StopCartel TV broadcasts live from Athens, Greece weeknights @ 6pm Athens time. The following post is a loose transcript of the July 18, 2012 broadcast.
By greydogg and snake arbusto, 99GetSmart
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
- OPEN MEETING PERAMA
The Perama Open Meeting, participating in the protest and calling a meeting of neighborhood committees and residents from all over Attica.
Thursday 19/7/2012 at 7:30 pm at the Ministry of Finance, Syntagma Square
Against the electricity hike and all hikes, proposing demonstrations throughout Greece on the same day, with forms of actions to be decided by the local assemblies and committees.
The slogan for the assembly is: NO HOME WITHOUT ELECTRICITY / NO GREEK WITHOUT A HOME
The announcement states:
We are 1.5 million unemployed, and every day our numbers grow. We will not pay the new taxes. Under the Memorandum, Greek society is being attacked across the board. We have no money to pay new taxes. Our pensions have already been slashed. Hospitals are closing for lack of funding. We have no money to pay for our medicine and when we protest, you attack us with chemical weapons – free of charge.
We are unable to survive with dignity or offer dignity to our families. The majority of us can no longer take care of our own basic needs. We do not have enough food to feed ourselves and our families.
We have never avoided paying taxes, but we object to paying for this odious debt to private banks. This was a conspiracy at the highest levels of the Greek government and the banking industry. We will not pay into an unjust tax system, where the burden lies on the backs of the poor while protecting the rich
In order for the society to revive, we need free health care, free education.
You are selling out every public asset; in protest to this robbery of the Greek People WE DON’T PAY TAXES.
- The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) will hold a rally in Omonia Square in central Athens at 7:30 on Thursday night.
- A rally will take place on 23 July 2012, in the city of Halkia,100 km from Athens, in St. Nicholas Square at 8 p.m.
Their slogan reads: WE ARE TAKING OUR DESTINY IN OUR OWN HANDS EVERYWHERE
- Wednesday at 7 p.m., an anti-fascist rally and march was held in the Central Square in the city of Agrinio, located in the western part of Greece, about 200 km. west of Athens.
The slogan for the rally: FASCISM FIRST COMES FOR OTHERS AND THEN IT COMES FOR EVERYONE
This is an open rally for everyone. We must remember that we can manage if we are in solidarity and work together. We should meet at the Square instead of at the Receiver of Revenue.
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Executing the Contract of Death for the People of Greece
In Athens at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Prime Minister Samaras and his co-conspirators, the President of PASOK and the President of Tourism Services, met to discuss where to slash €11.5 billion (plus an immediate and additional €3 billion) from the budget, to be presented to the Troika and lenders.
The three ‘leaders’ received recommendations from the Minister of Finance, John Stournaras, which included his proposals for cuts spanning the next two years 2013-2014, as per agreement at the Eurogroup meeting of Finance Ministers.
The government-of-the-regime is anxious to obediently present a proposal to the Troika. However, according to sources, an agreement was reached on only €5.5 billion, pending the search for another €6 billion.
The angry, the bad and the willing
Press reports indicate that Samaras expressed anger towards his ministers for their failure to come to an agreement on making the ‘necessary’ cutbacks. His attempts to blame his co-conspirators fall flat, when it is obvious that these policies and the recession are driving the economy even deeper into the spiral of collapse. The unfair cuts are clearly not a solution, but instead aggravate the problems.
In a radio interview yesterday, Papandreou and Venizelos admitted that it is very difficult, almost impossible, to find €11.5 billion in budget cuts for 2013 and 2014. Greece must also pay an additional €3 billion immediately, a whim demanded by the Eurogroup at a meeting in Brussels earlier this month. Venizelos further expressed his frustrations over the Troka’s negative predictions of a long and deep recession for Greece. Why is he frustrated? Could it be because he is trying to sell a very different fairy tale to the Greek people? A fairy tale where social spending cuts create growth instead of a deep recession and a humanitarian crisis?
It seems that in this public relations game, the PASOK leader plays the role of being hard and realistic, while the Tourism Services has chosen the role of a diligent student… supporting each option of the Minister of Finance.
And in the background… new measures
In addition to the 2013 and 2014 cuts, even more austerity measures are being considered for the 2012 budget. The IMF wants to hedge the risks of a projected €2 billion deficit instead of mitigating the humanitarian catastrophe triggered by its policies.
Therefore, the Treasury will leave all options open for both horizontal cuts in wages and new measures in 2012.
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- On Wednesday, 18 July, immediately following the meeting of the coalition government, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras addressed the public in a televised speech.
He said that the Greek government-of-the-regime is going forward with its catastrophic policies and continues to draft more austerity policies. They are talking about a third Memorandum!
Tsipras stated that he refused to meet with the ‘administrative clerks of the Troika.’ The government cannot escape their responsibility in this catastrophic project they caused because their only role is to fulfill the requirements of the Troika.
He criticized further budget cuts, calling it an act of complete insanity to impose more austerity measures on an already destroyed economy. The government-of-the-regime is fulfilling the sadistic fantasies of the Troika instead of honoring their campaign promise to work in the public’s best interest.
He accused the puppet regime of empty election promises. The outcome of the elections were supposed to be beneficial for the people, but we can see that just the opposite is true. The international loan sharks conspired with the parties to proceed with the policies of the Papandreou and Papademos governments.
Tsipras called for the government to refuse to take any further subservient meetings with the Troika, but to instead call an emergency meeting to dictate terms that will relieve the current humanitarian crisis in Greece. If Merkel continues to insist upon this massacre, the Greek people will never forgive or forget the campaign lies ND and PASOK told to them.
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- The Greek Finance Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon saying that the Emergency Property Tax for 2012 will be attached – again – to electric bills.
“Due to current law and technical difficulties as well as time limitations, it is not possible to modify the collection of the Emergency Property Tax. Therefore DEH (Greek Public Power Company) will continue to collect the emergency property tax.
The tax for 2012 will be paid in five installments that will come every two months on the electricity bills.
After receiving and analyzing his new tax bill, Mr. Aretoulis Nicholas, a resident of Ierapetra, Crete wrote the following letter to the Receiver of Revenue. His letter was originally posted in the Greek website aixmi.gr
Read the full text of his letter:
To: Dept of the Treasury, Ierapetra Tax District
Taxpayer Aretouli C. Nicholas, a resident of the County of Ierapetra.
In the Income Tax Assessment Notice that you sent me you claim a “purported” income of 8,863 euros, which I never saw and never wanted to earn.
1. For my residence with an assessed value by you of 13,653.68 euros as of 10/08/2010, situated in the village of Panakiana Municipality of Ierapetra, without even working electricity, you assume & declare a presumptive taxable income of 4,080 euros, about 1/3 of the property’s value, while one can easily locate homes in our area with only 150 euros a month rent (1,800/annually).
2. You presume a basic subsistence income of 3,000 euros. Unfortunately for you, because of my anti-consumerist and eco-friendly ideology and lifestyle I’ve been living since 1995, me and my partner (2 persons total) survived with only 2,126.5 euros for an entire year, including the cost of gasoline for my car which is used principally for agricultural work. So you’re asking for taxes representing 1/4 of my annual level of basic subsistence!
3. For my vehicle, ’91 model with engine capacity 750cc and with €300 annual insurance & registration fees costs, and maintenance covered by myself personally (as a former engineer), you assume & declare a presumptive taxable income of 2,000 euro.
After all that I analyzed above, and hereby invoking the last article of the Constitution I declare the following:
a) Faced with the choice not to eat for three (3) months or to pay the tax you’re demanding I’ll choose not to pay a single penny.
b) Faced with the choice to commit suicide or become a murderer, I’ll choose to murder you.
c) If you have not made an error with this Income Tax Assessment Notice that you’ve sent me, then you’re a bunch of cheats and scoundrels and thieves.
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- The new coalition government is conspiring to impose another round of dramatic cuts in social spending. It’s being reported that they are looking to cut €11.5 billion in the 2012 – 2013 budget. An additional €3 billion will be tacked on to that figure, as per the recent whims of the Troika.
The political crooks controlling Greece have just realized the difficult situation surrounding them as long as they remain the puppets of the loan sharks and make dramatic cuts in spending. Now they are wringing their hands, clutching their pearls and pretending they are resisting the merciless cuts that they agreed to and signed off on. It’s going to be a real slaughter.
The cuts by department promoted for the years 2013-2014 are as follows:
- Ministry of Education, EUR 50 million
- Ministry of Justice, 50 million
- Health Ministry, 600 million
- Ministry of Interior, 600 million
- Ministry of National Defense, 680 million
- Ministry of Administrative Reform, 2.1 billion
- Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, 4 billion
There will be additional cuts to pensions, wages and social spending. The “knife” will go deep into the bone of social allowances, targeted for €3 billion in cuts.
On Tuesday, the Minister of Finance met with and made budget cut recommendations to the ministers. Following those recommendations, the economic team will meet to draw up a list of the total amount of cuts, which will be presented to the Prime Minister by Mr. Stournaras within days.
On Wednesday, political leaders who support the government will meet to decide, among other things, whether Greece will propose an alternative scenario to the Troika – an estimated €7.5 billion in cuts in the biennium 2013-2014, instead of €11.5 billion, as well as discussions regarding the distribution of the remaining €4 billion in future years if there is lengthening of the period of adjustment.
A very large knife will be taken to social benefits in order to save €3 billion. Also under the microscope are a total of 89 bonuses and benefits ranging from old-age pensions to the uninsured paid by OGA to special benefits OAED.
The code ‘social benefits’ is crucial because it will result in more than a quarter of the planned spending cuts of € 11.5 billion. Also, if the amount is added to the projected savings from imposing a ceiling on pensions, with a preponderance of the limit of 2,400 euros, that will save an extra €1 billion.
The Ministry of Finance is working on a plan, which cuts down on cost savings of 3% of GDP, or about €6.5 billion, on the basis of proposals of the Center for Planning and Economic Research (KEPE).
As these interventions are added, they serve to further shrink the public sector, which will lead to cost savings of around 1% of GDP or above €2 billion, while the cuts to social benefits will contribute 1.5% of GDP or an additional €3 billion.
Finally, the government will push for the implementation of measures already adopted, as illustrated by the reductions in the salaries of employees in public enterprises and the implementation of the single salary to all utilities.