XPost: soc.rights.human, soc.culture.greek, alt.religion.christi   
   n.east-orthodox   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   Below is an interview with Chomsky, followed by a transcript:   
      
       AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about Syriza in Greece, a   
   movement that started as a grassroots movement. Now they have taken   
   power, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. And then you have Spain right   
   now. We recently spoke to Pablo Iglesias, the secretary general of the   
   group called Podemos, that was founded, what—an anti-austerity party   
   that has rapidly gained popularity. A month after establishing itself   
   last year, they won five seats in the European Parliament, and some   
   polls show they could take the next election, which would mean that   
   Pablo Iglesias, the 36-year-old political science professor and   
   longtime activist, could possibly become the prime minister of   
   Europe’s fifth-largest economy. He came here to New York for just   
   about 72 hours, and I asked him to talk about what austerity measures   
   have meant in Spain.   
      
           PABLO IGLESIAS: Austerity means that people is expulsed of   
   their homes. Austerity means that the social services don’t work   
   anymore. Austerity means that public schools have not the elements,   
   the means to develop their activity. Austerity means that the   
   countries have not sovereignty anymore, and we became a colony of the   
   financial powers and a colony of Germany. Austerity probably means the   
   end of democracy. I think if we don’t have democratic control of   
   economy, we don’t have democracy. It’s impossible to separate economy   
   and democracy, in my opinion.   
      
       AMY GOODMAN: That was Pablo Iglesias, the head of this new   
   anti-austerity group in Spain called Podemos, which means in English   
   “We can.” The significance of these movements?   
      
       NOAM CHOMSKY: It’s very significant. But notice the reaction. The   
   reaction to Syriza was extremely savage. They made a little bit of   
   progress in their negotiations, but not much. The Germans came down   
   very hard on them.   
      
       AMY GOODMAN: You mean in dealing with the debt.   
      
       NOAM CHOMSKY: In the dealing with them, and sort of forced them to   
   back off from almost all their proposals. What’s going on with the   
   austerity is really class war. As an economic program, austerity,   
   under recession, makes no sense. It just makes the situation worse. So   
   the Greek debt, relative to GDP, has actually gone up during the   
   period of—which is—well, the policies that are supposed to overcome   
   the debt. In the case of Spain, the debt was not a public debt, it was   
   private debt. It was the actions of the banks. And that means also the   
   German banks. Remember, when a bank makes a dangerous, a risky   
   borrowing, somebody is making a risky lending. And the policies that   
   are designed by the troika, you know, are basically paying off the   
   banks, the perpetrators, much like here. The population is suffering.   
   But one of the things that’s happening is that the—you know, the   
   social democratic policies, so-called welfare state, is being eroded.   
   That’s class war. It’s not an economic policy that makes any sense as   
   to end a serious recession. And there is a reaction to it—Greece,   
   Spain and some in Ireland, growing elsewhere, France. But it’s a very   
   dangerous situation, could lead to a right-wing response, very   
   right-wing. The alternative to Syriza might be Golden Dawn, neo-Nazi   
   party.   
      
   http://www.salon.com/2015/07/05/noam_chomsky_austerity_is_just_c   
   ass_war_partner/   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa   
   Web:  http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm   
   Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com   
   E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk   
      
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