Unemployment crisis in Thessaloniki

Unemployment crisis in Thessaloniki, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

According to a study recently carried out by the Workers Centre in Thessaloniki (Greece's second largest city and home to over a million inhabitants) one in four is unemployed, however in some trades such as construction that figure is nearly 70%.

In terms of everyday life this means that the city is being torn apart by the sudden loss in income suffered by many families with some estimates putting the drop as high as 40%. This means that even those who have a job and an income are loathed to spend money on anything other than the basics in the fear that they too may lose their job in the near future. As you can imagine the sudden shrinkage in economic activity has proved to be disasterous with For Sale and To Let signs sprouting up even in the city's most exclusive shopping areas. In less favoured districts the number of emply or closing businesses is enormous, in some cases outnumbering those who struggle on.

Not that much of this story makes it onto the nation's news bulletins, instead the state run channels and the pro - government sections of the press are more interested in presenting the official line that such changes are an inevitable in order to bring growth and development to Greece. This is in stark contrast to the message in the media abroad which is more and more convinced that the current austerity measures are doomed to failure as government income projections time and time again turn out to be unrealistic.

The current policy seems less like a rescue package than scorched earth economics which leave in their wake nothing but ruin and poverty.

Protesters demonstrate against rising unemployment in Greece

Protesters demosntrate against rising unemployment in Greece, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Figures recently announced by the Greek government show that unemployment nationwide at the record high of 15.1% and set to go even higher as nearly 1000 jobs are lost per day in the worst economic crisis the country has seeen since the end of the Second World War..

As the effects of the austerity package implemented at the behest of its creditors bite even deeper the Greek economy has contracted by over 6% in the last year alone. With cuts in the public sector and wages in general the average household has seen a drop in spending power of 40% which has led in turn to job losses in the private sector.

However, according to recent studies carried out by the GSEE (Greece's equivalent of the British TUC) the unemployment rate is likely to top 20 - 22% in 2012, meaning that 1,2000,000 will be looking for work in a nation of 11 million inhabitants..

In protesters outside a local unemployment office in the Northern Greek city of Thessaloniki today demanded the extention of benefit payments to all jobless for the entire period of their time out of work. At present jobless Greek can only claim dole if they have had collected 250 national insurance stamps in the previous two years, so ruling out hundreds of thousands who were previously employed in the country's extensive black economy. In addition once benefit payments run out after 12 months those without work can only claim again after two years of full unemployment leaving a question mark over the future of millions of families who may be faced with a future without any tangible source of income

www.demotix.com/news/658923/greek-jobless-figures-reach-r...

ENOIKIAZETAI - FOR RENT

ENOIKIAZETAI - FOR RENT, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

As the economic crisis in Greece bites ever deeper more and more of these signs are appearing in shop windows across Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. In some neighbourhoods closed down shops now outnumber those still in business.

Rapidly rising unemployment (up 50% in just one year), shrinking incomes and worry about what the future holds means that Greek families are now cutting back on spending in every category including basics such as groceries, a fact that many of my Greek friend swore blind would never happen no matter how bad things got.

With consumer confidence rock bottom and Greece's GDP set to drop 3.5% this year no wonder 86% of businesses are reporting cash flow problems. The Greek Chamber of Commerce is predicting the closure of 100,000 small enterprises before the year is out with the loss of yet more jobs.

Some parents, especially those on lower incomes are even cutting back on the amount they spend on their children's education, a situation that was almost inconceivable a few years back. The conventional wisdom was that Greek parents would make any sacrifice in order to help their son or daughter get the qualifications needed to get on in life.

The problem is that not only do families have far less disposable income than ever before but also there has been the realisation that the degrees and certificates that have been gained with so much sweat, toil and financial outlay are virtually worthless in terms of getting a decent job. The country s full of university graduates who cannot get work of any kind, let alone jobs that utilise their expensively acquired education.

It is exactly this generation that rose up in December 2008 and were at the forefront of the most violent and extensive civil disorder Greece has seen in a generation. However, the economic conditions then seem positively idyllic compared with the prospects now with one in three of 15-24 year olds jobless. No society, especially one as volatile as Greece can stand such levels of anger and hopelessness amongst its young for long.

Last time it was the killing of a 15 year old teens which caused a month long series of riots and confrontations in virtually every urban area nationwide and led to billions of euros worth of damage. One has to wonder how long it will be before another incident sets off the Greece's disaffected youth.

Greece's richest yet to feel the heat of the economic crisis.

Giorgos Papandreou - Prime minister of Greece, originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

Sometimes there is such a wide divide between the way news about Greece is presented abroad that you might be forgiven for thinking that perhaps the country is like Slovenia, constantly being confused with Slovakia.

Today the BBC had a lead story that the Greece has fulfilled the conditions for the next installment of the massive 110 billion euro bailout package. To judge from the tone of the article all is well in Athens and now it is business as usual.

The fact that the imposition of the IMF/European Union/European Central Bank measures has crippled the economy seems little more than a perplexing footnote. The reality is that virtually every economic indicator is in the red. Unemployment has risen nearly 50% in just a year, 30 billion euros has been taken out of the country's banking system in the last 12 months and tourism revenue has dropped 25% since 2008.

The Greek Chamber of Commerce is also predicting that over 86% of business are facing liquidity problems and that 100,000 are set to close by the end of the year so further hampering government efforts to raise tax revenue in order to reduce the massive deficit.

However, unable or unwilling to take on Greece's wealthiest prime minister Giorgos Papandreou has followed the safe path and hiked up VAT twice in th last few months and pushed up fuel prices over 70% since taking power last September. Such tactics are a stark admission of how ineffectual the Greek state is in taxing the country rich directly. As a result the burden of the sacrifices being demanded is falling disproportionately on the shoulders of theworking and middle class.

At first glance such measures could hardly be considered an easy option for any democratically elected government but the fact that PASOK would rather go head to head with millions of bitterly disappointed voters than challenge the wealth and power of the country's richest inhabitants speaks volumes about how much influence they wield in modern Greece.

Sensing the growing outrage over falling wages, rising unemployment and the huge tax increases PASOK is mounting a propoganda campaign to convince the electorate that the better off are also being called up to pull their weight. Day after day the state run channels, along with pro government newpapers and TV stations are reporting raids on clubs and bars evading tax.

The problem is that most Greek have seen such campaigns so often that they are very cynical about their supposed results. Most believe that even if businesses are caught a quick word/bribe to the relevent official means that the case will quietly be dropped once the glare of publicity has moved on.

On the other hand Greece has pointedly ignored the opportunities for clawing back lost revenue squirrelled away in Swiss bank accounts by refusing to act on information that the French and Italian authorities were quick to utilise in their crack down on tax evasion.

Apparently not one of the 1000 plus Greek customers of the Swiss branch of HSBC was worth investigating. In contrast the Italian tax authorities found several cases of wrong doing among the 5728 Italian individuals and companies with accounts.

Whether SDOE (Greek IRS) was right in making such a call is less important than the message it has sent to the public that while they are being crushed by the current austerity program those with access to wealth are not feeling much pain at all. Protected by their off shore companies and close connections with those in power, Greece's elite are quite happy to ride out this crisis in the comfort of their villas and yachts.

The sad irony is that the measure to raise state revenues are not working the, more Athens raises VAT and other indirect forms of taxation the greater the gap is between the amount collected and that needed. Fears of unemployment, falling incomes and rising prices of basic goods such as bread and power means that people have far less disposable income and what money they do have left over is being hoarded in case of future emergencies. With the economy entering a graveyard cycle it is becoming harder and harder to believe that Greece will be able to halt the decline without a radical reapprisal of its current economic priorities.

The Greek economic crisis's 600lb gorilla in the room

IMF - What "Internal Devaluation" really means for Greece., originally uploaded by Teacher Dude's BBQ.

I'm sure than you have that old medical joke, "the operation was a success but the the patient died" a thousand times but I can't help but recall it when I see on the state - run ET1 and NET news bulletins reports of how quietly optimistic the IMF/EU/ECB are about the progress Athens has been making in implementing the economic reforms needed before they approve the latest installment of the bailout package.

However, nowhere in the constant round of self - congratulation and back slapping are you going to hear anything about the issue that is most worrying to Greeks, namely unemployment. Currently, the official figure is 570,000 or 11.7% however, behind these numbers hide some truely horrifying facts. In some areas such as the Attiki region and Ionian islands the number of those looking for work has risen by up 50% in just one year. According to the latest OECD predictions unemployment is set to reach nearly 15% in 2014 whilst the Greek Trade Union Conference or GSEE (ΓΣΕΕ) is talking about a million jobless by next year out of a total labour force of 5 million.

Even this figure may be an underestimate since unemployment figures only include those signing on, which does not include many of those who have been unemployed more than one year who are considered to be "economically inactive" rather than unemployed or simply do not bother signing on as their benefits have run out. Nor are those working in the black economy (tourism and construction and even education are rife with employers who refuse to pay contributions) without national insurance who cannot claim unemployment benefit.

No provision has been made by the government for the tremendous social disruption likely to be caused by having one in five or even one in four of the work force unemployed, a number which is going to be higher if you happen to be a woman, disabled, under 25 or over 50. No mention was made of unemployment in the joint European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF upbeat press announcement concerning Greece's latest installment of the bailout package.

It's hard to consider any economic plan which produces joblessness on a scale not seen since the Great Depression as a success, yet that is exactly what the Greek government representatives and their supporters in much of the media are trying to do. There seems little awareness of the degree of social dislocation unemployment of such a scale is bound to produce. instead we are feed a steady diet of statistics and projections which are based on economic modela which do not take into account the conditions on the ground nor the fact that many official economic indicators are little more than educated guesses, the product of a state apparatus that does not even know how many people it employs.

On the other hand whilst hundreds of thousands of pensioners face cuts in their incomes to get permssion to borrow 9 billion euros the Greek government has found 25 billion to give to banks in order to improve their credit worthiness, which in addition to the 26 billion given in 2008 amounts to 15% of GDP or nearly four times the amount Greece spends on education per annum

NB the picture is NOT real but a piece of photoshopped fun. Just a reminder for those who had their sense of humour removed instead of tonsils when young.

Going under - Greece and revival of Thatcherism

As with any story the numbers only make so much sense by themselves and often reveal little about what is happening to ordinary people. As you probably already know Greece owes 320 billion Euros and is fighting desperately with its EU partners for the right to borrow yet more. Prime minister Giorgos Papandreou has thrown down the gauntlet to Germany, France et al to come up with a loan guarantee plan before 25th March (Greek independence day, by the way and a fact not lost on the public here) saying that otherwise Athens will go to the IMF for the money.

Whatever happens one thing is certain; the country is entering a preiod of economic depression unprecedented in its post war history with a society deeply divided and a welfare system that was struggling to cope even when Greece was being compared to Ireland in terms of its growth rates. Official figures for unemployment are about 10%, a number which is no more reliable than any other wonky statistic the government cares to publish. In reality nobody knows though local newspaper state that 20% is closer to the truth.

What we have is a return to the 80's and a re-run of Margaret Thatcher's first term as UK prime minister. Massive cuts in public services, clashes with trade unions and a promise to slash public debt are all part of the PASOK government's emergency program. In its wake we are already seeing a sharp rise in unemployment, and swathes of the country decimated as the ailing economy goes under.

Like Thatcher, Papandreou will be aclaimed abroad for being "decisive" and "brave", for taking "difficult, but necessary decisions". All the while letting others suffer for something he and his party should have stopped whilst in opposition. Where were PASOK and the shadow cabinet when the previous New Democracy government was selling the country down river?

The last time I saw the sharp end of Thatcherism was in Liverpool as a student and I still remember the damage wrought by such policies in terms of despair and hopelessness. Entire neighbourhoods wrenched apart by economists, politicians and civil servants who saw not people but graphs and pie charts. Grand theories which could be easily turned into into sound bites and question hour speeches.

I am now seeing the same financial tsunami rippling through the neighbourhoods where I live and work here in Thessaloniki. Walking through one yesterday I couldn't help but notice how many small businesses had closed down over the last few months, the number of older people riffling through rubbish bins and child beggers at the traffic lights, some barely able to see over the car bonnets.

On the other hand the political parties seem to think that it is business as usual and that they can continue putting on the same old puppet show to dazzle the public. However, no number of ads or sound bites can find you or your kids a job, nor replace the dreams you had for the future.

The levels of frustration especially among the young have reached new heights. As 24 year old Konstantinos told me, "If there's ever a war I'm out of here. I don't know anyone who'd fight, not for this government. They don't give a damn about us".