StopCartel TV broadcasts live from Athens, Greece weeknights @ 6 pm Athens time. The following post is a loose transcript of the 17 September 2012 broadcast.

By greydogg and snake arbusto, 99GetSmart

- From the StopCartel TV news desk:

Angela Merkel - Caricature

(photo: DonkeyHotey/flickr)

StopCartel TV Livestream news will broadcast LIVE on LOCATION in Propylaea – Tuesday at 7 p.m. Athens time.

Demonstrators are scheduled to gather in Propylaea on Tuesday evening to protest the social holocaust package promoted by the wretched coalition government. At the behest and demands of the Troika, the Greek government-of-the-regime is proceeding with the criminal plunder of Greece, wielding a plan that was allegedly designed to help Greece avoid bankruptcy, but which is, in fact, achieving exactly the opposite by driving the country headlong into bankruptcy and depression.

As Giorgos Kosmopoulos from StopCartel TV stated, “Pre-election promises of renegotiation proved to be just a pipe dream. What’s left is the 11.7€ billion (which will exceed 20€ billion eventually) and the crocodile tears of Merkel before swallowing her victim.”

Greek Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras illustrates how out of touch he is with the average Greek citizen by stating that the “standard of living of the Greek population has dropped, but not dramatically.”

The new package totals another 11.7€ billion in catastrophic cuts being proposed by the government-of-the-regime:

- New huge reductions in salaries and pensions

- Reduction or elimination of social and welfare benefits (EKAS, family, disabled, large families, etc.)

- Eliminate or merge hundreds of public organizations

- “Reserve” status (wage cuts preparatory to firing) and layoffs in the public sector, to bring the number of jobs lost to 150,000 by 2015

- Mergers of hospitals, schools, kindergartens

- Suspension of recruitment

- Reduction of public expenditure on education, health care, and pharmaceuticals

Simultaneously, the recent government “leaks” about the Troika’s new requirements in the private sector gives employers the freedom to implement new anti-labor measures like greater flexibility to recruit, dismiss, or employ workers at will. Clearing the way for exploitation of workers with impunity, the plan allows for the extension of labor flexibility by replacing the five-day work week with a six-day work week, with irregular shifts, drastic reductions in wages and the elimination of compensation for layoffs.

Unemployment in Greece has officially broken all postwar records. It has already reached 24-25% and is projected to reach nightmare proportions of 28 to 30% by the end of the year. Massive layoffs have become widespread.

The way that the public and social wealth of the country is being bartered is a national crime. The divestment of public assets like infrastructure, the Agricultural Bank and telecommunications are fundamentally undermining the country’s future.

The decrease in salaries and pensions together with an enormous tax burden on workers and pensioners now threaten the average Greek homeowner with the repossession of their primary residence if they do not pay new ‘emergency taxes’ which amount to three or four months’ salary. Hundreds of thousands of Greek families are drowning in debts.

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- At an annual press conference on Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel receives high marks for providing a classic example of saying-one-thing-while-doing-another by remarking that her ‘‘heart bleeds” at the hardships faced by the Greek people as the government-of-the-regime imposes the austerity measures demanded by the Troika. Stunning, that… as you actually have to HAVE a heart, in order for it to bleed.

Ms. Merkel’s statements to the press:

Merkel said she wants Greece to stay in the Eurozone, adding, “I think that everyone who is politically sensible will want that, too.”

“In some cases, this is about reforms that, I think, wouldn’t bring any extra burden for the population.”

“I don’t think it helps to revolt against measures that have to be taken anyway. And with some measures, I say that if they have to be taken, quicker is perhaps better than too slowly.”

“In my travels I have often been asked, how do you deal with negative feelings because some people think that I am more responsible than others for decisions we’ve made together.”

“In Greece, some people tend to forget that I didn’t think up these programs but rather that they’re all from the ECB, the European Commission and the IMF (International Monetary Fund).”

“I didn’t invent them, I couldn’t just think up such economic programs even if I wanted to.”

“So I always say, I’m not doing this to annoy anyone but because I’m strongly convinced that Europe can only maintain its prosperity and see its interests realized if it overcomes its crisis in such a way that it is better able to compete and solve our debt problems.”

Merkel added of her fellow European leaders, “We work very well together and try to find good solutions together,” she said, highlighting in particular the Franco-German axis of cooperation.

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- On Monday, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras elaborated on previous statements he made concerning renegotiating the terms of the Memorandum. “We advocate the immediate cancellation of the Memorandum that is leading us into an absolute catastrophe. We advocate an EU solution that will address the actual cause of the crisis.”

Tsipras proposed that Greece follow Germany’s economic model circa 1953, calling for a haircut on the debt and a moratorium on the ‘loan’ payments in order to leave room for future economic development

“We don’t refuse to pay,” he said, in response to Samaras’s comments comparing Tsipras to Argentinian leaders. “Don’t compare me to Argentinian leaders of 2001. If we want to make that comparison … if anyone will flee Greece in a helicopter, it will be Samaras, not me.”

He added that SYRIZA won’t ask for new elections but is asking for the cancellation of the Memorandum. “If you are not confident enough, if you cannot negotiate, if you cannot fulfill your own promises to the Greek people, then you have got no right to victimize the society by bringing the economy to the point of extensive devastation. The current government needs to step aside and allow the forces inside Greece who want to reconstruct the country the power to do so.”

Tsipras predicted that if the government passes the new austerity measures in Parliament, they will not be in power for long. He also stated that an adjustment extension means ‘more rope to hang ourselves with.’ The only solution this government offers is to continue administering the same poison pill to the Greek economy, Tsipras said.

He concluded his comments with an ominous warning about the Golden Dawn party, stating that Golden Dawn is not just a random organization of people. They are the long arm of the system with plans to destabilize the country.

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StopCartel TV broadcasts live from Athens, Greece on weeknights at 6pm Athens time @ http://www.livestream.com/stopcarteltvgr