From hope to despair

Greece austerity protests

In January, the people of Greece had hope, they had elected a new government, which would bring an end to austerity, would fight the EU.

Hope has now turned to despair, they were betrayed by Syriza.

Then finance minister Yanis Varoufakis did his best to negotiate on behalf of Greece. But the EU was not interested, and ultimately he was betrayed by Syriza.

EU was interested in one thing, and one thing only, punishing Greece for daring to challenge, daring to question the prevailing orthodoxy.

Greece was subjected to fiscal water boarding.

When tortured, you have to fight back, cause more pain.

Yanis Varoufakis had three weapons at his disposal, one of which was to default on part of the Greek debt. Had he been allowed to do so, it would have caused the euro to collapse, but he was prevented from doing so.

When Syriza called a referendum, they do so on the basis the Greeks would vote yes, support EU proposals, thus letting Syriza off the hook. Greeks showed tremendous courage, despite the intimidation and bullying, despite the miss-information in the media, they voted no.

Syriza betrayed the Greek people and signed a surrender document.

In Greece we now have a Vichy Regime, the government puppets of the EU. The country is occupied. EU are in and running every ministry.

In Syntagma, stray dogs and homeless sleeping on the streets.

Wages have flatlined or declined, taxes have gone up, pensions have been cut. People have less money in their pockets, less money to live on.  People are only surviving by drawing upon their savings, if they have savings to draw upon.  A situation that is not sustainable.

The conditions of austerity imposed by the EU on Greece, are now worse than when Syriza came to power.

Hope has turned to despair. The people have no confidence in politicians.

The only hope now is for the people to fight back.  The politicians had their chance, are now redundant.

There has to be a policy of complete non-cooperation with the occupiers.

There has to be action at grass roots. Change has to be across Europe at grass roots, with people cooperating across countries. It cannot be through politicians, or political parties.

The fightback started today with strikes and mass action on the streets.

• Yanis Varoufakis in conversation with Paul Mason

Tags: Athens, austerity, EU, Europe, From hope to despair, Greece