International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Awakening the European Left

Costas Lapavitsas, Sebastian Budgen — 2015-09-17T17:19:19Z

Costas Lapavitsas has been vindicated â€” not that there's much comfort in that. From the beginning he argued that Greece leaving the eurozone was the only way Syriza could carry out its election program. The Syriza leadership instead stuck to their “good euro” policy, with disastrous results. The party recently split, with Lapavitsas and other members of Syriza's parliamentary group, along with a coalition from across the Greek left forming Popular Unity to contest in the elections later this month.

- Perspectives in Greece

The Struggle Continues

Sebastian Budgen, Stathis Kouvelakis — 2015-07-15T10:57:14Z

The latest agreement between the Syriza government and the creditors shocked many on the Left who have been following events in Greece. It seems to signal the end of a whole political cycle. In this interview with Jacobin contributing editor Sebastian Budgen, Stathis Kouvelakis, a leading member of the Left Platform in the party covers the latest sequence, to what extent expectations have been confirmed or disproved, and the next steps for the radical wing of the party.

Kouvelakis uses this opportunity to reflect more broadly on the balance sheet of the Left Platform's strategy, whether things could have been done differently, and what the prospects are for a more general left recomposition. Jacobin

- IV486 - July 2015 / Greece, European Union, Debt

The Other Greek Left

Panagiotis Sotiris, Sebastian Budgen — 2015-04-24T09:38:45Z

Perhaps aside from Argentina, Greece has the world's biggest and most diverse anticapitalist left â€” the product of decades of splits and rich anarchist and communist traditions. In contrast to the fragmentation and infighting predominant almost everywhere else, Greece is also one of the few countries in which most of these forces have succeeded in constructing a durable front of collaboration and activity, the Front of the Anticapitalist Left (Antarsya).

Although microscopic at an electoral level â€” and totally overshadowed in this domain by Syriza and the Communist Party (KKE) â€” Antarsya has real social roots and plays a crucial mobilizing and organizing role in a range of social movements. Here, Sebastian Budgen [for Jacobin online magazine] explores this complex and fascinating landscape with the scholar, activist, and leading figure of Antarsya, Panagiotis Sotiris.

- Building new parties of the left / Greece, New parties of the left, Greek discussion

Phase Two

Costas Lapavitsas, Sebastian Budgen — 2015-04-09T15:52:22Z

Greek MP Costas Lapavitsas spoke to Sebastian Budgen on the economic barriers ahead for Syriza and the challenges of Eurozone exit.

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, Debt, Greek discussion