Translated "Avante!" article by Angelo Alves, Member of the PCP Political Committee and of the International Department
The developments unfolding within Cyprus, subject to an authentic German monitored assault, via the Euro-group, rises a great number of questions. Therefore, one ought to be centred only but in some of the situation’s key-questions.
A first note goes to the events’ systemic nature. One is not just before a shameless robbery on Cyprus, criminal in all points of view, including the political and the relationship among states. Nor even before a shameless blackmail act upon a people , as the ECB ultimatum proved, threatening with an authentic financial atomic bomb.
One is before a European Union capitalism crisis development new baseline. A baseline, in which the resource extortion on the financial sphere and capital centralization and concentration process achieves a superior level and is decided on the fringe of any political control, the currently used “model”, by the European Commission. The total submission of the political to the economic power, as proved by the fact of the Cypriots ‘savings robbery and the hundred of small and medium size enterprises assets, having been decided in Berlin, accorded in Brussels and imposed unto Cyprus, ignoring its parliament.
But in Cyprus the events yet proved another feature of the capitalism crisis development. And this is a second note: the contradictions’ deepening among the different great capital sectors and therefore among the capitalist economic powers within the crisis deepening framework. The savings’ robbery dimension holds objectives which proved until how far can the economic war among the great capital sectors can go, within the context of the continuation of the devaluation processes belong to the capital, as typical of a over-production crisis, the economic war among great capital sectors.
The savings criminal seizure, deposited in two of the Cypriot greatest banks hold two immediate consequences: the more than foreseeable capital flight from troubled Cyprus unto the “secure” centre of Europe, more exactly unto the very same German mega banks; and the loss of Russian capital sectors of many thousands of million Euro. Therefore, what was the cause of part of this measure’s violence was precisely what stands behind the measures taken h up to now, regarding countries such as Portugal. In other words, the Europe “central” economies try hard to build cordon sanitaires round “its” great capital. And for that purpose, destroys economies, creates the economic and social chaos and the crisis choc waves are transferred unto the periphery. And what is relatively new amid Cyprus situation is the losses “export” is undergone, not only unto the European Union periphery, but also unto Russia. And this is greatly upsetting Putin, the great ally of the Russian great capital and its mafias.
A third note goes to hypocrisy. This measure is to be justified with the hypocrite idea that the Cypriot financial sector was over-dimensioned, as its economy holds a strong offshore component. But those who currently hold this opinion, are the great defenders of the capital circulation liberalization, the same who refuse to tax the capital and the financial operations, the same who do not want to end the off-shores, as Luxembourg or Madeira. Pure hypocrisy, in order to justify a robbery.
The fourth and last note goes to what is not mentioned. The Cypriot parliament, in April , will be called upon to vote the “real” troika memorandum. And contained in that memorandum are all the measures Portugal is well acquainted with. Cuts in salaries and pensions, public services destruction, privatizations, tax increases, etc. And one more adding: the falcons have their eyes on the gas reserves, recently discovered in Cyprus. Therefore, as the AKEL states, the solution is beyond the memorandum framework, and that is the only solution!