Newsweek, a vile example of western propaganda

FREE VOICE

 – 30/12/2010CATEGORY: ANTI-CAPITALISM, ENGLISH, SOCIETY

“An analysis published in Newsweek magazine dealing with the “crash” of Greece, “the most profligate and corrupt of Western nations could ever change its ways” paying tribute to the Prime Minister George Papandreou on his goal to “bring a change in Greece”. Let’s start outlining this vile article:.

“Like an economy run into the ground by decades of socialism, as China’s was before the country began reforms in 1978, Greece’s political and economic order had failed” says the article, something which is totally wrong. It looks like the author never opened a dictionary in his life to see what
really socialism means! (In fact, we are talking about an article where the author cannot distinguish the differences between, liberalism, economic liberalism, neo-liberalism, statism, third way, mixed market, conservatism and many more political terms)! He later states “Greece wasn’t crushed by Maoism but by its $400 billion national debt”! Trying to compare China with Greece is perhaps one of the most failed comparisons. Why? Greece was never a socialist country! It would be really laughable to say the opposite! To which kind of audience is this author referring to? Someone must be very ignorant to believe such vile directed lies.

Neither China was socialist according to my opinion. I say that because I have different definition about “socialism” comparing to the totalitarian examples, but at least, Greece has nothing in common with the Chinese regime or even with the Swedish model. It is really embarrassing that so many propagandists have a say about a country that never bothered to check its history and see who was responsible for its economic downturn. Regarding the Greek case, even after the first years of independence from the Ottoman Empire, the western powers were playing their own diplomatic game in the Greek territories.

From the betrayal of 1922, to the rise of the dictator Ioannis Metaxas, during the WW2 and the civil war where the British army backed by the royalists and the centrist of George Papandreou (the grandfather of the current PM), did everything possible to crash the establishing of a “popular unity” government (a very popular coalition of radical leftists and other democratic-patriotic militants), causing a mass bloodshed with over than 40.000 dead and more than 10.000 executed in cold blood by military court decisions, while others were sent to forced labour campuses as they were accused for being “communists”. The same repressive conservative status quo continues in the next few decades with the royalists playing an important role in maintaining the unpopular despotic political climate and many assassinations of political activists – mainly leftists or independent democrats – took place. After that, we can see amilitary junta backed by Nixon and Kissinger which lasted for 7 years.

After the collapse of the junta, the totalitarian conservative state started to fade but many of its repressive mechanisms remained the same. Nowadays, due to many Greek politicians try to implement the orders of European Union these mechanism have been upgraded in order to push back people’s resistance, defending the austerity measures and protecting the interests of the local elites. The government ofPASOK, a political party which started as a center-left social-democratic but later changed its platform to a strict neo-liberalism line, instead of trying to find alternative solutions to sort out the dept, chose the easy way, to refuge to the International Monetary Fund. Greece today is controlled by powerful financial centers, the IMF is one, the European Union is another. People’s opinion is totally ignored and the austerity measures are axing civil rights that our ancestors fought enough hard to gain (free education, social welfare, bonuses etc). This is a short description of who is responsible for Greece’s downturn. Mainly the capitalist interests of the Western powers and the Greek politicians who served them along the years. Something that this article of Newssweek completely and knowingly hides.

A Greek leftist, M. Glezos, a veteran of WW2 has stated the following in an interview:

        We saw in the Parliament and the Maximos Mansion the director of the IMF talking to the Greek people about “doctors and cures”…

To all the Greeks immediately reminded of the recent dictatorship and the dictator, who “put in cure” the Greek people because he decided that the country was ill. But an issue arises from this kind of behavior: Who gave the right to the director of the International Monetary Fund to speak to the Greek Parliament? Who gave him the right to talk that way and with this style? Unfortunately the current government, the government of PASOK. So once again raised the issue of national independence and the struggle to obtain.

“Ranked on the World Economic Forum’s Competitiveness Index as one of the most inhospitable places to do business in the Western world, Greece now has a fast-track law to push through investment projects, and is setting up one-stop offices for starting a business” the article continues. “Key sectors of the Greek economy, such as transport, tourism, and agriculture, are becoming more open to foreign investment”. In fact most of the Greek people, including me, would not feel happy seeing international investors transforming the country into a wage slavery area. If we go back to history again, just a few years after the collapse of the military junta, we can see that most of the Greek people were in favour of sovereignty and national independence rather than obeying rules of the European Union and NATO. The conservatives of course who were in power in 1979 not only did not put a referendum for the EU but they clearly ignored the slogans “EU and NATO, the same conspiracies”. As far as the “opening offices”, these jobs will mostly recruit people to work cheap, (not higher than the Greek minimum wage which is of the lowest across Europe). What do we really see? Greece transformed into an occupied land, one of the toughest effects of globalization and capitalism!

“Deep reforms and deficit cuts have become unavoidable in order for countries such as Greece, Spain, Britain, and Ireland to reduce their debts and regain the trust of markets”. I would not be able to talk about other countries where I have never lived but for Greece there were many alternative solutions, such like: 1) Withdraw from European Union and cut every bonds with the USA 2) Withdraw from the IMF 3) Immediate repayment of debt:a) Trying to reduce it. b) Control and confiscate the biggest part of the church property. c) Tax the rich d) Reduce spending on for military weapons. e) Tackle tax evasion. 4) Preparation of a “modernizing development plan” for immediate implementation. This model should be based on productive resources in order to make the people self sufficient. a) “Green” development of the country: Exploiting the “natural” sources of energy and refuge in more resource based economy solutions. 5) Restore the health system, equal for all citizens. 6) Set up a budget that could be prioritized for national defense, public works, Social Solidarity, Agriculture, Industry, Education and Culture. 7) Tackle right wing violence and punish police officers who are responsible for attacking protesters. 8 ) Reduce the number of police force. 9) Seek stronger ties with people from our neighbourhood countries. Together invest on creating solidarity networks with people from countries who face a similar threat and individuals from all around the world who are willing to fight against capitalism.

“In the past, crises have created opportunities for countries and societies to reinvent themselves, just as now—booming China and India did after decades of stifling socialism and bitter poverty”. Again we see an attempt to misinform the audience. China’s socialism was based on a totalitarian model. This has nothing to do with the basic principles of socialism which means equality and no hierarchy. But in China there was and still is a hierarchy. On the one hand the members of the party (the privileged) and on the other hand the ordinary citizens. Can the author understand the vast differences between statism, democratic socialism, non-Marxist socialist ideas and libertarian communism and of course state-capitalism (such like the Chinese example)? Maybe yes, maybe no! Whatever the answer is, this is not the main point here. The most important thing here is, how many of his readers will believe these lies based on a such generic and biased description that lacks of serious research aimed to promote propaganda?Next to that, the situation for many Chinese worsened since the government decided to refuge in more “free market” policies. Perhaps the author did not study the example of Tien An Men!

“But in struggling economies such as Greece’s, the seeds of a revival are being sown”. It is clear that the author points out that… this crisis would be beneficial for the Greek economy in the long future. Beneficial maybe for the big multinationals and the huge company owners. Not for the ordinary people, not for those who will be forced to work for 3 euro per hour! Nothing from this cheap western conservative propaganda with intention to rewrite history and distort the truth should be welcome. And in fact, it is not welcome for the majority of the Greek people who will continue to struggle against this social injustice. Why? Let’s face it. Capitalism was one of the biggest horrors the humanity has seen. Nobody can deny that the reasons for both the WW1 and WW2 were mainly financial. Nobody can deny that over than 15.000 children die everyday because of exploitation, greed, imperialism, pollution, the consequences of the free enterprise system and the greedy profit makers. We should take into account also the dictatorships in Latin America, all patronised by the US and of course the black slavery, the Indian genocide, the atrocities in the Vietnam war and the colonial wars, the Iraq invasion and the millions of dead, the horror they spread in the Balkan penissula after the break of the Former Yugoslavia… The list is so big that maybe not even the worst Stalinist regime could be compared with the capitalist horror. Perhaps it’s time for authors like this to open a dictionary and try to clarify some basic political terms, read some proper history and face the bitter truth. Perhaps these authors never had the chance to live in a country such like Chile, Bolivia or even Greece during the years of the military junta. Those who read Newsweek’s articles like this and believe the establishment’s lies, should clearly understand that they will find us in front of them.

Source:  http://eagainst.com/articles/newsweek-a-vile-example-of-western-propaganda/

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