Between The Lines - Costas Panayotakis: The Greek and Eurozone Economic Crisis (Week Ending March 2, 2012)

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 Resist Harsh Austerity Measures Imposed by Eurozone as Condition for New $172 Billion Bailout

RealAudio MP3

Posted Feb. 22, 2012

Interview with Costas Panayotakis, author and associate professor of sociology at New York City College of Technology, conducted by Scott Harris

European finance ministers agreed on Feb. 21 to a second bailout of the Greek economy, avoiding for now the threat of default, which many observers fear could trigger a crisis that would endanger the survival of the Eurozone. The so-called “troika,” made up of the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund negotiated a deal that will cut the principle on Greek bonds and lower the interest rate paid.

In exchange for the $172 billion loan, European officials demanded the Greek government approve harsh austerity measures to reduce the nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio to 120 percent by 2020. Although tens of thousands of Greeks marched and rallied in militant protests opposing the austerity measures across the country, the Greek parliament approved a package that included 150,000 layoffs from government jobs by 2015 and steep cutbacks in the minimum wage, health care budget and pensions. Another controversial provision of the debt deal forced Greece to amend its constitution, giving priority to "debt servicing payments" before any other national obligations are met.

With an unemployment rate of 21 percent, many economists say the austerity policies will only worsen economic conditions in Greece with no hope to reverse the decline. Between the Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Costas Panayotakis, associate professor of sociology at the New York City College of Technology and author of the book, “Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy.” He assesses growing public resistance to austerity measures in Greece and the overall Eurozone crisis.

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: There is a massive assault on working people and ordinary citizens in Greece right now and we see people's living conditions and incomes have collapsed, and unemployment is skyrocketing. We're talking about 21 percent of the population; 50% of young people. As a result, there's a growing resistance. People see that these policies are not leading anywhere and they are no longer willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt. The government tries terrify people into submissions, telling them that without austerity policy, there will be chaos. But increasingly, people see that is chaos is all around them precisely because of these policies.

BETWEEN THE LINES: The austerity measures that were just recently adopted by the Greek parliament have caused a lot of people to be very concerned for their nation's future. There was a 22 percent cut, I believe, in the minimum wage threshold; 150,000 layoffs in coming years and maybe you could discuss a bit about the kind of pain that this is causing the average Greek citizen.

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Yes, every segment of the Greek society has been affected by the measures. The reduction of the minimum wage is accompanied by a destruction of labor rights and collective bargaining that is likely to reduce the wages of all private sector workers. There have been successive pay cuts for public sector workers and for pensions. And as a result, there is a growing sense of desperation, rising poverty rates, homelessness, hunger and these phenomena are increasingly affecting even people who were recently solidly middle class. So we're talking increasingly about a humanitarian crisis. I was listening to the report by the Doctors of the World who are active in Athens, and they were calling for people to donate food. And they were saying that what they see in Greece right now is the kind of thing that one would normally expect from really low-income countries in Africa.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What are the alternatives? What can the Greek people do as opposed to just accept these austerity measures? There is resistance in the streets as has been widely reported. But to what end? There are elections that are expected as early as April. Are there alternative political ways to handle this crisis that have emerged during these months of people looking for alternative solutions?

COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS: Well, I think the most important thing is for people to say no to these policies and in essence, it doesn't make sense for Greece to keep borrowing more and more money to service a debt that is already unsustainable. And there are sort of other platforms and proposals by political parties, especially on the left in Greece and those are by economists and there is no sort of one platform, one alternative platform that has universal sort of assent among the critics of austerity, but there is a debate about whether Greece should exit the Euro and devalue its currency or whether it should just basically declare default within the Eurozone and put pressure on Europe to change these austerity (unintelligible) that is leading nowhere and that is deepening the crisis even within Europe and the Eurozone.

But the problem, of course, is that as the opposition to austerity increases, there is growing pressure from European political and economic elites not to allow Greeks to basically have a say over the decisions that will seal their fate for the coming decades. So now, Greece has an unelected prime minister who's a former banker. He basically pushes these measures to a parliament that no longer reflects the wishes of Greek citizens. His government is supported by them, by what used to be the two major parties in Greece, the socialists and the conservatives.

But, the support, according to all the polls, to all these parties has collapsed. So you have basically a parliament that does not reflect the current opinion of Greek citizens and this parliament is pushing a loan package and the measures that will basically commit Greek governments in the future to policies that Greek citizens have not had a chance to have a say on.

For more information on "Remaking Scarcity visit: us.macmillan.com/remakingscarcity/CostasPanayotakis.