Greece: 'For an anti-austerity government of the left'

Thank you Socialist Resistance, this is certainly one of the best and clearest articles to come out of the left on this situation to date.

Here are the results of today's (May 30th) polling as reported by the Guardian newspaper:

Two new opinion polls have been published in Greece today, ahead of the crucial June 17 elections.

I've only got the information off the newswires, alas, but here goes...

One poll, by Pulse, put New Democracy and Syriza neck-and-neck on 24.5%.

The other, by VPRC, put Syriza ahead on 30% followed by New Democracy with 26.5%, then Pasok on 12.5%.

Greek polling data can be tricky to interpret, as it can be unclear how 'don't-knows' and abstentions have been handled. But it appears that these polls, which both show support for the 'anti-bailout' Syriza party holding up well, are the trigger that sent the euro falling.

End story---

The interesting thing about this is that the VPRC poll has almost the identical numbers of the Public Information (P.I.) poll of two weeks ago. PI has been the most accurate of all the polls to date in relation to the last election.

It shows that SYRIZA has maintained and strengthened its popularity with the Greek working masses, withstanding everything which the imperialist European bourgeoisie has thrown at it politically. Now, with only 17 days to go, active and practical solidarity with the Greek masses by the international revolutionary left is more important than ever.

All out together June 16! No to austerity, no to the cuts, no to the Troika! Solidarity with the Greek People! Occupy our Future, the Peoples of Europe are Rising!!

This is a guest post by Andrew Burgin and Kate Hudson

Greece stands on a precipice. There can be no return to the old politics there and a revolutionary situation is emerging amid the chaos of everyday life. The classic conditions for revolution are present: a working class no longer prepared to live in the old way and a ruling class no longer able to rule in the old way.

Even the people who decide to end their own lives are not doing so quietly. They are going to the squares to die and they are leaving messages that talk not so much of their own despair but of struggle – ‘hang the bankers and the politicians’, said one.

The political situation in Greece has to be resolved either by the working class or by the forces of reaction – there is no third way. Either Greece will have a workers’ government or the forces of the extreme right will grow and threaten the existence of the left as a whole.

One force has emerged on the left and has galvanised mass support – Syriza, the Coalition of the Radical Left, a coalition of communists, Maoists and Trotskyists and other progressive currents. In Marxist terms it is a left-centrist formation – different in essence from the Socialist Party in France or the Labour Party in Britain.

Syriza has come under fire, since its stunning election result in May where it went from 4.4% to 16.8% of the popular vote, from the entire Greek establishment – from all the media and the main bailout parties. The attempt to demonise Syriza is also being promoted throughout the whole of the European Union and the Troika have concentrated their fire on Syriza. You only have to listen to the lectures being given by Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF, about Greeks not paying their taxes to know which way the wind is blowing.

Syriza have rejected the bailout terms. The party has refused the memorandum and called for the defence of workers’ rights. Their leader Alexis Tsipras outlined 5 demands that a new government would undertake. In addition Syriza are on record as calling for the complete nationalisation of the banks.

There is no doubt that Syriza is under enormous pressure to compromise its principles and that within Syriza there may be rightist tendencies that might buckle under pressure from the EU and others. These are decisive days in Greek politics. In this situation what should other forces on the left do?

This week major comment pieces have appeared in the two main left papers in Britain, the Morning Star and the Socialist Worker, written by Kenny Coyle and Alex Callinicos respectively. Rather than calling for critical support for Syriza in opposing the memorandum and defending the working class both articles argue that the working class have chosen the wrong party to support -‘it should have been me’ shout the jilted revolutionaries and expecting a quick divorce proclaim that once the working class have come to their senses it will be [one] of them.

The sister party of Socialist Worker [SEK] works within a much smaller left coalition than Syriza called Antarsya. Antarsya picked up 1.2% of the vote in the May general election. They did not pass the threshold for parliamentary representation in Greece which is 3% and although they are standing again are unlikely to increase their vote significantly and certainly not to that threshold – as Callinicos admits ‘I don’t expect Antarsya to get a big vote’. Callinicos is not wrong here – polls show Antarsya support dropping to 0.5% – the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition got more votes on the London Assembly list.

So why are they standing?

Callinicos’s main point seems to be that the election itself is not that important. In fact his piece is titled ‘Greece’s real battle comes after the election’. So the election is not a real battle – the real battle is taking place on the streets in the struggle against the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. No one doubts the bravery of Antarsya comrades and their commitment to anti-fascist work. Their offices have been attacked by the fascists in recent days because they are at the heart of anti-fascist work in Greece. Everyone there knows that.

But this is not a good reason for Antarsya to stand against Syriza and possibly deny it the possibility of becoming the largest party – which given the peculiarities of Greek electoral law gains an extra 50 seats. In fact in return for calling on its voters to support Syriza it should put down a number of proposals for joint anti-fascist work – some of which could only be introduced by a government – outlawing paramilitary activity, purging public institutions of Golden Dawn supporters.

Elections are important and the May election saw the vote for Golden Dawn increase from 0.3% to almost 7% – this has emboldened them and they have been at the heart of anti-immigrant riots in Patras this week. They are not fascists in suits but fascists in uniform and bearing arms. Almost 50% of the police voted for Golden Dawn.

Callinicos argues that Antarsya has a distinctive programme and lists Greek default, bank nationalistion, shorter working day and leaving the Euro. It’s not that distinctive – in fact the KKE has the same programme and Syriza has three of the four. They only differ on the question of the Euro – and there are those who support Syriza such as Costas Lapivitsas who are arguing for Greece to leave the Euro. The question of the Euro anyway does not lie in the hands just of the working class – the Troika are making preparations for Greece to leave the Euro. In any case a distinctive political position does not have to be jettisoned because you lend electoral support to another organisation. The SWP would presumably not dream of standing against Jeremy Corbyn in his constituency especially if it jeopardised his seat.

Callinicos argues that the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and Antarsya are the most important forces battling against austerity on the ground. If this is the case why has the working class in a period of struggle turned to Syriza? The fact is that this is simply untrue. The Coalition of Resistance took a delegation of national trade unions to Greece and saw for ourselves how embedded Syriza was in the struggles of the class – it was Syriza who took us to the town councils in the working class areas of Athens at Nea Ionia and Ellinikon where local committees have been set up to distribute cheap food and free medical care.

Syriza are arguing for and part of setting up committees of action throughout Greece. In a poll last week for the Greater Athens area they were at 31% – the working class is looking for a left party willing to take office and improve their daily lives. Nobody is arguing that the KKE and Antarsya do not contain good militants devoted to the class but they are being misled – and many are now joining Syriza. Callinicos says that ‘the stronger Antarsya’s voice the greater the pressure will be on Syriza to stand firm’. But as Antarsya’s electoral voice is likely to be diminished it is hard to see the value of this position. In fact, the decision of Antarsya to stand weakens the whole left and makes it more likely that Syriza will not be able to form a government and if the left is disunited the forces of the right will grow. Antarsya should either be inside Syriza arguing its politics or – if remaining separate – calling for a critical vote for Syriza.

What of the KKE?

The KKE received 8.8% of the vote last May and had MPs elected. Nobody is calling for them not to stand. They should. The question is what their MPs will do when elected. Will they support the formation of a Syriza-led workers’ government or will they open the door for the pro-bailout parties to return?

Comrades in Athens tell us that the main message of the KKE is ‘Don’t Trust Syriza.’ The KKE leader, Aleka Papariga, has refused to meet with Alexis Tsipras and, according to Kenny Coyle, has reserved her sharpest words for Syriza – not for the forces of the bourgeoisie. Coyle’s article strives to explain the politics behind this extraordinary decision: to make attacking Syriza – a party of the working class – central to the work of the KKE in the forthcoming election. From the KKE’s own publications it is clear that it sees Syriza as part of a ‘facelift’ of the Greek political scene organised by the bourgeois class ‘in order to preserve its power’. But the reality is that the regrouping of right-wing forces around New Democracy and the political and media war against Syriza comprise the attempts of the Greek – and European – bourgeoisie to preserve its power.

The KKE analysis and approach has diminishing support from the Greek working class, and like Callinicos, Coyle acknowledges that his sister party will fare badly at the polls. But the KKE is determined to disregard the desire of the Greek workers to choose political representation that will take concrete steps in their interests – an intention clearly outlined by Syriza. Coyle tries to explain why the development of the mass movement in Greece, with numerous general strikes and mass ‘can’t pay won’t pay’ campaigns, has led to the rise of Syriza electorally but not the KKE. He is forced back on the KKE argument that Syriza has pulled the wool over the workers’ eyes – that they are lying to the working class and must be exposed. But the great weakness is that the KKE’s exposure of the great Syriza ‘confidence trick’ relies on words and propaganda alone. The hollowness of this approach is dismaying given the gravity of the situation facing Greece. The real test of the KKE as a workers’ party would be in joining a Syriza-led workers’ government and holding it to its pledges.

The terrible irony is that Coyle says the KKE would support a Syriza government if it had a plan B – a programme to deal with exit from the Eurozone. The problem for the KKE is that their decision not to critically support a Syriza-led government will lead to Christine Lagarde’s plan A – further austerity measures being imposed on the people of Greece by a New Democracy government supported by PASOK and others.

The great tragedy is that the KKE and its supporters are willing to pursue this hand-washing isolationist line, expecting electoral losses to be short term and assuming that at some point in the future the working class will rally to the KKE: a kind of ‘after them, us’ analysis. As Coyle observes, the KKE has decided it is better to suffer short-term electoral losses than to participate in a Syriza-led government whose policies ‘will result in rapid disillusionment and the demobilisation of Europe’s most vibrant extra-parliamentary mass movement’. But many will interpret this as an abdication of the KKE’s responsibility to the working class, potentially unleashing even more extreme austerity and brutality on the Greek people at the hands of a resurgent right.

As Marx said, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Coyle and the KKE’s argument is one that we have heard that before – it is remarkably similar to those used by the German Communist Party (KPD) in the late 1920s and early 1930s to defend the decision not to work with the SPD, the German Social Democratic Party. In Germany this led to disaster and the coming to power of the Nazis.

These are momentous days in world history. Capitalism has entered the period of its structural decline. Unlike the 1930s little can be done to halt the ever-increasing economic crisis. A solution in one country opens up economic fault lines in another. The Euro cannot be saved; the real question – and one posed more by mainstream economists than by Marxists – is whether capitalism itself can be saved.

Both Callinicos and Coyle downplay the importance of the parliamentary elections, saying that the real struggles lie on the streets and ahead. What they fail to understand is the relationship between parliament and the street. There is a deep desire amongst the Greek working class for a government that will begin to solve the problems that they are facing. Of course no solution is possible for any workers’ government without a mass mobilisation of the people but in their refusal to support a Syriza-led government they are merely vacating the space for the right, undermining the mass movement on the streets and potentially ensuring their defeat.

From Cairo to Quebec via Athens and Mexico City and Santiago millions are fighting back.

The task for socialists is to try and unite the working class under a single banner.

Callinicos and Coyle take a sectarian approach – sectarian in the sense that they represent the interests of their political currents and confuse those with the interests of the class as a whole.

Andrew Burgin and Kate Hudson
Wednesday May 30th

"...The main danger in Greece is not reformism or opportunism on the part of SYRIZA. If SYRIZA had strong opportunist tendencies, we would have seen pressure after the May 6 elections from within its ranks to water down, weaken, and compromise on its five-point pledge to halt austerity. Such a rotten and unnecessary compromise would have been the necessary precondition for a SYRIZA-led coalition government with PASOK, ND, and/or DIMA (a rightist split from SYRIZA). Instead, Tsipra stood firm and resisted the temptation to trade principles for power and enjoyed the full and unanimous backing of SYRIZA’s constituent elements in doing so.

"All of this makes the claim by British socialist Alex Callinicos that SYRIZA’s actions thus far are illustrations of reformism’s contradictions either a bad ultra-left joke or a hopelessly dogmatic attempt to force SYRIZA to conform to the British SWP’s schema for categorizing political organizations as reformist, revolutionary, or centrist. Fighting to implement SYRIZA’s five points will be far more revolutionary than anything the SWP has ever done...."

For the rest, see: http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=787

I strongly agree with your argument here. Leftist nitpickers might seize on your use of the phrase "taking power" here to claim that you conflate winning elections with really taking power, even though that is not your intent. The Comintern discussions about workers governments and workers and farmers governments is apt here.

Engagement in elections to win (not just to make propaganda) is not alternative to building the movement in the streets, workplaces, campuses and neighbourhoods for serious revolutionary socialists It should go hand in hand.

Hopefully the discussion in the left around the world on the challenge for the Greek left to unite put up a serious challenge to austerity in the coming elections will bury some of the abstentionist madness that is a part of the sectarian heritage that the socialist movement desperately needs to break from.

You only have to watch the frustration and demoralisation of Egytian socialists and other revolutionaries at the recent elections to understand how important is the opening that Syriza's anti-austerity platform and public support offers.

The other thing that is laughable is the superstitious faith that some people place in the paper programs of tiny outfits which are untested in struggle. Put those people in under the pressure of real political responsibilty and I bet most of them would go to water faster than some of the so-called "reformists" in Syriza, who (unlike the armchair socialists who would stay out of the political fray and hang on to their pure paper programs) will in due course be put to the test.

We continue to distribute from Resistance Books (Australia) a very useful pamphlet by Maurice Sibelle called Revolutionaries and Parliament, which surveys the attitude of Marx, Engels and later the Russian Bolsheviks to parliamentary elections. A small excerpt follows:

* * *

In his 1895 introduction to Marx’s Class Struggles in France, Engels noted that “The Communist Manifesto had already proclaimed the winning of universal suffrage, of democracy, as one of the first and most important tasks of the militant proletariat.”

When universal male suffrage was granted in Prussia by Bismarck’s government in 1866, “our workers immediately took it in earnest and sent August Bebel to the first, constituent Reichstag.” Through such socialist election campaigns, the German Marxists had been able to transform the parliamentary franchise “from a means of deception, which it was before, into an instrument of emancipation.” Engels continued:

"And if universal suffrage had offered no other advantage than that it allowed us to count our numbers every three years; that by the regularly established, unexpected rapid rise in the number of our votes it increased in equal measure the workers’ certainty of victory and the dismay of their opponents, and so became our best means of propaganda; that it accurately informed us concerning our own strength and that of all hostile parties, and thereby provided us with a measure of proportion for our actions second to none, safeguarding us from untimely timidity as much as untimely foolhardiness — if this had been the only advantage we gained from the suffrage, it would have still been much more than enough. But it did more than this by far. In election agitation it provided us with a means, second to none, of getting in touch with the masses of the people where they still stand aloof from us; of forcing all parties to defend their views and actions against our attacks before all the people; and, further, it provided our representatives in the parliament with a platform from which they could speak to their opponents in parliament and to the masses without, with quite other authority and freedom than in the press or at meetings."

Engels went on to say that electoral propaganda was a more effective means of struggle than “revolutionary” adventures “carried through by small conscious minorities at the head of unconscious masses” — referring to various ultraleft attempts by small groups to seize power through street fighting. He viewed the participation of socialists in elections as “one of the sharpest weapons” to fight the state institutions and expose the other parties to the masses; as an effective method of reaching the masses of people with the ideas of the party; as a useful platform to express the ideas of the party and attack its opponents if the party succeeded in winning seats; as a gauge of strength and support of the party among the masses; as a means of legitimising the party before the masses and putting the party in a position where attempts to outlaw the party could be fought more easily. This was particularly important in Germany in light of the Anti-Socialist Law. The party’s legal activities — its election campaigns — were powerful weapons enabling it to fight for the right of the party to exist.

More here:Revolutionaries and Parliament

Friday, June 1, 2012

Andreas Kloke: Answer to the statement of the FI on Greece

Dear Comrades,

you've probably seen that the "Executive Bureau of the Fourth International" (EBFI) has issued a statement on Greece in "Int. Viewpoint". In this statement it declares itself unreservedly in favor of the previously published opinion of SR, the British section of the FI. Thus it challenges the view of OKDE (the Greek Section) and of ANTARSYA (which OKDE is part of). (My article that was also published last week in IV reflects the general approach of OKDE.) The declaration of the EBFI advocates unequivocally, and with all desirable clarity, the political conception of the SYRIZA leadership, especially its "5-Point Plan". The declaration states:

"We call for the coming together of all the forces which are fighting against austerity in Greece - Syriza, Antarsya, the KKE, the trade unions and the other social movements - around an emergency plan." And:

"Confronted by the policy imposed by the Troika, the Greek radical Left, and in particular Syriza, which today occupies a central place in the Greek political situation, defends a 5-point emergency plan:

1. Abolition of the memoranda, of all measures of austerity and of the counter-reforms of the labour laws which are destroying the country.

2. Nationalization of the banks which have been largely paid by government aid.

3. A moratorium on payment of the debt and an audit which will make it possible to denounce and abolish the illegitimate debt.

4. Abolition of immunity of ministers from prosecution.

5. Modification of the electoral law which allowed PASOK and New Democracy to govern to the detriment of the Greek population and to plunge the country into crisis.

There is no space here for a deeper analysis. From my / our point of view I / we would comment as follows:

- OKDE, as the Greek section, was not even consulted before the publication of this statement. This, in itself, is highly irregular and completely unacceptable. Whether the comrades of the EBFI agree with the orientation of OKDE in the present situation or not (and it is certainly their right to disagree) it is a violation of every basic tenet of international leadership for them to adopt a position without even initiating a discussion with the comrades who are actively engaged in Greece itself.

- Whatever one may think of SYRIZA, CPG (KKE) and ANTARSYA, one can hardly deny that the "5-Point Plan" of SYRIZA reveals in no uncertain terms the true character of SYRIZA, that is, a rather right reformism to characterize it politically. It is clear that the political objectives of SYRIZA remain definitively within the framework of capitalism and bourgeois democracy (the credibility of which is, however, shaken to its foundations in Greece today).

- It is difficult to assess the differences between the orientation of OKDE (and of ANTARSYA) and the declaration of the EBFI as merely “tactical.” It seems to clearly be a matter of two fundamentally incompatible views—both counterposed political assessments and political/programmatic orientations.

- At the end of each article in “Int. Viewpoint” one can read the following: “The Fourth International - an international organization struggling for the socialist revolution - is composed of sections, of militants who accept and apply its principles and programme.” The time has come, however, to honestly ask ourselves: What principles, what program?

- Given the extreme escalation and the critical situation in Greece, which is emphasized by the very declaration adopted by the EBFI, the FI finds itself at a crossroads: Should we support a perspective that can only be characterized as (left) reformist, or do we support a revolutionary anti-capitalism and an updated transition program? All sections, currents, groups, and ultimately every militant will have to take a position on this question.

I would like to add a brief assessment of the current situation in Greece:

After the elections of May 6 a further polarization of the electorate between "left and right" is developing, clearly favoring SYRIZA and New Democracy (ND). On the left everything is turning towards SYRIZA. The left sentiment is still rising and is currently at about 40% (on May 6 it was still at 37%). On the other hand, the intimidating propaganda (mainly from the German mass media) urging that Greece be kicked out of the euro favors ND and PASOK. The present published opinion polls are slightly different from one another but give the following overall picture:

ND 23.5 to 26%, SYRIZA 21.5 to 28.5 (or even 30) %, PASOK 13.1 to 14.8%, Independent Greeks (nationalistic - rightwing, but against the memoranda policies) 5.8 - 7.2%, DIMAR (politically somewhere between PASOK and SYRIZA, a particular phenomenon) 6.2 - 7.0%, CPG (KKE) 4.8 - 5.2%, Ch.Avgi (fascists) from 3.8 to 5.5%, Dimiourgia xana / Drasi (extreme neo-liberal) 2.4 - 3%. ANTARSYA is mentioned with 1%. It may be, however, that the result of the next election on June 17 will be well below this figure, since parliamentary illusions are in full bloom. This should be understandable in any case.

SYRIZA could therefore actually be the first party in the next electoral round. But we still strongly doubt that the formation of a "left government" can be achieved, since there is no suitable coalition partner in sight. KKE will not participate, as everybody knows. DIMAR is one likely coalition partner but that would pull SYRIZA even further to the right. The "Independent Greeks" are very unlikely to join such a government as they are rightwing-nationalist and do not fit with SYRIZA.
If ND and PASOK, and possibly still another party (e.g. DIMAR), are going to form a government, muddling along in the context of the memoranda policies as before, the country will very soon be left with no prospect. There could well be totally uncontrollable outbreaks, more reminiscent of chaos or civil war perhaps. The society itself is on the verge of collapse and cannot simply go on like this. On the other hand, a viable alternative is hardly in sight.

There is a feeling (it seems to me/us) that the rise of SYRIZA is the last chance of the national as well as the international system (addressed to the Troika, i.e. especially to the German government, but also to the "public opinion" in Germany) to save the situation with something akin to "normal" methods. But one can be sure that this exit or escape will not work, for various reasons. And then? What happens when SYRIZA fails (or, more precisely, during the time that SYRIZA is in the process of failing)? The most likely variant is a deepening polarization between left-revolutionary and fascist alternatives. Right now the fascists clearly have a considerable head start in this competition, while the revolutionary left alternative is only an embryo. This underlines the importance of following a revolutionary strategy along the lines of what the OKDE and ANTARSYA have been attempting. Now is not the time to be tailing after a reformist project. Now is the time to be building the revolutionary alternative that the Greek people need.

It is also clear that in the future “everything” may well depend on the proper TACTICAL behavior of the anti-capitalist - revolutionary forces (i.e. mainly ANTARSYA) towards SYRIZA (and secondarily towards KKE). It is obviously not enough to say, “SYRIZA means reformism, so get rid of it.” Since ANTARSYA itself is under pressure and not very united or strong, a prediction about the demise of SYRIZA is hardly the best approach. The only certainty is that the disappointment will be tremendous if SYRIZA really does come into power and turns out to be incapable of changing anything for the benefit of the people. In any case, the situation is very exciting. International solidarity will be most needed in every respect. This must be radically different, however, from the political support of SYRIZA’s reformism.

Revolutionary greetings
Andreas

2 σχόλια:

John Mullen June 1, 2012 9:14 AM

I'm afraid I don't find this convincing. Firstly, whether or not the international bureau were sufficiently polite is not really very important. But that is a detail. It seems possible to be in Syriza and still defend revolutionary options, and that is a tactic to be considered very seriously, as it could allow to defend revolutionary options in front of a much wider audience of activists, while also urging that the first step of winning the refusal of the memorandum is something w ecan all do together. I do not have detailed information of the situation on the ground, but I would certainly say that any revolutionary group not recruiting large numbers right now in Greece is in very serious difficulty. Does anyone have info on recruitment of activists to the Antarsya components in recent months?

Phil June 1, 2012 10:17 AM

I think that John Mullen's comments are on the mark. It's worth adding that the ANTARSYA comrades don't even have to be in SYRIZA. They can maintain their organizational independence but instead of running their own candidates in the election give SYRIZA critical support and offer to build a common front with the revolutionary currents inside it, both to put pressure on the SYRIZA leadership to move further left and to engage in non-electoral activities (such as anti-fascist demonstrations). Even if you have the view that SYRIZA will inevitably fail, this would be the best way to build a stronger revolutionary left. There should obviously be no illusions in the electoral process, but pretending that all is well as ANTARSYA's electoral support evaporates even further is crazy.

As a supporter of the Fourth International for more than 40 years, I wish to agree with Comrade Kloake that if the EBFI failed to discuss their statement with the comrades of OKDE-Spartakos, this was more than an impolite thing to do, it was a breach of respect among comrades and an apology needs to be forthcoming.

I also wish to agree with Comrade Kloke's assessment, that of the OKDE-Spartakos, that of Kokkino (a Permanent Observer to the Fourth International and a member of SYRIZA), that of OKDE (another Trotskyist organization in Greece which received 0.03% of the vote in the last election), and with the great majority of ANTARSYA and others, that Greece is in a pre-revolutionary situation, a situation where the rulers are no longer able to rule in the old way, and the ruled no longer will be ruled in the old way. This is not just an historical shibboleth, but is confirmed by the analysis as presented by Comrade Kloke above.

No matter who wins the election, the issue of governance will not be settled. I would refer readers to todays edition of Athens News where the latest polls are presented. These are the last polls which can be published. The site has a presentation of all the polls done since 10 May which I am including below, the the interactive nature of the poll results is best seen at the site: www.athesnews.gr

Poll results:

.
Agency Date ND Syriza Pasok Ind Greeks KKE Dem Left G Dawn

.
*Public Issue 01/06/2012 25.5 31.5 13.5 5.5 5.5 7.5 4.5

.
Kapa 01/06/2012 26.1 23.6 9.9 5.3 5.7 4.4 5.1

.
Rass 01/06/2012 26.5 24.2 12.1 5.8 5.2 5.4 3.6

.
*MRB 31/05/2012 27.6 26 14.6 7.1 4.7 6.6 5.4

.
*Marc 31/05/2012 28.8 27 13.9 7 6.3 5.9 4.6

.
Alco 31/05/2012 25 22.7 12.5 6.5 5 5.2 4.5

.
*Data RC 31/05/2012 28.4 25.6 13.9 7 5.7 6.2 5.4

.
Pulse 30/05/2012 24.5 24.5 13.5 7 5 5 5

.
*VPRC 30/05/2012 26.5 30 12.5 7.5 5.5 7.5 4.5

.
GPO 30/05/2012 23.4 22.1 13.5 7.4 5.9 5.1 4.2

.
*Pulse 26/05/2012 26.5 26 15.5 7.5 5 5.5 5.5

.
*Marc 26/05/2012 27.7 25.5 15.2 7.7 5.5 6.3 4.4

.
*Alco 26/05/2012 25.6 22.9 14 6.4 5.6 4.6 4.6

.
Kapa 26/05/2012 25.8 20.1 13 5.4 6.3 5.3 5.2

.
*MRB 26/05/2012 27.1 25.6 14.7 7.7 5.2 6.1 5.2

.
*Metr. 25/05/2012 27 27.2 14.8 7.2 5.2 6.2 4.9

.
*VPRC 25/05/2012 26 28.5 12.5 7 3 7 5.5

.
Rass 25/05/2012 23.6 21.4 13.1 5.8 4.8 6.2 3.8

.
*Data RC 24/05/2012 29.4 28.8 13.3 6.6 5.8 4.1 6.4

.
*Public Issue 24/05/2012 26 30 15.5 8 5 6.5 4

.
*Public Issue 19/05/2012 24 28 15 8 5 7 4.5

.
*Alco 19/05/2012 23.1 21.4 13.5 7.3 5.2 6 3.8

.
*MRB 19/05/2012 24.4 23.8 14.5 8.5 5.9 6.9 5.8

.
*Metron 19/05/2012 23.8 25.1 17.4 7.8 5.8 6.3 4.8

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*Marc 17/05/2012 26.1 23.7 14.9 8.1 5.8 6.3 4.8

.
*Pulse 17/05/2012 21.5 24.5 15.5 8 6 6 6

.
VPRC 16/05/2012 14.5 20.3 10.9 3.7 4.4 6.1 2.2

.
Kapa 13/05/2012 18.1 20.5 12.2 8.4 6.5 5 5.8

.
*Metron 12/05/2012 21.7 25.5 14.6 10.5 5.3 5.4 4.7

.
*Marc 10/05/2012 20.3 27.7 12.6 10.2 7 4.9 5.7

.
Election 06/05/2012 18.9 16.8 13.2 10.6 8.5 6.1 7

.

.
Note: * Anticipated vote share: Poll result effectively excludes undecided voters and those who refused to say how
they will vote, to project how the poll data would translate into an actual vote result.

What is important about this polling data is the trend. As in all polling, a single poll represents a snapshot in time, but a series of polls over time show the underlying processes at work. In Greece, the two primary process, from the point of view of revoltuionary Marxism are the following:

1. SYRIZA has replaced PASOK as the political expression of the working class and popular sectors hammered by the policies of austerity. As a subset of this, the industrial working class base of the KKE is moving to SYRIZA.

2. The trend for SYRIZA is up, but the trend for New Democracy has stalled at the 25-26% level. With 16 days to go to the election, this means that nobody will be able to form a government by themselves; that the strength of the anti-memorandum forces is hardening in the face of the propaganda onslaught by the instruments of the European bourgeoisie;that the social polarization of Greek society is reflected in the political polarization; and that there is no electoral exit from the crisis AT THIS TIME!

So, at the level of analysis, Comrade Kloke is correct in saying that SYRIZA is placed in an impossible situation, given the projected electoral results. Or, to put it in other words, neither the bourgeoisie nor the Greek proletariat will be able to impose their political solutions through parlimentary means. Thus the question, and discussion/debate, what to do, what to do.

The difference between the position of the OKDE-Spartakos and those of us who support the position as outlined in the Socialist Resistance article above, is not one of analysis. Indeed, as the SR article points out, this is the first pre-revolutionary situation in Europe since the 1974 events in Portugal.

No, as Comrade Kloke points out, the difference is not a tactical one either. Rather it rests on a different interetaation of how to apply the transisitonal methodology in the situation. Comrade Kloke and OKDE-Spartakos have, I believe, a propogandistic conception of how to prepare the masses for insurrection. I don't believe I would be too far off the mark by saying that OKDE-Spartakos and the rest of ANTARSYA believe that their role is to propagandize their analysis, and try to reach the masses in this fashion.

Those of us who differ with our beloved Greek comrades believe that struggle through mass action round a set of specific political demands is the best teacher. That include the mobilization of the workers to drive the fascist scum from the streets of Greece. This was the thrust of the statement of Socialist Resistance, and that of the executive bureau of the Fourth International as well. It is also, my I remind Comrade Kloke, that of Kokkino (RED) as well as other sectors of the revolutionary left, including currents within ANTARSYA and indeed, I suspect, within OKDE-Spartakos as well.

This is hardly "tailing reformism". The task is to prepare the working class and its allies for the inevitable and massive confrontation with international capital as well, and as our joint analysis suggests, to win politcally a big majority of the working class and the petite bourgeoise to the revolutionary option, to the creation of organs of popular power upon which a workers' governemnt can base itself.

These are not abstract tasks. These are life and death issues for the Greek workers and popular sectors. The "generals" are plotting and have their plans being prepared as we speak, ready to step in and "save the nation" as their sworn duty. If the forces of revolutionary Marxism don't understand this, then we have failed history, and our ourselves.

The time for plain talk has come. I pose the following questions to Comrade Kloke, to OKDE-Spartakos, to OKDE, to Kokkino. Syriza is in the process of forming a mass, centrist workers party, not only legally, but literally as well. As SYRIZA has said: "SYRIZA at 16% is a far different party than SYRIZA at 4%". The 70 public party creation meetings around Greece being held by SYRIZA to form the party is in full swing. What is emerging is a mass, anticapitalist workers party as envisgned by both the 15th and 16th World Congress of the Fourth International, theses which were endorsed by OKDE-Spartakos. Are you going to stand aside from this process or are you going to join together to work to unite the working class and prepare it politically for taking power? This does not mean giving up any organizational independence, nor does it mean having to muzzle your ideas. No, what it does mean is rethinking the approach to politics, to dropping the "small group" mentality and thinking the big question: how do we, the advanced workers and our allies, prepare our people for insurrection, for the seizure of power. That,comrades,is what is on the agenda.

Finally, Comrade Kloke's appeal for international solidarity is an imperative for European and international forces. That is why Socialist Resistance endorsed the call of the Spanish indignados, and of the Portugese Left Block, for an international day of struggle on 16th of June.

All out together 16 June! No to austerity, no to the Troika, no to the European capitalist offense! Solidarity with the Greek people! Occupy our Future, the People's of Europe are Rising!!

Comrade Andreas,

I'm afraid I have to agree with the above comments and strongly urge OKDE (Spartakos) and Antarsya to re-think - it simply has nothing to do with having illusions in the Syriza leadership, let alone giving political support to left reformism. Revolutionary currents exist inside Syriza, as they do outside, and the maximum unity in action needs to be developed between them to push Syriza to the left, to try to push forward the momentum created by the split of the historic horrible right-wing of Synaspismos to form DIMAR, and to further mass mobilisation. The Syriza leadership has remained very firm on the key issue of rejecting the Memorandum and the austerity, which puts it in the position of clashing with Greek and EU capital whatever the subjective intentions of some of the leadership may be. You say in future the tactical orientation may become key but you haven't really explained why it is not key right now, when the question of power is posed in the minds of workers in a life and death situation. It is true that even after the next elections Syriza may still not be able to form a government by itself (and you ought to congratulate Syriza for NOT caving in as it would have needed to form a shitty government with DIMAR), but that is largely because of the 3rd period sectarianism of the KKE, which is making the type of bourgeois currency the key "class" dividing line. Antarsya is not remotely like the KKE and has a far better orientation overall (after all, the KKE's sectarianism goes back years now, as you well know, so it is not just about these elections), and it seems to me Antarsya should be calling for a left united front (Syriza/KKE) to take power with your own list of demands that you will be mobilising around together with other forces in the left and labour movement INCLUDING the revolutionary components of Syriza and the genuine leftist elements of Synaspismos itself, as well as, hopefully, non-sectarian ranks of the KKE. By basing your whole tactical approach on the alleged absolute certainty that Syriza will fail, you guarantee you will play no part and thus aid this failure - while not really offering an alternative in practical terms. You are correct, of course, however that the FI leadership should actually consult its members before releasing statements.

Comradely, Mihali Karadjis

I agree with Kate Hudson and Andrew Burgin in their rebuttal of the Callinicos’ defence of ANTARSYA and Coyle’s defence of the KKE that the only real difference (in action plans/platforms) is these two group’s demand that leaving the Euro be on the list. ANTARSYA’s action program reveals it acknowledges that the primary question is opposition to the austerity package as it argues it is not possible to do this without leaving the Euro. So why can’t ANTARSYA support SYRIZA on this primary question and while independently putting forward arguments about how to get there?

There is a whole complex and challenging political process ahead to go through to convince the Greek masses – let alone political groups – that Greece should leave the Euro, and a simple declaration like ANTARSYA’s point 6 doesn’t allow any escape from this challenge.

The same can be said for nationalisation of the banks and other measures that challenge capitalist property relations. Declaring that you are for such measures is one thing. Winning the masses to support, mobilise and fight in whatever way is necessary to win such measures, is a whole different matter.

In the current political situation in Greece, the prospect of electing an anti-austerity government gives the left an unprecedented opportunity of going through the public discussions and debates that will be needed to develop real mass agreement about how to defeat the austerity package. And in such a debate relatively untested revolutionary socialists who have been prepared to put aside their (presumptious and probably pretentious) claims to be the “genuine” revolutionaries, and build the united front against austerity around SYRIZA’s platform, will get a better hearing.

Of course, socialists should have no illusions about the tumultous character of such a process and public debate. An anti-austerity government around SYRIZA would be operating not just with the pressures from the still existing capitalist state apparatus but also with stepped up pressure from other powerful European governments and the capitalist conglomerates they act for.

Revolutionary socialists will also be better placed should an anti-austerity government not be elected,if they had united and made their best effort to get an anti-austerity government elected in the elections.

Surely revolutionary socialists need to embrace this opening with a Napoleonic “On s’engage et puis on voit”. This is what I understand Pham Binh’s slogan “occupy government” in his blogpost "Change the World Without Taking Power, Marxist Edition" (reposted in this discussion thread) to mean.

The alternative is abstentionism. I agree with the conclusion by Michael Karadjis in his article “SYRIZA, the Communist Party and the desperate need for a united front” in Links:

‘…In a situation that is revolutionary, that is life and death for the masses, the nettle needs to be grasped. More likely a failure of the left to unite at such a crucial moment for Greek society will open the door to fascism as a section of the masses swing right to find an “alternative” to the crisis. The massive 7% vote for the neo-Nazi, immigrant-bashing criminal gang Golden Dawn on May 6, alongside the 10% vote for a right-wing nationalist split from ND, may end up being a signal of the future direction if the left cannot offer an alternative. Those leftists who pave the way for this will be, and ought to be, judged harshly by history.’

Sectarianism eats itself.

The marxist tradition has been supplanted in this discussion by the shibboleth of Grece removing itself from the Euro Area, or even, wildly, the EU.

This is no part of the revolutionary tradition. Trotsky throughout his revolutionary careeer counterposed the slogan of the Socialist United States of Europe or, later, the Soviet United States of Europe to the inter-imperialist war, or the march of the Hitlerites across Europe.

Now, even the most fevered opponent of the EU must admit that nothing like an inter-imperilist war nor fascist invasion is taking place. The EU and its impositions are not that reactionary. Why then counterpose to it currently a break-up of the EU? This can only be on natinal, reactionary lines given that thee is already some degree of economic intgration on a pan_EU basis that has taken place.

The Stalinists, who derided Trotsky's slogan, found themselves implementing it (bureaucratically) in COMECON. But our modern 'Trotskyists' have made themselves sects (raising their specific point above of difference above the requirements of the class struggle) on one of the most reactionary bases possible.

There definitely appears to be a broad consensus developing throughout the left that in Greece unity between SYRIZA and formations to its (self-defined)left, with certain exceptions of schematicist secterian groupings like the SEK and the SWP of GB, is a critical task. That this is so is revealed in the following interview with Dimitris Hilaris, a leader of the OKDE-Spartacist and a member of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and published at International Viewpoint. This interview reveals a much less secterian approach to SYRIZA than that enunciated by Andreas Kloke, at least in its tone, and as well it begins to define the negotiating framework for a left government supported by ANTARSYA.

It still begs the question of how, that is, what form that unity will take. It is not just good enough to say the left needs to unite around SYRIZA, but those who promote this view need to be clear on the tactical implications of what they are proposing, and why.

First, the interview:

Toward a government that will break with the Troika?

Interview with Dimitris Hilaris

On the eve of the elections on May 6, 2012, Germany’s Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schäuble, called on Greeks to elect a majority "that respects the commitments made to international creditors by the present coalition government " [1].He was wasting his breath, since more than 65 per cent of Greeks voted against the diktats of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A new period opened on May 6 in Athens. To discuss it, we interviewed Dimitris Hilaris of the organization OKDE-Spartakos, which is part of the Antarsya coalition.

Dimitris, can you draw a first balance sheet of the vote on May 6?

Dimitris Hilaris: We have to stress three important facts. First, the result on May 6 was a stinging rebuke for the Troika. It was a vote against the austerity imposed on us; it was the culmination of the mobilizations of the last few months. Next, we should underline the fact that, for the first time since the fall of the dictatorship, it was not PASOK which took the majority of the votes of the popular classes, but the forces to the left of social democracy. Syriza (the Coalition of the Radical Left), the Communist Party and the coalition of the anti-capitalist Left, Antarsya, together won almost 30 per cent of the vote. If we add on the Greens, it was close to 35 per cent. Definitely, there is a change in workers’ electoral behaviour.

And the third important fact?

Dimitris Hilaris: It follows from the preceding points. It is the polarization of political life, on the left and on the right. At the moment when the pro-austerity parties are collapsing, it is the radical Left which is polarizing the debates on one side of the political spectrum and it is the Nazis who are successful on the right…

Exactly, they got 7 per cent. That’s enormous, isn’t it?

Dimitris Hilaris: The 7 per cent is only the Golden Dawn party. We should add to their result the scores of two other smaller parties of the far Right. Yes, there is a radical Left that is emerging, but also a radical Right.

Are the middle classes leaning towards authoritarian solutions?

Dimitris Hilaris: In my opinion, the far Right got its votes from three categories: students who have been influenced by the intervention of the far Right in the universities, a part of the "social" Right which no longer believes in the conservative Right that is in thrall to the Troika, and finally disillusioned voters of PASOK, but also of the Communist Party, the KKE, for whom there is an anti-system logic to voting for the far Right. They won 500,000 votes, but this is not yet a stabilized, loyal electorate.

They will probably lose ground in the elections on 17 June, but it is almost certain that they will get into Parliament, since 3 per cent is enough for that.

Some people have drawn parallels between the present situation in Greece and the Weimar Republic, which was the prelude to the coming to power of Hitler…

Dimitris Hilaris: Comparisons should be made with great caution. We are not emerging today from nearly five years of war. And we are not, contrary to the Germany of the years from 1919 to 1923, in such a disastrous economic situation. And moreover, unlike in that period, there is not in Greece activity by paramilitary groups such as existed in 1919, for example… There is a similar dynamic, but... let’s be careful.

And Syriza, the coalition of the radical Left, anti-liberal, founded in 2004?

Dimitris Hilaris: It is the party which has been able to capitalize on the dynamics of the movements that are taking place, which has shattered the hegemony of PASOK and New Democracy party. Syriza has been able to be in step with people. While the KKE offers a prospect of a distant paradise and we, the Antarsya coalition, remain largely propagandistic, Syriza has been able to provide a credible solution to the situation, through the slogan of a left government. At the same time, its responses are often confused: when they are put under pressure, we hear a cacophony from leaders of Syriza. Some claim that they will unilaterally abolish the debt and the agreements with the Troika. Others, more conservative, give priority to staying in Europe. The situation is complicated, but we should approach it without sectarianism.

Which means?

Dimitris Hilaris: We, the coalition of anti-capitalist forces, must participate in this debate. Syriza, which is likely to emerge stronger from the elections on June 17, will probably ally with others to govern. But there is a new fact, the hypothesis of a left government. This question must come down from the leaderships of the parties into the social movement.

There are two conditions for the creation of a left government: firstly a political programme to break with the Troika, a government that cancels the debt and the memoranda, at the risk of being excluded from Europe.

And then, the transfer of power downwards. A left government can only represent the interests of those below only to the extent that those below have power. So what is necessary is a transfer of responsibilities and powers to popular assemblies. This would be the first task of a left government - to convene a national Constituent Assembly of popular assemblies.

Dimitris Hilaris is a member of the leadership of the OKDE-Spartakos (Greek section of the Fourth International) and of the International Committee of the Fourth international. This interview was conducted by Paolo Gilardi and published in L’Anticapitaliste, no. 70, journal of the Anticapitalist Left in Switzerland.

-Dimitris Hilaris is a a member of OKDE, Greek section of the Fourth International

NOTES

[1] In effect, a call to vote for the centre-left PASOK or the centre-right New Democracy

The three things that are most obvious to me from this interview are:

1. At least some sections of ANTARSYA recognize that SYRIZA is more in step with the people and that its call for a left government gave rise to an alternative to the PASOK-New Democracy program of the Troika.

2. Because of this, SYRIZA is supplanting PASOK as the mass party of the working class, and is seen as much more credible in its project than that of either the KKE or ANTARSYA.

3. There is a recognition that those in ANTARSYA must be involved in a non-secterian manner in the dicussions unfolding around the prospects of a left government, and whilst its two primary demands have a maximalist and utopian tint, nonethessless it shows that ANTARSYA is prepared to discuss the framework for left unity around a common program. That is a step forward, it seems to me.

What is missing from this discussion is the question of how best those to the left of some of SRIZA's leadership actually engage in the unfolding dynamic. Dave Hill in a contribution above,while I disagree with its conclusions, nonetheless attempted to put forward a unity plan consisting of an election contested by ANTARSYA, a declaration before the election that ANTARSYA would give critical support to a Syriza-led left government, and that it would show that support (or lack thereof) on a case by case basis.

While this plan may have had some credence if ANTARSYA was in a position to give or take-away support in the national assembly, such will not be the case as ANTARSYA is projected to lose 40-50% of its 6 May vote. It therefore will be in a weakened position in any negotiations with SYRIZA, after the elections.

The central analytical point I am proceeding from is that SYRIZA is becoming the mass, anti-capitalist workers party in Greece, and that it has broken the political hegemony by the classical social democracy represented by PASOK, and is on its way to supplant the Third Period Stalinists of the KKE as the leading party in the industrial proletariat.

So, how can ANTARSYA intervene into the unfolding discussion. I am here not going to deal with the street mobilizations, which form an important part of ANTARSYA's political arsenal. As I have stressed before on these pages, ANATARSYA's ability to organize the street is much greater than its electoral showings, and it is an important part of the political vanguard.

I believe it has two BASIC options (with of course permutations and combinations). The first is to retain its independent existance seperate and apart from SYRIZA, to continue with its propagandistic efforts, to to try and win a hearing before those workers who have broken politically from PASOK and are giving SYRIZA a try. The strategic thinking behind this is much the same as the strategic thinking behind the KKE's line: After SYRIZA, US!

The second option which I believe makes the most sense both tactically and strategically, is for ANATRSYA to join en mass and en bloc with SYRIZA, negotiating an accord which would leave it with the rights of a recognized current. This is the case with Kokkino (FI), International Workers Left (CWI), Marxist Voice (IMT) and the other components of SYRIZA.

The reasoning behind this is it will allow the greatest possible unity around those programmatic issues: cancelling of the Memorandum, restoring the social wage and workers rights, withdrawing from NATO, etc. at the organizational level, and it will provide the political space for the revolutionary socialists to show their organizational and political skills as they fight to win the workers and the broad masses to their ideas.

We know from experience that once in struggle, workers see things in a much different light than when engaged in a passive, electoral exercise. It also provides, through the building of democratic local party committees, a chance for all forces to work and discuss together, to trade experiences and to develop a common analysis of what is to be done next. It allows the revolutionaries to merge,join up, and become one with the mass movement, where each step forward is a fight against the oppressors, where the oppressors are revealed for what they are, and where the labour fakirs and labour lieutents of imperialism are exposed for who they are.

The report to the Fourth Congress of the Third International on building the united front should be mandatory reading before anyone is allowed to join a revolutionary Marxist organization. If it were, a lot of this discussion around how to approach the developments in Greece would take as its starting point a common set of assumptions and could concentrate on the concrete analysis of concrete things.

A long time ago in the Canadian section of the Fourth International there was a song which went like this: "In revolution, there is one rule. Experience is the greatest tool." The pre-revolutionary situation in Greece is providing a good experience discussing at the level of theory the importance of building the workers' united front. I for one would like to augment this with some experiences from comrades who are building that united front from above as well as from below.

What are the dynamics within SYRIZA as it transitions from a coalition to a Party? How do the various currents within SYRIZA meet and discuss the next step? Does the present structure allow for the greatest possible discussion of ideas, or are there improvements which can be made to allow for a more effective exchange of ideas and proposals? Perhaps someone close to the action within SYRIZA can be persuaded to make a report of these things here at LINKS.

Sources within Greece have said that two polls conducted this weekend for internal consumption (that is, they were not intended for publication) have both shown SYRIZA holding a 4-6 point lead over New Democracy, amongst committed voters, and that over the past week PASOK appears to be collapsing with a good percentage of its voters moving to SYRIZA, though some are now supporting ND.

This would tally with some of the recent statements coming from Venizelos begging Greek voters not to desert the "responsible left". [What a poor choice of words!!]

The polls were conducted for an "international agency" in one instance, with the firm identified as one which had previously used by the US Embassy in Athens. The other was for a "newspaper group", and while I can't verify it, I suspect it is probably Public Issue polling since the trend line numbers appear to match those of the published polls from 10 May to 1 June.

These poll results probably confirm two things which many already suspect to be true. Obama's forceful intervention last week telling the Europeans to get their act together quickly, that they had two weeks to get Spain sorted out; and the indecent haste in which the 100 Billion Eurofraud foisted upon the Greek people to bailout the banks was negotiated, are signs that the instability which will accompany a SYRIZA victory will mushroom into a pan-European political crisis of immense proportions.

With less than a week left until the vote, the international revolutionary left, as weak as it is, can still play a role in building active solidarity with the Greek people. On 16 June, mass demostrations and a transport strike is planned for Lisbon, called by the CGT and backed by the CP and the Bloc of the Left.
In Spain, a call to occupy the center of Madrid to demand the resignation of the government and abrogate the Billion Euro Bailout have been called by a coalition of left and trade union organizations.

While these are the two biggest demonstrations planned, in other cities across the globe activists are planning solidarity actions with Greece, within the framework of fighting austerity. The conscious linking of the international dimension of the resistance is of utmost importance. Hopefully we will see many banners proclaiming: People of Greece, Stand Firm! The Peoples of Europe Are Rising to Join You!carried on the marches, or hanging from the Effil Tower in Paris to Big Ben in London to the Winter Palace in Leningrad and draping that poor naked mermaid in Copenhagen harbour.

Greece must not be left to dance alone!

This is posted from today's issue of Athens News, and tends to confirm the previous post.

BL

This is from todays Athens News and tends to confirm the previous post.

Tsipras confident of victory and leftist government

13 Jun 2012

Alexis Tsipras gestures as he addresses reporters during a news conference in Athens, 12 June 2012 (Reuters)

The Radical Left Coalition (Syriza) will win Sunday's election, its leader said on Tuesday, but ruled out forming a government with pro-bailout parties.

Instead, Syriza chief Alexis Tsipras said that, if elected, he would lead a government of the left – mentioning the Democratic Left and the Communist Party as potential partners – against the austerity measures demanded by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

Tsipras, who wants to scrap a 130bn euro bailout deal signed in March, rejected what he called an "all-party ragtag" following calls for a unity government in case next week's vote proves as inconclusive as the last one held in May.

"After two consecutive elections, people demand a clear direction," he told reporters, rejecting an approach by Evangelos Venizelos, leader of Pasok, who said at the weekend that the country risked social unrest unless all parties were involved in making the hard decisions which lay ahead.

He pledged that a Syriza would “put an end to the rotten, corrupt and ineffective political and economic system that threatens Greece’s eurozone membership,” promising to replace the memorandum with a national plan for economic restoration, which will guarantee dignified living standards, job security and fair wages.

The last opinion polls published before a pre-election blackout showed Syriza running neck-and-neck with the conservative New Democracy party, which wants only minor adjustments to the bailout.

No party appears strong enough to form a government alone.

Tsipras repeated his pledge to keep the country in the eurozone, despite his promise to renege on the bailout accord.

"Lest there be any doubt, my movement - Syriza – is committed to keeping Greece in the eurozone," Tsipras wrote in a column for Wednesday's edition of the Financial Times.

"This Sunday we will bring Greece into a new era of growth and prosperity. The new era begins on Monday."

The country's European partners have insisted that any new government must stick to the bailout agreement or face seeing funds cut off, but Tsipras expects they would back down before accepting the havoc that a Greek exit would cause to the world economy.

The dire consequences for the economy of being forced out of the single currency have prompted speculation that Tsipras could back down if elected, but he gave no hint of softening during Tuesday's news conference of more than an hour.

Responding to recent claims that European officials were preparing a worst-case scenario that would involve limiting ATM cash withdrawals, among others, Tsipras said this was scaremongering on the party of domestic and foreign politicians and economic figures.

If elected, Tsipras promised he would halve his own salary as prime minister and scrap benefits for politicians.

He said that Syriza will restore the minimum wage to 751 euros and the unemployment allowance to 461.50 euros and will abolish the emergency property tax and help indebted households.

He also pledged to bring the banking sector under state control.

"If we are elected, we will move swiftly to recapitalise banks with common voting shares, what we call socialisation of the banking system, put them under public and social control so that Greek depositors feel safe," he said.

He said that the banks represent the biggest threat for the country because they fear they will not be able to feast on state money anymore, adding that vested and entangled interests fear of the rules of democracy.

The Syriza leader maintained that the country's military alliances are not necessary but added that a withdrawal from Nato is not a party priorities. He clarified that Greece will not participate in alliance operations. (AMNA, Reuters)

Excellent outline of the formation and transformation of Syriza by one of its component revolutionary organisations:

The making of SYRIZA

PANOS PETROU

June 11, 2012

http://socialistworker.org/2012/06/11/the-making-of-syriza

What is our discussion on Greece about?
KLOKE Andrea
11 May 2012
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article25531

On June 17th we are supporting SYRIZA for the election of a left government
We are preparing for the next day of a harsh class conflict in Greece and in Europe
Kokkino
The elections of May 6th generated a real political earthquake in
Greece, foundering the parties of the Memorandum and destabilizing the
bourgeois political system, which was targeting at forming a "memorandum
government", taking advantage of the bonus of 50 parliamentary seats in
order to carry on with the destructive work of the previous
governments. At the same time, the election results sent a strong
message to Europe that the "Greek guinea pig" reacts by threatening to
shake the air of austerity plans of the entire European ruling classes.
Since then, and now in front of the feasibility of the formation of a
left government after the elections of the 17th of June, the terror of
bourgeois "headquarters" is evident and manifested daily through the
launch of rabid attacks against SYRIZA.
New Democracy, as the authentic representative of the capital’s
interests, having flown for a few months the anti-memorandum guise by
participating in Papademos’ government, have reinserted it on May 7th,
promising to "renegotiate" the memorandum that New Democracy voted for
and Samaras vowed in Merkel that he will implement it! Even in front of
the "risk of SYRIZA," Samaras does not hesitate to call to a war
invitation all the right-wing, neoliberal, fascist-friendly and extreme
"elements of the Right", unearthing the vilest anti-communist rhetoric.
Those who put their signatures to the extermination of the people to
safeguard the profits of bankers, unable to offer any kind of positive
vision for the society, they dig up as the ultimate weapon the risk of
exiting from the Euro to chain the society itself. They deliberately
identify the memorandum with the Euro, cultivating fear of a possible
exit of Greece from an already seriously battered Eurozone, investing
openly in fear and political speculation.
PASOK is following, which competes with ND (New Democracy) in the
scaremongering, terrorist dilemmas and slanderous attacks against
SYRIZA. Without a trace of regret, those who destroyed social rights of
decades within two years, shake their finger at SYRIZA with the
accusation of being irresponsible. Having been divorced from the working
class and poor popular strata, they condemn anything popular-friendly
as populist, putting in the prescription of austerity a little bit of
development. They surpass all limits of insolence when they destroy the
public health, leaving millions of people to their fate and blaming
SYRIZA because it is against this policy and struggles to overthrow it.
The camp of terror is filled by the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, which, by
stepping on the human dust created by the impoverishment of large
segments of the population and the ideological legitimacy offerred by
New Democracy and PASOK, is now a real threat for the working class and
the Left. Their emergence as a legitimate parliamentary power should not
create any illusion for any decline or deficit of their "extreme"
features, as that parliamentary power is cloak for the launching of a
wild terrorism against immigrants, the labor movement and the Left.
Against the nightmare of the long-term memoranda, the prospect of a
Left government has enormous potential among workers, unemployed people,
employees and youth who have experienced at first hand the consequences
of their wild class attack. It was the experience of two years
struggles against the troika and the realisation by broad sections of
the people "from below" that it is necessary to block the memoranda
government machine that made this prospect possible. The fissure that
opened on the 6th of May should lead to the total subversion in the
elections of the 17th of June, and this is the only thing that can
ensure a massive vote in favor of SYRIZA and the formation of a
government of the Left.
Such a government, however, has to confront the system the very next
day in order to implement its program, since the forces of capital, both
domestic and international, will react with acid. The conquest of the
governmental power by the Left is only one step towards the conquest of
the real power, located at banks, big business, media, the army and the
police. Historical experience shows that this battle can be victorious
only when it is backed by an organized labor and popular movement, as
this can be a guarantee that such a government will not be overthrown,
or will not fall under the suffocating pressures that is going to
experience by the ruling class and its apparatuses. Only the creation of
institutions of working and popular control, labor unions and
committees in every workplace, popular assemblies and committees in each
neighbourhood can ensure that such a government is truly "by the people
and for the people. "It should be understood that the government of the
Left is not a plan of award and management of the system, but a simple
moment of the overall battle for power, in order to be properly prepared
for it. In this direction, while thousands of activists and militants
are approaching SYRIZA, it is necessary not only to join massively its
organizations, but for SYRIZA itself to transform and to create a single
and multi-current party so as to creatively integrate them in its
ranks.
For this reason, the need for unity and coalition of the Left (SYRIZA
- KKE - ANTARSYA) acquires urgent significance, since this is the only
thing that can ensure the necessary rallying forces of the working
people to give this battle decisively. The same applies at European
level as well, since only a coordinated labor movement and a new spring
of the European people can prevent the attempts of isolating Greece,
which is something that Brussels will try to do.
The forthcoming battle is difficult and the challenges are enormous
because of the historical scale of the crisis. Let’s step into this
battle with the greatest possible optimism, by building the conditions
for this to be victorious for the working forces, with the goal of
building a society without poverty, unemployment, fascism and human
exploitation.
9th June 2012
KOKKINO for the recomposition of the left, revolution and socialism (member organization of SYRIZA) kokkino
-Kokkino is a member organisation of Syriza, and a Permanent Observer wthin the Fourth International

Statement of the Workers’ Struggle on strategic questions of the anti-capitalist movement in Greece and attitude towards SYRIZA

Workers’ Struggle

After familiarizing itself with the statement of the Executive Bureau of the Fourth International on the situation in Greece, the analysis of the Greek section of the Fourth International, the exchange of messages between the Bureau and OKDE-Spartakos and upon discussion and vote on the matter within the organization, Workers’ Struggle takes the following stance on the question of attitude towards SYRIZA and the Executive Bureau’s statement:

1. We believe it was wrong of the Executive Bureau to make a statement without prior serious discussion with the Greek section, OKDE-Spartakos. It is the Executive Bureau’s right to take a stance different from that of the individual section, but that should come only after consultation and discussion with the section’s representatives.

2. We find that the Executive Bureau’s resolution has a few significant shortcomings. First of all, it states uncritical support for SYRIZA and its leadership. Uncritical call for gathering around the five point program is also expressed. That program, as well as all the demands made by SYRIZA, is fundamentally reformist, quite distant from the transitional program and as such entirely insufficient. First of all, an intervention to set more radical demands and further develop the five point program in a more radical fashion would be needed. However, there are no guarantees that SYRIZA’s leadership will even be able to carry out the proposed program, moreover according to statements from some of its leaders; exactly the opposite is to be expected. In any case, political struggle against SYRIZA’s leadership and radicalization of political situation arise as tasks in the immediate future.

3. Also, the resolution lacks a more consistent class analysis as the complex question is reduced to one-sided support of SYRIZA. Because of that the resolution completely lacks the strategic part, i.e. outlining the course of action that would take the present situation to a pre-revolutionary state. Primarily, we are referring to the strategy of activities that would, among other things, include: transitional strategy, left-wing criticism of SYRIZA, maintaining a critical distance from SYRIZA and its leadership, continuous work on radicalizing the student and workers’ movement in the non-parliamentary sphere. Therefore there is a huge void in the resolution between two parts: the uncritical support of SYRIZA at this moment and gathering around it today, and in an undetermined future the overthrow of capitalism and the Socialist United States of Europe. It is not at all clear; actually it is completely incomprehensible how the prior can directly lead to the latter.

4. Despite that – and based on the information we have – we believe that critical support of SYRIZA seems to be the most prudent strategy at the present moment.

5. Despite its bourgeois leadership and reformist dominant organization, there are also several revolutionary groups in SYRIZA, and SYRIZA by no means represents a homogenous organization.

6. SYRIZA’s rise to power could lead to intense radicalization. Its leadership would compromise itself as it would not able to meet the demands, thus opening the space for criticism from the revolutionary left and further radicalization; even partially implemented social measures would prove to be insufficient on one side, and on the other side they would face strong resistance from the bourgeoisie and the imperialists that could ultimately push the situation in direction of need for even more radical solutions and towards a revolutionary path.

7. Revolutionary fractions inside SYRIZA could use the situation to strengthen their influence and intensify the conflict with the current leadership. Splits in the leadership are possible as well. We can already ‘’hear a cacophony from its leaders’’.

8. Similarly, the Bolsheviks called upon the Mensheviks and Social-Revolutionaries, while they still had the majority, to ‘’take the power in their own hands’’ and ‘’fulfill their promises’’. That led to the strengthening of the Bolsheviks and the growth of their party, as well as weakening of the position of previously mentioned parties.

9. Of course, the revolution will not be achieved through elections, yet they should be seen as a platform for achieving strategic priorities at a certain moment. ANTARSYA’s present politics will probably mean a fall to less that 1% of the vote in the coming elections, whilst SYRIZA’s support will increase even more. That way nothing will be gained strategically from the elections, moreover ANTARSYA potentially alienates itself from one of the potential focal points of the future events. Independence of the revolutionary currents in relation to the reformists, in our opinion should primarily be achieved through work on building an independent revolutionary organization and revolutionary program, maintaining a critical distance from SYRIZA and through independent activities, without any illusions in the leadership of the SYRIZA and the potential of parliamentary activities, but with simultaneous work on approaching the widest layers of masses which at this moment stand with SYRIZA.

June 16th 2012

-Workers’ Struggle is an organisation in Croatia with Permanent Observer status in the Fourth International.

http://quatrieme-internationale.org/spip.php?article317

For the Sovereign Right of the Greek People to Oust the Troika’s Memorandum!

Declaration of the IVth International - International Secretariat

1 June 2012

The declarations of threat being made by the American administration, the European Union and the IMF towards the people of Greece have but one objective: to align the world in a raging offensive to force the Greek people to capitulate and thus, by the same token, to send a warning to all the peoples of Europe.

Are the people of Greece responsible for the bankruptcy that all the peoples of Europe are being engulfed in? Are the people of Greece responsible for the situation that is brewing in Spain, in Portugal, in Italy?

No! The only ones responsible for the crisis and the chaos, in Greece as on the entire continent, are those who impose and apply the Troika’s memorandums and their barbaric measures!

They are holding the people of Greece “responsible” because six months after the uprising of October 19-20, 2011, which pushed Papandreou out, the Greek people went on, in the legislative elections of May 6, to inflict defeat on the parties — the PASOK ahead of them all — that had subjected themselves to the supranational dictates of the Troika (the IMF-European Commission-European Central Bandk). They are threatening the people of Greece because, just after the elections of May 6, the Greek people prevented the constitution of a government that would not cancel the Memorandum.

Ms. Lagarde, trampling all forms of sovereignty and democracy in the name of the IMF, following the European Commission, professes to forbid the people of Greece to confirm and extend their May 6 vote on June 17.

By demanding the cancellation of the Memorandum, the people of Greece are but expressing the will of all the peoples of Europe to be done with the austerity plans, to put a halt to the march towards the installing of a veritable dictatorship of the Troika that the ratification of the new European TSCG treaty would mean.

We, activists of the IVth International, say: the people of Greece, the workers and the peoples of Europe refuse to be subjected to the implacable law of financial capital. They refuse to pay the barbaric consequences of the system of private ownership of the means of production with their flesh and bones.

We, activists of the IVth International, assert that the only positive way out for the workers and the peoples of Europe requires breaking with the European Union, with its institutions and its treaties, from the Treaty of Rome to the TSCG, including the Treaty of Maastricht. The only way out of the chaos and barbarism lies in the fight for the United Socialist States of Europe, free from the yoke of the debt, pillage and exploitation.

The first act along this path is the cancelling of the barbarous memorandum, which the people of Greece demand, and the non-ratification of the TSCG treaty and its “golden rule”, and its repeal in the countries where it has been ratified!

This is why the IVth International unconditionally supports the people of Greece and those — like Syriza — who represent them and who say: cancellation of the Memorandum! Respect for the sovereign will of the people of Greece!