Economics

THIS IS NOT A DEBT IT IS A FRAUD!

We, the indignant at the Bastille, in Paris, declare our solidarity with the general strike to be held June 30th in the UK against proposed austerity plans.

Athens has succumbed to the onslaught of the God of the Market, more powerful even than the Gods of Mount Olympus. Despite the 48 hour strike and the thousands of demonstrators surrounding Parliament, within the building they voted by a majority of 155 to 138 in favour of the plans for measures that will create a debt of the Greek people three times its Gross Domestic Product.

People who have suffered the impact of unjust practices and those who have been victims of abuse from corporate impunity will heave a sigh of relief the day directors of such companies are brought to court from behind their corporate shields. The spins and the twists in legal tangos that play out so impassively will become a thing of the past.

The former Landsbankinn in Iceland that went bankrupt in the big financial crash in Iceland in October 2008 offered its British customers sky high interests, way above any that of any other bank. The question at stake in the referendum is whether or not Icelandic taxpayers should compensate those who put their money in the Icesave account now that Landsbankinn is bankrupt.

Since 2008 the vast majority of the Western population dream about saying “no” to the banks, but no one has dared to do so. No one except the Icelanders, who have carried out a peaceful revolution that has managed not only to overthrow a government and draft a new constitution, but also seeks to jail those responsible for the country’s economic debacle.

Here we transcribe the whole of Dr Guillermo Sullings’ lecture from the Second International Symposium organised by the World Centre of Humanist Studies in the virtually interconnected Parks of Study and Reflection. Sullings, an Argentinean Economist, presented his work in the Punta de Vacas Park of Study and Reflection, Mendoza, Argentina.

*Those who know something about Grameen Bank will know it is a Bangladesh outfit and idea so where was that country in Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post’s Business Section September 16, 2010, article “Grameen in mainland microfinance venture”? Not even a passing reference to the originator nor the proud originating country!*