In his preview of Syriza's remarkable victory in the Greek elections, Colin Fox makes a timely call for a radical rethink in Scottish politics (What Left can learn from radicals about to take power in Greece, News, January 25).
This means challenging neo-liberal economics and, in particular, the dictatorship of market interests and corporate power. It is now self-evident that the biggest mistake of all by politicians was to bail out the banks and then impose continuing (and increasing) austerity on the rest of us in order to pay for this.
None of this was necessary. So now the rallying call should be an end to austerity by radical means. These means should include nationalising all errant banks and applying bankruptcy rules to all seriously indebted states, as the Greeks are now seeking to do. The power of capital markets and rating agencies (which, unbelievably, have become the arbiters of our social policies), needs to be tackled head-on. At national level, this requires taking all utilities and natural resources into public hands. At international level, the so-called Washington consensus must be shown up for what it really is - a conspiracy of capital - and the world bank, IMf etc democratised in the interests of people not capital.
Good luck to Syriza. In Scotland, the Yes campaign felt the hostile face of Deep State as Sir Nicolas Macpherson recently divulged, and of global capital, and big business interests as well as the EU. The Greeks will get the same treatment. We should support Syriza, because what they are doing is being done for all of us, to make a better world, free of unnecessary austerity and exploitation.
Randoph Murray
Rannoch
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