Stephen Lendman

On Sunday, long-suffering Greeks suffered another body blow. Parliamentarians voted 153 to 143 for greater austerity than already, exclusively benefitting Western bankers and large investors, social justice entirely ignored.

A three day anti-austerity strike featured protests and sit-ins. Large parts of Greece’s economy were shut down, including transport, schools and other public services to no avail.

Elected on a pledge to end neoliberal austerity, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipris’ SYRIZA regime betrayed its supporters, letting Western monied interests financially rape and pillage Greece more than already.

Again over the weekend. Legislation enacted included a 5.4 billion euro tax hike, hitting ordinary people hardest. Pensions were cut by 1.8 billion euros, value-added taxes raised from 23 - 24%, and pension contributions were increased by 20% for most workers.

Ordinary Greeks, the self-employed, small farmers and other sectors of the economy suffering most under neoliberal harshness are most affected.

Enacting the measure preceded an emergency Monday Brussels meeting, Greece forced to enact greater austerity harshness to qualify for another tranche of debt relief.

Troika bandits want more, three billion additional euros in “contingency measures” in case approved cuts fall short of meeting budget surplus targets.

At the same time, Eurozone finance ministers disagree on how much greater hardship Greece can sustain short of bankruptcy and debt default.

Instead of responsibly choosing Grexit and restructuring impossible to repay debt, Greece remains trapped in the Eurozone straightjacket.

It’s a money-controlled European colony, its sovereignty lost, looted for profit - a zombie economy, its people impoverished, enduring enormous pain and suffering to assure bankers and large investors get paid.

The only uncertainty about its future is how much worse things will get than already. The more it borrows, the greater its debt burden, the harder it is to repay, Troika bandits demanding new austerity measures to qualify for more debt relief.

Nothing in prospect suggests an end to Greece’s long nightmare as long as it chooses euro entrapment over sovereign freedom.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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