[GREECE] AFTER THE ELECTORAL VICTORY, SYRIZA SETS UP AN ANTI-LABOUR GOVERNMENT COALITION WITH THE RIGHT

Monday January 26th

Cristina, FIT, MST and Patria Grande are LYING: Syriza's victory is not a victory for the working-class

AFTER THE ELECTORAL VICTORY, SYRIZA SETS UP AN ANTI-LABOUR GOVERNMENT COALITION WITH THE RIGHT

The TPR welcomes the results of EEK and OKDE-Ergatiki Pali. Let us organize the left, workers', revolutionary opposition to the government of Syriza-Independent Greeks

Kammenos (ANEL) with Tsipras (Syriza)

This day, Alexis Tsipras, Syriza's top leader, was appointed Prime Minister of Greece, after reaching an agreement for a coalition government with Independent Greeks (ANEL), a right-wing, nationalist, racist outfit. This coalition was greeted by the Confederation of Greek Industrialists (SEV), who pledged “support for the new government, showing consent, a spirit of cooperation and a constructive attitude”, as publicized by Syriza's own webpage (left.gr) Syriza's victory was also greeted by the president of the European Parliament, the social-democratic leader Martin Schulz.

In his speech, Tsipras promised a government of “national salvation and unity”, thus admitting it will not be a government of the left. He assured there will be a “sincere dialogue” and a “mutually convenient solution” with the markets and the European Union. Kamenos (leader of ANEL) presents this as an “anti-memorandum” government. It would, in that case, be a rabidly bourgeois government. Kamenos was viceminister for the Merchant Navy with Nea Demokratía (that is: an advocate for one of the main sectors of the Greek bourgeoisie: the shipowners.)

It is false that Syriza needed to set up a coalition with ANEL as a result of having fallen short of an absolute majority in parliament (Syriza won 149 out of 300 seats). It could have formed a government as the first minority, demanding the votes of the left of the house. Syriza could have asked KKE (Comunist Party) to support the formation of the government without integrating it. But it chose, on the contrary, to enter a coalition with a right-wing, bourgeois party. This does not ensure the “stability” of the government, but enforces a rightist, anti-labour course. Syriza's “Left Platform” has not only remained in place: it has not even issued a protest so far. Only hours before the election, TPR denounced that Syriza's victory was not a victory for the Greek workers. This prognosis has been borne out: it is necessary to build a revolutionary opposition to the Tsipras government.

A victory hailed by Kirchnerism is not a victory for the left

Syriza's victory was promptly greeted by the Argentinian chancellery as “a hope for the peoples of Europe, because it reveals there are viable political alternatives that reject the measures of adjustment and propound growth with social inclusion” (cancilleria.gov.ar, 26/1) The left that brands CFK's support for Tsipras (which is long-standing) as inconsistent, should in all honesty question its own illusions about the new Greek government.

The MST, to the right of Syriza's left

The MST displayed its strategic commitment to Syriza as an expression of the “new left” which they claim to represent in Argentina. This “new left”, which makes deals with the international financial markets and the right, faithfully portrays the democratizing, pro-imperialist nature of the MST. They have not even taken up the denunciations of the Left Platform, against the rightward course of Syriza since 2012 or its inclination to pacts with the IMF, NATO and the EU.

Supporting Syriza, the FIT boycotts itself

The Workers' Party (Partido Obrero) speedily welcomed the Syriza victory in a communiqué. It has failed, however, to utter a single word about the coalition government with the right. The popular-frontist emotion will only deepen the demoralization of the working-class in the face of betrayals. The alternative to the world crisis and economic adjustment begins with the struggle for a workers' government in Salta (Argentina), not a coalition government with the right in Greece. Instead of providing clarification for the Argentinian and international working-class, the Workers' Party blunts its understanding. As do the leaders of Izquierda Socialista. The PTS, along with its partners in the FIT, did not call for support of any party in the Greek elections, proving their leftist verbiage is a mere fig-leaf for opportunism.

Patria Grande: Syriza is neither Chávez nor anti-IMF

Argentinian chavismo strives to cobble together Syriza and Latin-American bourgeois nationalism. Beyond the links of political solidarity that connect them, a gigantic difference remains: Chávez rose to power confronting the imperialist plans; Syriza, on the contrary, starts off from a deal with imperialism and the right, an alliance which Patria Grande deems “necessary”. The decline and the rightist turn of bourgeois nationalism affects their Argentinian acolytes in the same sense.

The anticapitalist left dissolves in the popular front

The victory of Syriza will consolidate the process of dissolution which has developed in the anticapitalist left worldwide. This is shown in the dissolution of Izquierda Anticapitalista (Spanish state) in Podemos. The French NPA celebrated Syriza's victory unconditionally, while fostering the idea that this would be an instrument of popular mobilization. The reproduction, on a continental scale, of the idea that Syriza's victory is a “hope” for the peoples of Europe, will signal the demise of this left, along with the betrayals of the Syriza government.

For a left, workers', revolutionary opposition to the Tsipras government

The only way to prevent the exhaustion and frustration of a Tsipras government from being capitalized on by the far right (which was the third party in this election), is by strengthening the revolutionary left in Greece. In this concern, we salute the results obtained by EEK and OKDE Ergatiki Pali. No small figures can obscure the value of running an independent list against the popular-frontist formations. Here is the point of regroupment for the Antarsya left to finish off its adaptation to the nationalist, popular-frontist course of this front, and for the Greek workers to build  a party to confront the adjustments and the betrayals of the “left”.

TPR

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