Greece, capitalism's crisis and Farrakhan's warning

By Brian E. Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Jul 19, 2011 - 2:28:32 PM

Riot police enter Syntagma square during clashes with protestors, central Athens. June 29. Greece approved more austerity measures needed to avert default next month, in a vote that calmed markets but triggered a second day of riots that left dozens injured and the capital blanketed with tear gas. Photo: AP Wide WorldPhotos/Thanassis Stavrakis

'The people of Greece need to stand up to financial terrorism, because Greece goes down, Ireland goes down, Portugal goes down, Spain goes down. And it's going to come to the U.S. and the U.S. is going down by the same financial terrorists.'
—Financial analyst and TV host Max Keiser

(FinalCall.com) - The Western world has waxed rich from a history of colonialism, slavery and filching the natural resources from other regions of the world, but is now experiencing a rapid decline with its inability to manage excessive debt and the adverse affect of debt problems on the masses of people in these countries.

Recently there were clashes on the streets of Greece over austerity measures imposed on everyday people in efforts to stem the country's economic turmoil.

The cutbacks will mean things like job losses, closed museums, higher taxes and fewer services for Greeks already struggling to make ends meet.

The dilemma in Greece and other parts of Europe, coupled with desperate wrangling in the U.S. Congress for a solution to America's debt crisis, is cracking the Western veneer of security and some analysts say expect worse times to come.

“It's a crisis of capitalism,” said Bill Fletcher Jr., a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum, and the co-author of “Solidarity Divided.”

“Capitalism as a system is undergoing yet another crisis and throughout its entire existence you had countless crises, some more serious than others,” said Mr. Fletcher.

Other analysts agree, saying financial predicaments may be a decisive blow for the European Union, which is searching ways to curb the debt hemorrhage and lessen fallout on other nations connected in a regional bloc and a global economy.

Although Greece is a relatively small country it marks the first failed state in the group of Euro-zone countries with others in danger of financial meltdown.

“It's a continental wide problem all over Europe. Greece is one of the most acute,” said Abayomi Azikwe, political analyst and editor of the Pan Afrikan Newswire.

“It's a worldwide capitalist economic crises; it's impacting people here (U.S.), Europe, as well as in North Africa and the Middle East; we see what's happening there over the last six or seven months,” he said.

During a June 15 statement to the United Nations, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan connected such events to divine interference with the power of the Western world and warned a period of grace God had given to America and the West to repent was over. God's full divine chastisement is coming down now, he said.

“You may think it's ‘your move,' but the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that the God that is on the scene today is so wise, he turns men's minds to thinking and doing as he pleases,” said Min. Farrakhan.

“So the moves that you now make, that make you think you are ‘safe,' and ‘secure,' keep looking at the chess board. Soon, you will see your pieces coming off the table; your governments will soon be laying in ruin. And some of you, who have plotted against the peoples of the world, will be seen on the back of pick-up trucks driving through the streets of America, and the American people throwing stones and raw garbage at you. This is what you are facing!”

On the heels of Minister Farrakhan's serious warning, signs of the truth of his words have intensified with the economic chaos in the eastern Mediterranean country of Greece where, amidst general strikes and popular protests, the Greek parliament voted yes for cutting social and government programs as part of an effort to attract bailout funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU).

Greece owes creditors nearly $500 billion in loans and was given a $158 billion rescue package in 2010 with stipulations to restructure its economy.

The June 29 decision was an attempt at a temporary reprieve from massive national debt with government cutbacks fulfilling demands for economic reform by the EU and IMF.

Addressing over 40,000 people in front of the United Nations on October 16, 1996, marking the first anniversary of the Million Man March, Minister Farrakhan called the nations of the earth to atonement for murder, violence and war.

“But the United Nations has not atoned, for murder is on the increase; violence is on the increase; war is on the increase, and the sale of weapons of war, and the making of even more horrible weapons of war, is on the increase,” reminded Minister Farrakhan at his June 15 press conference.

“You're in it now; you cannot escape. The die is set. The judgment of God is here. He is using the forces of nature. That which you depend on for your existence, he is turning it against you.

“I warned you then, and now this is the final warning. You did not heed it, so this, absolutely, is your end.”

According to an Associated Press article, because of bad credit, Greece was barred from borrowing on the international debt markets. However the government cutbacks push Greeks for personal sacrifices in the crisis—which was the driver of the clashes on the streets of Athens.

“Is Europe becoming a tiered-union of haves and have nots, with Greece and Portugal at the bottom, for instance?” asked economist and author Cedric Muhammad.

Mr. Muhammad said that some of the poorer governments in the Euro-zone have been put in a position to choose between their wealthier classes and their poorer populations. The reaction to bailouts by EU nations is inherently uneven, he said. There are also ethics questions about the IMF role in conjunction with the EU of imposing austerity demands on Greece, he said. Debt varies from country to country in the region, said Mr. Muhammad.

Some economists advocated having individual creditors renegotiate with Greece to refinance its debt. Other economists doubted whether new bailout loans tied to cutbacks are enough to save Greece, with debt restructuring too drastic for both local and Euro-zone economies on the edge.

“Default or debt restructuring is a dramatic economic and social event for the country which experiences it—I would call it political ‘suicide'—which leads many into poverty, as experience has shown,” said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, an executive board member at the European Central Bank.

Such a solution would be like “the death penalty” with reverberating effects throughout Europe, distressing taxpayers in the other countries, he warned. “Why should they pay for the mistakes of others?” asked Mr. Bini Smaghi in a Financial Times interview.

Financial analyst and TV host Max Keiser agrees and expects the domino effect in Europe will inevitably reach to the United States, contributing to a predicted fall of America more sooner than later. He blamed global capitalists and financial market manipulators who historically built their wealth at the expense of the poor.

“The people of Greece need to stand up to financial terrorism, because Greece goes down, Ireland goes down, Portugal goes down, Spain goes down. And it's going to come to the U.S. and the U.S. is going down by the same financial terrorists,” Mr. Keiser said recently in his “Keiser Report” on the RT network.

As America and Euro-zone capitols are in trouble economically, with some renewing their scramble for the vast resources of Africa for survival, Minister Farrakhan gave critical guidance to marginalized African, far eastern and Caribbean immigrants scattered throughout Europe.

“All of you that ran to Europe, to your former colonial masters, it is written that everyone will have to ‘go to their own, and find refuge under their own vine and fig tree.' And as Europe is trying to push out the Africans, push out the Pakistanis, you would be wise to prepare yourself to get out of there, or die there, because the future for Europe, and America, is bleak; very, very bleak.”

The Final Call