On Oct 20, 2011, at 5:32 PM, leninstombblog at googlemail.com wrote:
> Greece is a weak link in the capitalist chain. It is not wise to see it as a synecdoche for the system as a whole. Indeed, part of Greece's crisis is the overwhelming class power of the European bourgeoisie which is able to force these barbaric 'austerity' measures on the country. The capitalist system is in a period of long-term crisis, but it is not collapsing and will not unless a sufficient array of social forces are assembled behind an alternative mode of production. That's not going to happen overnight, so there's no point in reaching for maximalist demands in the hope of the integument collapsing under the slightest pressure.
> Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media
Blackberry? How quaint!
But the rest of this is exactly right. I liked Martin Wolf's characterization of the eurozone in yesterday's FT, though it's in bourgeois-ese: "Inside the eurozone, adjustment of imbalances remains essential. But it is also vastly difficult, because the exchange rate has gone. In its place, comes adjustment via depression and default. A currency union with structural mercantilists in the core now threatens a permanent slump in the periphery. Solving that is the true cure. Can it be done? I wonder."
Doug