I have been reading a very interesting book, Max Hastings’ “All Hell Let Loose” The World at War 1939-1945, as seen and lived by people rather than strategists and generals. A fascinating read and an eye opener.

However, what really struck me was this quote: page 102 from the William Collins paper back edition, towards the end of the Chapter “Britain Alone”: “Lancashire housewife Nella Last groped movingly towards an expression of her compatriots’ hopes when she wrote that summer of 1940 : ‘Sometimes I get caught up in a kind of puzzled wonder at things and think of all the work and effort and all the unlimited money that is used today to “destroy” and not so long ago there was no money or work and it seems so wrong somehow….[that] money and effort could always be found to pull down and destroy rather than build up.”

Exactly seventy five years later, this sentiment rings eerily relevant yet again. Nella Last had the Great Depression in mind when she referred to “Not so long ago”. For us this is Now. No money can be found and we have to cut down on welfare, reduce jobs and all that is included under the TINA doctrine of destructive, debilitating austerity.

Of course mind boggling billions upon billions can be and are found for propping up banks which of course must NOT be nationalised, (even though the taxpayer is funding these billions) so that financiers and banksters can keep playing and winning on the roulette wheel of our destitution.

As Varoufakis has put it aptly, today it is banks that wreak destruction instead of tanks.

 

From 2010 Greece has been subjected to a harsh, unrealistic, cruel and often vindictive regime, supposedly to ?bail her out? since the country had effectively become bankrupt. By now everybody knows this was nothing but a ploy by the Euro Directorate to save primarily German and French Banks. But be that as it may, there was nothing to prevent the Euro Directorate to ease the pressure on Greece once this had been achieved. However, the opposite occurred.

Since the regime was not designed to help Greece?s economy but to save the bankers, the results achieved were an abject failure. Again, no need to go into the horrendous statistics. However, despite the great failure of the plan, the Euro Directorate with the IMF in tow, insisted on more of the same despite the disaster to the Greek economy and the humanitarian crisis. Poverty has soared, homelessness, suicides, unemployment and so on.

Now, in the face of policies obviously hostile to the population bringing pain, destitution, a massive brain drain, immense social disruption, what is a civilized European country supposed to do? Employ democratic means to voice its dissent and reverse the process. Not by rebellion not by insurgency but simply by going to the ballot box.

And that is what the Greeks did. For all the hypocritical praise heaped on this hapless population about how stoically they had accepted their punishment, what patience they had shown in the face of adversity, in effect what good children they had been and had not thrown a tantrum or kicked nanny in the shins. So believing in democracy (what a quaint idea, but perhaps they can be forgiven because they are after all Greeks) they went to the polls.

The first general election in 2012 revealed the protest and rejection of this debilitating regime. The governing PASOK party that had gained 44% in 2009 was decimated. The right wing party of government which had scored 34% in 2009, which had been a bad result for it, gained only 18% in the first round of elections. What could be a more obvious protest and a more democratic way of voicing this protest than that? However, this lead to a hung Parliament and new elections.

The second 2012 elections again gave a clear message. The formerly tiny left wing party of SYRIZA soared to second place. A government coalition was formed by the former arch rivals PASOK & the right wing ND which had in fact campaigned on an anti austerity platform. Nevertheless, the new supposedly anti austerity PM (whose party won a majority of the votes because of that) rushed to grovel at Frau Merkel?s feet and pledge allegiance to her policies.

As a result, a new Memorandum of Understanding, more debt piled onto an already impossible load and even more stringent austerity. By 2015 the end of the proverbial tether had been reached. The general election voted SYRIZA in as the majority party short of only 2 seats for an outright majority and it went into alliance with ANEL a right wing but firmly anti-austerity party.

We shall not go into the negotiating process and so on. But appearing to have reached an impasse the Greek government called for a referendum on the terms proposed. The result was an astounding 61,2% No, despite the scaremongering, the threats, the pleas from all sides of the establishment from the mainstream media to all the political parties and major politicians who have ruled since the colonels fell. Not to mention all the EU establishment from the President of the Commission even the President of the European Parliament and many more who had no place sticking their noses into the internal democratic processes of a member country, and to cap it all, the bank holiday imposed through the ECB?s policy of strangling Greece into submission.

The result? Tsipras capitulates and agrees to even worse terms than before and the certain collapse of what may be left of the Greek economy.

So the question is, if democracy has been effectively abolished in Europe, what does Europe stand for? And second question, how are free democratic people supposed to react, when time after time their democratically expressed will is consigned to the rubbish bin and sneered at by the mighty unelected and unaccountable dignitaries ruling Europe by fiat?

And an addendum here, which marks the trend. The surprising surge in the popularity of Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour Party leadership in the UK. This has given rise to hysterics and panic. Oh! the cry is, he?s unelectable! Oh we mustn?t go back to the 1950s! Disaster!!! Why? Because he doesn?t fit in with the austerity above all command economies of the European Union that are destroying what Europe used to stand for. The ignorant masses must not be allowed to express themselves! The reaction to Corbyn is the fear of actually letting the electorate voice an opinion of its own rather than having versions of the same foisted on them.

Now, in the olden days, long forgotten now, it used to be the people who decided and voted for the government and policies they wanted. Now the vicious Euro Directorate has presumed it has the right to ordain the policies it wants against the people?s wishes and interests, because otherwise they will be waterboarded and terrorised into submission.

SYRIZA may have been defeated, and Corbyn may be crushed through fair means or foul, but something has begun to stir and that something is VOX POPULI.

Europe is remembering its core values and the European Directorate that has usurped power does not like this at all and will do everything in its power to crush it. Tsipras was crushed, but what are you going to do with the 61% of the population which is now growing even greater, and the spectrum of the will of the people floating all over Europe?