Argentina's Fernandez celebrates Greece's "No" to creditors

[bemildred]

World markets may tremble at Sunday's decision by Greek voters to reject conditions of a rescue deal from creditors, but the leader of Argentina, which suffered a similar crisis more than a decade ago, boldly welcomed the referendum result.

President Cristina Fernandez, known for combatively defending her unorthodox policies, tweeted that Greece's vote marked "a resounding victory for democracy and dignity."

There are stark similarities between Argentina's 2002 financial meltdown and the turmoil in Greece: rigid monetary regimes, creditors battling domestic politics to fix the problem and banking systems at breaking point.

In Greece, 61 percent of voters rejected a deal that would have imposed more austerity on their already ravaged economy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/06/eurozone-greece-argentina-idUSL1N0ZM01T20150706?rpc=401

[OnlyBernieBurnsBush]

1. Exciting times...

Can't wait to see this sort of innovative progressive leadership in Canada. With mulcair, duceppe, may, and notley, good things are coming.

[Judi Lynn]

3. It's about time, isn't it, OnlyBernieBurnsBush?

Welcome to D.U.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Argentina’s Fernandez celebrates Greece’s “No” to creditors

Argentina’s Fernandez celebrates Greece’s “No” to creditors
July 6th, 2015


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Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez (see here with the Pope) welcomed Greece's referendum result
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World markets may tremble at Sunday’s decision by Greek voters to reject conditions of a rescue deal from creditors, but the leader of Argentina, which suffered a similar crisis more than a decade ago, boldly welcomed the referendum result.

President Cristina Fernandez, known for combatively defending her unorthodox policies, tweeted that Greece’s vote marked “a resounding victory for democracy and dignity.”

There are stark similarities between Argentina’s 2002 financial meltdown and the turmoil in Greece: rigid monetary regimes, creditors battling domestic politics to fix the problem and banking systems at breaking point.

In Greece, 61 percent of voters rejected a deal that would have imposed more austerity on their already ravaged economy.

“The Greek people have said ‘NO’ … to the impossible and humiliating conditions that would be imposed for the restructuring of their debt,” she tweeted. “We Argentines know what this is about. We hope that Europe and its leaders understand the message … that you can’t force anyone to sign their own death warrant.”

More:
http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/07/06/argentinas-fernandez-celebrates-greeces-no-to-creditors/

[Peace Patriot]

4. I'm glad Cristina Fernandez said this. I agree, the cases are very similar.

Corrupt "neo-liberal" government leaders, groomed and bribed by the a$$holes running our world, accept huge loans with onerous conditions, that the poor and the middle class of their countries will have to pay for, siphon off the money and start privatizing everything--the country's social programs and safety nets, the country's infrastructure and natural and other resources--and this, of course, has been the purpose of the loan sharks and vulture capitalists all along, to bleed the country dry and to bully and enslave its people.

And they lie and they lie and they lie some more, in order to get their way. They say "austerity" will lead to prosperity. Yeah, it will, but only for THEM. Prosperity for the 0.01%; ruin for everybody else. Such goddamned liars!

Then, in both cases--Argentina and Greece--the people saw the light and rebelled, and elected a government "OF, BY AND FOR THE PEOPLE," a leftist government to get them out of these horrors of unjust debt, plundering and ruination.

Argentina rebelled in the previous decade, led first by Fernandez's late husband, Nestor Kirchner, one of the greatest heroes in the world for all of us ordinary people. Argentina had been turned into a basketcase, at that point, by the bullying jerks at the IMF and their bankster cronies. Kirchner defaulted on the debt and demanded a restructuring of the debt--a reasonable restructuring that Argentina could pay, that it was possible to pay while re-starting the economy and restoring social programs; he then proceeded to PAY IT.

Cristina Fernandez is a hero as well, for carrying on this courageous, Argentina-saving government after her husband died. She has been elected and re-elected in her own right.

There is an ugly coda to this tale, with the heinous vulture capitalist Paul Singer, virtually alone in having refused to participate in the restructuring of Argentina's debt, is still, with his billions and billions of dollars, trying to collect full payment, from a country that was on its knees and is only just getting back on its feet. Singer would take the food out of poor children's mouths, the books out of their hands, the shoes off of their feet. He is a candidate for Worst Man In The World--the cruel vanguard of the uber-rich.

Unfortunately, Germany is playing the part of Paul Singer, in the Greece situation. Germany, whose WW II debts and reparations were forgiven--including forgiven by Greece, which suffered immensely under Nazi Germany--is making the same kind of demands of Greece that Argentina's original loan sharks made, and that Singer is hanging onto by tooth and claw--with harassing lawsuits in foreign courts (ours!), seizures of Argentine property and other "hunger games" of the uber rich. Germany's uber rich apparently do not want Greece to recover. "Austerity" NEVER leads to recovery, and they know it! They know it well.

THAT was the point of the western world forgiving Germany its debts and reparations, post WW II--to allow Germany to RECOVER, to create a good democracy, to re-build their economy. That is what was NOT done after WW I, and that punishment of Germany, post WW I, with onerous debts led directly to Hitler's rise and to WW II.

The point of Nestor Kirchner's restructuring of Argentina's debt was to allow the country to RECOVER from the horrors inflicted on it by the IMF, which was conducting economic warfare on Latin America, and other parts of the "third world", on behalf of transglobal U.S. and EU corporations and banksters. This warfare was then exacerbated by the Bush Junta's 2008 financial meltdown. The poorest countries were the hardest hit. Recovery SHOULD BE the point of negotiations now between the EU and the leftist government that the people of Greece elected to represent them, the Syriza government headed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who is becoming yet another hero for us ordinary people--a courageous man who has stood up to the IMF and the EU financial establishment on behalf of his people.

Recovery is the issue, not the debt, because the debt will NEVER BE PAID OFF without recovery!