The European Left participated today in an outsized demonstration in Brussels together with several Belgian Left Parties and European citizens in an initiative of Solidarity with the Greek Workers.

During two hours, the protestors marched from the Round point Schuman, where the headquarters of the European Institutions are settled until the Greek Permanent Embassy and the European Federation of Bankers, claiming: “IMF, Go Home” and Workers shouldn’t pay for the banks speculation!”  

The measures imposed on Greece as “a recipient” of the IMF loan and the euro zone will destroy the social structures already strongly degraded subsequent to the perpetuation of the financial austerity measures imposed by the entry of the country in the Euro zone and following the public money investments and the relations maintained by the successive governments during the last three decades. 

These last ten years, more particularly following the entry of Greece in the euro zone, made the prices climb to reach the same level as in Belgium, while the wages are twice lower, and the purchasing power of the Greeks is definitely lower than the purchasing power average of the EU.

Whereas the cost of living is comparable with Belgium, the majority of the young workers (including university graduated people) in Greece merely receive the minimum wage of around 700 Euros and the unemployment rate among those reaches 40%.  The program approved by the IMF and the euro zone provokes the fall of the minimum income to 640 Euros. 

Alleging the necessity of cutting “the civil servants privileges” (who are no more than 20% of the working population), the government removes their 13th and the 14th month of wages, but also of the retired employees of the public sector and the private sector. In addition, the freezing of the salaries and the very high increase of the VAT (from 19% to 21%, or even 23%) worsens the living conditions of the private sector employees. 

There is also the clear intention to abolish the collective indemnities. Thousands of employees were not paid during the last months and the crisis is being used as a pretext.  The expenditure for health and teaching was also narrowed. It is estimated that the IMF and the euro zone loan will still increase Greece’s debt up to 125% or even 150%. It will decelerate the economy during years and years. The consequences of the dismantling of the structures of public health, social policies and teaching will be felt during decades.

If these measures are approved, the next generation in Greece will be massively poorer than the current one. This is obvious when we look at the previous experiences of other European countries which suffered the effects of the IMF (i.e. Hungary).  The loan of the IMF zone euro is not a “help” for Greece. It is the product of the blackmail of the monopoly of the three international agencies of financial speculation (Moody' S, Standard and Poor' S and Fitch). Today, very few governments in the world have power to react, once they are targeted by these agencies. 

The loan “is not offered” to save the Greek people but to save all the banks costs and the single currency.  The policy that is today applied to Greece should not be reproduced against other European people, like Spanish, Irish, Portuguese, or Belgian.