Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Neoliberalism, Greece and a half-erased 'No'



                                                           No one will be spared
                                                          And this mayhem will not have
                                                          Even half of a half-erased No.
[Idionymon, Athens: Kastaniotis, 1980, p. 29, my translation]


He is very old and his survival depends upon his pension, which has already been cut by 35%. His political insight has always been acute, just as his ethical code has been consistent, and this is how he managed to vote 'No' in the referendum. With the banks closed and limits to cash withdrawals enforced amidst an unprecedented climate of fearmongering that evoked an imminent financial meltdown, he firmly went ahead and voted 'No' without ever expressing any doubt - that is, until last night. As the news on the EU Summit was unfolding, he wondered what was the point of voting 'No'. He was hurt and sad, and of course he is not the only one. As far as I am concerned, this is the most disturbing outcome of last night's developments. 

To put it bluntly, neoliberalism has prevailed at the expense of democracy: another memorandum agreement will be imposed on Greek society, enforcing more austerity measures and rapid privatizations. The message is crystal-clear: it doesn't matter if the citizens elect a government on an anti-austerity platform, or if a deal involving austerity measures is rejected through a referendum. Austerity will be imposed regardless; such is the starkness of the incompatibility between neoliberalism and democracy.

Against this grim background, there are two significant tasks. Firstly, it is obviously imperative to criticise the current power holders in the EU, including the German leadership and their allies, as well as the democratic deficit of the EU institutional architecture. But this is hardly possible through largely populist and emotionally charged practices, such as posting cartoons displaying the EU stars as a swastika, which get many likes and retweets in the absence of any critical engagement either with the neoliberal orientation of the EU or with the alarming rise of fascist parties in Europe. On the other hand, neither does the composure of a conventional neo-Keynesian rhetoric provide a clear picture, as it hardly touches upon the key word capitalism. In other words, the problem with the current German leadership is not that they are German, but that they are aggressive neoliberal militants; likewise, the problem with the EU institutions is that they are unaccountable to the peoples of Europe exactly because of their function as a means of implementing fierce neoliberal policies.

Secondly, one cannot avoid addressing the elephant in the room: the left-wing government in Greece proclaimed that it would end austerity within the Eurozone and failed; it is yet unclear how this may affect the political field and the future of the left in it. I do not of course see any political value either in the unfortunate attempts of government officials and supporters to white-wash the outcome, or in the predictably sectarian and partisan stand of their opponents in the left. And naturally I cannot take seriously the patronising 'I-told-you-so' style of commentary of those who supported the austerity policies that destroyed Greek society; at best, it amounts to nothing more than another verification of Menander's classic saying; on the fall of an oak, every man gathers wood. 

 What seems to me important is to address the ways in which the government endorsed a consensual political framework, and put forward a rhetoric of 'national unity'; it is in such a respect that it also sustained the preceding conservative government's shift towards the state of exception, principally exemplified in the continuing plight of migrants in detention. The move of the government towards the centre of the political system in effect averted the potential of a serious critique of neoliberalism, and apparently did not enable the development of a strategy to defend the weaker and already impoverished segments of the population either from the austerity mince-machine of the bail-out agreements or the threat of a Grexit, which I am afraid is uncritically seen in some left-wing circles as a kind of panaceia.  

Sadly, these are dark times for both Greek society and the EU, as well as for democracy and the left. And unless we are able to address capitalism, in the neoliberal form it takes in our times, place it at the centre of our discussion, and inform our analysis and practices by its critiques, I don't see much hope. And dangerously less so without a clear anti-capitalist stand cutting through the emerging nationalist narratives of the crisis, and the concomitant discourse of national 'defeat' and 'humiliation,' which is the very source of political nightmares. There is a Nazi party currently in the Greek parliament, an actual, criminal Nazi organization; and it is best to address and confront it as such, rather than cultivate the toxic nationalism it feeds on.  

Last but not least, I don't see any hope without the obviously painful realization that it is far from enough to invest politically in easy solutions and passively anticipate their coming from 'above', be that a leader, a party, a national government or an international structure one may expect to be saved by. It is us who have to do the saving of ourselves, in collective and participatory terms. And it is from 'below', through the multiple forms of self-organization of all those ravaged by neoliberalism, and the actual relationships of co-operation and solidarity potentially formed in this context, in other words through the autonomous spaces George Kaffentzis and Silvia Federici address as anticapitalist commons, that hope may be found, now more than ever. 

I am not suggesting this is easy, neither that it is a key that opens all doors. I am merely suggesting that the old pensioner's question requires an answer. The result of the referendum, for example, may have been erased in practice, but the forms of negation in the minds of the people may be more than 'half of a half-erased No'. Or they may not. Either way, let's find out. 


See also: 


Posted by Aris in Wonderland at 06:00
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