For the first time in Greece, a documentary produced by the audience. “Debtocracy” seeks the causes of the debt crisis and proposes solutions sidelined by the government and the dominant media. The documentary is distributed online under creative commons licence since April 6, 2011, subtitled in six languages. Aris Chatzistefanou and Katerina Kitidi discuss with economists, journalists and intellectuals from all over the world, who describe the steps that led Greece to the current debt trap –to debtocracy. The documentary follows the course of countries like Ecuador, which created Audit Commissions, and tracks the similar process in Greece. Debtocracy features the academics David Harvey, Samir Amin, Costas Lapavitsas and Gerard Dumenil; the philosopher Alain Badiou; the head of Ecuador’s Audit Commission Hugo Arias; the president of CADTM Eric Toussaint; journalists like Avi Lewis (co-creator of the documentary “The Take”) and Jean Quatremer; as well as public figures like Manolis Glezos and Sahra Wagenknecht (from the German party Die Linke). The soundtrack was written by Yiannis Aggelakas, Ermis Georgiadis and Aris RSN, while the journalist and economist Leonidas Vatikiotis scientifically edited the whole project. BitsnBytes undertook the production of “Debtocracy”, which was edited by Aris Triantafyllou. The creators of “Debtocracy” turned to syndicates and workers’ unions for funding. Mainly though, they turned to the citizens, who helped in co-producing the film.
It was at the beginning of 1989 when the French academic Jacques Rupnik sat at his desk, in order to prepare a report on the state of the economic reforms in Mikhail Gorbatsov’s Soviet Union. The term that he used in describing the death rattle of the empire was “Catastroika”. In Yeltsin’s time, when Russia instituted maybe the biggest and least successful privatization experiment in the history of humanity, a group of Guardian reports assigned a different meaning to Rupnik’s term. “Catastroika” became synonym of the country’s complete destruction by market forces; the sell off of public property; and the steep deterioration of citizens’ living standards. Now, Catastroika’s unit of measurement was unemployment, social impoverishment, declining life expectancy, as well as the creation of a new cast of oligarchs, who took over the country’s reins. A few years later, a similar effort to massively privatize public property in unified Germany (which is presented as a model for Greece) created millions of unemployed and some of the biggest scandals in European history. It is this “Catastroika” that is coming soon to Greece; to “Europe’s last Soviet Republic” as the MPs and the ministers of its former “socialist” government liked to call it. Catastroika is the logical aftermath and continuation of “Debtocracy”. Therefore, the logical sequence of our first documentary, which examined the causes of the debt crisis in Greece and the European periphery as a whole. Nevertheless, Catastroika is a virus that attacks not only the countries that radically change their economic system (like Russia) or countries under financial occupation. In fact, maybe the most unsuccessful privatization examples occur in financial superpowers that theoretically have the financial strength to control their negative consequences.
Debtocracy and Catastroika’s production team steps into the discussion with another documentary. This time we will present to you unknown short stories from the past, the present and the future of fascism and its relation to the economic interests of each era. We will travel from Mussolini’s Italy to Greece under the Nazi occupation, the civil war and the dictatorship; and from Hitler’s Germany to the modern European and Greek fascism. The new documentary follows in the footsteps of Debtocracy and Catastroika, which described the causes of the debt crisis, the impact of the austerity measures, the erosion of democracy and the sell-out of the country’s assets. Several independent media outlets, among them the National Radio and TV Broadcaster ERT, now controlled by its employees, have already offered to support us as media sponsors. But the co-producers of this effort will still be you. Our third documentary is inspired by and aspires to motivate anti-fascist movements across Europe, while it continues one of the largest independent production experiments in the documentary field. Once again we categorically reject any funding from political parties and companies and the documentary will be released under a Creative Commons license. In this effort we need your help.
This a coup describes ECB's financial interventions in states like Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece. Featuring well known academics, politicians and journalists, it analyses the relation of EU institutions with big corporations and banks. In order to guarantee full independence from private companies and interests, the project is financed through crowd-funding - namely donations from citizens, trade unions and independent organizations and foundations across the globe.
Some people see supermarket shelves totally empty. Others see them completely full. Some blame socialism. Others the lack of it. For some, there are political prisoners in Venezuela. For others, they can be found in Catalonia, too. Venezuela is victim of an authoritarian regime. But is this regime based in Caracas or in Washington? Help us find out.