By Nikos
Mottas.
Republished
from mltoday.com.
The
Tsipras' Memorandum [set of austerity policies] the "First
time Left" [1] Memorandum, is here. Seven months after his
election to government, in the midst of summer, SYRIZA brought
a third austerity memorandum – a package of barbaric antipeople
measures which crushes what yet remains after five years of crisis
and austerity. The "Left" of Mr.Tsipras proved in pratice
that is the "Left" - as the Italian auto magnate Giovanni
Agnelli used to say - "which can do all those things that the
Right cannot do".
In
other words, it is the kind of "Left" that can say "No"
and actually mean "Yes", that can verbally "tear up
the memorandums" and in practice sign new, even more barbaric
anti-people austerity measures, manipulating and trapping
people's consciousnesses with fake choices , disorientating the
working people for the sake of serving the interests of the
bourgeoisie.
From
the latest developments, the people – especially progressive,
left-wing people, the ones who trusted SYRIZA in the last elections,
who enthusiastically voted "No" in the fraudulent
referendum of Mr.Tsipras – must come to some conclusions. Not only
regarding the character of SYRIZA as the new social-democratic pillar
of a bourgeois political system in the process of being
re-shaped. But also, regarding the character of the capitalist
crisis itself, as well as for the real nature of the EU as an
imperialist, pro-monopoly international union hostile toward the
interests of European peoples.
Given recent developments and what had already happened, we ask the following question: Has the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) been vindicated in its political estimates all these years, or not? Or, if you prefer the question in a different way: Was the KKE right or wrong when it warned the people about the "government of the Left" which would dispute neither the EU nor the capitalist way of development?
Reality
itself gives us a clear and undisputable answer: The KKE has been
fully vindicated.
Here
are some basic conclusions that show the clear vindication of the
positions and assessments of the Communist Party of Greece:
Regarding
the July 5th referendum.
What
was KKE saying about the referendum and the false choice that
the Tsipras' government was imposing on people?
KKE
was saying: "The government in fact calls the people to verify
its own proposal towards the lenders, (a proposal) which is the other
side of the same coin. (The government) is deceiving the people in
order to make them consent to its antipeople plans. The people must
not choose between Scylla and Charybdis, but must rise up and
express, with all available means and ways, their opposition to the
EU and her continuous austerity memorandums"[2].
From
the very beginning, the KKE had stressed that the No which the SYRIZA
government was supporting was in fact a Yes in the governmental
anti-people proposal of 47+8 pages – a proposal which had very few
differences from the one by EU-IMF-ECB. Just three days before the
referendum, the Secretary General of the Central Committee of
KKE, D. Koutsoumbas, stated in his speech at a mass rally
at Syntagma Square: "Our people are being called on to take part
in a referendum with a Yes or a No, which are only different in terms
of appearance. Both the Yes and the No mean the acceptance of a new
memorandum of anti-people measures, perhaps the worst that we have
seen up to now. Both the Yes and No will lead the people to new
torments and tragedies. Both the Yes and the No mean anti-worker,
anti-people measures. The referendum is an excuse for a new
memorandum-agreement at the expense of the Greek people [3].
In
the same speech, Secretary Koutsoumbas also pointed out: "With
the "No" vote, combined with the last minute proposals made
to the EU, the IMF, and the ECB, SYRIZA asks from the people –
worried about the bank closures, wage cuts and pension cuts – to be
completely subjugated to the EU's "alliance of wolves" and,
nonetheless to feel dignified and proud. That consists one of the
worst provocations we have seen. A government ready to fully
compromise with Big Capital the EU, NATO, (a government) that
gives a clumsy performance of opportunism".
Was
the KKE vindicated, or not, for its position about the referendum?
Was or wasn't the KKE proposal (No
to the proposal of the EU-IMF-ECB, No to the government's proposal,
disengagement from the EU, with the people in power)
the only pro-people, really pro-working class and patriotic solution
to the pseudo-dilemma of the referendum? How did the Prime Minister
and his government use the "proud" No of the people? He
used the No vote exactly as an excuse for the new bailout agreement,
for the third consecutive memorandum of the "Left".
Regarding
the role of SYRIZA.
"We
don't agree either (with the measures), but we want to make a...
humane capitalism"
- Labour
Minister George Katrougalos talking to members of the All-Workers
Militant Front (PAME), 5/8/2015.
In
order to analyze properly the ideological character of SYRIZA we must
go back to its political ancestors: to the opportunistic ideology of
Eurocommunism and to the later role of "Synaspismos". We
don't need to go deep into the past, because the latest years
of the crisis give us a clear picture of SYN/SYRIZA's transformation
into a new pole of domestic social reformismm, especially after the
rapid electoral shrinkage of PASOK. The Communist Party warned
the people many times about the role of SYRIZA.
In
the statement of the CC of KKE regarding the European Parliament
elections of June 2009 one could read not only about the proven
antipeople character of PASOK and New Democracy governments but also
about the role of SYRIZA. The statement stressed among others:
"(SYRIZA) hypocritically incriminates the 'neoliberal' strategy
of the EU, thus cultivating the illusion that there can be a
pro-people economic and political formation of the European Union,
without the overthrow of the domination and political power of
the monopolies in each member-state" [4].
Three
years later, in the statement of the Central Committee of the KKE for
the June 2012 national elections, pointed out: "A
center-left government of SYRIZA, with the accession of former PASOK
members, neither wants to nor is able to lead the people in a
confrontation against capital, the Greek and foreign
monopolies, in a confrontation against the choices of EU and NATO.
"The
choice of such a government becomes dangerous for the people because
it cultivates the illusion that there can be popular prosperity
within the framework of the system and without overturning it.
Subjectively, (such a government) will implement new measures, in the
name of staying in the European Union, something that is regarded (by
SYRIZA) as an one-way street, in the name of fraudulent waiting for a
change in the anti-people strategy of the EU. Thus, the cultivation
of unfounded expectations within the people will reap popular
dissapointment, as has happened in other European countries"
[5].
Also,
the same statement stressed: "The proposals of SYRIZA call on
the people to pay again a large part of the debt for which the people
aren't responsible, and they also did not derive any benefit
from its partial abolition."
Have
the above positions of the KKE been proven fully correct or not? The
political resolution of the 19th Congress of the KKE
characteristically emphasized the role of the leftist forces within
and around SYRIZA: "The more SYRIZA is strengthened as a
social-democratic governmental party, the more the processes will
intensify or the formation of new barriers, comprised of forces of
the so-called extra-parliamentary left (ANTARSYA-NAR) and other
groups, (Plan B-Alavanos), and even of centrifugal forces of SYRIZA,
of the so-called left or communist renewal, which operate in the
direction of the so-called transitional goals and transitional
management governments"[6].
The
latest developments after the "schism" within SYRIZA and
the public differentation of party's prominent members (such as
Varoufakis, Konstantopoulou, Lafazanis etc.) towards Tsipras' new
memorandum vindicates KKE positions. Especially, if we take into
account the formation of a new opportunistic party "Popular
Unity" (Laiki Enotita) led by ex-Energy Minister Panayotis
Lafazanis. The Lafazanis' party emerged from the split in the
governmental party and aspires to become a new SYRIZA in the position
of....SYRIZA.
About
the EU
What
has been proved for the EU – our "common house" as
Mr.Tsipras called it? With the third memorandum it is now fully
confirmed that in the path of the EU and Capital there cannot be a
government for the interess of the people . Now, the illusion of
SYRIZA about a "pro-people EU" that can "change from
the inside" becomes even more obvious . It was
SYRIZA's ancestor party, Synaspismos, which (along with New
Democracy, PASOK and Politiki Anixi) had voted in favor of the
notorious Maastricht Treaty in 1992. For Synaspismos' dedication to
the EU principles and their insistence on Greece's remaining in
the European Union's " lions den, " the CC of KKE
pointed out on May 1992: "(Synaspismos) equates the interests of
the workers and the country with the interests and choices of big
local and foreign capital.
The
vision of "Unified Europe", of the Europe of monopolies
that unifies and inspires industrialists, shipowners, big merchants
and the parties of New Democracy, PASOK and Synaspismos has no
relation whatsoever to the visions and the needs of the working
class. In March 1994, Rizospastis circulated an insert called
"White Bible" in which all the scheduled anti-worker twists
of the EU were codified: "8 hour work day, the conquest of the
century, is in danger! Social security and subsidies are targeted!
Collective bargaining contracts under suspension! Firings without
limits and without compensation!".
Two
years later, in December 1996, Rizospastis wrote
about Synaspismos' perception about the EU: "Synaspismos thinks
that the democratic deficit of the EU consists only in the
greater or lesser power of the institutions and not in the [class]
content of the political and economic aims implemented within the EU
framework, where the people who face the consequences are absent
[...] The actual convergence of EU-member states is at least an
illusion. The leadership of Synaspismos seems to believe that German
or French monopoly capital will manage to grant part of their profits
for the development of Greece's economy and for the workers' social
rights!". More than twenty years later, being a member-state of
an EU that has 120 million citizen living in poverty and 30
million unemployed people, under the leadership of a SYRIZA
"Left government", Greece faces a third barbaric
memorandum. So, who has been vindicated about the character of the
EU?
The
solution for the people is in the strengthening of the KKE. In the
face of the early elections the role of the KKE is the same as
always: to prepare and ideologically arm the working class and the
popular strata for the overthrow of the rotten capitalist system.
Sec. General Koutsoumbas' words expressed the truth in simple words:
"There are no saviors for the people in those governments and
those parties which want to manage the system and its crisis. There
were never saviors. The salvation of the people and their children is
somewhere else; it is in our fight in order to become the
protagonists of the ongoing developments, it is in the popular
alliance, the alliance of the working class with the self-employed
people, the poor farmers, the youth and women" [7].
Reality
itself, through political developments, vindicates the positions
taken by the KKE. In the same way, it is real life that points the
way to the only realistic alternative for the masses, beyond
illusions and extortionate dilemmas. The only way for the people is
the proposal of the KKE for the overthrow of the capitalist mode of
production, the socialization of monopolies, the disengagement of
Greece from the imperialist alliances of EU and NATO, the unilateral
abolition of the debt. This is the way for the people to come
into power.
NOTES:
[1]
"Πρώτη φορά Αριστερά" (First time Left)
was a major pre-electoral campaign slogan of SYRIZA in January 2015
parliamentary elections.
[2]
Statement of the Political Bureau of the CC of the KKE, 27/6/2015.
[3]
Speech at KKE rally in Syntagma Sq, Athens, 3/7/2015.
[4]
Statement of the CC of KKE regarding the European Parliament
elections, June 2009 [in Greek]:
http://www.rizospastis.gr/story.do?id=5016457
[5]
Statement of the CC of KKE about the Parliamentary Elections, June
2012 [in Greek]:
http://www.kke.gr/anakoinoseis_grafeioy_typoy/kalesma_ths_kentrikhs_epitrophs_toy_kke_gia_tis_boyleytikes_ekloges_toy_ioynh_2012?morf=0
[6]
Political Resolution of the 19th Congress of the KKE:
http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/Political-Resolution-of-the-19th-Congress-of-the-KKE/.
[7]
Dimitris Koutsoumbas speech in Komotini,15.5.2015.
Nikos Mottas is a doctoral student (PhD) in Political Science, History and International Relations.
