'Your struggle is our struggle': Asia-Pacific left solidarity with the people of Greece and SYRIZA

July 3, 2015 – Posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the people of Greece and the SYRIZA-led government as they prepare for a referendum on July 5, 2015, on whether to accept the continuation of the program of neoliberal austerity or chart a new course free from the debilitating stranglehold of the “troika” — the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission.

We support the call of SYRIZA for a "no vote" as the only option for the people of Greece, especially the working classes, to assert sovereign control over the country's economy and their own future.

We condemn the “troika” and their allied political institutions, for forcing their policies of neoliberal austerity, privatisation, deregulation and savage cutbacks dismantling the public sector. We, therefore, hold the “troika” responsible for the massive unemployment, increased poverty, greater social inequality and a severe economic depression now being experienced by Greece. The irony of it all is that the huge debts the “troika” is demanding for repayment did not go to Greece but were used to repay private sector creditors such as French and German banks. In other words, these are onerous and illegitimate debts.

We had welcomed the election of the SYRIZA-led government on a program committed to ending the neoliberal-austerity policies imposed by the EU creditors and we stand in solidarity with them as they struggle to implement an anti-austerity program.

The austerity program has been assessed as a colossal failure by leading economists worldwide. Despite this, the insistence of the EU creditors and their political and economic allies to resuscitate this failed program, can only be construed as a cynical political maneuver whose real aim is to bring down the SYRIZA government, the first anti-neoliberal, anti-austerity government to be popularly elected in Europe.

SYRIZA was a product of the mass movements’ and working people’s struggles against neoliberal austerity promoted by unbridled capitalism. Similar political organisations have arisen across Europe, such as Podemos in Spain, a product of the anti-austerity "indignados" movement.

The spectre that haunts the European capitalist class is a "SYRIZA syndrome" spreading to other parts of Europe, particularly in Spain, with the election of an anti-neoliberal Podemos government. By bringing down the SYRIZA government, the capitalist hydra aims to strangle such a movement at its birth.

Peoples from all over the world, in both developing and developed countries, have been struggling for the past decades against the imposition of a whole range of neoliberal measures – liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation, including neoliberal austerity programs imposed by capitalist governments led by the US and its allies, through the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial institutions.

There has also been a long history of struggles against debt repayments and for the cancellation of odious and illegitimate debts. The world has experienced how debt burdens and neoliberal impositions have created havoc on economies, depleted natural resources, exacerbated inequalities and impoverished peoples, while siphoning off billions of dollars to global capitalist banks, giant corporations and imperialist governments.

We welcome the people of Greece into the struggle of peoples of the global South against neoliberalism, onerous debts and austerity.

Your struggle, is our struggle. Your victory, is our victory.

Signatories

[To add your endorsement to this statement, please email Reihana Mohideen. For the very latest signatories, go to http://www.socialist-alliance.org/news/asia-pacific-left-statement-solidarity-people-and-government-greece]

Eduardo C. Tadem, Ph.D., professor, University of the Philippines

Reihana Mohideen, Transform Asia

Ric Reyes, Philippines

Sonny Melencio, Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM), Philippines

Jean Enriquez, World March of Women

Focus on the Global South

Mary Ann Manahan, Focus on the Global South, Philippines

Josua Mata, SENTRO, Philippines

Lidy Nacpil, Asian Peoples Movement on Debt and Development

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)

Socialist Alliance, Australia

Manarishi Dhital, Nepal

Cora Valdez Fabros, STOP the War Coalition, Philippines

Isagani Serrano, president, Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)

Amado Mendoza Jr., PhD., professor, University of the Philippines

Teresa Encarnacion Tadem, Ph.D., professor, University of the Philippines

Joseph Anthony Lim, Ph.D., professor, Ateneo de Manila University

Jafar Suryomenggolo, Ph.D., associate professor, Kyoto University

Terry Townsed, editor, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Sydney

Socialist Aotearoa, New Zealand

Michael Treen, National Director, Unite Union of Aotearoa/New Zealand

Alab Katipunan, Philippines

Marcela Olivera, Red Vida, Bolivia

Benjamin Quinones, Jr., Ph.D., Executive Coordinator, Intercontinental Network for the

Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS-Asia)

Fatima Gay Molina, Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP-Philippines)

Janus Isaac Nolasco, University Researcher, University of the Philippines

Aries Arugay, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of the Philippines

Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA)

Alternative ASEAN Network (ALTSEAN)

Krishna Kumar KK, Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP-India)

Maria Luisa Torres, PhD., Professor, Ateneo de Manila University

Maria Dulce F. Natividad, Ph.D., University of the Philippines

Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan (LMK – Philippines)

Nathan Gilbert Quimpo, Ph.D., University of Tsukuba

George Aseniero, Dapitan, Philippines.

Fatima Gay Molina, Center for Disaster Preparedness, Philippines

Liga ng Makabagong Kabataan, Philippines

Awami Workers Party, Pakistan

Chris White, socialist, former Secretary of the United Trades & Labor Council of South Australia

Sam Wainwright, Socialist Alliance City Councillor for Fremantle, Western Australia

Sue Bolton, Socialist Alliance City Councillor for Moreland, Victoria, Australia

Resistance, Young Socialist Alliance, Australia

Tim Gooden, Secretary, Geelong Trades Hall Council

Partai Rakyat Demokratik, Indonesia

Rudi Hartono, editor Berdikari Online

Social Action for Change, Cambodia

To add your endorsement to this statement, please email Reihana Mohideen