Juan Cole: Is Greece’s “No” on Debt Referendum another Youth Revolution?

[marmar]

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – –

During the past 5 years, the old categories of politics– left, right, center or capitalist and socialist– have been challenged by a new one, that of youth. What the Millennials want has begun to matter in addition to the other factors.

That Greece has a left-wing government run by the Syriza Party that urged a “no” vote on the referendum is itself in part of function of the youth vote and of the positions taken by the youth wing of Syriza. Youth voted “no” at even higher rates than the general population. They have faced impossible unemployment rates of 50% because of banks-imposed austerity and they are insisting that some other policy must be possible. They may be right or they may be wrong, but that they are flexing their political muscles and that they have understandable grievances are not in doubt.

A representative of Syriza’s youth wing told the Real News Network:

“SPOURDALAKIS: Well, I would say that both SYRIZA and the youth wing are more radical, at least in their positions, than the government is. For example, the youth wing has opened the issues of human rights, the issues of immigration, the issues of equal rights for the LGBT community, and so on. And these are issues which are not popular in the Greek society. And, therefore, the government’s positions, I would say, are less radical than those of the party or those of the youth. And what we’re trying to do is both (incompr.) pressure and check the government into implementing this kind of policy, but also trying to create a movement which will change the view that the society has on these issues.

.....(snip).....

Many Syriza youth want Greece to follow the path of Iceland, which rejected austerity, defaulted on loans, and nationalized banks. Iceland emerged arguably better off. But Iceland is a small country of 400,000, whereas Greece is a country of 11 million, and it is not clear that the dynamics would be the same there. What is clear is that Greece has rejected the austerity policies of the old in favor of the risk-taking of the young. ................(more)

http://www.juancole.com/2015/07/greeces-referendum-revolution.html

[Warpy]

1. I call bullshit

This looks like rationalization to me, dismissing the repudiation of harsh austerity as something the kiddies did.

Greece has extremely high unemployment, services and pensions have been slashed below subsistence levels, and businesses have closed. It has been extreme austerity for everyone.
Likely the "no" vote was across the board.

However, Syriza is correct, they should have followed Iceland's path from the beginning. It might be too late now that the country has been beggared.

[Igel]

2. Yeah, it is.

Everything Juan Cole produces is ultimately pushed through the little slit of a, uh, perspective that is, well, Colonic.

That doesn't negate that somewhere in the tornado of spin there wasn't a kernel of truth that produced the original storm. That's this.

Because of structural problems in a range of economies a lot of young people were unemployed. Subsidies went to the well off--which, in this case, means anybody with a tolerable job. Food was subsidized. Housing. Transportation. School. Lots of freebies. But when you graduate college or enter the labor force you need to get a job to receive the subsidy. You want dignity, you need the trappings of dignity: job, some luxuries. Without those, marriage is difficult; raising a family is difficult. All the trappings of a dignified adulthood are missing. This produces non-dignity: Lots of humiliation, embarrassment, resentment, bitterness. There was a population bulge of young people coming through the system and nobody thought the system could accommodate their needs and wants. That bulge was expected to become important in 2010-2015 as it reached critical mass.

This was predicted over a decade ago, 2004 or '05 is when I heard of it, for a number of ME countries. Eventually policy makers picked it up. And the Arab Spring revolutions followed a few years later, triggered by subsidy reductions in many countries as the result of the 2008/09 recession. While buoyed by hordes of others, much of the revolutionary activity in those countries was conducted by social-media-savvy youth.

Some people are deeply into an "I am the world" mantra, meaning "the world thinks as I think, the world holds my views." Those people saw the demographic rebellion as resulting not from what those on the street said and explained that they meant, but through their own lens. "We want democracy because democracy means prosperity" was interpreted as "they share our desire for libertarian freedoms" or "they share our desire for social equality and human rights."

It was a youth revolution, but many picked up on minor currents among the youth and missed much of the picture. Then again, Cole makes his money by telling his audience that they're right and he'll show them how they actually understood everything anyway.

[Warpy]

3. The problem is that the younger demographic is usually the one in the street, shouting

because everybody else either has better things to do or isn't well enough to take up marching and shouting.

Thank you for your analysis.