The policies carried out are not going to get us out of the crisis. The psychological climate in Greece is of despair, disappointment and anger, they are in shock. People seek practical and individual solutions to systemic problems; such is the case of Debt. What is the solution?

With the abolition of collective bargaining, employers are happy to impose the requirements of the labour reform and the Government sets the minimum wage which drags down the rest of salaries. The result: 500,000 malnourished children, 1.5 million unemployed (for a population of 10 million) and only a vague promise of a future development.

Now in Greece those who are being affected by the crisis is the small bourgeoisie, the middle class, especially the young; a generation of exceptional education now forced to be a new working class in areas for which they were not trained.

It is the breeding ground of hope that at some point there will be an explosion. In politics there is always a time lag between action and effect and in Greece a resistance movement has not yet articulated against the Memorandums. There is no unifying political proposal showing the way out of the crisis. The left, to implement their alternatives, need a mass movement, alternatives that will come in due time of maturity.

Democratic institutions are in deep crisis while fascism grows; many laws are passed without debate in Parliament, decrees only require ratification and there is no political dialogue (the Council of Ministers has only had four meetings in eight months) and what is imposed by the Memorandums is unconstitutional.

A framework for an institutional reform that seeks direct democracy needs to be created and now is the time to do it because we cannot go on like this, neither those above can continue to do so, nor those below can continue tolerating it. Progressive forces should push for a new Constitution, not a revision of the old. Referendums and legislative initiatives driven by the population. «The medicine for the crisis is a new democracy».

Ideas from 3rd meeting of the International Citizen Audit Network (ICAN)

Public event, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki feb 2013

«Debt and Rising Inequality. Fascism, Racism and Patriarchy»
Spyros Marchetos (XXXE, Greece), Debt Breeds Fascism
Babis Kouroundis (KEERFA, Greece), Racism in Greece Today
Giorgos Katrougalos (ELE, Greece), Building an Authoritarian State
Despoina Haralambidou (Trade Unionist, Syriza MP, Greece), Debt and Women Workers