By larouchepac.com

EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche, whose July 1 statement, "The Trans-Atlantic Financial System Is Bankrupt, Not Greece," has circulated and been echoed widely from www.LaRouchePAC.com, today urged the widest circulation of an Associated Press article which recommends an emergency debt conference for Greece.

The article's headline is "Germany resists debt relief for Greece, but benefited from such a plan after WWII," referring to the 1953 London Debt Conference which arranged the writeoff of half of all German debt going back to the post-World War I period, and helped unleash the "German Economic Miracle" of the 1950s through 1970s.

Among others locations, the AP report appeared at USNews on July 2, just as the IMF reluctantly made public its [leaked] staff report which acknowledged that at least 50-60 billion euros of Greece's unpayable debt has to be relieved. That would be only 20% of Greece's current debt, but Germany received relief from nearly half of its debt in 1953, when Greece was one of its creditors.

The key section of the AP article reads:

"The 1953 agreement, in which Greece and about 20 other countries effectively wrote off a large chunk of Germany's loans and restructured the rest, is a landmark case that shows how effective debt relief can be. It helped spark what became known as the German economic miracle....

"So it's perhaps ironic that Germany is now among the countries resisting Greece's requests to have part of its debts written off.

"Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis claims debt relief is the key issue that held up a deal with creditors last week and says he'd rather cut off his arm than sign a deal that does not tackle the country's borrowings.

"In a closely-watched report on Thursday, the International Monetary Fund backed the call to make Greece's debt manageable."

LaRouche was to discuss the situation of the euro system's breakdown crisis with hundreds of activists around the United States Thursday night. He repeatedly emphasizes that the trans-Atlantic financial system cannot avoid collapse without imposing a "global Glass-Steagall" reorganization on the Wall Street and London-centered megabanks, and writing off their worthless debt "assets." The bailouts of Greece were swindles which bailed out only these banks, he showed in analysis in late February, and the so-called "Greek debt" both unpayable and illegitimate.

Almost uniquely, LaRouche sees how this collapse leads to London using its puppet Barack Obama to provoke war with Russia and China. His conclusion to that February statement on the "Greek debt" swindle is worth quoting:

"Looting does not constitute legitimate debt. The debt 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. This [issue] has to be put loud and clear on every doorstep in the United States. If you want to avoid World War III, that's what you'll do."

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

EU Creditors' Position Crumbles: IMF Admits Greece Needs Debt Relief

One day after German legislators leaked an IMF report admitting that the "last offer" to Greece would not have made euro debt payable, even if Greece had accepted it, the IMF, itself, has had to publish that report.

Its additional admission—that Greece needs relief on at least 50 billion euros of its debt—is being publicized worldwide and in Greece, and could strongly affect the outcome of the Sunday referendum in Greece on that "last offer." It acknowledges, at least in part, the truth of the Greek government's position, and the incompetence of the European "institutions"—acting for Wall Street and London banks—in refusing to agree to the write-down of any debt.

The IMF report appeared in full on the same day that a major Associated Press story from London was published in the major U.S. press, shaming Germany's leadership for rejecting the Greek proposal of an international debt conference. Germany had half its debt written off by such a conference in 1953, when Greece was one of its creditors, and the "German economic miracle" followed.

Even before the AP story appeared, the London Guardian had reported:

"The International Monetary Fund has electrified the referendum debate in Greece after it conceded that the crisis-ridden country needs 50bn (£35bn or $55bn) of extra funds over the next three years and large-scale debt relief to create a breathing space and stabilise the economy.

"With three days to go before a knife-edge referendum, the IMF revealed a deep split with Europe as it warned that Greece's debts were unsustainable.

"Fund officials said they would not be prepared to put a proposal for a third Greek bailout package to the Washington-based organisation's board unless it included both a commitment to economic reform and debt relief [including] a 20-year grace period before making any debt repayments."

Yet the European creditors—and the IMF—had just given Greece a last offer which refused any debt relief, and German Chancellor Merkel had called it "very generous"!

The Greek population now would have to vote to reject such a dishonest and discredited "last offer."

In a third development, Sputnik News reported that a director of China's Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics opened the potential of China providing credit to Greece. Fan Mingtao said,

"I believe there are two ways to give Greece Chinese aid. First, within the framework of the international aid through EU countries. Second, China could aid Greece directly. Especially considering the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, China has this ability."

The Fight in Greece To Vote 'No' to the Empire Is On

In the face of a concerted mobilization by the European oligarchy to overthrow Greece's government, Athens is mobilizing for the "No" votes. Minister for Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis, said that the July 5 referendum is an "experiment" to put pressure on Greece's creditors. "It's the best we can do.... We found ourselves in a cruel dilemma, to either sign what our creditors tell us or stage a referendum," Lafazanis said in a radio interview July 2. "We are conducting an experiment to apply pressure through the referendum.

"We could do something else, co-sign a deal that would be a death sentence for Greece. What use would it be? We are at this point because all the recipes applied were wrong. If we applied a deal like the one the creditors proposed, things would be even worse. We would have fewer expenditures and bigger taxes,"

Lafazanis said.

Responding to an MP with the government's minority partner, the Independent Greeks, who declared that he would vote "Yes," the party's leader, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, announced the member's expulsion, saying,

"We are at war and we do not do discounts. Whoever cannot endure, leaves."

The famous film director Costas Gavras, in an interview with the ANA-MPA, came out in full, unqualified support for Prime Minister Tsipras:
"Alexis Tsipras is right to hold a referendum, it is necessary. I think, in any case, that the work that Tsipras has done up to today is absolutely necessary, and I hope that things go in accordance with his hopes."

According to Gavras, the main problem that Tsipras will face, will be to make Greece a proper state.

"We Greeks are a nation but there is no state. If we do not become a state, I don't know where we're going. We will be a colony of the banks."

"Alexis Tsipras is an important leader. I always think of this young person [tsipras], aged 40 years old, who arrives in Brussels, in this terrible place with all those people that have immense experience, political and economic. I am amazed that he was able to defend himself and get where he got. We don't get such leaders often in Greece, and I think I have not seen the like in the last 70 years."

Evans-Pritchard: Remember Pyrrhus

City of London mouthpiece Ambrose Evans-Pritchard compares the attempt of the EU creditors to crush Greece, to Pyrrhus' victory after Asculum, writing

"If Europe's creditor powers have succeeded in bringing Greece to its knees, they have paid a fearful price themselves. As Pyrrhus said after the battle of Asculum: 'Another such victory, and we will be utterly ruined.'"

Evans-Pritchard makes clear that it is the Eurozone that defaulted on the IMF, not Greece.
"We can already see that the EU itself has suffered a reputational catastrophe on several fronts.... It has brought about a state of affairs where a member of its own Eurozone family has become the first developed country in history to default to the IMF.

"Let us be clear what this means. The currency union itself is delinquent. The rich countries of northern Europe are refusing to pay African, Asian and Latin American states. Blaming it on Greece alone does not wash."

"...citizens across Europe can see with their own eyes that the ECB has been rationing emergency liquidity (ELA) for a prostrate country as a tool of political pressure, and that it forced [Greece's ruling party] Syriza to take the drastic step of shutting the banks by freezing ELA at EU89 billion.

"It is an odd spectacle to watch a central bank with a treaty duty to uphold financial stability, take the deliberate decision to precipitate the collapse of banks that it regulates...."

The Fight in Greece To Vote 'No' to the Empire Is On

In the face of a concerted mobilization by the European oligarchy to overthrow Greece's government, Athens is mobilizing for the "No" votes. Minister for Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis, said that the July 5 referendum is an "experiment" to put pressure on Greece's creditors. Lafazanis said in a radio interview July 2:
"It's the best we can do.... We found ourselves in a cruel dilemma, to either sign what our creditors tell us or stage a referendum...We are conducting an experiment to apply pressure through the referendum.

"We could do something else, co-sign a deal that would be a death sentence for Greece. What use would it be? We are at this point because all the recipes applied were wrong. If we applied a deal like the one the creditors proposed, things would be even worse. We would have fewer expenditures and bigger taxes,"

Responding to an MP with the government's minority partner, the Independent Greeks, who declared that he would vote "Yes," the party's leader, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, announced the member's expulsion, saying,
"We are at war and we do not do discounts. Whoever cannot endure, leaves."

The famous film director Costas Gavras, in an interview with the ANA-MPA, came out in full, unqualified support for Prime Minister Tsipras:
"Alexis Tsipras is right to hold a referendum, it is necessary. I think, in any case, that the work that Tsipras has done up to today is absolutely necessary, and I hope that things go in accordance with his hopes."

According to Gavras, the main problem that Tsipras will face, will be to make Greece a proper state.
"We Greeks are a nation but there is no state. If we do not become a state, I don't know where we're going. We will be a colony of the banks."

"Alexis Tsipras is an important leader. I always think of this young person [tsipras], aged 40 years old, who arrives in Brussels, in this terrible place with all those people that have immense experience, political and economic. I am amazed that he was able to defend himself and get where he got. We don't get such leaders often in Greece, and I think I have not seen the like in the last 70 years."

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By larouchepac.com

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https://larouchepac.com/20150702/ap-shames-merkel-greece-larouche-urges-story-be-spread