International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Right-wing attacks on the working class in Greece – back to the 19th century

Antonis Davanellos — 2021-07-13T20:54:22Z

This “showdown” will be decisive for a large part of the social development of Greece.

- IV558 - July 2021 / Greece, Trade unions/workplace organizing

A necktie for Tsipras and a noose for workers

Antonis Davanellos — 2018-07-29T07:53:50Z

GREECE'S PRIME Minister Alexis Tsipras promised his European partners that he would don a necktie once the debt problem was resolved and the Greek economy was freed from the barbarous Memorandum polices applied under the “Troika” of creditors: the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission.

- IV522 - July 2018 / Greece

The rightward drift of SYRIZA

Antonis Davanellos — 2018-02-08T07:42:26Z

On January 15, 2018 the draft “omnibus bill”, whereby the Tsipras government ensures the “good” progress of the third assessment of the situation of the Greek economy by the creditors, was submitted to the Greek Parliament, and subsequently adopted by the SYRIZA-ANEL [Independent Greeks] majority in parliament. So, this government is moving towards the end of the program of the 3rd memorandum (signed on 14 August 2015), announced for August 2018.

- IV517 - February 2018 / Greece

Greece's radical left after Syriza

Antonis Davanellos — 2017-11-02T12:41:24Z

On 15 January 2015, Syriza, the Coalition of the Radical Left, was elected in Greece. There was immense hope that this new government would finally stand up to the European Union and defend working class living standards so ravaged by the economic crisis and the punishing memorandums.

But by July of that year, prime minister Alexis Tsipras had capitulated, signing up to a new (third) memorandum. The attacks on workers, the poor and immigrants have continued unabated.

Red Flag's Liz Walsh spoke to Antonis Davanellos, a member of the editorial committee of the Greek socialist newspaper Workers' Left and a member of Internationalist Workers' Left (DEA), to draw a balance sheet of their intervention in Syriza as well as the challenges ahead for rebuilding the struggles against austerity and racism and reconstituting a radical left on a firmer foundation.

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, Debate section

Gathering the anti-Memorandum left in Greece

Antonis Davanellos — 2016-07-13T12:12:18Z

Greece's Popular Unity, the radical left alliance formed last summer after the betrayal of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of SYRIZA in accepting the third "Memorandum" of austerity measures demanded by the European Union blackmailers, held its first party conference last year.

- IV498 - July 2016

Moment of truth for the Third Memorandum

Antonis Davanellos — 2016-04-30T12:14:49Z

Antonis Davanellos is a member of the Greek socialist group Internationalist Workers Left and a leading voice in Popular Unity, the left-wing alliance formed by members of the Left Platform of SYRIZA after the ruling party capitulated to the demands of the European blackmailers and approved the latest "Memorandum" package of austerity measures. In this article, published in French at the A l'encontre website and translated by Tom Gagné, he looks at the consequences as the scope of the Third Memorandum becomes clear.[socialistworker.org]

- IV495 - April 2016 / Greece

When will workers start the next act in Greece?

Antonis Davanellos — 2016-03-22T14:46:21Z

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his government are preparing to confront a new round of protests and strikes as the European authorities—often referred to as the Troika of the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF)—demand even deeper cuts on top of the drastic austerity measures of the third Memorandum that Tsipras agreed to last July. The mass support that Tsipras and the remnants of the radical SYRIZA has been crumbling since the September 2015 election after the party's left wing was driven out and formed the core of the new organization Popular Unity.

- IV494 - March 2016 / Greece

From September 20 to February 4

Antonis Davanellos — 2016-03-03T20:29:51Z

During the September 20, 2015 elections, Tsipras' general staff—with the generous support of the creditors and national ruling classes, who were in dire need of a "leader"—saw their dreams come true: the exclusion of the PU from parliament; the electoral survival of ANEL (the Independent Greeks, a party that acts as SYRIZA's junior partner in government); the entry into parliament of various "useful idiots" such as TV personality Vassilis Leventis and his Union of Centrists; the fragmentation of social anger against the third Memorandum; and the near-extinction of the socio-political dynamic created by the 62 percent "no" vote in the July 5, 2015 referendum, which translated into a high level of abstention on September 2. [1]

- IV494 - March 2016 / Greece

Time for an exit from austerity

Antonis Davanellos, Miguel Urbán Crespo, Olivier Besancenot — 2015-09-19T10:54:14Z

Opinion polls in advance of elections in Greece on September 20 show the former ruling SYRIZA party of ex-Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in a dead heat with the center-right New Democracy, and the left-wing SYRIZA rebels of the newly formed Popular Unity shaking up the elections by winning enough votes to take seats in parliament.

Two months ago, on July 5, more than 60 percent of Greeks voted "Oxi!" in a national referendum, rejecting the terms of a new austerity agreement that European governments and international financial institutions—commonly referred to as the "Troika"—were demanding that the SYRIZA government sign in return for a bailout. The voters showed they still supported the radical anti-austerity program put forward by SYRIZA in the January elections that brought it to power. But in an incredible about-face, Tsipras signed an even harsher austerity agreement only days later.

Anger with Tsipras' capitulation to drastic cuts in social spending, wages and pensions have cut the former prime minister's approval rating sharply, opening the door to the possibility of a narrow victory by the conservative New Democracy. But while Tsipras has moved to the right, SYRIZA's influential Left Platform refused to accept the Memorandum. It has left SYRIZA and participated in founding a new political front called Popular Unity, with other sections of SYRIZA and left groups outside the party.

Here, we publish a joint statement by Olivier Besançenot of New Anti-capitalist Party in France; Antonis Davanellos, a member of the Political Council of Popular Unity in Greece; and Miguel Urbán Crespo, a member of European Parliament representing Podemos in Spain. Referencing the threat of a Greek exit from the eurozoneÂ â€”Â dubbed "Grexist," they call for an exit from austerity â€”Â or "Austerexit."

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, Greek discussion

The government, the party and the people

Antonis Davanellos — 2015-04-29T09:50:55Z

Greece's left government will soon be faced with either paying foreign debts or wages and pensions for state workers, as the European elite increase the pressure to capitulate to the domination of the "institutions"â€”the new term for the Troika of the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, Greek discussion