CPD Solidarity Statement By Campaign for Peace
and Democracy

Campaign for Peace and Democracy
September 7, 2012

http://www.cpdweb.org/stmts/1022/stmt.shtml

Dear Friend of the Campaign for Peace and
Democracy,

         We are writing you at this critical moment to
         invite you to sign the Campaign for Peace and
         Democracy statement entitled "We Stand with
         the Greek People Fighting Austerity -- For
         Their Sake and Ours."

We very much hope that you will join the initial 151
signers of the statement. A large number of
signatures can make a real difference and will help
let people in Greece know that they are not alone as
they resist the cruel austerity measures the "Troika"
(the European Central Bank, the European
Commission, and the International Monetary Fund)
are attempting to impose on the Greek population --
with the acquiescence of the current Greek
government.

        If you wish to add your name to the CPD
        solidarity statement, see the emerging list of
        signers and their affiliations, and/or make a
        tax-deductible donation to publicize the
        statement, please go to our website. We are
        especially concerned to publicize the statement
        soon because each day brings news of further
        savage austerity measures and we need to
        show our solidarity now with those fighting
        back.

        A list of the initial signers and the text of the
        statement are below. We hope to collect a large
        number of signatures very quickly, and then
        publish the statement as widely as possible, in
        this country, in Greece, and internationally  --
        beginning with ads in The Nation and The
        Progressive magazine. You do not have to
        donate in order to sign, but please do give if
        you can, and as generously as you can.

Initial igners nclude Kamal Abbas, Ali Abdi,
Mohamed Abdulnabi Al-Maskati, Ervand
Abrahamian, Bashir Abu-Manneh, Michael Albert,
Greg Albo, Kevin B. Anderson, Anthony Arnove,
Stanley Aronowitz, Ed Asner, Etienne Balibar,
Medea Benjamin, Norman Birnbaum, Leah Bolger,
John Borsos, Sam Bottone, Laura Boylan, MD,
Jeremy Brecher, Allison Lynn Brown, Beth Bush
Greenstein, Koray Caliskan, Noam Chomsky,
Margaret W. Crane, Hamid Dabashi, Gail Daneker,
Julie (JD) Davids, Manuela Dobos, Tina Dobsevage,
MD, Ariel Dorfman, Mark Dudzic, Steve Early,
Daniel Ellsberg, Gertrude Ezorsky, Samuel Farber,
Thomas M. Fasy, MD, John Feffer, Barry Finger, Bill
Fletcher, Jr., David Friedman, Mike Friedman, Sam
Friedman, Bill Gallegos, Dan Gallin, Barbara
Garson, Carol E. Gay, Irene Gendzier, Dan
Georgakis, Jack Gerson, Joseph Gerson, Ruth
Wilson Gilmore, Sam Gindin, Suzanne Gordon,
Jules Greenstein, Arun Gupta, Ernest Haberkern,
Mina Hamilton, Thomas Harrison, Howie Hawkins,
Judith Hempfling, William F. Henning, Jr., Doug
Henwood, Michael Hirsch, Madelyn Hoffman, Nancy
Holmstrom, Ali Issa, Melissa Jameson, Robert
Jensen, Geoff Johnson, Mark Johnson, Jan Kavan,
Michael Kazin, Kathy Kelly, Assaf J. Kfoury, Nada
Khader, Ynestra King, Daniel La Botz, Xavier
Lafrance, Roger Leisner, Jesse Lemisch, Sue
Leonard, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Traven Leyshon,
Nelson Lichtenstein, Martha Livingston, Francesca
Lo Basso, Zachary Lockman, Michael Lowy, Meizhu
Lui, Ravi Malhotra, Betty Reid Mandell, Marvin
Mandell, Nasir Mansoor, Dave Marsh, David
McReynolds, Ruth Milkman, Marilyn Morehead,
Manijeh Nasrabadi, David Newby, Molly Nolan,
David Oakford, Dr. Stephen Oren, Costas
Panayotakis, Leo Panitch, Chris T. Papaleonardos,
Charlotte Phillips, MD, Frances Fox Piven, Danny
Postel, Vijay Prashad, Bill Quigley, Saeed Rahnema,
Leonard Rodberg, Richard Roman, Andrew Ross,
Diana Rossi, Matthew Rothschild, Saskia Sassen,
Jennifer Scarlott, Jay Schaffner, Jason Schulman,
Peter O. Schwartz, Sadra M. Shahab, Azadeh
Shahshahani, Stephen R. Shalom, Margaret
Shelleda, Richard Smith, Stephen Soldz, Norman
Solomon, Stephen Steinberg, Cheryl Stevenson,
Jeanne Strole, Bhaskar Sunkara, David Swanson,
Willliam K. Tabb, Chris Toensing, Saadia Toor,
Bernard Tuchman, Adaner Usmani, Eleni Varikas,
Immanuel Wallerstein, Judith Podore Ward, Lois
Weiner, Naomi Weisstein, Laurie Wen, Cornel West,
Reginald Wilson, Sherry Wolf, Daniel Wolff, Julia
Wrigley, and Leila Zand.

(Identifications of the initial signers are available on
the CPD website.)

        If you've already signed the statement but not
        yet contributed to our publicity efforts, you can
        go directly to the donation page on our website
        now to make a contribution, or send your
        credit card information or check made out to
        Campaign for Peace and Democracy to the
        address below. We urgently need your financial
        support for this crucial initiative. The world
        must be made aware that many people around
        the globe are appalled by the devastating
        sacrifices being demanded of the Greek people,
        and that we support their resistance.

In peace and solidarity,

Joanne                   Tom
Joanne Landy           Thomas Harrison

Co-Directors, Campaign for Peace and Democracy

The text of the sign-on statement is below.

* * * * * * *

WE STAND WITH THE GREEK PEOPLE FIGHTING
AUSTERITY -- FOR THEIR SAKE AND OURS
September 2012 Statement of the Campaign for
Peace and Democracy
http://www.cpdweb.org/stmts/1022/stmt.shtml

        What is happening today in Greece is only the
        most extreme example of a global
        phenomenon: the world's political and
        economic elites, who are responsible for the
        current economic crisis, want to make the rest
        of us pay for that crisis, no matter how much
        suffering this creates. But Greece also
        exemplifies the determined resistance of
        millions of ordinary people who refuse to pay
        for a crisis they did not cause. Their fight is a
        model for all of us.

        Greeks are subjected to an extraordinarily
        harsh austerity program that has devastated
        the lives of most of the population. Draconian
        measures demanded by European bankers and
        politicians and carried out by the Greek
        government have drastically reduced workers'
        wages, pensions, social welfare and labor
        rights; poverty and hunger are rising rapidly
        and suicides of people unable to cope with
        their rapidly deteriorating circumstances are
        increasingly common. Hospitals lack basic
        medical supplies and the under-funding of
        government social insurance is making it
        impossible for many Greeks to obtain the
        medicines they desperately need to survive.
        Current unemployment for the general
        population is officially 23 percent, but in reality
        closer to 30 percent, and over 50 percent for
        young people.

Meanwhile, the Greek government continues to bail
out Greek banks and to sell off precious public
assets at scandalously low prices. For global elites,
Greece is a laboratory for a savage form of
neoliberalism   --  the wholesale privatization of
public goods, deregulation of markets and turning
the workforce into a powerless and financially
precarious underclass wholly dependent on
employers.

        But Greeks have forthrightly declined to play
        the role of guinea pigs. We are deeply
        heartened and inspired by the Greek people's
        resistance. They have mounted general strikes,
        massive demonstrations and occupations, and,
        most recently, they have voted in large and
        increasing numbers for a leftwing political
        party, SYRIZA, which is leading strong
        opposition to the government's catastrophic
        policies and has a good chance of winning the
        next election.

        Greece is worse off than most developed
        countries, but it is not unique. The worldwide
        crisis, which is actually worsened by austerity
        policies, is being used as an opportunity to
        take away hard won social and labor rights
        everywhere. Though most other countries
        haven't yet seen policies as punitive as those
        in Greece, throughout the OECD
        unemployment remains high, while cutbacks
        lead to massive layoffs, and deficits are used as
        an excuse to attack public services. In the
        United States the banks have foreclosed
        millions of homes, students are burdened with
        huge debts they are unable to repay, and a
        vicious assault has been waged on the
        collective bargaining rights of public sector
        workers.

        Austerity policies also pose a critical threat to
        democracy. Increasingly, elites seek to insulate
        economic decision-making from democratic
        control. To them, not just Greeks but ordinary
        people everywhere cannot be trusted to act
        responsibly and therefore do not deserve
        democracy. For the elites, austerity is
        imperative not only to solve the crisis, but also
        to restore unfettered markets -- that is, the very
        conditions that threw the world into an
        economic and social meltdown in the first
        place. The people, who fail to grasp the wisdom
        of neoliberal ideology, cannot be allowed to
        interfere.

        At the same time, however, grassroots
        democratic resistance to austerity is
        intensifying. As in Greece there have been
        large-scale strikes, demonstrations and
        occupations of public space in Egypt, Spain,
        Chile, South Africa, Mexico, China, Quebec,
        Wisconsin, and the Occupy movement around
        the world.

        In Greece, the left is also struggling to prevent
        the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn from turning
        people's rage and desperation against
        immigrants. Golden Dawn's violent pogroms
        are paralleled by the Greek government's
        persecution of immigrants, both documented
        and undocumented. The crisis has likewise
        fostered the growth of the extreme right in
        Europe and the U.S., as well as xenophobic
        demagogy and repression by "mainstream"
        politicians. It is all the more urgent, therefore,
        to support the Greek left and to promote
        elsewhere its radical democratic proposals:
        taxing wealth, nationalizing banks, cutting
        military spending, boosting wages and social
        services, and strengthening labor rights.

We Are All Greeks!

        Greece is the site of a cruel experiment by
        economic and political elites: driving people
        into extreme poverty and stripping them of
        their social rights as a solution to the economic
        crisis. It is an experiment that these elites wish
        to extend throughout the world. They have
        already begun. We declare that it doesn't have
        to be this way. We stand with the Greek
        resistance to austerity, both as a moral
        imperative and because it shows the way to
        secure a decent future for people everywhere.

* * * * * * *

If for any reason you have difficulty at the website,
just send us an email at [log in to unmask] Please
circulate the statement to your colleagues and
friends. And you can share the statement on
Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites by
going to our website.

We welcome signers from around the world. Please
forward this message to people you think would like
to sign, or send us names and emails at [log in to unmask]
and we will contact them. Indicate if we can
mention that you suggested that we contact the
individuals on your list.

To sign or support the statement, please go to
http://www.cpdweb.org/stmts/1022/stmt.shtml

Campaign for Peace and Democracy 2790 Broadway,
#12, NY, NY 10025, USA Email: [log in to unmask]    Web:
www.cpdweb.org

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