PRESS RELEASE
Greeks and EU Reach Fragile Ceasefire
Feb. 25, 2015 (EIRNS)—The tentative agreement hammered out by the Eurogroup of Finance Ministers and the Greek government is little more than a means of buying time by the Greek government and allowing the Eurozone to “kick the can down the road”, without solving the crisis—in other words, a cease-fire.
The Greek government did not obtain the one crucial measure required: convening a European conference to deal with the debt not only of Greece but of all the Eurozone countries, including Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus, etc., and of launching a “New Deal” to fund a recovery. Such a conference, to be successful, would have to implement a Glass-Steagall reform of the hopelessly bankrupt Western financial system—which is anathema for Brussels.
The Greek government, however, did win the demand that the memorandum of austerity conditionalities designed by the Troika be replaced by a program drafted by the Greek government to address the humanitarian catastrophe. That program of measures, which contains no number targets, was accepted by the Eurogroup Feb. 24, and must now be ratified by national parliaments.
Otherwise, the EU program was extended by four months, rather than the six months requested by the Greeks. What that means is that the ECB will not cut off the Greek banking system from liquidity under the Emergency Liquidity Assistance program, the suspension of which would force Athens to immediately institute capital controls and implement emergency measure which would lead to Greece leaving the Eurozone.
Unless the ceasefire blows up—which a negative statement by ECB head Draghi Feb. 25 about the deal indicates could be a short-term possibility.
Meanwhile, the LaRouche is expanding its organizing around a total reorganization of the debt, and the repudiation of debt obtained by swindle. “Looting does not constitute legitimate debt,” Lyndon LaRouche declared in a statement calling for the Greek government be given full international backing in its demand that the debt be dramatically slashed. The debt, he said, is illegal, it is unpayable,
“and it is the fruit of a London-led criminal enterprise that must be shut down altogether, if the world is to survive the coming months without an eruption of general war in the center of Europe.”
EIR’s Feb. 27 issue features an analysis of the fraud perpetrated on Greece by the international bankers, which supports LaRouche’s conclusion.
