The World Socialist Web Site
Syriza’s betrayal of the Greek working class
With extraordinary speed, the Syriza-led government in Greece has repudiated the landslide “no” vote in Sunday’s referendum on European Union (EU) austerity demands.
Only four days after Greek workers and youth voted overwhelmingly to reject the dictates of the EU, the government has presented a proposal for €13 billion in austerity measures for the consideration of European finance ministers and government heads meeting this weekend. The Greek government is hoping the brutal measures will secure it a €53 billion EU bailout.
The proposal, which was approved overwhelmingly by the Greek parliament Friday morning, is even more savage than the €9 billion austerity package Greek voters rejected in the referendum. It includes:
*A gradual increase in the retirement age from 62 to 67, completed by 2022, along with “disincentives” to early retirement.
*The elimination of a solidarity grant for poor pensioners and a 50 percent increase in health costs for pensioners.
*A socially regressive increase in the VAT (sales tax) on most goods to 23 percent, applied also to Greece’s numerous, often remote and impoverished islands.
*Cuts to public-sector salaries imposed by “unifying” the wage grid for government workers, together with further attacks on labor laws.
*The completion of all currently planned privatizations, including regional airports and the ports of Piraeus, Thessaloniki and Hellinikon
.
*Cuts to fuel subsidies for farmers, along with stricter enforcement of tax laws to increase the tax burden on small businesses, property owners and the self-employed.
With consummate cynicism, Syriza leader and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has sought to present this direct repudiation of the will of the Greek people as a triumph of democracy. In fact, the outcome entirely confirms the initial assessment of the World Socialist Web Site that the decision to call the vote was “a reactionary fraud, designed to lend a veneer of democratic legitimacy to the looting of Greece by the banks.”
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