THIS SATURDAY !Demonstration in solidarity to the Greek people and against the austerity measures in the Netherlands and all over Europe.

Demonstration in solidarity to the Greek people and against the austerity measures in the Netherlands and all over Europe.

Saturday - 17.07.2010,
At 14:00,
Spui, Amsterdam.


It is not our crisis! We will not pay for it! Greece is everywhere!

After the Greek government giving the signal, governments all over Europe are imposing ultra-neoliberal policies. 30€ billion of budget cuts in Greece, 29€ billion in the Netherlands, 45€ billion in France, 80€ billion in Germany… Salaries are being decreased, the regulation of dismissals is being lifted off, good education and health care are becoming an expensive privilege of the rich, state services are being privatized.
They tell us that these cuts are necessary to cover the large state debts and deficits. They do not tell us that these debts and deficits were created by the rescue packages that governments offered as a gift to banks. They also do not tell us that with these budget cuts they want the unemployed, the students and the working people to pay for these rescue packages.
They tell us that austerity measures are needed in order to gather the funds that are needed to rescue the euro. They do not tell us that the 750€ billion rescue package for Greece – with a 5.5% usurer's rent – and the other 'weak' economies of the Eurozone is neither a 'blanco cheque' for the Greek people nor a rescue act for Europe.
They do not tell us that the money from this rescue package will go directly to the accounts of the lenders of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy: the banks and the international speculators that after being 'rescued' last year with tax-payers money, started to speculate and make profit on the default of countries and on the misery of millions of citizens. As the former director of the Bundesbank, Karl Otto Pohl, said: …"what this was really about – (it was) namely (about) rescuing the banks and the rich Greeks" (der Spiegel, 18/05/2010). This 'gift' to banks and speculators will be paid by the Greek people – the poor Greeks – through their loss of income, and by the rest of the European people by having to pay an extra debt and by facing 'preemptive' austerity measures so that their countries can avoid the 'Greek disaster'.
They tell us that we have to accept the deterioration of our living standards with the austerity measures. They also tell us that the strikes and demonstrations in Southern Europe endanger further the economy of these countries and the stability of the euro. They do not tell us that the hundreds of thousands of Greeks, Spanish and Portuguese that have gone to the streets against this unprecedented neoliberal attack are struggling for their basic rights on employment, earnings, pension, education and health care and not to protect some non-existing luxurious privileges that are paid with European money.
We say that Greece is everywhere also for us! The struggle of Greek people against the EU-IMF austerity measures needs our solidarity and not only… It's not only about them 'over there in the South of Europe'. It's also about us, in the Netherlands. No matter what government will be formed in the coming weeks, pure right-wing or 'purple-plus', the poor and middle-class Dutch working people and students will face a cut of unemployment and social welfare benefits, abolition of dismissal-regulation, increase of education and health-care costs. The poor and middle-class people will have to cover the 29€ billion budget cuts so that ABN-AMRO can keep the 30€ billion rescue package that it received last year…
The struggle of the Greek people against the EU-IMF austerity measures is our struggle. It is a struggle for a society that will be determined by the people's needs and not by the banks' interests. It is a struggle for a society with an acceptable standard of living for everybody – working people, students, unemployed and pensioners. It is a struggle for a society without poverty and inequality. It is a struggle for free education and health care for everybody.