Between The Lines - Peter G. Prontzos: Causes and Consequences of the Greek Financial Crisis (Week Ending July 15, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

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Greeks Fight for Alternatives to Austerity Policies Provoking Economic Hardship

RealAudio MP3

Posted July 6, 2011

Interview with Peter G. Prontzos, professor of political science at Langara College, conducted by Scott Harris

After weeks of widespread sometimes violent protests, the Greek Parliament passed legislation on June 30 authorizing austerity measures and a privatization plan that were required to secure emergency funding from the European Union to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt. The majority of demonstrators were peaceful, but a smaller number of protesters fought running street battles with police that shattered windows in storefronts in central Athens.

A slogan among anti-austerity protesters in Greece and across Europe is, “We Won’t Pay for Their Crisis,” embodying the sentiment among many Greeks who say they are suffering massive layoffs, privatization of national assets, and wage and pension cuts to protect European bankers. Protesters and some economists are concerned that the austerity budgets imposed on Greece and other European nations in financial crisis such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland, will further weaken these economies, making it more difficult for governments to pay down their debt. Greece’s debt is now estimated at more than two-and-a-half times the country’s gross domestic product, according to Global Finance magazine.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Peter G. Prontzos, professor of political science at Langara College in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. Prontzos discusses the origins and consequences of the Greek financial crisis, as well as alternatives to the austerity policies that have provoked widespread anger and resistance.

PETER G. PRONTZOS: One of the things that I think is really important to remember is that in reality, the problem, the crisis really wasn't caused by the Greek people so much as the elites in Greece and in Europe. There were a whole lot of factors that went into it. One of the problems is the Greek government is not very efficient and one of the things they've been letting go on for a long time -- for decades, actually -- is that a lot of people, especially the wealthy, don't pay their taxes. I've heard about literally thousands of doctors who pay no taxes because they essentially get paid cash, and they tell the government, well, they only paid $12,000 a year or something. So, there's a huge deficit when it comes to having the revenues to pay off their debt.

Another huge problem is when the Wall Street recession began in 2008. One of the things that it did was to drive Greece into recession, which meant there were more people on unemployment, the economy was hurt, and their debt went up. And now they're faced with a pretty enormous debt. It's about 113 percent of their GDP, and a lot of the banks who gambled on the bonds and thought they could make guaranteed profits on it are worried that they'll ever get paid back, hence, the need for a bailout.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Tell our listeners a bit about your cousin, Maria, and the pain she's personally feeling from these cuts.

PETER G. PRONTZOS: Okay, my cousin Maria lives in a small town. She's been a high school teacher for about 26 years now and when the first austerity came in last year, her pay, which was only around $2,000 US a month, for a full-time teacher --and those of us who teach know that teaching is more than full time -- her salary was cut something like 20 percent. So she's getting $1500 or $1600 a month now for full-time work. When teachers and clerks, and so on find either their jobs disappearing or their pay being cut, well they're going to spend less in the economy. So more shops close and more people are laid off and they can't spend any money either, and so on and so on. It's a recipe for increasing misery and suffering and not a recipe that provides stimulus to get the economy going again.

A really good example of what will work with the United States when the Great Depression was on -- a lot of things were tried, but it wasn't until the U.S. said, essentially, the heck with the deficit, we have a war to fight. Public spending, of course, increased unemployment disappeared overnight, and hence, the economy came out of the second world war, the strongest in the world. Something similar is needed in Greece. First of all, debt reduction. Some of it has to be just written off. I mean, the speculators who bought the bonds were essentially gambling. They were risking their money in investment. So, if the investment goes bad, under basic economics, they lose part of the investment. The other thing is that the remaining debt could be restructured so that instead of having you pay back over four, five, ten years, maybe make it 20 years. Something that's actually doable. And then the final aspect would be for the European Union to provide some aid to get people back to work, to get the economy going, and then, guess what? The economy picks up, as tax revenue picks up, Greece can pay off its debt.

BETWEEN THE LINES: We have seen some very militant and angry protests in the streets of Greece and Athens, in particular. People very angry and believing that the austerity asked of the Greek people is unsustainable. Where are those protests leading in your view? Are some of the alternatives you just discussed possible for the Greek people to demand of their government and the European Union as a whole?

PETER G. PRONTZOS: There's something called the Troika, which is the three leading branches that have forced these conditions on Greece. The European Commission, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and the European Central Bank. Now, what I'm hoping is that with the resistance of Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese and so on, creating enough opposition that the European Troika realizes that this is not going to work, and they recognize the danger of a default, which again could threaten the entire European Union project. They might say, "Okay, we're going to have to make some sacrifices." The biggest sacrifices would be made by banks in France and Germany and a little bit in Britain. The U.S. doesn't seem to have many deposits or bonds from Greece. They would have to accept longer terms be paid back, and probably forgiveness of some of the debt. One thing to keep is mind is the Greek gross domestic product is only about 3 percent of the European Union. So helping them out, actually providing funds to rescue the economy is not that big of a deal in terms of the European economy. What you have though, are essentially banks, and bondholders and insurance companies who just don't want to take any losses at all. So they will fight to the end to try to maintain this grip on Greece and squeeze as much blood out of Greek people as they can.