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Oligarchies remain powerful only to the extent
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that we privatise our dreams and we privatise our fears,
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and we get paralysed by them,
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and we get stuck on the couch feeling that
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nothing is within our control.
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If we stand any chance of collective
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and personal emancipation, liberation, in the end, joy,
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fun, genuine happiness, that can only come
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to us the moment we say, "No, I'm not going to sit here idly
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by lamenting my powerlessness.
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I'm going to go out there and try to change the world.
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I will fail in the same way that I know
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that one day I'll die.
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It doesn't stop me from trying to live every day to the full."
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Collective action,
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collective dreams, are a prerequisite for individual freedom.
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Greece. Greece. Greece.
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The debt crisis in Greece, sparking violent protests,
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helping to trigger the rapid sell off as investors worry
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that Europe's debt problems will spread.
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And of course the darkest fear
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is they drag down the US economy.
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Really, the US Recovery.
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Syriza has grown from a motley alliance of activists
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to become the official opposition.
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Though the groups on this demo look like activists
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everywhere, here,
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their party currently leads in the opinion polls.
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Okay. How my parents met.
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Yeah, yeah, how your parents met.
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Okay. Start?
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I grew up in a fascist country.
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My father, he was apprehended for being a student leader.
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And the police that apprehended him apologised
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for having done so, but then gave him a denunciation
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of communism form to sign.
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And my father being liberal, said:
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"Well I'm not a communist.
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I'm not a Buddhist. I'm not a Muslim.
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But if you ask me as an organ of the state, sir, to sign,
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this kind of denunciation of Islam
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or of, Buddhism or of communism, I'm not going
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to do it because it's none of your business."
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He refused to sign it.
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And then he was beaten up very badly,
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and he was tortured for months and months
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and months in ways that I don't even want
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to discuss on camera.
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The more they tortured him, the more they beat him up,
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the more stubbornly he was refusing
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to sign that piece of paper.
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He said to me that the worst moment in the camp,
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was a moment when he realised
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that if his side had won the Civil War, the communists,
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he would be in the same concentration camp
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with different guards.
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And I asked him, what did he mean by that?
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He said, well, there came a moment when he
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received, in secret, of course,
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a directive from the Communist Party to sign it
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so as to get out, and my father refused —
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refused the instructions of the Communist Party.
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And then he was denounced by the Communist Party for not
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heeding their instructions.
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So he ended up in the concentration camp, shunned by his comrades
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and tortured by the fascists.
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He realised then that authoritarianism runs deeply
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on both sides.
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That was a warning to me as a left-winger.
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When my father came out of the camp, out of exile,
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after four, four-and-a-half years —
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this was in the early 1950s — to go back
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to Athens University,
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he was a shadow of a man, determined
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to just concentrate on his studies as a means of surviving.
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In the university,
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he came across a young woman, actually the first
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female student of chemistry
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in the history of the University of Athens.
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And she was approached because
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of her antipathy towards communists by a quasi-fascist,
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or actually quasi-Nazi organisation, who recruited her
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and gave her a task: to keep tabs on my dad.
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So this is how they met. And
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of course, after a few weeks she dropped out of
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that horrible organisation and they were together.
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Their paths converged politically,
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but I remember that when on a very
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few occasions, because they
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always had a very loving relationship,
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but when they would fight the old
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rupture reemerged.
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I remember once hearing her call him a bloody communist
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and him calling her a bloody fascist.
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I think that deep down my father,
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he was always motivated to ensure that
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his fate would not be repeated
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in my case.
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in 1975, I was 14.
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It was a year after the dictatorship had collapsed.
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I remember I was distributing leaflets for
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some kind of demonstration in the evening.
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This copper approached me from behind and grabbed me.
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And before I knew it, I was in a cell.
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And of course, my parents
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were climbing various walls besides themselves with worry.
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So I arrive at home at around 6:30, exhausted.
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There were no charges. There was nothing.
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There was just intimidation.
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That night, my father sat me down with my mom
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and they both said to me, "Right, you're going
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to study in the United Kingdom.
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I don't care what you study, anything from anthropology to
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zoology, but you're out of here."
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So I decided I was going
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to be a theoretical physicist.
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There was a Greek politician at the time
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who was leading the political party that I
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belonged to as a teenager.
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And he was going to give me a reference letter
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because he had been an academic in the Anglo-Saxon world.
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So he sat me down. He didn't know who I was.
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He just knew that I was an activist in the party.
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And he asked me what I wanted to study,
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to remind him,
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and I said, "Theoretical physics, I'm going to study in Britain."
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He said, "No, you won't. I thought, "What? What audacity."
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I said, "So what am I going to study?"
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He said, "You'll do mathematical economics".
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"Mathematical economics?"
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I was raging.
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I was so annoyed with him, that he would have the gall
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to have a view as to what I was going
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to study, given that he had precisely zero information about
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me, except for the fact that I was a political activist.
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But then he explained and it made perfect sense.
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He said, "Listen, theoretical physics
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and mathematical economics are exactly the same
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from a mathematical perspective.
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It's the same mathematics, the same models.
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The difference," he said "is this: if you study
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theoretical physics, nobody's going
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to take your political views seriously.
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If you study mathematical economics,
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because of the power of the narrative,
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everybody will be paying attention.
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Suddenly you'll have a
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capacity to influence people."
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My life was finished. I became an economist.
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Up until the early 2000s, I was perfectly contented
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being an academic holed up in my office in whichever
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university I happened to be at.
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But at around 2002, 2003,
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I experienced a certain sense of anxiety,
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at the site of financialisations impending crisis.
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I could feel that I was living in a world
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that was about to blow up.
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I was beginning to sound the alarm whenever I could,
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even in the context of discussions with politicians,
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trying to warn them that the tsunami was coming,
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and we cannot stop it, but we have to prepare for it.
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Meltdown on the markets,
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as Wall Street is left reeling from some
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of the biggest blows in its history.
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Stock markets have fallen here and around the world,
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as one of America's oldest
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and biggest banks files for bankruptcy.
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Debt is to capitalism
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that which hell is to Christianity: unpleasant and essential.
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Whereas debt was tangential to life
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before capitalism,
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with capitalism, it becomes the turbocharging
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unit of production.
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It's what allowed immense productive resources
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and capacities and forces to be unleashed by capitalism.
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The result being the modern world that we live in.
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The problem with that is that if you're going to move
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to an industrial scale of capitalist production
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with networked firms, with large conglomerates
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that Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and the rest built,
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and now the Googles and the Facebooks,
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and so on, you need enormous banks.
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Enormous banks means an enormous amount of power by the bankers
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to push their hand through the time-space continuum,
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reach out into the future
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and take value
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that has not been created yet from the future,
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bring it to the present and lend it to various entrepreneurs
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to produce the value so that the loop of recycling
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between debt and wealth is completed.
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But the more successful the financiers are in doing this,
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the greater the urge
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to keep taking more value from the future
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and bringing it into the present in the form of
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debt. At some point, the present can no longer service
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its debt-servicing needs towards the future.
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And that is when you have a crisis.
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The 2008 crisis was not one
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of the normal periodic downturns.
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It is the longest, most slow-burning,
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damage-inducing crisis in the history of capitalism.
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The implosion of the pyramid of financial capital.
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President Obama
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and I are agreed that the world is coming together
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to act in the face of unprecedented global financial times.
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In 2009, something remarkable happened. The Chancellor
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of Germany, Angela Merkel,
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received a telephone call from her treasury telling her
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that the German banks were bankrupt.
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At the very same time. The French banks were going bankrupt.
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She had to save the German banks to the tune
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of 550 billion Euros all in one go.
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This to her was political poison.
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"At least," she felt, "I've done it. Now I can move on." No.
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A few months later, she was told that she has
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to give another 300, 400 billion to the French
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and German banks because
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of the money they had lent to Greece.
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And Greece was about to default on its debt
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to Deutsche Bank, finance banks, Société Générale, BNP Paribas.
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And she said, "I can't do this.
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I cannot go back to my federal parliament to ask
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for another wad of money for the same banks.
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It'll be my political end." So what does she do instead?
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She goes to the federal parliament seeking
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110 billion, initially, another 130 later,
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as solidarity to the Greeks on the basis that
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the grasshoppers of the South, they're now bankrupt.
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Solidarity in Europe means we have to help them.
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We don't want to help them, but we must
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because this is what it takes to keep Europe together.
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So a second bailout loan
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for the same German
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and French banks was portrayed as solidarity to the Greeks.
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What the German parliamentarians
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and the German public were never told was that almost none
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of that money went to Greece.
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It went to the French and German banks. Mostly.
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It became a matter of honour and political expediency,
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and political power reproduction to prevent
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the public and parliamentarians across Europe
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ever from finding out that this was a hidden bailout
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for the French and German banks.
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So it was always the Greeks this, the Greeks that . . .
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the Greeks must repay their debt.
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And denial that it was all
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a kind of bankruptcy concealment. Denial
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that that debt was never going to be repaid.
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The rules of the Eurozone banned any bailout.
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So they had to find ways of violating their own rules.
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The European Commission, which was supposedly the
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government of the European Union, had no credibility
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with the hardnosed German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble,
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or with the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank bank. Who did?
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The International Monetary Fund, who had decades
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of experience of applied misanthropy in Africa, in Asia,
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in all sorts of different societies that were
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plundered on behalf of creditors.
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This troika of the European Commission,
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the European Central Bank,
261
00:16:35,345 --> 00:16:38,605
and the International Monetary Fund became the shadow
262
00:16:38,655 --> 00:16:39,965
government of Europe.
263
00:16:40,825 --> 00:16:44,245
And its first task was to impose the bailouts,
264
00:16:44,495 --> 00:16:46,765
which is a combination of socialism for the bankers
265
00:16:46,795 --> 00:16:48,085
with austerity for the many.
266
00:16:49,795 --> 00:16:52,645
This country is engulfed in a crisis.
267
00:16:52,785 --> 00:16:56,365
And for the past 48 hours has been tearing itself apart.
268
00:16:56,985 --> 00:16:58,285
On the streets here of Syntagma Square
269
00:16:58,515 --> 00:17:00,805
a battle has been fought
270
00:17:01,465 --> 00:17:02,965
and lost by protesters,
271
00:17:02,985 --> 00:17:05,125
but the evidence on the ground here
272
00:17:05,385 --> 00:17:08,845
of political resistance means it will be very difficult
273
00:17:08,905 --> 00:17:10,845
for the Prime Minister, George Papandreou,
274
00:17:11,225 --> 00:17:14,045
and his government, to push through the package
275
00:17:14,425 --> 00:17:17,165
of austerity measures that they say this country
276
00:17:17,705 --> 00:17:19,125
so desperately needs,
277
00:17:22,035 --> 00:17:23,035
"Thieves. Thieves," they
278
00:17:23,035 --> 00:17:24,845
shout at their government as
279
00:17:24,865 --> 00:17:26,245
inside the Greek parliament
280
00:17:26,245 --> 00:17:28,085
they debate a motion of no confidence.
281
00:17:28,215 --> 00:17:32,245
There is certainly no confidence outside, just fury at those
282
00:17:32,265 --> 00:17:34,085
who have brought such hardship on their country.
283
00:17:34,545 --> 00:17:36,805
In this crowd, at least, there is consensus.
284
00:17:37,035 --> 00:17:39,805
They can never repay the debt and nor should they.
285
00:17:40,905 --> 00:17:42,805
The problem is that in the Greek parliament here,
286
00:17:42,805 --> 00:17:44,765
there is not a single, major political party
287
00:17:45,145 --> 00:17:47,725
or political figure who represents the views
288
00:17:47,725 --> 00:17:51,005
of these protesters: that there should be no more bailouts
289
00:17:51,145 --> 00:17:53,165
and that Greece should default on its debts.
290
00:17:57,185 --> 00:18:00,445
The onus was upon me to come up with proposals,
291
00:18:01,065 --> 00:18:05,285
and I began to write articles and appear on BBC television
292
00:18:05,285 --> 00:18:08,165
left, right and centre, talking about the European
293
00:18:08,165 --> 00:18:13,125
crisis that was coming, with Greece being the subprime nexus
294
00:18:13,465 --> 00:18:17,405
of Europe. Due to the fact
295
00:18:17,405 --> 00:18:19,165
that it was common knowledge
296
00:18:19,165 --> 00:18:22,525
that I had been close at some point to the person
297
00:18:22,545 --> 00:18:25,445
who had become Prime Minister in Greece, the prognostication
298
00:18:25,505 --> 00:18:27,885
from me that the Greek state is bankrupt,
299
00:18:28,035 --> 00:18:29,045
that became big news,
300
00:18:29,625 --> 00:18:34,365
and I immediately became the pole of attraction of
301
00:18:34,585 --> 00:18:38,005
the oligarchy's intense hatred.
302
00:18:39,245 --> 00:18:41,605
I was accused of being a national traitor,
303
00:18:41,795 --> 00:18:44,285
because only a national traitor can precipitate
304
00:18:44,985 --> 00:18:46,885
and bring forward a bankruptcy
305
00:18:46,905 --> 00:18:48,845
by declaring the Greek state to be bankrupt.
306
00:18:48,845 --> 00:18:50,805
And, of course, I was not the bankers' best mate.
307
00:18:51,605 --> 00:18:54,525
I knew that there would be repercussions.
308
00:18:58,225 --> 00:19:01,085
One night, it was a Saturday night in 2011,
309
00:19:01,825 --> 00:19:03,765
my wife's son arrived home
310
00:19:03,765 --> 00:19:05,165
after having been out with friends,
311
00:19:05,345 --> 00:19:06,365
very late.
312
00:19:06,745 --> 00:19:09,525
We hear the thud, we hear his footsteps going
313
00:19:09,525 --> 00:19:10,645
towards his bedroom,
314
00:19:11,945 --> 00:19:13,805
so we both surrender to sleep.
315
00:19:15,685 --> 00:19:19,525
A few minutes later, the landline rings. I pick up the phone,
316
00:19:19,625 --> 00:19:22,365
and there is this suave male voice saying
317
00:19:22,835 --> 00:19:25,165
"Mr. Varoufakis, we are very pleased."
318
00:19:25,625 --> 00:19:28,565
We, the royal we.
319
00:19:28,875 --> 00:19:31,765
"We are very pleased that your son has come back from
320
00:19:32,445 --> 00:19:33,685
a good night out with friends."
321
00:19:35,225 --> 00:19:36,325
I said "Who are you? Who is this?"
322
00:19:37,465 --> 00:19:40,085
He carried on describing
323
00:19:40,895 --> 00:19:45,725
where Danae's son had been, naming streets.
324
00:19:47,185 --> 00:19:51,605
He finished by saying, "If you want him to continue
325
00:19:51,605 --> 00:19:54,805
to return safely every night, you better lay off . . ."
326
00:19:55,185 --> 00:19:56,685
And he mentioned a particular bank.
327
00:19:59,545 --> 00:20:01,645
The next morning I told my wife what had happened,
328
00:20:01,645 --> 00:20:05,445
and she said to me, "Listen, either you get into politics
329
00:20:05,445 --> 00:20:08,205
to protect us or we get out of the country."
330
00:20:08,865 --> 00:20:11,925
So we got out of the country. We migrated to
331
00:20:12,015 --> 00:20:13,565
Austin, Texas of all places.
332
00:20:16,675 --> 00:20:17,685
Outside the headquarters
333
00:20:17,945 --> 00:20:19,885
of the conservative New Democracy Party
334
00:20:19,885 --> 00:20:22,965
tonight, the cheers of supporters who have won a narrow
335
00:20:23,225 --> 00:20:24,525
and uncertain victory,
336
00:20:25,025 --> 00:20:28,525
but a victory for all that. Their leader, Antonis Samaras,
337
00:20:28,545 --> 00:20:29,565
is the man most likely
338
00:20:29,565 --> 00:20:31,085
to be the country's next prime minister,
339
00:20:31,345 --> 00:20:34,045
but it's still far from certain he'll have the votes in
340
00:20:34,045 --> 00:20:36,125
Parliament to govern with any effect.
341
00:20:36,395 --> 00:20:38,005
Will you be able to form a government now?
342
00:20:38,575 --> 00:20:41,765
We'll have to, and very soon. I will make sure
343
00:20:42,595 --> 00:20:44,765
that the sacrifices of the Greek people
344
00:20:45,755 --> 00:20:49,085
will bring the country back to prosperity.
345
00:21:03,315 --> 00:21:07,735
By 2014, Greece had already undergone four,
346
00:21:07,735 --> 00:21:10,215
five years of a great depression.
347
00:21:12,515 --> 00:21:15,855
We had lost 28% of national income.
348
00:21:18,475 --> 00:21:22,175
1.3 million unemployed in a country of 10 million people,
349
00:21:22,395 --> 00:21:25,855
of whom only 9% ever received a single penny
350
00:21:26,435 --> 00:21:27,655
in unemployment benefits.
351
00:21:29,845 --> 00:21:31,215
400,000 young men
352
00:21:31,215 --> 00:21:33,255
and women, the best qualified, had left the country.
353
00:21:40,395 --> 00:21:43,295
So, effectively we're talking about a failed state.
354
00:21:52,885 --> 00:21:54,735
When pensions began to decline
355
00:21:56,765 --> 00:22:01,485
and older people increasingly felt that they were
356
00:22:02,565 --> 00:22:06,915
a burden on their families, we had a spate of tragic,
357
00:22:07,575 --> 00:22:09,435
heart-wrenching suicides.
358
00:22:15,175 --> 00:22:17,195
A man in northern Greece went to
359
00:22:17,855 --> 00:22:21,235
the Social Security Department's offices to inquire as
360
00:22:21,355 --> 00:22:25,435
to why his tiny little pension had been eliminated.
361
00:22:26,105 --> 00:22:29,235
They told him that these are the rules
362
00:22:29,235 --> 00:22:30,515
and regulations under the troika,
363
00:22:30,615 --> 00:22:31,715
and there's nothing they can do.
364
00:22:32,895 --> 00:22:36,635
He thanked them. And bystanders, witnesses,
365
00:22:38,025 --> 00:22:40,115
tell us that he looked dazed.
366
00:22:44,095 --> 00:22:45,555
And he walked out, disappeared.
367
00:22:46,175 --> 00:22:50,155
His body was found about two weeks later in a nearby woods,
368
00:22:51,015 --> 00:22:52,035
He'd hanged himself.
369
00:22:53,455 --> 00:22:55,995
The only message he left was to his wife:
370
00:22:58,375 --> 00:22:59,395
"Look after the kids."
371
00:23:07,385 --> 00:23:10,675
It's a little bit like Greece was the subprime borrower,
372
00:23:10,935 --> 00:23:12,755
such as we know here in the US,
373
00:23:12,815 --> 00:23:15,235
and the banks over in Europe are getting nervous that
374
00:23:15,235 --> 00:23:18,075
that subprime borrower, Greece, is essentially going
375
00:23:18,075 --> 00:23:21,875
to walk away from the mortgage that they owe the bank.
376
00:23:22,175 --> 00:23:24,755
And so that's essentially the root of the problem.
377
00:23:27,935 --> 00:23:29,955
How would you respond to someone who said
378
00:23:29,955 --> 00:23:33,355
that Greece had a moral obligation to pay back its debts?
379
00:23:37,385 --> 00:23:42,355
Debtors have traditionally been presented as sinners.
380
00:23:43,455 --> 00:23:47,485
The problem with biblical economics, with moralism
381
00:23:48,235 --> 00:23:51,365
applied to debt, is firstly
382
00:23:52,075 --> 00:23:54,365
that it's from an ethical point of view, very dubious,
383
00:23:55,025 --> 00:23:59,005
but I find it more interesting to criticise it as
384
00:23:59,805 --> 00:24:02,445
absolutely inimical to the notion of capitalism.
385
00:24:03,295 --> 00:24:07,485
Capitalism took off only when the bourgeoisie
386
00:24:08,365 --> 00:24:10,965
accepted that every debt is not sacred.
387
00:24:12,305 --> 00:24:15,685
It was only the institution of the public limited company
388
00:24:16,675 --> 00:24:18,485
that allowed capitalism to take off.
389
00:24:19,785 --> 00:24:23,605
So the workhouse, the debtor's prison, had to be closed down
390
00:24:24,065 --> 00:24:25,565
before capitalism succeeded.
391
00:24:25,945 --> 00:24:27,725
And the reason is really very simple.
392
00:24:28,825 --> 00:24:32,685
If a debt that cannot be repaid
393
00:24:33,565 --> 00:24:36,005
confines one to a prison forever,
394
00:24:37,155 --> 00:24:39,765
then clearly nobody's going to take any substantial risks.
395
00:24:39,765 --> 00:24:42,885
The risks that capitalism requires in order to keep
396
00:24:44,445 --> 00:24:47,365
progressing, leaping boundlessly,
397
00:24:47,705 --> 00:24:49,885
as it has been over the last 200 years.
398
00:24:52,235 --> 00:24:55,165
Suppose we as a society were to guarantee bankers
399
00:24:55,995 --> 00:24:58,965
that which we have guaranteed, at least since 2008,
400
00:24:58,985 --> 00:25:01,445
but, setting that aside, suppose we were
401
00:25:01,445 --> 00:25:04,885
to guarantee all bankers that every single loan
402
00:25:04,955 --> 00:25:08,605
that they gave out would be somehow repaid. Somehow repaid,
403
00:25:09,265 --> 00:25:12,085
by God, by society, bailouts.
404
00:25:12,315 --> 00:25:14,045
Certainly the bankers never have to worry
405
00:25:14,555 --> 00:25:16,605
that they will lose money, that some
406
00:25:16,605 --> 00:25:18,085
of their loans will not be repaid.
407
00:25:19,785 --> 00:25:24,445
If you were a banker with such a cast-iron guarantee
408
00:25:24,915 --> 00:25:27,245
that all your loans will be repaid with interest,
409
00:25:28,485 --> 00:25:32,165
suddenly you have absolutely no incentive to be careful as
410
00:25:32,165 --> 00:25:33,325
to whom you lend money to.
411
00:25:34,545 --> 00:25:39,045
But that means that a gigantic debt bubble would be created,
412
00:25:39,855 --> 00:25:43,045
which would inevitably burst, and
413
00:25:43,045 --> 00:25:44,925
therefore the guarantee would not be honoured
414
00:25:45,025 --> 00:25:46,525
and the banking system would collapse.
415
00:25:47,505 --> 00:25:52,405
So, unsustainable debt, debt haircuts,
416
00:25:53,435 --> 00:25:57,765
debt write-offs, are an essential aspect of capitalism.
417
00:25:58,885 --> 00:26:02,845
Moreover, to say that the ethical burden falls squarely
418
00:26:03,065 --> 00:26:07,205
and exclusively with the debtors is to
419
00:26:07,795 --> 00:26:09,925
lose sight of the very simple fact that
420
00:26:09,985 --> 00:26:12,845
for every irresponsible debtor there is an
421
00:26:13,595 --> 00:26:14,685
irresponsible lender.
422
00:26:28,525 --> 00:26:31,305
Economic and psychological depression was in the air,
423
00:26:31,885 --> 00:26:35,465
in reality, but in propaganda
424
00:26:35,725 --> 00:26:38,145
it was being presented as a success story.
425
00:26:42,165 --> 00:26:46,365
The whole purpose of the propaganda was to win the elections
426
00:26:46,365 --> 00:26:50,205
that were coming up in order to maintain the fallacy
427
00:26:50,225 --> 00:26:53,045
and the illusion that Greece had been stabilised.
428
00:26:56,105 --> 00:26:58,565
It had been stabilised in the same way
429
00:26:58,995 --> 00:27:02,725
that a comatose patient is stable, in the same way that death
430
00:27:03,625 --> 00:27:05,085
is equivalent to stability.
431
00:27:13,045 --> 00:27:15,535
That was the state of Greece in 2014 . . .
432
00:27:21,315 --> 00:27:25,495
and suddenly somebody who is about to inherit the mantle
433
00:27:25,595 --> 00:27:26,815
of the prime ministership
434
00:27:27,315 --> 00:27:31,815
of the most bankrupt nation in Europe, Alexis Tsipras,
435
00:27:32,115 --> 00:27:36,135
the young new leader of the coalition of the radical left,
436
00:27:36,365 --> 00:27:39,335
says to you, "Your proposals are the right ones
437
00:27:39,335 --> 00:27:40,495
and they need to be implemented,
438
00:27:41,115 --> 00:27:43,855
but we need you to play an active part in doing it."
439
00:27:45,035 --> 00:27:48,975
At that moment, moment, I thought, "Oops. What does one do?"
440
00:28:14,865 --> 00:28:18,955
When this party was rising up in the polls,
441
00:28:19,655 --> 00:28:21,395
it was managing to inspire
442
00:28:22,545 --> 00:28:25,275
hope in the hearts of the many.
443
00:28:25,695 --> 00:28:28,075
Its leader and leadership were coming closer
444
00:28:28,175 --> 00:28:30,035
and closer to proposals
445
00:28:30,115 --> 00:28:32,915
I believed were the right proposals for getting us
446
00:28:33,015 --> 00:28:34,115
out of debtors' prison.
447
00:28:37,255 --> 00:28:39,235
So let's say that Syriza gets elected tomorrow.
448
00:28:39,385 --> 00:28:42,115
What do you do? Do you get out of the Eurozone?
449
00:28:44,095 --> 00:28:48,955
Do you say, "I'm going to simply create my own currency, see it
450
00:28:49,475 --> 00:28:51,195
diminish in value by 95%
451
00:28:52,335 --> 00:28:54,475
and try to go for autarchy?"
452
00:28:56,725 --> 00:28:59,715
There is a case for this. There is a case for this.
453
00:29:00,935 --> 00:29:03,275
Argentina, more or less did that,
454
00:29:04,135 --> 00:29:06,675
and I support what they did entirely.
455
00:29:07,095 --> 00:29:11,195
But Argentina had two major advantages that Greece
456
00:29:11,415 --> 00:29:13,035
and Portugal and Ireland don't have.
457
00:29:13,455 --> 00:29:15,195
The first one was that it had its own currency.
458
00:29:15,975 --> 00:29:19,395
The peso existed. It was only a matter of cutting the peg
459
00:29:19,395 --> 00:29:21,875
with the US dollar and then defaulting
460
00:29:22,815 --> 00:29:24,155
and allowing the peso to fall.
461
00:29:25,095 --> 00:29:27,635
The second thing it had was huge tracts
462
00:29:27,635 --> 00:29:29,995
of land producing the goods that China wanted to buy
463
00:29:30,155 --> 00:29:31,395
precisely at that moment.
464
00:29:32,605 --> 00:29:33,995
Greece doesn't have either of these.
465
00:29:34,215 --> 00:29:35,675
We don't have the drachma to devalue.
466
00:29:36,095 --> 00:29:37,275
We have to create the currency.
467
00:29:37,335 --> 00:29:38,875
It will take, in my estimation,
468
00:29:38,875 --> 00:29:40,275
at least eight months to create it.
469
00:29:40,655 --> 00:29:41,885
So this is a bit
470
00:29:42,005 --> 00:29:44,445
like announcing eight months in advance
471
00:29:44,445 --> 00:29:45,965
devaluation. Do you know what this means?
472
00:29:46,695 --> 00:29:49,605
There will be nothing left in eight months from now,
473
00:29:49,855 --> 00:29:51,485
after the new currency is created.
474
00:29:52,225 --> 00:29:53,885
So, if I'm right in that,
475
00:29:53,945 --> 00:29:58,565
and not everybody agrees with me on the left,
476
00:29:58,585 --> 00:29:59,765
but if I'm right in that,
477
00:30:00,145 --> 00:30:01,645
the only alternative is negotiations.
478
00:30:01,945 --> 00:30:03,485
Our common future in Europe
479
00:30:04,425 --> 00:30:06,085
is not the future of austerity.
480
00:30:06,955 --> 00:30:10,765
It's the future of democracy, solidarity, and cooperation.
481
00:30:11,725 --> 00:30:15,085
I felt that it was almost impossible for me
482
00:30:15,145 --> 00:30:17,605
to resist getting involved with them.
483
00:30:18,385 --> 00:30:19,605
But I have to admit
484
00:30:19,755 --> 00:30:23,685
that when the offer was made, I panicked.
485
00:30:26,105 --> 00:30:29,525
Can I trust Syriza? Can I trust the leadership?
486
00:30:33,205 --> 00:30:37,485
Because I knew that our election would signal,
487
00:30:38,105 --> 00:30:40,725
it would trigger, a war with the creditors.
488
00:30:41,305 --> 00:30:45,365
The creditors were hellbent on
489
00:30:45,885 --> 00:30:50,365
maintaining the status quo, maintaining the debtors' prison
490
00:30:50,365 --> 00:30:55,005
that is Greece, maintaining the unsustainable debt,
491
00:30:55,645 --> 00:30:58,365
because unsustainable debt is power for the creditors.
492
00:31:00,555 --> 00:31:02,405
They would have the media on their side.
493
00:31:02,595 --> 00:31:04,005
They would have the banks on their side,
494
00:31:04,005 --> 00:31:05,605
the European Central Bank on their side,
495
00:31:05,605 --> 00:31:08,205
the International Monetary Fund, the Wall Street Journal,
496
00:31:08,225 --> 00:31:12,805
The Financial Times, the BBC, the whole cabal would be there
497
00:31:13,775 --> 00:31:18,125
doing battle against us to keep our people in debtors' prison.
498
00:31:18,745 --> 00:31:21,765
So we knew, I knew, that we would have
499
00:31:22,165 --> 00:31:26,485
a massive battle on our hands, and unity was of the essence.
500
00:31:30,985 --> 00:31:33,525
Now, like David
501
00:31:33,585 --> 00:31:36,165
and Goliath, you may win.
502
00:31:36,625 --> 00:31:39,325
If you're David, you have a little catapult.
503
00:31:39,335 --> 00:31:44,005
Maybe it'll work. As the finance minister
504
00:31:44,025 --> 00:31:46,325
who would have to go to the Eurogroup to fight
505
00:31:46,665 --> 00:31:49,205
for our side, I would have that little catapult,
506
00:31:49,655 --> 00:31:52,005
which comprised a number of
507
00:31:53,585 --> 00:31:54,925
little weapons that we had.
508
00:31:56,945 --> 00:31:59,485
But for that catapult to be used, I would have
509
00:31:59,485 --> 00:32:03,365
to have the complete backing of our team, the Prime Minister
510
00:32:03,945 --> 00:32:06,045
and the war cabinet, as we used to call it.
511
00:32:06,545 --> 00:32:10,405
The great question that was exercising my mind was,
512
00:32:11,095 --> 00:32:12,685
"Would I have their backing?
513
00:32:13,945 --> 00:32:17,725
Not at the beginning. Not at the middle.
514
00:32:19,825 --> 00:32:21,405
But to the very end.
515
00:32:23,615 --> 00:32:25,605
Would they stick around?
516
00:32:26,055 --> 00:32:29,805
Would unity prevail until that last second?"
517
00:32:30,155 --> 00:32:32,365
That was the great question.
518
00:32:35,105 --> 00:32:38,565
There was a very good reason why it was inside my head,
519
00:32:39,225 --> 00:32:41,685
preventing me from sleeping at night.
520
00:33:04,765 --> 00:33:08,175
This reluctance to join was overcome
521
00:33:09,595 --> 00:33:11,255
by writing my letter of resignation
522
00:33:11,255 --> 00:33:13,295
and carrying it in the inside pocket
523
00:33:13,315 --> 00:33:14,575
of my jacket, wherever I went,
524
00:33:15,635 --> 00:33:17,855
as a reminder of the fact that this is not
525
00:33:17,855 --> 00:33:19,455
for me, this is a chore.
526
00:33:20,045 --> 00:33:21,935
This is like taking the rubbish out at night.
527
00:33:22,815 --> 00:33:24,975
Somebody has to do it. You're doing it.
528
00:33:26,225 --> 00:33:27,335
Don't get wedded to it.
529
00:33:41,915 --> 00:33:43,695
Now imagine a friend of yours comes to you
530
00:33:43,695 --> 00:33:47,455
and his income from his business has shrunk by 50%,
531
00:33:47,675 --> 00:33:48,935
and he can't pay his mortgage.
532
00:33:49,115 --> 00:33:50,895
He's about to lose his house,
533
00:33:52,275 --> 00:33:54,735
and then he says to you, "But I have a solution.
534
00:33:55,465 --> 00:33:59,215
There is this bank that offers me a credit card
535
00:33:59,715 --> 00:34:01,615
to meet my mortgage repayments."
536
00:34:01,965 --> 00:34:03,455
What do you think? Is this a good idea?
537
00:34:05,035 --> 00:34:08,855
If you are a friend, you've got to say to them, "Don't do it.
538
00:34:09,795 --> 00:34:13,375
Do not take a credit card out to pretend
539
00:34:13,445 --> 00:34:15,175
that you are repaying your mortgage."
540
00:34:16,195 --> 00:34:19,335
Now, imagine that your friend said to you that
541
00:34:19,715 --> 00:34:23,735
the bank could only give him this credit card on condition
542
00:34:23,735 --> 00:34:25,815
that he agrees to shrink his income further.
543
00:34:26,315 --> 00:34:29,695
Now, that, of course, is nothing short of complete madness.
544
00:34:31,015 --> 00:34:33,925
Don't do it to the nth.
545
00:34:34,875 --> 00:34:37,245
Well, this is precisely what happened in Greece.
546
00:34:38,065 --> 00:34:39,885
The credit card was a bailout,
547
00:34:40,585 --> 00:34:44,925
and the austerity conditions were the conditions that ensured
548
00:34:45,315 --> 00:34:50,205
that the falling income, due to the recession, would crash
549
00:34:50,545 --> 00:34:53,565
as a result of the harshest austerity in the
550
00:34:53,565 --> 00:34:54,685
history of capitalism.
551
00:34:55,945 --> 00:34:58,645
And of course, what happens when the credit card runs out?
552
00:34:59,595 --> 00:35:01,805
Well, either you have to declare your bankruptcy then,
553
00:35:01,945 --> 00:35:03,125
or get another credit card.
554
00:35:03,625 --> 00:35:06,405
In 2012, Greece was given its second bailout, two
555
00:35:06,405 --> 00:35:07,485
years after the first one.
556
00:35:08,665 --> 00:35:10,605
And towards the end of 2014,
557
00:35:10,605 --> 00:35:12,445
that second bailout was running out.
558
00:35:14,745 --> 00:35:17,565
During the election campaign, Syriza promised them
559
00:35:17,915 --> 00:35:20,525
that we would not take out a third credit
560
00:35:20,595 --> 00:35:21,845
card, a third bailout.
561
00:35:23,445 --> 00:35:25,105
The opinion polls say the leader
562
00:35:25,105 --> 00:35:27,105
of the Greek far left is on the verge
563
00:35:27,105 --> 00:35:28,865
of winning a snap election.
564
00:35:29,655 --> 00:35:32,665
Many here are way to the left of any mainstream party.
565
00:35:33,695 --> 00:35:35,505
Tsipras' aim is to make resistance
566
00:35:35,645 --> 00:35:38,605
to austerity mainstream throughout Europe.
567
00:36:39,425 --> 00:36:42,525
It was absolutely fantastically remarkable
568
00:36:44,285 --> 00:36:46,805
watching a society that had been
569
00:36:47,945 --> 00:36:49,605
beaten into submission.
570
00:36:52,545 --> 00:36:57,285
The demonstrations of 2011 had ended. People were quiet.
571
00:36:58,395 --> 00:37:01,645
They were staying in their homes, not demonstrating,
572
00:37:02,675 --> 00:37:05,605
licking their wounds, privatising their fears
573
00:37:06,185 --> 00:37:07,485
and their terror.
574
00:37:10,745 --> 00:37:13,805
And suddenly in January 2015,
575
00:37:15,315 --> 00:37:19,845
that extreme depression, that extreme case of
576
00:37:20,355 --> 00:37:23,165
privatising aspirations, dreams
577
00:37:23,305 --> 00:37:27,805
and nightmares, gave rise to an explosion
578
00:37:27,905 --> 00:37:32,245
of hope, to a popular movement that went
579
00:37:32,265 --> 00:37:35,325
beyond party political divisions.
580
00:37:40,285 --> 00:37:41,685
I had people stopping me in the streets
581
00:37:41,685 --> 00:37:42,885
saying, "I'm a right-winger.
582
00:37:43,005 --> 00:37:45,725
I voted for New Democracy and never voted for you.
583
00:37:46,225 --> 00:37:49,445
But we are together. We need to recover our dignity.
584
00:37:49,785 --> 00:37:54,565
We need to escape debtors prison." Going from three, four percent
585
00:37:55,825 --> 00:37:58,445
in very few years to 40% to win government —
586
00:38:01,715 --> 00:38:05,525
that goes to show it takes
587
00:38:06,245 --> 00:38:10,885
a small spark of hope to ignite a revolutionary moment,
588
00:38:11,525 --> 00:38:16,205
a moment in history that rewrites the set of possibilities.
589
00:38:23,705 --> 00:38:25,405
The beginning was splendid.
590
00:38:26,605 --> 00:38:28,445
I remember immediately
591
00:38:28,575 --> 00:38:32,565
after being sworn in by the President of the Republic,
592
00:38:34,165 --> 00:38:36,845
I popped into the Prime Minister's office.
593
00:38:37,625 --> 00:38:39,645
It was the first time I entered that room.
594
00:38:41,025 --> 00:38:43,365
It was the first day in office.
595
00:38:44,285 --> 00:38:47,925
I walked in, I looked at Alexis, he looked at me.
596
00:38:48,705 --> 00:38:51,005
We sort of felt awkward being in that room.
597
00:38:51,505 --> 00:38:56,485
We hugged. At the same time we looked at one another
598
00:38:56,505 --> 00:38:58,805
and we said, "Oh my God, what have we done?
599
00:38:59,145 --> 00:39:00,405
We are running this place now."
600
00:39:05,795 --> 00:39:08,365
Immediately after that, it was just the two
601
00:39:08,365 --> 00:39:10,885
of us in a large prime ministerial office,
602
00:39:12,785 --> 00:39:14,285
he says to me, "Well, look around,
603
00:39:15,825 --> 00:39:17,525
but don't get enamoured of it.
604
00:39:19,005 --> 00:39:20,965
because these buildings were not made for us."
605
00:39:23,105 --> 00:39:25,565
He said, "We were created
606
00:39:25,785 --> 00:39:28,125
to be out there on the street demonstrating against
607
00:39:28,145 --> 00:39:29,285
the people in these buildings.
608
00:39:30,385 --> 00:39:32,525
So don't get too comfortable in here.
609
00:39:33,815 --> 00:39:35,365
Let's always be ready to be out there."
610
00:39:36,425 --> 00:39:40,045
And I remember feeling very touched, very moved.
611
00:39:40,645 --> 00:39:43,205
I was almost in tears and we hugged again.
612
00:39:44,505 --> 00:39:45,525
It was at moments like
613
00:39:45,525 --> 00:39:47,605
that at the beginning when I thought we were invincible.
614
00:39:48,265 --> 00:39:51,125
And I have no doubt that had we remained like that,
615
00:39:51,665 --> 00:39:53,005
we would have been invincible.
47122
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