BEGINNING OF THE END FOR AUSTERITY

SYRIZA’S resounding victory in the Greek general election creates a huge opportunity to reverse the damaging consequences of the austerity confidence trick being imposed across Europe.

Austerity in Greece - demanded by the terms of the 'bailout' by the Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) - has crippled the economy, with GDP falling by 26% since 2009, and unemployment running at 26%.

Nobel prize winning economist, Paul Krugman was withering in his criticism of the Troika's treatment of Greece.  He said: “If the troika had been truly realistic, it would have acknowledged that it was demanding the impossible.”

Syriza’s had made a series of demands including:

• Writing-off the greater part of public debt’s nominal value so that it becomes sustainable in the context of a European Debt Conference.
• Introducing a growth clause in the repayment of the remaining part of the debt so that it is growth-financed and not budget-financed.
• Allowing a significant grace period moratorium in debt servicing to save funds for growth.

Syriza is seeking an immediate renegotiation of the terms of the so-called 'bailout' when the current arrangement expires on 28th February.

It is vital that they receive international support to renegotiate Greek public debt and end the humanitarian crisis that has been imposed on the Greek people.

It is imperative that Syriza succeed in these negotiations because it will have ramifications across Europe, including the UK, where austerity has been entirely counterproductive, hitting living standards and economic growth.

Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, summed up the futility and savagery of austerity when he said: “Austerity has proven to be an economic & social catastrophe.  He added: “Austerity is the crisis itself – it’s not a solution to the crisis.”  

Here in the UK since 2010, the Tories and their Lib Dem poodles have used their austerity programme to deliver an ideological agenda, that’s impoverished millions and further enriched the already super-rich. 

The state’s assets and taxpayers’ money have been put at the disposal of the corporate sector through privatisations and tax cuts.  Meanwhile ordinary citizens have seen their living standards under attack, unemployed and disabled people have been traduced and there has been a rapid rise of in-work poverty.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  Just as the election of Hugo Chavez was a catalyst for the Democratic Bolivarian Revolution, which swept across Latin America rejecting neoliberalism in favour of a progressive alternative, so Syriza’s victory could be Europe’s catalyst.

There is a general election in Spain at the end of the year, and there too, people are weary of austerity that protects the wealthy and inflicts hardship on ordinary people.  There is a good chance that the Spanish people will elect the anti-austerity left-wing progressive party, Podemos, led by the charismatic Pablo Iglesias, a 35-year-old political science professor.

Sandwiched between these two elections is, of course, the British general election.  There is therefore an historic opportunity for Labour to be part of a progressive pan-European anti-austerity alliance.   

The spirit of 1945 beckons!  We need to seize the moment to reject neoliberalism and build a progressive alternative that makes capitalism the slave of democracy not the other way round.  That is why I signed the statement, along with 15 other Labour MPs, calling for the party to build on our progressive offer by being more ambitious ahead of the next election.  You can read the statement here: http://labourlist.org/2015/01/16-labour-mps-release-statement-calling-for-change-in-party-policy-direction/

Such an approach is not only the right thing to do, it is popular too, a view reinforced by a YouGov poll showing that Labour would gain more support with an anti-austerity message: http://labourlist.org/2015/01/labour-could-gain-more-support-with-anti-austerity-message-poll-finds/

So although Britain and Greece are very different, there are lessons that Labour can learn from Syriza's political prospectus.  I would love to see Labour at the heart of a progressive anti-austerity Europe.  If we win the election in 98 days, we can take the first step on that journey.  I will certainly be doing all I can to make sure that we do.

In the meantime two parliamentary motions welcoming the election of Syriza are gaining support from Labour MPs in the House of Commons - EDMs 729 and 733: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/729
http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/733