International Viewpoint - online socialist magazine

Greece, SYRIZA in Power, and the Concept of a "Workers' Government"

Steve Bloom — 2016-01-07T09:57:02Z

International Viewpoint has published a compilation of articles on Greece and the failure of SYRIZA. In the present comment I want to deal mainly with the contribution by Alan Thornett, titled The capitulation of Tsipras leadership and the role of â€˜left europeanism'. We will look, in particular, at Thornett's assertion that the SYRIZA government was, at least potentially, an example of a “workers' government”â€”as that concept was developed by the Comintern in a set of theses adopted at its third congress in 1922. I will assert that Thornett's approach reflects both a misunderstanding of the Comintern's text and a disorientation regarding the SYRIZA government itself.

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, Debate section, Greek discussion

Austerity and the drachma

Sotiris Martalis — 2015-10-31T07:43:13Z

The Greek left is organizing an opposition to the betrayals of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who capitulated to the demands of the European blackmailers and agreed to a new Memorandum of harsh austerity measures in return for a further bailout of the financial system—exactly what his party SYRIZA came to power in January vowing to challenge. Ahead of new elections in September, the left wing of the party, organized around the Left Platform, broke from SYRIZA to work with other organizations in forming Popular Unity, a new alliance of left organizations that won 2.86 percent of the vote in September, falling just short of the 3 percent threshold to qualify for representation in parliament.

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, Economy, European Union, Debt, Greek discussion

Tsipras' Pyrrhic victory and the struggle ahead

DEA — 2015-09-27T20:21:17Z

Alexis Tsipras' SYRIZA won a resounding victory in general elections on September 20, winning nearly as many seats in parliament as it did in the January 2015 election that first brought it to power. The strong showing came despite Tsipras negotiating another so-called Memorandum of harsh austerity measures demanded by the European governments and financial institutions in return for bailing out the ailing Greek financial system.

- IV488 - September 2015 / Greece, Greek discussion

First Thoughts on the Greek Election

Panagiotis Sotiris — 2015-09-27T15:29:58Z

This was not a good election night. I am not talking mainly about the fact that Popular Unity failed to pass the 3 percent threshold necessary to gain parliamentary representation, but rather that the election results seem like a vindication of Syriza's capitulation to the European Union and the signing of the new memorandum. The new loan agreement will mean devastating cuts and neoliberal reforms, and we now have a parliament dominated by pro-memoranda forces to see it all through.

- IV488 - September 2015 / Greece, Greek discussion

What can we learn from Greece?

Mikael Hertoft — 2015-09-19T11:06:10Z

A lot of nonsense has been said about reform and revolution. However, the experiences from Greece in 2015 shed clear light on this question.

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, Greek discussion

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

Against the neocolonial consolidation of the Eurogroup - Lessons from Greece for a Europe of social and democratic rights

Catherine Samary — 2015-09-18T22:32:41Z

What lessons can we draw, in the member countries of the European Union (EU) and beyond, from what we must call, and denounce as such, a "financial occupation of Greece"? As Stathis Kouvelakis has stated forcefully, the OXI, this magnificent "no" from the Greek referendum "has not been defeated".

- Perspectives in Greece / Europe, Greece, European Union, Greek discussion

Where do socialists belong?

Todd Chretien — 2015-09-18T13:47:25Z

IN "Asking the Right Questions," a thoughtful and thought-provoking essay for Jacobin, Catarina PrÃncipe and Dan Russell argue that the strategy of building "mass workers parties" is the "only viable path toward an eventual rupture with not just austerity but capitalism itself."

Catarina and Dan have taken up important questions that arise for the left, based particularly on the experience in Greece, where radical left organizations participated in the formation of SYRIZA, the electoral coalition and then political party that came to power after elections earlier this year. As noted below, I agree with many of the points Catarina and Dan make in recounting the experience of the last eight months. But where their assertions about the left and "mass workers parties" become more generalized, I have questions and disagreements, which I want to lay out below in some detail.

- Perspectives in Greece / New parties of the left, Greek discussion

Asking the Right Questions

Catarina Principe, Dan Russell — 2015-09-18T07:17:12Z

The Left in Europe and beyond faces enormous challenges. What kind of political strategy do we need going forward?

- Building new parties of the left / Europe, European Union, Greek discussion

The capitulation of Tsipras leadership and the role of â€˜left europeanism'

Alan Thornett — 2015-09-16T20:06:06Z

A crucial debate is taking place on the left, inside and outside of Greece, following the dramatic capitulation of the Tsipras leadership to the austerity agenda of the EU in return for the so-called â€˜bailout' deal of Â£86bn over three years.

- Perspectives in Greece / Greece, European Union, Greek discussion