3.20.2012

Greece's Public Assets Fire Sale Part of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine Solution

Greece's publicly owned common assets are being forced to be sold by the EU and the IMF as part of the austerity package the unelected government there has accepted. This scenario is exactly the same one the IMF and World Bank have used in the last decades to force countries around the globe to sell their commons to the private sector at fire sale prices.

In her most excellent book 'The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America and the West's  “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. Now those same tactics are on display for all to see in Europe's debt ridden countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Greece announced last month its Public Gas Corp. would be put on the auction block as part of the debt-burdened country's efforts to raise $25 billion through the sale of government-owned property -- a condition of its European bailout package. A little while ago the Greek government puts its marinas up for sale. These public assets, and many others in the troubled countries these predators descend on, were built by the sweat of the Greek people and their taxes for the common benefit of their society. After their sale all benefits from their use be it monetary revenue or royalty will go to the multi-national capitalists not the Greeks who paid for them.

The banksters are stealing the Greek commons. The people of Greece must rise up to stop these thieves before its to late. The 99%people of Greece have nothing to lose from defaulting on these ridiculous bonds, only the 1% will lose. Yet the people are being forced by the banks and their unelected government to sell the common assets that should continue to return real wealth to the people throughout their lives. The time for revolution in now in Greece and everywhere.