The New Resistance Leader - Same As The Old Resistance Leader ?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/18/greece-wartime-hero-denounces-cuts

Greece's wartime resistance hero denounces EU-backed cuts

Manolis Glezos attacks austerity measures as demonstrations are staged in more than 20 cities around the world

Manolis Glezos called on anti-capitalist protesters to 'overturn a rotten system'. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images

The hero of Greece's anti-Nazi resistance movement, Manolis Glezos, has appealed to anti-capitalist protesters to "overturn a rotten system". Leading the fight in a very different sort of war, the leftwing icon said his nation had become a "guinea pig" for austerity measures to which no country was immune.

"We have become the guinea pig of policies exacted by governments whose only God is money," said Glezos, famous for ripping down the swastika from the Acropolis within days of Nazi forces overrunning Greece.

He told the Observer: "It started here but will move to other states. That's why we're seeing this solidarity because people are reacting."

Glezos spoke as thousands gathered outside Greek embassies and consulates in more than 20 cities in a massive show of support for the nation on the frontline of Europe's escalating debt drama.

United under the banner "We are all Greeks", demonstrators from Dusseldorf to New York denounced the draconian belt-tightening measures drawn up by the EU and IMF, which have pushed the struggling eurozone country into deeper poverty and despair. "We are sorry Greeks. These are not our policies," German protesters shouted in Berlin at one of the many demonstrations attended by trade unionists, celebrities and prominent thinkers in capitals across the EU.

Amid intense speculation over whether debt-stricken Athens should even remain in the EU, the outpouring of support is a marked turnaround for a country that at first was widely perceived as a "black sheep" deserving of its fate after decades of state profligacy. The solidarity movement, which has taken off through the internet, symbolises how Greece has increasingly come to embody economic mismanagement and injustice.

Far from reining in the country's runaway public finances, two years of EU- and IMF-mandated austerity has reduced it to its knees. Public debt, which stood at 115% of GDP in 2009, last month reached 160% of total economic output. Living standards have fallen dramatically, with some 48% of the country's 11-million strong population on or around the poverty line.

Glezos said: "That is why we are so grateful for this gesture of solidarity overseas. It is quite obvious that people are not prepared to submit, that they are taking their fate into their own hands."

Mired in recession, with its economy set to contract for a fifth consecutive year, Greece is trapped in a vicious cycle with many fearing it is heading towards economic and social collapse. A €130bn (£108bn) aid package – the country's second international bailout – is expected to be finalised at a meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers on Monday after months of ferocious negotiations. But it comes at a price. In the months and years ahead, Athens will have to apply further salary and pension cuts, axe around 150,000 jobs in the public sector and reduce the minimum wage by 22%.

"We've been quite astonished by the poverty. There's a disaffection here and anger that you don't see in Ireland," said Goretti Keane, a retired teacher taking a break in the Greek capital last week. Ireland is widely seen as the poster child of Europe's efforts to resuscitate ailing economies through rescue programmes that offer aid in return for austerity – in sharp contrast to Greece, which has drawn criticism for delaying reforms.

"Ireland may be enduring austerity but it's nothing like this," Keane said. "We forget that the Greeks were starting from a much lower baseline. The homeless, people rummaging through rubbish bins in the centre of Athens, are sights that frankly are straight out of the third world."

In Italy and Spain last week, singers interrupted concerts to lambast the "unfair" policies of the EU and IMF. In a symbolic gesture, two mayors from towns in southern Italy gave up their salaries, saying that they would donate the money to Greece's needy.

"Greece gave us civilization and Italy and Europe are not its brothers but its children," said Marco Galdi, mayor of Cava dei Tirreni, in a letter addressed to EU, Greek and Italian leaders.

"Europe today is being judged. If it abandons Greece it will definitively reject a certain idea of Europe, a Europe which we want and love," he said.

"We are about to see huge changes," he said referring to the spectacular rise of leftwing parties on the back of opposition to austerity.

"There is a lot of anger but we have no desire to see blood on the streets. What is clearly happening is a rebellion of ideas, a revolt in the way people see the world and part of that is a refusal to submit to the injustices that the EU and IMF are handing out, which will become very clear when elections take place in April."