaten down proletariat must believe that such a course of action is unthinkable because they must not see one of the great walls of capitalist fear control become breached. It would set a very dangerous precedent. If the citizens of Ireland, Italy and Spain see events unfold without a body count, monumental destruction and starvation they will start to ask themselves some pretty searching questions about their own debt. Capitalism thrives in the toxic atmosphere of fear and disaster.
The Greeks are not a terrified junior civil service manager in the suburbs fearing the arrival of the postman. They have trump cards, opportunities and negotiating tools of their own. If they do go down then some wealthy hedge funds, banks, investors and speculators will get stung. Don’t shed tears for them because they will survive. They always do. A number of nations with fairly hefty investments will get an ice bath. France and Germany are chief amongst them hence the seeming willingness to provide time and support. Likewise Japan has large investments and of course the bumbling amateurs of the City of London have the UK in for about 3 billion.
They will survive. The financial markets will panic and take a hammering but that’s part of the perverse board game which they play out. Crucially, the US will get off lightly. Of course it has investments, wants the markets to remain stable and will be hit by the ripples of European crisis. However, it will not be fatally damaged. The willingness of US disaster speculators to step in, asset strip and exploit will provide short term capital at an horrendous price (think Wonga.com on a massive scale). In addition, Greece is in a strategically important position militarily and that will always be a big fat royal flush hitting the green baize. Greece will find support from unexpected places. It will suffer badly but the Greek workers have already exhibited a commendable and practical determination to fight their corner and not be bullied.
The morning after the balloon goes up; the Greek government will awake to a new dawn. How it behaves and how much courage it musters will shape its future. The financers cannot send ‘the lads’round to torch cars, threaten kids and beat up interested parties. They are going to have to come to the negotiating table and discuss. It is vital that the Greek people dictate the terms. If they are going to pay back debts eventually, they will have to dictate the interest rates, timescales and conditions. The alternative is no money paid back at all ever.
The ‘Cradle of Civilisation’ may even have the opportunity to civilise the corporate attack rats.
The money men will carry on and they will exploit the opportunity. Type ‘Greek debt default’ into a search engine and see what you get. Don’t expect advice on maintaining hospital wards, feeding unpaid public workers or keeping schools open. You will find page after page of capitalist institutions, blogs and papers telling you how you can profit from the collapse. Not how they will suffer but how they will join the feeding frenzy. They have no concept of social responsibility, remorse, investment in people or compassion. They will fill their faces and the US government will rejoice at the certain demise of the Euro. They have always loathed the concept and its death will ensure another generation of the dollar holding a key position. Already they are lumping the holiday money on Germany because they believe that a collapsed Euro will eventually lead to a strong German currency. They openly speculate on collapsing the Japanese economy with a view to buying in cheap and profiting from a recovery.
Capitalism feeds off misfortune the way that maggots feed off rotting meat. As the dust clouds from the Twin Towers still circulated, they were investing in arms companies in anticipation of the military reaction. With bloated bodies yet to be recovered from the flooded streets of New Orleans, they rushed in to buy up public schools with a view to class cleansing and building opportunities. Entire communities evacuated from the tsunami ravaged coasts of the Indian Ocean returned to find that their villages, home for centuries, had been flattened and sold to profiteers as top table holiday resort investments.
Our role must be to continue to offer all moral and practical support to our brothers and sisters in Greece. In addition, we must guide the searchlight of truth onto the efforts of the financial imperialists who will be exploding into the vacuum. Don’t go to sleep because the enemy never sleep.
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