Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

Secondly, it is distinguished by the fact that this critical assessment is made with reference to the two founding, but - unfortunately - completely abandoned and forgotten characteristics of the Left today: internationalism and class struggle. And it is precisely for this reason that Valavani’s critical assessment manages to identify from the outset the root causes of the obvious failure of the first Tsipras government in its refusal “to openly confront the creditors” and to address “not governments, but the peoples of Europe and the world”.

And finally, Valavani’s text stands out and proves immensely useful for the present and future of the workers’ and socialist movement, for in choosing to identify the long-term consequences of the failure of the first Tsipras government, he manages to detect the catastrophic changes it has brought about - and continues to bring about - in the class balance Balance End of year statement of a company’s assets (what the company possesses) and liabilities (what it owes). In other words, the assets provide information about how the funds collected by the company have been used; and the liabilities, about the origins of those funds. of power in our country. In other words, Valavani explains the prolonged crisis and paralysis of the Greek left as a direct consequence of the defeat of historic dimensions suffered by the Greek labor and socialist movement with the capitulation of the Syriza leadership in that fateful month of July 2015!

But, may Ms. Valavani allow us to add to her record one more consequence that we consider to be perhaps even more important because it lies at the heart of the current woes of the Greek and international left. The Tsipras government, and by extension the Syriza leaders, have not only betrayed the hopes of the Greek citizens who put their trust in them. They have also betrayed the hopes placed in them - and incidentally in Spain’s Podemos, which has followed a similar trajectory to Syriza - by millions of left-wing and even non-party people across Europe and beyond! And it’s precisely because these hopes that had been placed in the Greek Syriza and Spanish Podemos were betrayed at a time when the multifaceted crisis was deepening, the traditional lefts were becoming increasingly paralyzed and discredited, and the far right was already on the rise, that the international consequences of the Tsipras government’s capitulation are even more catastrophic than the purely Greek ones! And that’s because, given the bankruptcy of first Syriza and then Podemos, as well as the Left’s inability to explain the reasons for this bankruptcy, it was only logical to see all those people who had trusted them and believed in them as their ultimate lifeline, lose both their morale and their compass. What happened next is well known: on the ruins left by this betrayal of so many existential hopes of millions of ordinary people, not all of whom were left-wing, the extreme right, openly nostalgic for the demons of the inter-war years, grew into a gigantic monster, threatening humanity and the planet with annihilation.

Read carefully this very important text by Nadia Valavani which, although published a month ago, has not elicited the slightest reaction or comment from left-wingers of all persuasions, who clearly prefer to ignore it...

*Several times imprisoned during the colonels’ dictatorship, Nadia Valavani was Deputy Finance Minister in the first Tsipras government, from which she resigned on July 15, ten days after the popular referendum whose result (61.31% No to the blackmail of the EU, ECB ECB
European Central Bank The European Central Bank is a European institution based in Frankfurt, founded in 1998, to which the countries of the Eurozone have transferred their monetary powers. Its official role is to ensure price stability by combating inflation within that Zone. Its three decision-making organs (the Executive Board, the Governing Council and the General Council) are composed of governors of the central banks of the member states and/or recognized specialists. According to its statutes, it is politically ‘independent’ but it is directly influenced by the world of finance.

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/ecb/html/index.en.html and IMF IMF
International Monetary Fund Along with the World Bank, the IMF was founded on the day the Bretton Woods Agreements were signed. Its first mission was to support the new system of standard exchange rates.

When the Bretton Wood fixed rates system came to an end in 1971, the main function of the IMF became that of being both policeman and fireman for global capital: it acts as policeman when it enforces its Structural Adjustment Policies and as fireman when it steps in to help out governments in risk of defaulting on debt repayments.

As for the World Bank, a weighted voting system operates: depending on the amount paid as contribution by each member state. 85% of the votes is required to modify the IMF Charter (which means that the USA with 17,68% % of the votes has a de facto veto on any change).

The institution is dominated by five countries: the United States (16,74%), Japan (6,23%), Germany (5,81%), France (4,29%) and the UK (4,29%).
The other 183 member countries are divided into groups led by one country. The most important one (6,57% of the votes) is led by Belgium. The least important group of countries (1,55% of the votes) is led by Gabon and brings together African countries.

http://imf.org ) was not respected by most of the leaders of this government and of Syriza.

Nadia Valavani’s answer to the “Epohi” newspaper’s survey question 10 years after the 2015 history

2025 02 09 01 nantia valavani w394In 2015, the first Syriza government, elected on a pledge to the people to reach “an honorable compromise to get out of the memorandums”, after having committed - we committed - the mistake of continuing to pay the tranches of debt until the public coffers were completely exhausted, found itself with its back to the wall faced with three alternatives:

The first: to confront the creditors openly, henceforth addressing not governments but the peoples of Europe and the world, surrounded by the prestige conferred by the unequivocal popular mandate of the July Referendum - the only electoral process in the world that took place with banks closed. At the time, according to the Minister responsible, Greece had six months’ worth of medicines, nine months’ worth of food and twelve months’ worth of fuel. To this must be added a growing international movement of support and solidarity, with unpredictable momentum - if left to develop unhindered. Will we emerge victorious from such a confrontation? There’s no way of knowing. If so, it would inevitably begin to unravel the budgetary straitjacket of the Stability Pact. If not, it would not be a defeat: it would be the most honest of struggles, a legacy of pride for the future - a struggle we can say without hesitation that “continues”.

The second option does not have the grandeur of the first, but it is also honorable. If there wasn’t the unity necessary for such a struggle, let the government resign and the third memorandum be introduced by its admirers, by those who argued that if the memorandums (which destroyed countless lives) weren’t from the Troika Troika Troika: IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank, which together impose austerity measures through the conditions tied to loans to countries in difficulty.

IMF : https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html , we’d have to invent them “ourselves”. This would undoubtedly have been a defeat, but a tactical one: the necessary forces would soon be brought together again - together with the popular movement -, more mature and wiser.

The third option followed, against the already expressed will of the people, i.e. a third memorandum with what Samaras did not dare to sign, and an “exit” from the memoranda with the tragic impoverishment of the country and its people for 60 years - a strategic defeat, destructive in the long term: It poisoned the movement and the people in struggle with Thatcherite TINA, dismantled all that existed of collective, plunged the whole left (and not just those who said the “big yes”) into an existential crisis. Ten years on, we’re struggling to keep our heads above its sewage.

Time and time again, the Left has practiced a “headlong rushing” without dealing with the unsettled accounts of the past - usually with tragic results. Is there any chance of overcoming the current crisis of absence of anything of real meaning and value to the people and the country, solely by “bypassing” 2015?