Joint statement from Puerta del Sol and Syntagma

  • September 4, 2011

People & Protest

The working groups on economics of the popular assemblies in Madrid and Athens recently released the following statement on the European debt crisis.

The citizens of Puerta del Sol and Syntagma Square express our indignation and invite all the ‘indignados’ in all the squares around the world to join us.

From the USA to Brussels, from Greece to Bolivia and from Spain to Tunisia, the crisis of capitalism is on the rise. A crisis caused by the same culprits who are imposing the reforms to get over it: pumping public funds into private financial institutions while forcing the citizens to foot the bill. Rather than lifting us out the crisis, their structural adjustment plans sink us even deeper in.

In the EU, financial markets are on the offensive against sovereign debts, blackmailing spineless governments and shanghaiing Parliaments into accepting unjust measures behind the backs of their own people. Far from taking a firm political stance against the financial sharks, European institutions are lining up with them instead.

From the beginning of the crisis we have watched while private debt was transformed into public debt, exemplifying how public profit-making ventures are flagrantly privatized, only to be bailed out with public money when they fail.

The high interest rates we are incurring for funding has nothing to do with doubts abouts our solvency, but rather with money-market manoeuvres by large financial corporations in league with Rating Agencies to increase their fortunes.

The economic cutbacks come together with restrictions on democratic freedoms such as controlling and expelling migrants and restricting free movement of Europeans within the EU. Only the euro and speculative capital enjoy free movement and open borders.

In Spain we are being collectively hoaxed. Public debt (60% of the GNP) is not a problem, yet it is being used as an excuse to make us believe that it is a dangerous situation which merits theses serious attacks against our rights and our national assets — attacks which threaten to get worse. On the other hand, private debt (240% of the GNP) is a problem, but instead of applying austerity to the banks, they award them with all sort of loans and pay-offs at the expense of the public purse. The biggest ‘help’ given to them was handing over half of our savings banks and profitable companies for next to nothing.

Meanwhile, the police deny access to the Puerta de Sol, the epicentre of the 15M, violating basic rights.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been imposed on Greece. They claim that the cutbacks, austerity and new taxes on the people are sacrifices required to find the country’s way out of the crisis and lower its debt. Liars!

Every day new measures are taken, salaries chopped, unemployment rockets and young people leave the country. Yet the debt keeps on growing as the new loans are used to pay off the enormous interest owed to our creditors. The deficits of Greece and other countries in southern Europe are turning into the capital surplus of the banks of Germany and other wealthy northern countries.

Salaries and pensions are not to blame for inflating the debt. It stems from the hefty tax reductions, capital grants and the financial binge on pharmaceutical and military spending.

They ruin us only to inflict more destructive measures and cutbacks, selling off public land and assets for peanuts.

To this we say:

  • Withdraw the Memorandum. Get lost! We don’t want to be governed by the IMF and the Troika.
  • Nationalize the banks. With the rescue packages, the State has already paid more than their stock exchange value just so they can carry on speculating.
  • Make the accounting records transparent so the people know where the money has gone.
  • Radically redistribute wealth and change the tax policies so those who have the most pay: banking institutions, capital and the Church.
  • We demand people’s control over the economy and production.

Considering all these points, both squares declare that:

  • The policies of cut-backs that they are applying will not lift us out of the crisis — on the contrary, they push us even further in. They are stretching us to the limit, applying present and future bail-outs which in reality go to the creditor banks and result in serious attacks on our rights, family finances and our national assets.
  • We must stand up and protest against these violations. We are the15M movement in Sol and the Popular Assembly of Syntagma.
  • Stop adjustment plans and bailouts.
  • No to the payment of illegitimate debt. This is not our debt. We owe nothing, we sell nothing, we pay nothing.
  • For real and direct democracy NOW.
  • For the defence of public interests. Not one sale of public property or services.
  • Let all indignados in all the squares join together.

ROAR Collective

The ROAR Collective published ROAR Magazine (2011-’22), an online journal of the radical imagination that provided grassroots perspectives from the front-lines of the global struggle for real democracy.

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Source URL — https://roarmag.org/essays/syntagma-puerta-del-sol-statement-crisi/

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