Internationalism or Extinction: Inaugural Summit of the Progressive International
The Inaugural Summit
On 18-20 September, the Progressive International (PI) will host its inaugural summit, convening members from across the planet to confront the central dilemma of our time: Internationalism or Extinction. Register Now!
In May 2020, the PI launched with a mission to unite, organize, and mobilize progressive forces in a common front.
Since then, this coalition has grown to include unions, parties, and movements that represent millions of people around the world, from the National Alliance of People’s Movements in India to the Congreso de los Pueblos in Colombia to the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25.
Together, the members of the PI have launched international campaigns on issues like debt cancellation in the Global South, developed a policy vision for ‘Reclaiming the World After Covid-19’, and built a wire service for the translation and dissemination of critical perspectives shut out by mainstream media around the world.
The Covid-19 pandemic has postponed the plans for a gathering of the Council in Reykjavik, Iceland. But the pandemic has also accelerated crises of democracy, climate, and economic inequality, calling on progressive forces everywhere to act quickly and decisively.
That is why the Progressive International is convening this emergency summit: to map our current crisis, to reclaim our shared future, and to strengthen our planetary front to do so.
Program
1. A Progressive Vision of Post-Capitalism, a panel discussion with Yanis Varoufakis, Vijay Prashad, Ece Temelkuran, Nick Estes, and Lyn Ossome | 14:00 UTC
The horizon of post-capitalism is coming into clearer focus — but it remains to be seen if the post-capitalist economy will be authoritarian and oligarchic or democratic and social. Yanis Varoufakis kicks off a panel discussion of how we can win the fight for a post-capitalist future.
2. The Years of Repair, a panel discussion with Naomi Klein, Tasneem Essop, Vanessa Nakate and Aruna Roy | 16:00 UTC
The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed lock downs around the world. How can we harness the new pace of our lives to heal the deep rifts in our societies? Join Naomi Klein and other members of the PI Council to discuss how we can use this time for reparation on multiple fronts: climate, race, economy, infrastructure.
3. Internationalism or Extinction, a panel discussion with Noam Chomsky, Nanjala Nyabola, Cornel West, and John McDonnell | 18:00 UTC
Capital is coordinated. Our struggles against injustice and oppression must be the same. Noam Chomsky and other members of the Council set out the existential threat facing humanity — and how the Progressive International can fight back.
4. Reclaiming Democracy in Latin America, co-hosted by Wiphalas Across the World, with Luis Arce, Andrés Arauz, Alicia Castro & more | 20:00 UTC
We are witnessing the destruction of democratic institutions across Latin America and around the world. Join Luis Arce — Bolivian presidential candidate from the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS-IPSP) — Alicia Castro, Andrés Arauz, and Wiphalas Across the World to discuss how progressive forces are fighting to reclaim democracy and popular sovereignty in Bolivia and across Latin America against increasing powerful tactics of legal warfare, or ‘lawfare.’
Location
Online – Register Now!
Debenhams workers have been picketing for over 150 days in Dublin
Debenhams workers have been picketing for 159 days today in Dublin — everyday, 24h a day, on 6h shifts. And they will continue to do so until they get an agreement that is fair and just.
As DiEM25 Dublin DSC we want to express our solidarity to Debenhams staff and all the workers that are already feeling the impact of the overlapping COVID and Brexit crisis.
Manuela and Agnese from Dublin DSC 1 spoke with Lucy, a representative from the picket who gave us an update on their strike. Debenhams retail company closed the Irish branch during the lockdown, but over 159 days (154 at the date of this interview) later workers are still fighting for their redundancies.
“They made an offer to give us 1 million euros, as an enhanced redundancy payment, there are a thousand of us, it would have been based on our service and our hours of work — pro rata they call it. But really, it’s not very much you know, when you work it all out. They also offered us — they were going to open two stores to sell off the stock; (…) there’s up to about 25 million worth of stock in all the Debenhams stores, and they offered that when the stock was sold off (…) any net profit from that stock, 23 and 1/3 percentage of that stock would go to the workers. So the union had said they were going to send out the ballot papers for us to vote, whether we were going to vote yes or no on it. But since then, the girls have had a sit in in the store in Henry St. and in the store in Cork and KPMG withdrew the offer. So, at the moment, there is no offer on the table, we’re still in the same situation we were in from the start.”
“We understand that the company went into liquidation, but I mean to just go off and wash your hands of us… Especially, they are still open in the UK. I know that the Irish branch is saying that they’re separate from the English branch but that’s just ridiculous. That’s just underhanded business being done. (…) It’s really and truly disgraceful.”
“The workers, united, will never be defeated!”
#Debenhams pic.twitter.com/PvDRyhAbj6
— DiEM25 Dublin1 DSC (@Diem25Ireland) September 10, 2020
Photo Source: PJ Coogan on Twitter.
Is it really in the interest of Irish citizens to defend the Apple tax?
The wealth brought by multinationals has only very partially benefited Irish citizens because of the staunch refusal to implement redistribution policies
How is it possible that a democratic government can spend 7.5 million fighting a legal battle to allow one of the largest corporations in the world not to pay their share of tax?
How is it possible that while the supposed corporate tax rate is 12.5%, the Irish government can openly acknowledge that Apple is paying 0.005% tax?
How is it possible that an election can occur in the presence of this court case and there is barely a whisper of dissent from the body politic or the electorate?
According to IMF researchers, Ireland is a tax haven — yet where is the public outcry?
In the last decades the Irish public has been the subject of an establishment narrative touting that ‘there is no alternative’ concerning Ireland’s current economic strategy. The Irish political class have spun a tale so simple and compelling, that these obvious injustices can be accommodated and even celebrated in the blandest of conversations.
How did this happen? It all started with Dr. Tk Whitaker. He was an Irish economist and politician who is widely recognized as the architect of Ireland’s dominant economic strategy. Considered a hero of the Irish state, he has been eulogised as the champion who set the nation on a path to restored national pride. When Dr Whitaker passed away in 2017, the Irish Industrial Authority issued a statement naming him as a major influence in the creation of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) strategy. It was purportedly built to overcome the deep poverty and underdevelopment that has affected post-independence Ireland.
Now, many authors outside the ‘mainstream’ Thacherian political narrative question the necessity and effectiveness of that strategy. But if we want to analyze Ireland’s current financial approach, we need to have an understanding of that strategy and what it implied.
The deal was simple: investors created jobs and in return, they got major tax breaks, as well as anything else they needed, no questions asked. The imperative was to create jobs at home and stem the tide of poverty and emigration. Yet what started as a quid pro quo has morphed into an affront to democratic norms and a constant habit to defend the interests of Ireland privileged classes and their global connections in the name of national interests.
The initial FDI strategy began as an industrial development strategy; eg. ‘build your factory in Limerick and we’ll give you a tax break’. However, as the West moved from industry to finance, the Irish strategy moved from building factories to providing tax residency to companies. This means that today Ireland is a de facto tax haven (as per the definition of the IMF) that hosts the multinationals that provide jobs to the IT and pharmaceutical sector, as well as a large number of shell companies which barely employ anyone.
The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) — central to the Irish economic strategy and has been a key policy since the late ‘60s — has been catastrophically successful
The Irish Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation estimate that 20% of all private-sector jobs in the Republic are attributable to FDI. And still, the moral, material and political squalor of Ireland, is perfectly evident to anyone who takes a walk around Dublin city centre. We know our country is suffering and the homeless families on the streets of our cities are only the tip of the iceberg. The far greater number are hanging on by their fingernails in a state of dereliction, while banks and landlords gouge them of their hopes of a sustainable future.
The Irish people are victims of prolonged psychological and political repression. They have been convinced to endorse a strategy that is indeed against their real interests This permits corporate interests to hold the Irish people to ransom and allows this bizarre injustice to be politically possible. Solutions seem impossible since the Irish government is stuck between the proverbial ‘rock and a hard place’.
On one hand, having relied on FDI for a long time, the Republic does not currently have other assets to compete with in the global market. However, on the other hand, it is widely understood that pressure coming from the EU and OECD for tax harmonization cannot be resisted forever and just taxation could mean a flight of capital.
After decades of this strategy, Ireland is today an open, diverse and modern country, but the wealth brought by USA multinationals has only very partially benefited Irish citizens because of the staunch refusal to implement redistribution policies. A fiscal policy, and consequently, public services, kept at a minimum level, and the dissolution of basic working rights was the price to pay on the stake of a globalized knowledge economy.
The other side of Ireland (never shown in government propaganda) is a country affected by profound social divide, where poor families spend their nights in the streets and police stations. By contrast, an elite thrive thanks to the resources subtracted to Irish and European public hospitals, schools and transport. Ireland is, unfortunately, the country of many negative records: the only one in western Europe with no universal health care, no public childcare (and some among the highest private fees in Europe), the highest interest rates on mortgages, and where collective bargaining is not recognized by the law.
Moreover, thanks to the governmental choice to defend the tax haven status, Ireland has in the last few years been a net contributor to the EU (it gives to the Eu more than it receives because its GDP is inflated by multinationals and makes the country look richer than it really is). This meant that during the negotiation for the recovery fund it could not negotiate any particular support for its collapsing healthcare system and its economy in crisis. In other words, Ireland pays more to the EU budget than it receives — not from today but since 2013 — just because its GDP is inflated by multinational wealth (and apple in particular) that is not redistributed.You cannot, indeed, play the rich and the poor at the same time. Ireland cannot ask for more EU funding for their public services in crisis, while defending a tax policy that makes the country the 5th richest in Europe according to GDP — even if that money flows through the country.
The usual argument used to defend Irish corporation tax policy (and a great fear in the public debate), is that Ireland cannot renounce these resources and the amount of jobs that come with them.
But, despite the elite scaremongering, even if a more stringent corporation tax should become reality in Ireland, it is not so immediate that the vast majority of corporations will move elsewhere. These companies need European headquarters to operate in. After Brexit, Ireland is today the only english speaking country left in the single market, and multinationals have generally made numerous investments to buy offices in Dublin. Their management has been settled here for decades also, and they have invested in the inflated property market.
Looking at the future, European fiscal harmonization is a matter of time, and the pandemic could forever disconnect knowledge economy jobs from the physical office
A big rural (or abroad) workforce sprawl would be the real threat to Irish local economy, as anyone can verify these days in deserted Irish city centres. In this scenario, is it really in the interest of Irish citizens to pursue a staunch defence of Ireland’s tax haven role? Even those who think that the FDI strategy has served Irish best interest, and have no care for morality or social justice, should admit at this point the absence of an alternative is a problem.
Furthermore, in a globalized economy dominated by US/China wars, is it really wise to prioritize the interests of the multinationals oligopoly? Defending a policy that drains other european welfare systems means to undermine the concept of European solidarity and any future potential for a united effort to overcome the many crises that this continent has to face.
A higher awareness of the necessity of contributing to a common effort for a european wide environmental and just transition is necessary in Ireland
Sovereignty is a big topic of political discussion in Ireland, as is understandable for a postcolonial country. But real sovereignty comes from having a healthy and diversified native economy. However, that is not possible in a nation that does not properly invest in research, education, innovation and renewables and relies solely on foreign capital, mainly from US origin. A country where higher education is generally inaccessible to those that don’t have a middle or upper class background.
Education and investment in creative communities and cooperative spaces are the foundation to grow the native and economic fabric that Ireland desperately needs.
Ireland needs to reverse its strategy for the future and do three things:
- Back the request for ECB Eurobonds.
- Put in place a progressive fiscal system aimed at wealth redistribution.
- Institute a Citizen Wealth Fund, where financial assets (bonds, stocks, properties ecc,) are due to the state in lieu of cash tax money.
These three sources of income can be used to invest in a holistic plan for Ireland’s environmental and social transition and provide the Irish citizens the public services they need. But in order to do this, a change towards a cultural progressive majority is necessary.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect DiEM25’s official policies or positions.
DiEM TV: “Beyond Castles” — Rosemary Bechler & Michael Sinclair in conversation with Peter MacLeod
Rosemary Bechler and Michael Sinclair in conversation with Peter MacLeod of MASS LBP, a leading pioneer in the democratic process in Canada and worldwide.
What kind of democracy should a democratising movement fight for?
How do we defend the public realm and public debate in the COVID era?
Do citizens assemblies work?
Peter Macleod is the co-founder and Principal of MASS LBP — “Canada’s home for democratic innovation and public strategy.” They are leading experts in public engagement and deliberative democracy. During this discussion, he will help shed light on these questions through his experience with reference panels, citizens’ assemblies, commissions for governments, and more.
Peter Macleod also frequently writes and speaks about the citizen’s experience of the state, the importance of public imagination, and the future of responsible government.
Come join us for this episode of DiEMTV!
We call it TV because we like retro-futurism. But it’s much more than TV. In times of global pandemics, DiEM25 has launched a special online and completely free program to understand the current crisis and offer tools and hope to get out of it stronger and more united in building the World After Coronavirus.
Everyone can join; you don’t have to be a DiEM25 member. Please register for the event in order to get a link sent to your email. The registration form also allows you to ask a question to the panelists, suggest next topics and next guests.
In memory of George Bizos
It is with great sadness that DiEM25 informs our movement of the passing of prominent Anti-Apartheid Human Rights Lawyer and DiEM25 Advisory Panel member George Bizos.
George Bizos passed away at 92 on Wednesday, September 9. He was a valued member of our movement since 2016 and will be missed.
George Bizos was one of the major figures in the protests against apartheid, particularly during the Rivonia Trial in which he was sentenced to life imprisonment along with other activists in 1964 on charges of seeking to overthrow the apartheid government. His long and successful legal career includes many high profile cases, including the defence of anti-apartheid revolutionary and first post-apartheid president of South Africa Nelson Mandela. He became an Advisory Panel member for DiEM25 in 2018.
Here’s a personal message from Yanis Varoufakis on George Bizos’ passing:
“Two years ago, George Bizos and his family hosted Danae and I at their home in Johannesburg.
We talked about Mandela, whose lawyer he was since the early sixties — in particular the arguments he used in court to remove the threat of the death penalty, the way Bizos and his family took care of Mandela’s family during the long prison years, the honour that Mandela bestowed upon Bizos when, as President, he asked Bizos to draft South Africa’s remarkable new Constitution.
We also talked about how Bizos, when he was only 10 years old, followed his father who had the audacity to help New Zealand soldiers escape in a boat (that Bizos senior commandeered) from Nazi troops at their south Peloponnese village, how the 11 New Zealand soldiers and the 2 Bizoses were adrift in the Aegean before being picked up by a British destroyer, how they ended up in South Africa, his first impression when he came off the ship in Durban “I saw the way the blacks were being treated and I knew immediately that I wanted to help them liberate themselves from white rule”, how he was forced to learn Afrikaan while studying English on his own at a time he was forced to work all hours in a textile shop as child labourer, how a benevolent old lady took pity on him and paid for him to go to a decent school, how he managed to sneak into Law School.
Coming to more recent times, how he admired DiEM25’s work to create a radical European internationalism, and why this made him accept gladly our invitation to join the Advisory Panel (AP).”
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Yanis Varoufakis on the tragic situation in Moria
What would you do if you, your family and another 13000 people were incarcerated in a prison camp built for 1800 people, without running water, without heating, without knowing when you will be given a hearing to decide between deportation and asylum (some people have been in there for 4 years) and, to cap it all, you hear that 35 positive COVID-19 tests were returned in an environment where it is impossible to self-isolate and where there are zero doctors to look after you?
Would you not try to find a way to break down the gates so that you can escape that living hell?
Would it be wrong to start thinking that maybe starting a fire is the answer? No, you would be right. Indeed, it would be your duty to start that fire!
Photo Source: Oscar Camps on Twitter.
Platform capitalism: How Big Tech monopolies are messing up the global economy
In her early memoir Abolish Silicon Valley, Wendy Liu recounts her experience as a Startup CTO working 60-80 hours per week. In retrospect she rationalises her behaviour as an attempt to escape the “nameless dread of imprisonment” in a nine-to-five job.
Despite the fact that she and her colleagues earned practically no money, the prospect of an acqui-hire (neologism of “acquisition” and “hiring”) for a couple of million US$ kept them running beyond reason. Celebrities like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk had already proved that it is possible to join the Billionaire class starting with a garage business.
What Liu describes here — the desire to be extraordinarily rewarded for hard work, coupled with contempt for people who don’t try hard enough — is a structural problem in ‘Big Tech’
‘Big Tech’ and its brand of platform capitalism can only be vaguely described as a business model that includes IT, data and/or the Internet — paired with the promise of a more flexible, smarter, disruptive and intelligent production. Behind the curtain, as a closer analysis shows, lurks a profitability crisis of global capitalism, which only has gained momentum after the 2008 financial crisis. The “techlash” — as the hypothetical backlash of omnipotent tech companies, such as Google or Facebook, was originally coined — went viral for the first time as a result of the Snowden revelations in 2013.
Since then, the focus has been on data and privacy protection and, since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, on the dubious role that social networks such as Facebook and Twitter play in the democratic process. The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in 2018, was the first response by European policymakers to regulate the global flow of data. However, the relevance of data protection remains not only difficult to communicate, but is also practically unfeasible at the individual level. It is time to extend the analysis of Big Tech and Platform capitalism to the economic field in order to understand the structural changes taking place and what this means for wage earners and society in general.
The trend toward monopolisation in the digital economy was already evident in the so-called Dot-com bubble between 1995 and 2000
Back then the promise of exceptional returns on investment attracted US$ 256 billion in financial capital. Returns from the real economy were no longer attractive enough for international investment funds. This trend intensified again after the financial crisis in 2008, when central banks fired up the hunt for more lucrative investments with their low interest rate policy (Interest rates fell from 5% to 0.5% in the months following the crash). The monetary policy of Quantitative easing also intensified growing demand for riskier forms of investment.
Another reason for the growing appeal of the Digital economy is the fact that its assets can be moved more quickly, thus facilitating tax evasion. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, 92.8% (US$ 200 billion) of Apple’s capital reserves have been stored abroad in 2016. Microsoft had 93.9% (US$96.3 billion), followed by Google with 58.7% (US$42.9 billion). Amazon and Facebook are also high on the list.
“The growing share of income from financial investments and thus the decline in income derived directly from the sale of work products such as cars, sports goods or the like can be seen as a shift in bargaining power, a change in the weight that could be asserted in wage negotiations,” states philosopher and sociologist Aaron Sahr in his book Keystroke Capitalism. “The process of financialization thus upgrades a few top earners and renders the majority of employees obsolete.”
Wendy Liu intuited this dilemma and started looking for C-Level positions early in her life. During her visits to San Francisco in the 2010s, she quickly noticed the glaring inequality in the distribution of income. The shuttle drivers who transported her to the Google campus in the morning, the gardeners and service staff did not seem as hip and satisfied as her fellow developers. But then they didn’t really belong to the Google family either, right?
In the digital economy, the low-skilled workforce has no right to fair wages
A peek at the annual report of the Takeaway.com group shows what the business model of a Platform company looks like. Takeaway.com — currently present in Germany with the brand name Lieferando — dominates the German market for online food delivery after the pullback of its competitor Deliveroo. The company acquired the brands Lieferheld, Pizza.de and Foodora, and generated a gross merchandise value of EUR€ 1.45 billion in the 2019 financial year. This represents a gross revenue of EUR€ 211 million. The remarkable thing about this is that most delivery drivers do not work for Takeaway.com, but are paid by the participating restaurants. Takeaway.com thus makes its money by providing an online platform, marketing, PR, management and customer support. The Platform has to be protected from competition constantly, which is ensured through aggressive takeover policies, cross-subsidization and the exploitation of the Network effect.
The so-called Network effect is a characteristic of online platforms: The more users use a platform, the more attractive it becomes for all other users. In order to dominate the market, companies like Takeaway.com are prepared to waive the Return on Investment for years to come. According to their own reports, business in Germany became profitable for the first time in 2019 — five years after market launch.
The case of Takeaway.com demonstrates how much Platform companies are dependent on capital injections and how little the majority of employees benefit from the success of the companies
By collecting data from each transaction—as well as tracking data from delivery drivers and similar relevant transactions—Takeaway.com can continue to expand its monopoly position. In technical jargon this goes by the term: Extractive minimum — the control over the platform is sufficient to skim off the monopoly rent.
Most companies in the Digital economy are platform providers in one form or another, i.e. the central sources of business activity are training algorithms, outsourcing labor, optimizing production processes and generating new data to further expand market position. Whether it is advertising platforms such as Google or Facebook who gain more than 89% of their revenues from (online) advertising, Cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services which form the backbone of the global digital infrastructure, or Industry platforms that optimize internal processes, the basic mechanisms are the same. The service providers Uber, AirBnb or Lieferando, are among the “lean platforms”, as they generally do not possess the offered commodities and even outsource computing and hosting to other Cloud platforms.
In a nutshell, Platform capitalism seems to be less of a rebound of the economy than a form of jobless recovery
This has created a large informal labor market. Especially “lean platforms” are ideal assets for venture capital because they promise attractive performances in the short term.
It is by no means a historical necessity that technological innovation is linked to such a high degree to speculation on the financial market and declining wages for workers.
On technological sovereignty
In our policy paper ‘Technological Sovereignty — Democratization of Technology and Innovation’ DiEM25 has written a set of proposals to deal with the impending threat of platform capitalism.
We primarily focus on the regulation of Platform companies — by further protecting citizens from data extraction and by demanding obligatory interoperability between different platforms (similar to the development on the mobile phone market) — in order to counteract the monopolistic tendencies that e.g. Network effects create.
We also advocate for stronger antitrust regulations that take into account the international position of a company and not only the profits of the respective national subsidiaries. It would also be conceivable here that a part of the private data collection is published and made available to public institutions committed to the common good. Furthermore, we want to bring Data unions into discussion, strengthen the model of Platform cooperatives and confine the private appropriation of public research. Public money becomes public code, as the Free Software movement, among others, calls it.
I am convinced that the democratization of technological innovation is an important contribution to a solidary society and does not belong exclusively in the hands of venture capital and shareholders. Also to make sure that talented young people like Wendy Liu do not waste their talent and commitment in an industrial sector that is working on optimizing the online advertising market with hundreds of billions of euros.
Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect DiEM25’s official policies or positions.
The dark shadow of conflicts on the Aegean and the Mediterranean
Half a century ago, on the 6-7 of September, Istanbul’s famous Beyoğlu district became the scene of a pogrom — an ‘organized massacre of helpless people’ — and thereafter lost its spirit of multiculturalism.
The term pogrom is never used in Turkey’s recent history; this violent and fatal attack on Greek minorities is mentioned as “Istanbul events of 6-7 September 1955.” Even today, on social media with some exceptions the same description is more observable. However, the general opinion carries the conviction that the 6-7 September pogrom in 1955 was a planned attack aimed at uniformizing society and seizing minority property.
All acts of pogrom were executed during these two days of atrocity. Material, religious, cultural assets and living spaces of an ethnic, religious, political and cultural community were destroyed and exposed to violence. The stories of the victims are revealed in these two films: Tasos Boulmetis’ Touch of Spice (2003) and Tomris Giritlioğlu’s Pain of Autumn, based on the book of Yılmaz (2009).
This pogrom contributed to the very brutal official policies of dehumanization and societal cleansing concerning minority communities, which were applied by ruling powers during certain periods of history. The effect was so drastic that the last ‘native’ Greeks left Turkey in a short time. It is estimated that there were over 100.000 Greeks in the last century of ottoman Empire. From all aspects, this pogrom was a dark stain in the socio-political memory of the nation, and it was the beginning of the conclusive transformation of the multi-cultural face of Istanbul towards a homogenous population in accordance with the state ideology.
According to the press, 11 people died in the riots, and according to Greek sources 15 people lost their lives. Officially, 30 people were injured — unofficial numbers amount to 300. The number of raped women is estimated to be above 200.
4,214 houses, 1,004 offices, 73 churches, one synagogue, one monastery, 26 schools and 5,317 other places such as hotels and bars were attacked.
The property damage is estimated between 150 million and 1 billion Turk Lira as an equivalent to the value of those days. The Democratic Party government paid about 60 million Turkish Lira in compensation.
Two main background conspiracies behind this disaster is mentioned as:
The ruling government’s Democratic Party’s domestic and foreign policy had multidimensional problems. The drastic decline of economic indicators made the economically stronger minorities a target. The Cyprus conflict appeared as a cover-up prompted by the nationalist vein.
The other event was on September 5, 1955 — a Greek bombing attack on the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki (Salonica) which also damaged the nearby birth building of Kemal Ataturk. The bomb that was dropped on Atatürk’s house in Thessaloniki was the igniter of this pogrom. The Istanbul Express Newspaper made a headline “Our father Atatürk’s house has been bombed” and distributed it widely, provoking the atrocities.
After the 1960 military coup and during the trials, against the Democratic Party and its leaders, the court found that the pogrom was ordered by the prime minister Adnan Menderes, to incite and justify it. After he was retired General Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, Chief of the Armed Forces Special War Department during Cyprus crisis confessed about the Istanbul Riots in an interview: He described the attacks by saying that “It was an excellent special warfare operation and it reached its goal.”
The deep state oriented ethnic cleansing of Istanbul continued with an immediate expulsion of the Greek population. In 1964, claiming the Cyprus issue approximately 13 thousand Greeks, according to official figures, became the subjects of this tragedy. Deportation was not the only measure taken; this dreadful application continued with the seizure or prohibition of real estate, foundations, minority schools. The Greeks of Turkey were convinced that there was no future in their homeland.
These non-democratic operations with religious, ethnic, political dogmatism have always come at a heavy price for Turkey. Its political history is tainted with this dark memory.
As we commemorate this event once again, we witness the same politically manipulated and provocative conditions half a century later. Two truths are confronting each other: Historical, traditional, current ties and interests at the micro level between the people of the two countries and the limitless ambitions of neo- and liberal-capitalist interests that impudently disregard the environmental and human element in the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea.
Photograph:
I AM I, BETWEEN WORLDS AND BETWEEN SHADOWS by Kalliopi Lemos
An Installation in IOAKIMION SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, FENER, ISTANBUL. 11 September – 10 November 2013. This event was realized in the scope of the 13th Istanbul Biennial Parallel Events Programme.
Beral Madra is a member of DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective.
Photo Source: BM.
Europeans must hang our head in shame at what is happening in Moria
It was inevitable. The incarceration on the island of Lesbos of twelve thousand refugees in the prison camp in Moria led to yet another tragedy. Locked up in inhuman conditions, the news of 35 positive tests, triggered a rebellion. The only way some of the refuges felt they could prise open their open air prison’s gates was to set fire to the awful camp. Now, Moria is no longer. The twelve thousand refugees have no tents but at least the authorities have to do something.
Moria is an indictment on the European Union. It is an indictment on the Greek governments who built it and turned it into a prison camp. And it is an indictment on Angela Merkel’s misanthropic agreement with President Erdogan that instrumentalises refugees. Europeans must hang our head in shame at what is happening in Moria. At least this fire is giving us a chance to make things right.
MeRA25, DiEM25’ party in Greece’s parliament, have been putting forward concrete proposals for years. Today we shall do so again. Their gist is simple: No more prison camps. No more restrictions of travel for refugees and migrants from the Greek islands to the mainland. Watch this space.
Our press release of 2nd March 2020.
DiEM25 condemns the militarisation of the Greek-Turkish border, the European Union’s violation of every principle of Humanism, the instrumentalisation of refugees both by the Turkish regime and Brussels, the abandonment of Greek islanders to their own devices – the list goes on and on.
DiEM25 calls for an immediate opening of all borders. The Greek-Turkish one and, more importantly, all borders within the EU. It is the only way the humanitarian crisis can be dealt with rationally and humanely, without resorting to military solutions under a cloud of hysteria.
MeRA25 ON THE SITUATION ON THE GREEK-TURKISH BORDER
A virus and the inevitable escalation of refugee inflows from Turkey were enough to heighten xenophobia and cause the right-wing Greek government to embark upon a large-scale campaign of disorienting Greece’s public opinion – so as to mask the reality that the much heralded economic recovery was a mirage given the continuing troika program of attacking labour, fiscal austerity and fire sales of public property.
The fear of others’, be it the Chinese or the wretched refugees, is being instrumentalised so that the people of Greece can no longer discern the true causes of their continuing asphyxiation – that is, the continuing surrender to the troika policies and the permanent subjugation to the EU’s irrational and inhumane policies regarding refugees, the EU-Turkey, EU-Libya relations etc.
Yes, the COVID-19 epidemic is a worry. Yes, the exploitation by President Erdogan of Turkey of refugees as part of his geostrategic gaming (i.e. varying the number of refugees to cross to Greece with a view to increasing pressure on the EU to side with him in Syria) constitutes a violation of basic human rights. However, neither COVID-19 nor the refugees justify the motivated hysteria that Greece’s troika-run regime is cultivating so as to escape its responsibility for the decade-long asphyxiation they have brought to the people of Greece.
MeRA25-DiEM25 will not allow this new Troika-Nationalist Alliance to pull the wool over our people and to bolster xenophobia – whose end result will be to worsen the Greek’s circumstances and rob Greece of its capacity to appeal to progressives across the world.
MeRA25-DiEM25 will not allow the Greek government to legitimise the Golden Dawn – Greek Solution racist narrative that casts the hapless refugees as an “organized invasion force” that Greece’s “heroic” government is facing down on the Greek-Turkish border.
Precisely like the economic crisis that erupted in 2010, so too now refugees and COVID-19 are ridiculing the notion that electrified border fences can solve the problem of ‘contagion’ – whether it is the financial crisis contagion, COVID-19 or refugee flows. That walls and border fences provide security is not only a lie but also a dangerous delusion.
MeRA25-DiEM25 will continue to point the way to the only road to security with prosperity: Radical Internationalism. Our transnational getting together based on a common understanding that all epidemics (economic, financial) and all mass movements of human beings struggling to live are transnational in nature and, thus demand transnational solutions. Solutions that will only come through our constructive disobedience: Resistance to the policies of austerity, militarisation and xenophobia. And constructive, transnational, humanist policies to replace them with.
Photo Source: Reuters.