KAJSA EKIS EKMAN: THE GREEK LESSON: DO NOT GIVE UP!
A Swedish journalist in Athens in the midst of crisis
Interview with Kajsa Ekis Ekman
What was the original motivation to focus on Greece and the Greek Crisis?
Any capitalist crisis constitutes a moment of ideological battle. The ruling classes, once they spent all the money and left society in ruins, then use their medias to try to convince everyone that the crisis is the fault of the people. And even worse: that the solution to the crisis is taking away even more money and rights from the people and hand it over to the ruling classes. Whereas we know that any capitalist crisis happens because of contractions in the system, or because the financial elites have behaved recklessly. If the people don't counter with their own explanation to the crisis, we will be stuck in self-blame, self-loathing and psychological misery. Now, in this case the crisis was more severe in some countries than others. Due to trade imbalances, it struck the periphery while the “core” countries of the European Union were not hit. Their medias started some kind of campaign in which they blamed the crisis on the Greek working class, also using cultural stereotypes. The idea of the “lazy Greek gardener or nurse” was taking hold in Sweden. I found it horrendous that such banal ideas would be used to explain the deepest crisis in the West since the 1929 crash. I mean, the whole financial system, the EMU and the global world order got completely off without blame! I saw that there was a necessity to counter with another story and that is why I wrote the book.
How this experience changed your ideas and understanding about Greece and the Greek Crisis?
In the geopolitical sense. Before I came I had the understanding of the crisis as a pure capitalist one, which had nothing to do with Greece or any other country. This perception has changed a little. What affects everything in Greek politics is the modern history of Greece. When I wrote the book, everyone in Athens kept telling me that if I didn't study history I would not understand the depth of the malaise that the political system suffered. And it is true – that's why I also had to include a history chapter in my book. The fact that Greece has such an important geopolitical position means that the superpowers have always been interested in controlling the country. It also means that the political factions in Greece align with one superpower or another. Just like Greece so easily has been absorbed by the European Union projects without considering whether those were to the benefit of the country or not. The history of Greece as both the founder of European democracy and an occupied nation creates, I think, a kind of paradoxical self-identity. Where you think you are the best and the worst at the same time. It also gives rise to many conspiracy theories and in the worst form, racism.
How can the case of Greece (the politics of austerity, the Memorandum, the social movements, the resistance of the people, the everyday life) be useful for the other European people? Which is the “Greek lesson”? – if there is such lesson…
The lesson is: Don't give up! Any fight, small or big, will create an example. In Ireland austerity was also imposed but nobody said anything. The Greek movements set an example by insisting on striking, demonstrating and protesting. Though it was more difficult than in, say Tunisia or Egypt since the Greek movement did not only have their own rulers against them, but also the international capital and the troika. The power was too hard to affect in this case. The resistance would have to be very well organized to have a chance.
What is your opinion about the Square movements and Aganaktismenoi (Kίνημα των Πλατειών, Αγανακτισμένοι) since you been there, and about the “ phenomenon SYRIZA”?
The Square movements were a very good thing highlighting the memorandum, and also showing people's discontent. It was very broad – people from all ages, backgrounds and political affiliations. It served as a people's school of economics – I heard speakers go up one after the other and explain what a CDO or a CDS is, what are eurobonds, But just like the anti-WTO protests in the beginning of the years 2000, the Arab Spring, Gezi Park and Occupy Wall Street, these protests are not permanent. If you lack a formal structure and common goals, people will get tired of going to the squares every day just to hear random speakers who love their own voice. It is the eternal dilemma between romance and relationship, as the Italian sociologist Francesco Alberoni has described it so well. Protests are like romances but how to make them turn into something stable? Then you need a foundation to build on, organizational structure. But the left suffers from post-communist trauma and is scared of anything like that, many prefer to romanticize the spontaneous protest. Now the groups who win, world-wide, are those who can organize. Like the Muslim Brotherhood, the armies, the IS. There is nothing “direct-democratic” about an army or about the Muslim Brotherhood. They just decide to take over and find the strategy to do it. The problem with the Left is the ideological perfectionism: any tiny action is judged as an end, not as a means.
About Syriza, I think it is impressive how the discontent has managed to channel into a party. I never would have believed that considering the fragmentation of the Greek left. Having a parliamentary force is absolutely necessary. Because if you don't take the state, you can't change things. That is what makes Greece unique, not like Italy where politics have become a joke, or Turkey where the Gezi park protests materialized politically in – nothing! Whether Syriza would be able to change things once really in power, we have yet to see.
