PERIES: So, Michael, these international
banks represented by the finance ministers
now in Brussels, when they were in crisis
and we the public treasury bailed them out,
they had no problem with that. Why are they
now refusing to assist Greece at a time of
need when in fact some politicians and even
the troika is being more receptive to what
Greece is saying?
HUDSON: Because what's at issue really is a
class war. It's not so much Germany versus
Greece, as the papers say. It's really the
war of the banks against labor. And it's a
continuation of Thatcherism and
neoliberalism.
The problem isn't simply that the troika
wants Greece to balance the budget; it
wanted Greece to balance the budget by
lowering wages and by imposing austerity on
the labor force. But instead, the terms in
which Varoufakis has suggested balancing the
budget are to impose austerity on the
financial class, on the tycoons, on the tax
dodgers. And he said, okay, instead of
lowering pensions to the workers, instead of
shrinking the domestic market, instead of
pursuing a self-defeating austerity, we're
going to raise two and a half billion from
the powerful Greek tycoons. We're going to
collect the back taxes that they have. We're
going to crack down on illegal smuggling of
oil and the other networks and on the real
estate owners that have been avoiding taxes,
because the Greek upper classes have become
notorious for tax dodging.
