This space is dedicated to the proposition that we need to know the history of the struggles on the left and of earlier progressive movements here and world-wide. If we can learn from the mistakes made in the past (as well as what went right) we can move forward in the future to create a more just and equitable society. We will be reviewing books, CDs, and movies we believe everyone needs to read, hear and look at as well as making commentary from time to time. Greg Green, site manager
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Victory To The Greek Workers- Build
Workers Councils Now-Fight For A Workers Government!
Re-post from an American Left History
blog, February 14, 2012 the major points which are appropriate today as we head
into the upcoming January 25th Greek parliamentary elections:
Markin comment:
The situation in Greece today cries out
to high heaven for a revolution and a revolutionary party to intervene and lead
the damn thing. Enough of one day general strikes. General strikes only pose
the question of power, of dual power. Who shall rule. We say labor must rule.
Strike the final blow. Back to the communist road. The Greek workers are just
this minute the vanguard, yes, terrible word to some, vanguard of the
international working class struggle. Forward to victory.
Tuesday, May 11,
2010-Repost from American Left History blog
*Be Still My Heart- On Calling For The Greek Communist Parties And Trade Unions
To Take Power
Markin comment:
On May 10, 2010 I posted an entry on
the situation in Greece in response to a post from the International Marxist
Tendency’s Greek section’s analysis of the tasks that confront revolutionaries
today. I agreed with the comment in the post that general strikes were of
limited value if they did not, at some point, pose the question of who shall
rule- working people or the capitalists. I went further and proposed two
propaganda points that revolutionaries in Greece, and their supporters
internationally, should be fighting for. Right now.
The first point revolved around the
fight to create workers councils, committees of action or factory committees in
order to fight for a revolutionary perspective. That program, the specifics
which are better to left to those on the ground, needs to include refusal to
pay the capitalists debts, under whatever guise, defense of the hard fought
social welfare gains of the past, the struggle against the current government’s
austerity program, the fight against any taint of popular frontism (opposition
to alliances, at this critical juncture, with non-working class forces where
the working class is the donkey and the small capitalist parties are the
riders), and prepare to pose the question of who shall rule. Thus there is
plenty of work that needs to be started now while the working masses are
mobilized and in a furor over the current situation.
The second point, which flows out of
the first, is the call for the Communist parties and trade unions to take power
in their own right and in the interest of the working class. Now, clearly, and
this is where some confusion has entered the picture, this is TODAY a
propaganda call but is a concrete way to pose the question of who shall rule.
Of course, we revolutionaries should have no illusions in the Stalinists and
ex-Stalinists who run those parties and who, in previous times, have lived very
comfortably with their various popular front, anti-monopolist strategies that
preserve capitalism. However, today those organizations call for
anti-governmental action and are listened to by the masses in the streets.
The point is to call their political
bluff, carefully, but insistently. In that sense we are talking over the heads
of the leaders to their social bases. Now that tactic is always proper for
revolutionaries to gain authority but today we have to have a more concrete way
to do so. In short, call on the Greek labor militants to call on their parties
and unions to take power. And if not, then follow us. This is not some exotic
formula from nowhere but reflects the sometimes painful experience, at least
since the European revolutions of 1848.
Note: I headed today’s headline with
the expression “be still my heart” for a reason. It has been a very long time
since we have been able to, even propagandistically, call for workers parties
on the European continent to take power. Especially, after the demise of the
Soviet Union, for Stalinist (reformed or otherwise) parties to do so. Frankly,
I did not think, as a practical matter, that I would be making such a call in
Europe again in my lifetime. All proportions guarded, this may be the first
wave of a new revolutionary upsurge on that continent. But, hell, it’s nice
just to be able to, rationally, make that political call. In any case, the old
utopian dream of a serious capitalist United States of Europe is getting ready
to go into the dustbin of history. Let’s replace it with a Socialist Federation
of Europe- and Greece today is the “epicenter.” SYRIZA-KKE to power!
A new chapter in Greece’s uphill struggle to remain solvent – and in the eurozone – has begun in earnest as anti-austerity politicians assumed the helm of government following the radical left Syriza party’s spectacular electoral victory on Sunday night.
Ushering in the new era, Alexis Tsipras was not sworn in, as tradition dictates, in the presence of Archbishop Iernonymos but instead took the oath of office in a civil ceremony. At 40, he becomes the country’s youngest premier in modern times.
The leftist, who surprised Greeks by speedily agreeing to share power with the populist rightwing Independent Greeks party, Anel, was on Monday afternoon handed a mandate by president Karolos Papoulias to form a government following his investiture at the presidential palace. Afterwards, the new prime minister pronounced that he will give his all “to protect the interests of the Greek people”.
Earlier, Panos Kammenos, Anel’s rumbustious leader, emerged from hour-long talks with Tsipras saying the two politicians had successfully formed a coalition.
“I want to say, simply, that from this moment, there is a government,” Kammenos told reporters gathered outside Syriza’s headquarters.
“The Independent Greeks party will give a vote of confidence to the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras. The prime minister will go to the president and … the cabinet makeup will be announced by the prime minister. The aim for all Greeks is to embark on a new day, with full sovereignty.”
How Greeks made history in one day - video With 36.3 % of the vote, Syriza fell two seats short of the 151 MPs it needed to govern alone. The Independent Greeks, who have huge ideological differences with the leftists but are bonded by the desire to end biting EU-IMF-mandated cutbacks, won 4.75% of the vote and 13 seats. The conservative New Democracy party – the dominant force in a coalition lead by the outgoing prime minister Antonis Samaras – suffered ignominious defeat, collapsing to 76 seats in the 300-seat parliament.
Syriza’s victory could encourage other radical anti-austerity parties in southern Europe, including Spain’s Podemos, whose leader, Pablo Iglesias, told a rally in Valencia: “Hope is coming, fear is fleeing. Syriza, Podemos, we will win.”
After five years of austerity-fuelled recession that has driven the vast majority of Greeks into poverty and despair, Syriza cadres described the new administration as a “national salvation government”.
The veteran leftist Dimitris Vitsas, who sits on Syriza’s political secretariat, said now that the “people have spoken” the government would move quickly to tackle the devastating effects of austerity. “Our immediate and most pressing priority is to alleviate the humanitarian crisis,” he said in an interview on SKAI TV. “The Greek people have spoken, they have cancelled the policies of the memorandum,” he said referring to the deeply unpopular bailout accords debt-crippled Athens has signed with creditors.
With more than 26% of the population out of work, and more than a third at risk of poverty, the new government was assuming the reins not only of a broke state but a broken society.
“And yet despite all this talks of economic catastrophe, [with the advent to power of a leftwing government] “we have woken up to a sunny day,” Vitsas said. “The banks haven’t closed, they are operating normally, schools are open. Everything is just as it should be.”
Optimism and uncertainty on the streets of Athens following Greek elections – video But Tsipras faces a formidable task, and within hours of his victory, foreign and European officials pressed home the point that there would be little wiggle room – and not much of a grace period – for the new government.
The leftists say full economic recovery can only come if Athens’ bailout agreements are rewritten and the country’s monumental debt pile – totalling €318bn (£238bn) – is reduced.
Yanis Varoufakis, the internationally renowned economist, newly installed as a Syriza MP and tipped to become the finance minister, likened the Greek economy to a “poisoned chalice”.
“Fiscal waterboarding has turned us into a debt colony,” he told the BBC.
Before Sunday’s election, Varoufakis, who gave up his post at Texas University in Austin to run with Syriza, had described the prospect of resuming stalled talks with foreign lenders as daunting.
“It is an extremely scary project and prospect,” he said. If, as looks likely, the academic assumes the finance ministry portfolio, he will almost certainly head the negotiations.
Yet Greece’s partners show no signs of letting up. “There are internal eurozone rules to be respected,” IMF chief Christine Lagarde told Le Monde. “We cannot make special categories for such or such country.”
Arriving in Brussels for a scheduled meeting of euro group finance ministers, Pierre Moscovici, the European commissioner for economics and finance, told reporters that the EU expected Greece to pay back its debt. “We all want a Greece that stays on its feet, creating jobs and growth, reducing inequality, and a Greece that repays its debt.”
Germany has pledged to work with Greece’s new government, but has not given any hint that it might support a debt deal. In a press conference on Monday, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said: “The Greek voters have chosen Syriza and we have to respect that … Currently, we have a result and no government. But when we do we will offer to work together with them.”
However, Seibert made clear that any talks would not be taking place between Germany and Greece, but between Greece and its European partners.
Analysts in Athens warned that with the new government poised to ratchet up tensions with creditors, Greece was headed for a prolonged – and possibly fatal – period of political uncertainty. The country, which faces debt repayments of €4.3bn in the coming months, has been guaranteed bailout funds only until the end of February.
The unexpectedly good showing of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party – with 6.28% of the vote the extremists emerged as the country’s third biggest political force – added to the fears. “Greece is for sure entering a new era and my great worry is that it could be very destructive,” said the prominent commentator Alexis Papahelas. “There are people in this country who know what war and occupation means but the young don’t seem to know,” he said. “My fear is that they may turn to an even more anti-systemic party, on the far right [in the event of failure]. I really don’t rule it out.”
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