The electoral victory of SYRIZA in Greece has fueled imaginations on the European left for a departure of ‘no alternative’ austerity politics. As much as a return of more imaginative politics is desperately needed in order to revitalize European democracy and save it from too much technocratic post-politics, it is rather doubtful if there really is a true alternative from a postgrowth or degrowth perspective. When looking more closely at SYRIZA’s Thessaloniki program many elements can be found that have the name of John Maynard Keynes written all over them: cutting taxes on fuel and property, raising the tax threshold, reintroducing a 13th month pension for low income pensioners, a 3bn EUR employment program sought to create up to 300,000 new jobs, and an increase in the country’s minimum wage. All of these measures are intended to raise the level of consumption and thus kick-starting economic growth. Kick-starting economic growth is also in the center of the so-called austerity measures imposed on Greece by the troika of EU, ECB and IMF.
Though understandable from a Greek perspective of declining wages (25% below pre-crisis levels) and rising unemployment (27% compared to 9% in 2010), SYRIZA’s program falls short of any kind of imagination beyond what is already on the mainstream economic ‘table’. Back in Leipzig in September 2014, at the 4th International Degrowth Conference, that sounded rather differently. There, Haris Konstatatos, political scientist from the Harokopio University of Athens and member of SYRIZA, elaborated how the common problems of various Southern European countries could finally be drivers towards a social-ecological transformation and that degrowth policies might play an active role in that. None of this is to be seen in the new Greek government’s rhetoric or policies put forward.
I fully acknowledge that ‘Realpolitik’ sometimes demands trotting along the same old lines and make ready for the moment you might be able to depart them. But given the situation in Greece and the high hopes invested especially from people within the degrowth movement, the reality hardly inspires yet. True, Alex Tsipras is not the Prime minister of the degrowth movement but of Greece and therefore has to address the imminent hardships the Greeks are facing. But a bit more imagination, a bit more courage towards a society that is not fixed on its growth rate would not only be a sign that degrowth has something in its bag for politics; it would moreover reflect partly the reality within Greece.
Several issues related to degrowth come to my mind, most notably the issue of alternative currencies or complementary currencies. Since the beginning of the Greek crisis there has been an increase in the amount of barter and exchange systems, most notably the TEM in Volos. Leander Bindewald argued in a Guardian article that such Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) whether or not “an integrated system of currencies, different in scale and scope and governed in a bottom-up fashion, provide the way forward for southern European states, providing liquidity without alienating their northern partners”. And further:
Current events suggest that one currency cannot be enough. And allowing a range of new currencies for regions or sectors where the single currency is failing to do its job does not mean the end for the euro; in fact the new currencies would help to facilitate exchanges where few would occur otherwise. The core idea of multiple, complementary currencies is not protectionism and fragmentation, but a buttress to the European ideals of pluralism and subsidiarity.
Within the research community dedicated to currency schemes in a contraction-based economy, there is no final verdict on the social and economic contributions of LETS or other alternative currencies. Whereas Kristofer Dittmer remains skeptical and argues for a change in the current Fiat money system towards full-reserve banking – i.e. that banks could only lend the amount of Central Bank money they have in stock –, others like Felix Rauschmayer and his colleagues from the German Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) focus on the quality of life contribution and social improvements alternative currencies produce:
The impact of community currencies on (sustainable) quality of life, though, is an important, but so far rarely considered notion on the effects of community currencies. Analysed from this more encompassing perspective, it becomes clear that community currencies do not just contribute to sustainable development via their effects in the field of regionalization and local value added, but in a much deeper way. Thus community currencies can not only be regarded as complementary to the conventional money system, but also more generally as a niche of sustainability transitions on the societal level…
I understand that it is hard going into an election with LETS as a flagship proposal but as one of many cornerstones of an alternative economic paradigm for a new Greece this should have caused only minor political uproar – if any at all. Especially as such an experiment already exists in Greece and could have been expanded as a sort of pilot project for the most economically challenged regions in the country. Also it should not be forgotten that alternative currency solutions have been proposed at several times during the crisis e.g. in the form a ‘southern Euro’ via a devalued exchange rate between bank accounts and the common euro monetary base of individual European countries experiencing fiscal and external adjustment problems, or the ‘Geuro’ developed by the Levy Economics Institute. If there is a time for experiments, and I would only advocate them on a small-scale anyhow, that time surely is now. So why hasn’t SYRIZA put forward alternative currencies more strongly in their program? Just imagine how different the discussions on such currencies would be if SYRIZA had chosen to take it to the governmental level and into consideration as instruments for a more diverse monetary policy.
This is just one degrowth policy field SYRIZA did not dare walk into – others might be a significant reduction of working hours instead of spending 3bn EUR on employment programs, 2bn on scrapping property tax, and 1.5bn to increase tax thresholds; or a true social-ecological tax reform that could be achieved revenue (and cost) neutral and would spur eco innovation – that could then be charged with an efficiency tax to prevent rebound effects and provide additional income.
Whatever one thinks about SYRIZA, austerity or a revival of ‘New Deal’ policies – none of them have to do something with planned degrowth towards a society beyond the fixation on growth and with social inclusion and ecological sustainability. Whatever happens in Greece, the possibility of developing a new economic model for Europe – for Postgrowth Europe! – will most certainly be missed. It is back to the old and frustrating battle between spending less or spending more in order to achieve growth. In other words: happy Groundhog day again … and again and again.