International media in anti-SYRIZA frenzy but why sacrifice Greece?

Ayayayay! Six days before the crucial double Euro Working Group on Greece upcoming Wednesday and Thursday, and the international media pour their last drops of poison, before they enter the Easter vacations.

In an unprecedented anti-Greek-government frenzy international mainstream media race for the Award of the Doomsday Scenario for Greece. Quoting sources anonymous they ‘hear voices’ of imminent Greek default, bankruptcy has started, referendum, Euro exit, new Drachma, parallel currency, double currency, banks nationalization,... you name it. The day has everything, all possible and impossible scenarios that the last surviving cell in a journalists’ brain can produce the moment he/she opens a laptop.

As expected hardly anyone tries to go deep in the causes of the stand-off between Greece and its creditors. No, that’s not the case. That’s the difficult part that would need thinking, in dept analysis and less prejudice, spite and gloat (nice word in German: Schadenfreude).

An exception to the anti-Greek hysteria is an article wondering: Why are we sacrificing Greece for the insiders?, where insiders are those in power and outsiders are the unorganized folks. Insiders and outsiders can be both right and left.

“The Greek economy is broken. The society is fractured and there is a humanitarian disaster in the country, with many people surviving off food kitchens. Yet from Europe, when the Greeks need understanding and sympathy, they get threats.

No one is saying the Greeks are angels in this story, but there is a much darker narrative going on, and it is that the European mainstream political establishment is terrified of parties like Syriza – even though it was mainstream Greek politicians, not radical politicians, that oversaw the wholesale looting of, and corruption in, the Greek economy.

Now that is all conveniently forgotten, and the entire European mainstream is lining up to destroy Syriza and say to their own electorates: “Look, if you vote for non-conventional parties, see what will happen to you.”

Because we are now in an electoral cycle, the conventional parties need to crush Syriza to crush the other nonconformist parties and show their own electorates what voting in a nonconformist way leads to.

When looking at politics in mature democracies, I prefer to use the term insider vs outsider, rather than right vs left, urban vs rural or conservative vs liberal, to describe the electoral fault lines.

The insiders are those, literally, on the inside. They are the people with influence, with a voice at the table, those with a stake in the society. Insiders can either be on the left or the right. They can be traditional public sector trade unions who want no reform or they can be bank bosses who want a bailout. Their game plan is to gouge the state and extract as much rent as possible for their members and interests.

Insiders are organised. They are part of the process of politics and their concerns are listened to by the state. In short, they have access to power and can influence the way it is deployed. […]

The outsiders, in contrast, are those with no one to speak up for them. They have no stake in the political process and are thus on the outside. They are the self-employed small business person, the contract worker, the immigrant, the unemployed and, of course, the young.

They are outside the tent, beyond the process and, because they are not organised, their concerns are never felt.

They too can be on the left and on the right. The small shopkeeper could well have traditionally conservative instincts, while the twenty something contract worker could well be liberal to her core, but they are both outsiders. Neither has a real stake in society; neither has a voice.”

you can read the full article here.

There will be a Euro Working Group meeting April 8th (afternoon) and April 9th (morning).