What they mean is that energy poverty and more expensive goods will require people to dig deep into their pockets again.
The electricity bills for January are up to 21% higher than in the previous month. It turns out that involvement in the imperialist war and the “national goal” of geo-strategic enhancement demands sacrifices from the people. But it also creates opportunities for the shipowners and energy groups, which are breaking one profitability record after another, according to the latest figures.
One only has to look at the jigsaw puzzle that the government is putting together with the help of PASOK and SYRIZA. While the Kiev government cut off the flow of Russian fuel to the EU markets, the Greek government obtained US LNG for the first time through the Revithussa terminal and the Vertical Corridor. The Vertical Corridor was also discussed during the recent contacts between the government and Serbia at the EU-Western Balkans Summit. This Vertical Corridor was the focus of a visit to Greece at the end of October by the US Under Secretary of State for Energy, J. Pyatt, who spoke of a “dream of the US government” aimed to “ensure that Russia and Gazprom are not able to generate revenues from energy exports”.
At the same time, as efforts to re-route energy in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East are being stepped up against the backdrop of the massacre in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, the government is rushing to sign up to all the Euro-Atlantic plans: From last week’s deal with Israel on “energy security in the East” to the recent pressure on Cyprus to go ahead with the Israel-Cyprus-Greece “Great Sea Interconnector” project, funded by the EU’s CEF and the US finance institution (DFC). In the same context, the NATO-inspired negotiations for “settlements” with Turkey, which is seen as essential in all versions of the energy map, as well as contacts and the forthcoming new trilateral with Egypt to advance Euro-Atlantic inspired energy projects such as “GREGY”, are proceeding. At the same time, the Prime Minister, on behalf of the shipowners, is quick to declare himself eager to “work with President Trump to find a win-win solution in the framework of US-Europe relations. For example, Europe will seek to import more LNG from the US."
Neither “distortions in the European electricity market”, nor a “natural phenomenon”, but the strategy of capital, served by all the bourgeois parties, is to blame for the very expensive electricity AND also for the huge risks that the plans to improve the position of the Greek bourgeoisie on the imperialist map entail.
From Ukraine to the Middle East: military involvement and business
At the beginning of the new year, the Greek government is once again sending arms to the Zelenskiy regime. After hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, firearms, armoured vehicles and millions of bullets, this time 24 US Sea Sparrow anti-aircraft missiles are being sent, carried by frigates, with the familiar excuse that “they have been deemed operationally unnecessary and do not affect the deterrent capability of the Greek Armed Forces”.
At the same time, the US and Zelenskiy's request to send the Soviet-Russian designed S-300PMU-1, Tor-M1 and Osa-AK air defence systems, which the Greek Armed Forces possess, to Ukraine is always on the table. Not coincidentally, the Russian ambassador to Greece, A. Maslov, in a series of interviews over the past few days, has made sure to convey the message that these systems cannot be delivered without Moscow’s official consent.
From Ukraine to the Middle East, the involvement in Euro-Atlantic plans puts the people firmly in the sights of rival imperialist governments. US-NATO bases throughout the country are becoming a magnet for danger, while the government, with the support of PASOK – SYRIZA, is promoting their further upgrading.
The military personnel sent by the government sends thousands of kilometres away from the borders have also become the target of attacks: Almost a year after its first mission in the Red Sea and in the Gulf of Aden, the frigate “Hydra” will leave in the next 24 hours in order to participate for the second time in the EU operation “Aspides” against Houthi activity, for the needs of shipowners and transit business groups, as shown by the videos of the frigates in the role of … escorting the shipowners’ ships. Meanwhile, the government, which had taken over the command of the operation from the Greek EU Operations Headquarters (ESEEE) in Larissa, has taken the next step and asked that the Greek Armed Forces take over the command on board as well. All this in support of the USA, the EU and the murderous Israeli state, which is bombing Yemen and shamelessly warning that it will turn it into a “new Gaza”.
The people are paying dearly for the war economy...
The transition to the war economy has shown its consequences for the people from the very first moment: the budget surplus for 2024 and the amount to be allocated to NATO armament, which was voted a few days ago by ND - PASOK - SYRIZA - Greek Solution, have reached 7 billion each. The government sets higher targets for the collection of 70 billion in taxes for 2025.
There is no end to the bleeding of the people: increases in tolls, water bills, landfill charges and ferry tickets to support shipowners.
The economy agenda for 2025 is also clear: new tax tools that will bring small tradesmen to their knees, changes in the management of non-performing loans with regulations that will tighten the noose on indebted households in order to “further consolidate the banking sector”, and new compulsory private insurance for houses. The government is planning a “spending limit” for the people’s needs and has already methodized the way in which it will squeeze the people dry to strengthen the big business groups with a series of legal regulations.
All this is also a precondition for the positive ratings of the markets in the spring, for the cheap loans to the business groups, for the commitment of money from the Recovery Fund, for a share out of the 300 billion that the EU has earmarked for the war economy, “cutting from wages and pensions”, as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte says.
They are also the “national goals” of the government and the rest of the bourgeois parties, first of all the decayed social democracy, PASOK, SYRIZA and others, which are worried about uncertainties and risks and who promote “stability” that crushes the people.
They are preparing themselves: They are taking new repressive measures, they are posing false dilemmas between “progressive” and “conservative” defenders of the capitalist system, they are trying to channel popular discontent into political forces that are painless for the system, they are utilizing the issue of the election of a new President of the Republic as a distraction, etc.
In the new year, the people can become the protagonist of developments with their organized struggle. In this world set ablaze by capitalist crises, wars and competition, the people can only be victorious on the path of conflict with and overthrow of the decayed capitalist system, by multiplying the seedbeds of resistance, by intensifying the struggle for their own needs, so that the strategy of capital faces obstacles in all aspects.
Published in Rizospastis, Organ of the CC of the KKE, on 5/1/2025
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