About
ReINFORM is a political group of Greeks living in the Netherlands. We met in the summer of 2011 at the squares of Europe to protest against the policies and the practices that facilitate a vast transfer of wealth from the unprivileged many to the privileged few. We follow the spirit of struggle and solidarity that was born in Tunisia and Egypt, crossed the Mediterranean to Puerta del Sol and Syntagma Square and is spreading all around the world. We came together to fight on the same side with the workers, the unemployed, the young people – all those that are forced to live in poverty for the sake of the economic and political elites’ interests.
We consider this crisis to be global and more profound than the previous crises of market economy. To preserve the profits of the share- and bondholders, the economic and political elites apply the same neoliberal recipes that were used in Latin America, Eastern Europe and elsewhere in the previous decades: Fiscal austerity, privatization of public assets, tax breaks for companies and the rich, while slashing any remnants of social welfare and working class rights.
European Union has an active role in the imposition of the above policies. Anyway, “flexibility” of the workforce and privatizations were at the core of the European Union since its inception. By joining the Economic and Monetary Union, states could access funds only by taxation and selling bonds in the “markets”, conveniently enough for the European banking sector which profited immensely from this. Now that the banking sector is collapsing, the Troika (EU, ECB, IMF) is asking us again to pay the bill.
From this perspective, we do not recognize the Greek sovereign debt as our own, as it was only the economic and political elites that benefited from it. We do not accept any of these bank bailout packages, conveniently disguised as “state” bailouts and we call for the abolition of any laws/measures that accompanied them. In addition, we stand against the puppet Papademos government and any other
government that will be serving the interests of banks and large corporations, both domestic and foreign.
ReInform group thinks that Greece is the guinea pig of Europe and that policies now applied in Greece will be sooner or later applied in whole Europe. Some first signs are already visible in the Netherlands: The austerity policies of the Dutch government increase inequalities and lead the economy to a recession.
We consider ourselves as part of the movement in the Netherlands. We stand side by side with the cleaners that fight for respect, the public transport workers that fight for their right to work as well as all people that fight against the austerity policies in the Netherlands.
Our group is fighting to turn the tide in Greece, in Europe, in the whole world. This is impossible while we continue serving sovereign and private debts that are not really ours. For us, as for the millions of people that take the streets to protest, the right to enjoy equally the public goods of education, health care, housing, art must prevail over the capitalists’ greed for more profit. Equal rights for everybody, native or immigrant, man or woman, young or old, black or white is an unquestionable principle for us.
ReInform endorse direct democratic procedures and put trust in the power of the people and the movement. Regardless of the origin and affiliation of each one of us, we are a grassroots group and we are independent of political parties, NGO’s, state or supranational organizations.
We aim at informing, acting, demonstrating and stimulating discussion. Ultimately, we aim at doing our tiny bit to achieve an equal and just society.
ReInform
