by system failure
The announcement of the Hellenic Public Broadcaster (ERT) shutdown came completely unexpectedly by the Greek governmental representative Simos Kedikoglou. With an incredibly arrogant style which refers directly to a representative of a fascist regime, mister "Goebbels" of the domestic governmental troika (now transformed in two-party coalition after withdrawal of Dimokratiki Aristera), announced the extermination - in just one day - of ERT, and get rid of its 2656 employees, in order to satisfy the outside troika lenders - who demand more and more blood – and the domestic big media owners directly connected for years with the two-party establishment PASOK and Nea Dimokratia who brought country in this mess, in order to serve exclusively their own interests.
The announcement of the Hellenic Public Broadcaster (ERT) shutdown came completely unexpectedly by the Greek governmental representative Simos Kedikoglou. With an incredibly arrogant style which refers directly to a representative of a fascist regime, mister "Goebbels" of the domestic governmental troika (now transformed in two-party coalition after withdrawal of Dimokratiki Aristera), announced the extermination - in just one day - of ERT, and get rid of its 2656 employees, in order to satisfy the outside troika lenders - who demand more and more blood – and the domestic big media owners directly connected for years with the two-party establishment PASOK and Nea Dimokratia who brought country in this mess, in order to serve exclusively their own interests.
As
government failed to sell the Public Natural Gas Company to Russians,
Samaras and his advisors tried to find a way to hide their failures,
and show determination to "clean" public sector in Greece
in order to satisfy the neoliberal Taliban of the troika lenders who
demand more “blood” through massive discharges in public sector,
and the domestic big media establishment owners which participated in
the construction of the Memorandum terms according to their
interests. Through a simple and fast process, resembling a junta
regime, the representative of bankers and big private media owners,
Antonis Samaras, gave the command.
In
a recent speech, Samaras tried to target ERT, speaking about "sacred
cows" that no one dares to touch. The truth is that the only
"sacred cow" remaining today, is the fast-track
privatizations and private investments, in such an extent that,
anyone who dares to speak about development through public
investments, is treated like a fool, or even worse, like a dangerous
mind. War against similar ideas, is so fierce that, it would be no
surprise if, in the close or distant future, those who will dare to
support them, will somehow punished by the neoliberal junta.
New
precedents in the Greek experiment
Despite
the decision from the Council of State in Greece, the government
insist on keeping the Hellenic public broadcaster closed until now,
and the whole story, brought some new precedents concerning the Greek
experiment:
1st:
One basic argument from the Greek government, during the process
until the final decision from the Council of State, was that the
Greek state is not obliged to retain public broadcaster! While this
argument expose the real intension of the Greek government, which is
to close the public broadcaster definitively, is setting also a
precedent, as disputes openly the obligation of state to retain
public organizations.
2nd:
The Council of State decision, opens directly the field of massive
discharges at will, in public sector, from the secretary of finance
Yannis Stournaras. The decision exposes musicians of the ERT
Symphonic Orchestra and the ERT ensembles, as well as people who work
in the ERT magazine "Radiotileorasi", putting them at the
top of the discharge list.
As
a result, the new arising perception is that, the culture which such
music ensembles serve, is a luxury that the state cannot support and
therefore must repeal. The basic argument to justify such a
perception is that the state cannot support the rising numbers of
unemployed. An argument which is spread by the parrots of the
neoliberal dictatorship, but appears to be so obviously absurd, since
the catastrophic austerity policies are responsible for the
unemployment record numbers, and under the pretext of the economy
recovery, more people are loosing their jobs through the discharges
in public sector!
3rd:
Despite the Council of State decision, another serious precedent
arise. The black screen in the ERT TV and silence in its radio
frequencies, as well as the picture of police special forces cutting
down the transmitters, opens the road - in Greece and Europe - for
even cruel authoritarian policies through which public beneficial
organizations will be shutdown with fast and simple processes.
We
must not forget that, another concerted attack from the neoliberal
dictatorship against public beneficial institutions, took place in
Greece about a year ago, when the deposits of public universities and
hospitals left unprotected by the government, allowing their massive
conversion in Greek bonds by the Bank of Greece, just before the new
bond haircut PSI program, bringing a huge loss in their stocks.
Why
they chose ERT
This
time, in the case of ERT, the experiment tested peoples' reaction
against a more direct and violent act, and this was probably the
reason that woke up people to protest in the central building of ERT
in Athens and other cities.
The
truth is that, the neoliberal Thatcherian type agenda in its most
cruel form, must prevail at all costs, and that's why the public
broadcaster should be targeted, one of the last symbols of cultural
resistance against the transformation of everything in cost and
profit, a kind of economic totalitarianism. People abroad understood
that and reacted directly.
The
dictatorial behavior of the Greek government spread terror in Europe
and European public broadcasters, as they saw that someday may have
the same ending. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) reacted
directly, and hustled to support ERT, one of its founding members, by
providing technical support, in order to make sure that ERT will
continue broadcasting, while the president of EBU spoke about the
worse type of censorship we ever saw, and asked Samaras, through a
letter, to recall the decision immediately. The black background in
the front pages of French newspapers "Liberation" and
"Humanite" is also characteristic.
Neoliberal
dictatorship will try to erase the independent voice of public
broadcasters in Europe - through the Greek experiment - and dictate a
Too Big to Fail model for the largest private media, following the
same pattern applied on the banking sector, in order to erase the
independent information in maximum degree. The next big step will be
to find a way to control the independent Internet information, in
order to complete its domination.
An
anti-experiment
Despite
all the bad signs, there is another fact which gives hope to a new
form of resistance against politics of destruction. It is the fact
that, workers in ERT, through their anti-experiment, managed to prove
that the self-management of a public organization, without
governmental managers, golden boys - advisors and governmental
interventions, is absolutely possible, since despite the various
obstacles, public broadcaster in Greece continued to broadcast until
now.
But
the anti-experiment could not have been successful without direct
mobilization of people and other democratic forces of resistance in
European level too, like EBU, and this is a good example that, only
the European massive movement of people and democratic institutions
can prevent domination of the neoliberal dictatorship and reverse the
catastrophic course of Europe, which is moving towards a deep
cultural degradation and a new dark age.
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