Political Document on Greece

Political Document on Greece (April 2015)

In the last three months that SYRIZA is in government, the indications of its politics show the complete dead-end of its reformist programm. More than that, they show the complete dead-end of the exercised bourgeois policy and they fully confirm our positions. Our explicit position that SYRIZA cannot deal with the structural crisis of the bankrupt greek capitalism, especially as long as it remains dogmatically attached to the EU, the Eurozone, NATO, etc., is fully proved by all that has taken place during these three months. The developments are expected to be even worse. The fact that the time period of SYRIZA’s governing is yet short, does not change things a lot -apart, perhaps, from a small reservation- as far as the general course of things is concerned. However, we must avoid exaggerations like the ones KKE (the greek stalinist CP) makes, when it says that nothing has changed. We must be accurate when we examine the situation that has been formed after the victory of 25th January and the accession of SYRIZA to power, in order to be able to draw a policy and tactic as correct as possible and help the realization of our program and the building-up of our organization.

The Policy of the new Government and of SYRIZA

1. The economic crisis is constantly deteriorating and all the real economic indicators have been aggravating, as it was, more or less, expected. Apart from the basic reasons why the crisis of the greek capitalism is not reversible, one more basic factor of crisis deterioration has been added -also expected after the election results- the war that the political-economic elite of the EU, especially Merkel and Schäuble, imperialists and all their instruments (ECB, IMF, Eurogroup etc.) have been waging. It is a war which mainly aims at the cancellation/undermining of workers’ poor popular strata and youth’s victory in the 25th January elections, as this victory has questioned parts or aspects of the neoliberal dictatorship of capital and its strategic organizer, the EU/Eurozone. This war is going to take more and more fierce forms, as the crisis and the ruptures within the EU/Eurozone are growing, as the political powers that supported this reactionary structure are collapsing (as we will see below), following, maybe in some distance, the fate of Samaras, Venizelos, Karatzaferis, Kouvelis and the like, following the deep social shifts and political changes that has been taking place in our country, in these last years. The rage with which the political-economic elite of the EU/Eurozone is waging this war against the Greek people is not owed to the fact that they are “anti-Greeks”, but to the fact that they understand very well -and this is always the case with the ruling classes- the danger for their interests that the victory of the 25th January consists. It is not only an electoral victory, but it also concentrates the ebb and flood-tide of the labor movement of the last five years (30-35 general strikes, revolting conflicts, numerous small and bigger struggles… prolonged social war, a decline of struggles after 2012, social and political radicalization, the political shift of hundreds to the left of thousands masses, a big part of whom constituted or formed the bourgeois power bloc etc.).

– At the end of 2014, the public debt had risen at 324,5 billion Euros and at about 180% of the GDP, which means that it is becoming more and more unsustainable. In practice, in case somebody is considering settling it, this means constant financial and credit gaps. which mean constant measures, memorandums and the destruction of greek economy and society. Thus, today, as mainly imperialists say we have, once again, financial gaps (annual budget service or deficit) and credit gaps (debt service), whose amount is not known but it is estimated at 2-3 billion Euros for the first and 20 billion Euros for the second ones. On this basis, creditors have been demanding that we take new measures and be given a new “aid” package. However, even without these measures, the balanced budgets and, all the more, the budget surplus that the SYRIZA government has accepted mean measures, as all the public bodies and organizations have to follow the same direction (e.g. hospitals, electric power and water supply organizations etc.) Finally, the financing needs for 2015 are 22,5 billion Euros, an enormous amount which will play a great part in the final(?) agreement of June.

– Industrial production continues to fall. Unemployment has started going up, once again, after its relative stabilization at around 27% (official statistics). The jungle of working relations remains, if it doesn’t grow - and the number of the uninsured, the homeless etc, has certainly been growing. The disgrace of the property auctions also continues, even for the first residence, as well as the confiscations. There has not been any legislative adjustment concerning property auctions or “bad” loans (loans that are not being paid off regularly). Public services, hospitals, education etc continue to disintegrate due to the lack of personnel, poor financing and privatization, in general.
– The shutting down of businesses, especially of small ones, continues and, according to a recent survey (February 2015) of the Small Businesses Institute of the General Confederation of Businessmen Craftsmen and Tradesmen of Greece, it is expected to increase.
– The debts to the state (77 billion Euros), as well as to the social insurance funds and organizations have been growing. 3,5 million citizens have debts to the IRS (growing tendency) due to the increasing economic depression and the increase of every kind of taxation and money collection measures.

2. In these 3 months, the retreats of SYRIZA have been enormous.

a) All the Eurogroup meetings, as well as Tsipra’s meeting with the 7 of the Eurogroup have, altogether, ended up in the confirmation of the shameful agreement of the 20th February and its deterioration (more details in our announcements): extension of the memorandum status for at least 4 more months, acceptance of the loan agreement and the total of the debt, extension of the control/ supervision of the economic, social and political life of the country by the representatives of the loaners-speculators, who are now called “institutions” instead of the infamous term “troika”, almost complete annulment of even the moderate program that SYRIZA had promised to the Greek people, prohibition of any “one-sided action” or of any action of the government that is not approved by the “institutions”. In the following Eurogroup (9/3), the retreat continued: the evaluation/control of the Greek economic, social and political life has become a precondition for the validity of the 20th February agreement, the evaluation will be performed by “technical teams” and it is also a precondition for the continuation of negotiations and in order for any payout to take place, not only of the loan payments, but also of the money “owed” to us (profits from the greek bonds hold in the ECB – estimated at close to 2 billion euros). In the meeting with the 7 of the Eurogroup (20/3) things became even worse: the evaluation, performed by the “technical teams”, will also be taking place in Athens, there must be a deposition of specific and cost “reforms” to the Eurogroup. During the meeting with Merkel, we heard the following unrepeatable things from Tsipras: a) that the issue of the german refunds (from the WWII Nazi occupation) is placed from “a moral point of view, not a material one” (!), b) that “the program of financial stability and the structural reforms” will continue, and c) that “whatever positive was accomplished”, during the previous period, “will not be demolished.” Finally, in the EU summit, on Friday 20/3, concerning the Ukraine issue, exclusively, the Greek government signed all the coldwar decisions, without the slightest objection. As it is becoming clear, all the above shameful “agreements” and retreats of the SYRIZA government constitute an undermining of the greek people victory of 25th January, who have given a hard answer to the collaborationist government of Samaras-Venizelos as well as to the economic and political elite of the EU, with their struggles and their vote. These agreements and retreats show that the final agreement, which will be signed next June, can drive us back to the Armageddon of the memorandum policies.

b) None of the main measures which had been announced at the International Exhibition of Thessaloniki and constituted the main body of the electoral program of SYRIZA has been realized, not even mutilated as they were presented in the outline of their government policy. Now, everything is being transferred to be realized within the next four years and will, of course, be subjected to the approval of the “institutions”, as it was the case during the memorandum governments’ period. Thus: 1) For the so called “humanitarian crisis”, only 200 million euros will be given instead of the 2 billion that had been stated in the outline of SYRIZA’s government policy (it is not sure if even those will be given and when). Apart from that, poverty and degradation (under the misleading term of “humanitarian crisis”) are dealt with measures of charity, which is unacceptable and consistent to a neoliberal attitude. 2) The reinstatement of the basic salary at 751 euro is expected to become gradually until 2016. However, no dates have been set and it is becoming vaguer and vaguer when this will happen. 3) A similar transference and vagueness exists as far as the 13th pension of the low-paid pensioners is concerned, as well as the tax-free income limit of 12.000 euros, the abolition of the property taxation etc. The draft law concerning ERT (the state TV and Radio organization, which was shut down overnight by the previous government) met with the disapproval of all the people who have struggled for almost two years since its shutting down and especially of the working people who chose to struggle and did not give in to the blackmailing of the Samaras-Venizelos’ junta government. The draft law and the final law for the “100 payments”, concerning the mature debts to the IRS, were quite mutilated compared to the first announcements. The draft law for the “bad” loans, which concerns a lot of people, and especially the weakest layers of Greek society, will take at least another 6 months, as minister Stathakis has stated.
c) The older pronouncements about the “abolition of memorandums” (it would supposedly be the first action of the SYRIZA government) and the “cancelation of the bigger part of the debt…” have been replaced by the commitment not to move to “one-sided actions” and the “explicit commitment to comply with the economic obligations towards all the creditors, fully and in time.” Not only that, but also the SYRIZA government has been stifling greek economy, has proceeded to a kind of “domestic suspension of payments”, has been depriving money from education, health, social security, the confrontation of unemployment, poverty and degradation and, of course, from an effort to restart economy. What is more, it has been giving this money to the bankers, the loaners and the loan sharks. In March, 1,5 billion euro was given to the IMF; in the first fortnight of April, another 2,8 billion euro was given for amortizations along with the notes on interest which have to be refunded. The result is an increasing growing of economic stifling, limitation of liquidity, deterioration of the problem of salary and pension payments (a total of about 2.2 billion euros for April) etc.
3. However, the most important issue of all is that: a) There has been no action -it is constantly transferred to the future or suppressed- towards the abolition of all the anti-labour legislation, which was established during the memorandum time and turned working people into villeins. The abolition or restriction of labour relations and rights is the core of the memorandum policies and the main means in order to adjust greek society to a class jungle. b) The privatization of economy -which is the main goal of the neoliberal “reforms”, and is directly connected to the abolition or the significant deregulation of labor relations and the commercialization of the social goods and services- seems to be more and more incorporated in the policy of SYRIZA, leaving behind what they had been saying in the outline of their policy, or before the elections. In the beginning they said that they would respect the privatizations of the previous government that were in their final stage. Then, silently, they sold out the Racecourse. Now they are about to privatize the Piraeus Port Organization mumbling that “We are not talking about privatizations but about consortiums with a reinforced participation of the state in order to secure public interest and the strict compliance with the labor and environmental legislations” (!), bringing in mind the nonsense that PASOK would use when its degenerating descent started (claiming that they had been carrying out “denationalizations, not privatizations”). The issue of labor relations and privatizations belongs to the main strategy of the neoliberal “reforms” and the central policies of the EU/ Eurozone. Consequently, the retreat of SYRIZA on these issues -which is already taking place-, constitutes, essentially, a mutation towards neoliberal politics.

4. There has been a process of SYRIZA turning into “a kind of PASOK”. After the formation of the government with ANEL (Independent Greeks), the election of a President of Democracy coming from the hard core of Karamanlis’ right wing, the formation of a government with plenty of bourgeois personalities, we have been watching the whole state apparatus as well as SYRIZA to be gradually overwhelmed with people from PASOK, many of whom were in favor of the memorandums and had been staffing the administration during G. Papandreou’s governing. More generally, a lot of information has been coming into light, which reveals that a lot of these people, who either came from SYRIZA, or had approached it when its victory was close at hand, are corrupted, embrace neoliberal ideas and practices and in no way different from the political and administrative personnel of ND and PASOK.

This ample inflow of all the above has tampered with, or has been constantly tampering with the “left” force of SYRIZA, the weak “left reformist ideology of the party and its weak organizational and ideological relations with the labour and popular masses and the movement. This situation is making the danger of SYRIZA’s mutation –a tendency which is anyway inherent in the reformist parties when they approach power or when they come into it- a possibility in the near future. In any case, it must be excluded that this government, this body of administrative apparatus and the current SYRIZA, as they have been forming gradually or, better said, rabidly considering that it has been only 3 months since the elections, will break with the EU/ Euro-zone, the imperialists and their institutions, or will even dare a serious conflict with them.

General conclusions – Where is SYRIZA heading

5. Despite all the above, SYRIZA is still having the support or tolerance of significant parts of the masses. This support/ tolerance has even probably grown compared with the elections of January 25th, as it was expected due to the disengagement of the masses from the two memorandum parties, ND and PASOK, after their lose of power, as well as their disengagement from the strategy of terror, intimidation and blackmail which these parties created along with the EU imperialists. This results from a number of reasons, the most important of which are the following: a) The disastrous policy of the memorandums and the memorandum political forces of ND and PASOK, as well as their crisis and the crisis of the bourgeois political personnel. b) The brutality of the “Emergency State”. c) The continuing decline of struggles and the continuing crisis of the organized labor movement. d) The lack of an alternative left solution or of a reliable solution on the left of SYRIZA. All these reasons have brought out SYRIZA not only as a majority parliamentary force, but also as the dominant political force. Of course, this dominance is very relative and fragile, in the current conjuncture of the structural crisis of the world capitalism and the bankruptcy of greek capitalism; it is even more relative and fragile due to the well known weaknesses of SYRIZA. It is more accurate to say that this “dominance” is based on the weakness of the opponents, either on the right or on the left.

– Although ND remains the only notable bourgeois power, for historical and political reasons, it is well known that it has been confronting serious problems, concerning mainly its program. It has been, essentially, criticizing the SYRIZA government either for copying its policy, or for not giving in to the recommendations of the EU/Eurozone, the loaners and bankers. Its weakness to present another reliable policy condemns (or that can look like reliable) means it’s not only to remain riveted to very low social and electoral percentages, but also to suffer an even greater shrinking, even small or bigger breakups. It cannot recover, except only after some stirring events (e.g. a significant defeat of the labor movement). Even then, a recovery is not certain and it will probably be accompanied by a change in form.
– The other party of bourgeoisie, PASOK, has been dealing with even greater problems and it tends to disappear despite the efforts made by bourgeoisie and the Media to help it survive in order to be used as a “gusset” for the formation of bourgeois governments. Of course, such a possibility cannot be excluded as long as political liquidity continues, in general, together with the rightward course of SYRIZA. Moreover, this is not the case only for PASOK, but also for all the old disintegrated “center-left”, a quite significant part of which has already been in SYRIZA. Anyway, it is known that a lot of centers in the EU -especially socialdemocratic ones- express their preference or they put pressure for such a cogovernment of SYRIZA with the “center-left” or the “River” to be created.

– All the above reasons and, generally, the economic, social and political crisis make it harder for the bourgeois forces to reconstruct themselves; such a process is not visible in the foreseeable future. Forces like the “River”, ANEL and the like, or whatever other powers derive from the existing political personnel -and they will- do not have such potentials. What is in sight, not only in Greece but also in the EU and wider, is a deep crisis leading to a disintegration of the old political scenery and the old political forces, a restructuring which will mainly hit the traditional political forces (the Right, the socialdemocratic and “center-left parties). This development, which has just started, is not a conjunctural phenomenon; its roots are in the crisis of the system, the exercised neoliberal- memorandum policies, which have brought great changes upon the structure of bourgeois societies and, therefore, upon the bourgeois powers. Only a lack of the labor movement, the left and social movements can delay the corrosion of traditional bourgeois powers or even distort and deform it towards far-right and fascist currents.

Labor movement, KKE and ANTARSYA

6. The organized trade union movement is, essentially, disintegrated today. The General Confederation of Greek Workers and many federations are in deep crisis - political and organizational. The reasons for this are many and they have been repeatedly analyzed. Today, however, a new reason has also appeared connected to the disintegration of the old unionist forces -mainly the ones of PASOK and secondarily the right ones-, on the one hand, and the “prevalence” of the left forces, on the other. These left forces not only do not cooperate -mainly on KKE’s responsibility-, but they also paralyze and disunite the movement, in a period when the reconstruction of the trade union movement is more necessary than ever before. For this reason it is natural -up to a point- that we have a decline of mobilizations, existing and continuing - and that the struggles that take place have a defensive content (against the shutdown of plants and enterprises). Moreover, as SYRIZA has not touched the antilabor memorandum legislation of the previous period, employers have the ability to create “yellow trade unions” or to put obstacles to the creation of real unionism; on the other hand, “left” forces also have the ability to use this legislation as they like.

7. KKE’s policy aims at exposing the government and SYRIZA. That is why it equates them with the memorandum political forces and it does not hesitate to “sail” and ally with anybody (always with forces on its right, never on the left) in order to achieve its goal. However, it does not present any alternative for today and the current new situation. Its solutions refer to the “socialist” future, which is the stalinist dictatorships and its practices are the division of the movement and slandering of all the other forces of the labor movement. This policy may rally a very small number of its supporters -if it does-. but the loss it suffers on a social and political level, undoubtedly, is constant. Taking into account the unrealistic evaluation of the situation that KKE has been making, especially in the latest years, it seems to have lost its contact with the masses.

8. In ANTARSYA, there are many different opinions concerning the new situation and SYRIZA. Especially NAR has been following the same policy as KKE as far as SYRIZA is concerned, even though it avoids equating it with the memorandum forces in its rhetoric. However, it describes its policy as similar or the same as that of the memorandum forces. This criticism and policy (of KKE and ANTARSYA) is completely at a dead-end or even disastrous; it cannot assemble the masses and more than that it cannot educate them on a revolutionary program. Thus, there is no alternative policy to SYRIZA coming either from KKE or ANTARSYA, which results in the existence of a major gap.

What to do

9. The main issue is not whether SYRIZA will be a “left parenthesis” in the time sense of the term, as in its political sense. Taking into consideration all the above mentioned, it is a fact that the leading group of SYRIZA has drawn a route that leads to a political left parenthesis, even though this is not yet definite and done. In general, its incorporation into the system and its transformation into a bourgeois party, even a “center left” one is not so easy, in a time when all the traditional bourgeois parties are in a crisis and disintegrating as a result of the crisis of capitalism, the crisis of bourgeois ideology and the social and political shifts and changes. The great contradictions of its policy, the wreck of its strategy (that it will manage to solve the greek economy crisis, the problems of unemployment, poverty etc. in the EU/Eurozone), its constant retreats and compromises, its political practices, all these have been, undoubtedly, causing great damage to the labor movement, especially its more conscious parts. On the other hand, all the things it does such as renaming troika as “institutions” or “technical groups”, and the like, are not simply communicative tricks or an effort to “sell” the same product in a different package; they show something, maybe, even deeper on the part of the labor movement: SYRIZA’s weakness to clash or break with the enemy and its preparation to compromise, a major feature of a reformist policy.

Only those who equate SYRIZA with the bourgeois parties of ND and PASOK can foresee and they see the transformation of this party from an anti-memorandum party into a memorandum one. Such a shift would require a lot of changes both in SYRIZA and the movement. Moreover it would mean the political suicide of SYRIZA (probably without reason). These things are, probably, not in sight. Closer to reality is its collapse rather than its transformation to a memorandum party.

10. The support or tolerance of the masses towards SYRIZA is continuing and possibly extending. This is not, obviously, due to the fact that SYRIZA is the same as ND-PASOK, or it has become a memorandum party, or it has got a good communicative policy and can present things the way it likes or call troika “institutions”. Those who have opinions like these degrade the significance of the 25th January victory. Even worse, they expect that problems can be solved instantly, which is impossibly even with the most consistent anticapitalist policy. The greek capitalism crisis, which they have never really seen and they have always degraded, has been huge and the memorandum policies have made it even bigger.

The support of the masses that SYRIZA enjoys -at least for the time being- is not, of course, an unsolvable mystery. People have been feeling a relief and a hope for the reasons we will state below, even if all they get is just promises or chickenfeed. In the circumstances, they constitute a change or a deliverance from the memorandum regime which they have been living with, for 5 years. In fact, they have been experiencing a stoppage of the deterioration of their living standards, so far, and, maybe, a stoppage of the slide that the systems of education, health, social security, etc, have been suffering. Beyond these, however, specifically:

a) In the public sector, there have been some measures concerning either the working people or education which are anti-neoliberal and anti-memorandum (“evaluation”, “bank of exam papers”, stoppage of dismissals and suspensions etc.). Above all, the continuous incrimination, the slandering, the insults and the entire attitude that had discredited the dignity and pride of the working people, especially of the civil servants, have stopped, too, as well as their terrorization, blackmailing etc.

b) In the private sector, less has been done. However, the promises given -that the basic salary will be reinstated at 751 euro, the 13th pension will be given back to the low-paid pensioners, the tax-free income limit will rise to 12.000 euros, collective agreements will be reestablished, pay and pension reductions will stop etc.- may be few, or very few, but they are far from the rhetoric of Samaras-Venizelos, they are not memorandum measures. This is understood by the masses and that is why they keep this attitude of support/tolerance towards the government of SYRIZA. As always, masses judge the exercised policies according to their interests and theories based on their effectiveness, not their abstract content.

c) Finally, an important role has been played by the ease off of the state of terror and gloom, which memorandums have created along with the forces that served them; the ease off of the emergency state, which gradually undermined and almost abolished the Constitution -or at least its most important provisions-, democratic rights and liberties and their hard core, the labor rights. In the previous period, social problems were “solved” by the troops of Special Forces, the police decided if public transports were to be used by the public or not, nobody who participated in a demonstration knew if they would return home in one piece, get arrested or get drowned in tons of chemicals. There was, of course, also, the issue of national and popular sovereignty being undermined. More than that, the worse was to come on every level: a new memorandum, new anti-democratic measures (restriction of marches, of the right to strike), privatizations etc., as well as the revision of the Constitution so that a dictatorship regime in a parliamentary cloak could be imposed.

11. Τhe following points, concerning the international environment/surrounding, in which greek capitalism functions, must also be taken into account, to asses the situation (there is no space here to examine them in details): The conflict in Ukraine. - A new deterioration of the crisis in the Middle East and the South-east Mediterranean, the civil war and the military intervention in Yemen.
12. It is a fact that the strategy of SYRIZA (program, policy, relations with the EU/Eurozone etc.) is unable to cope with the crisis of greek capitalism. We may have a different management of the crisis in comparison to the one of the memorandum supporters, but it is certain that it cannot last for long. This little “chickenfeed”, the little relief and hope that exist today cannot last when there are 1,5 million unemployed and 3,5 million living under the poverty limit, the shutdowns continue, security system and its revenues have been collapsing as well as public revenues, the blackmailing of the capital (domestic and foreign) and of the european imperialists along with the domestic “fifth column” is threatening to stifle the disintegrated economy. The answer to this problem is not automatic, that is, that SYRIZA will become a memorandum party. This does not mean that SYRIZA will not take anti-labor measures as long as it follows the same strategy, but it is too soon to say in a definitive way that the course of SYRIZA is headed to one specific direction alone; this course is still to be seen, as well as the political developments in general, which, in any case, will not be smooth but stormy, with lots of abrupt shifts and turns.

13. We don’t need spread illusions; OKDE has never done it. OKDE knows that the situation is very difficult, because it knows that the crisis of the world capitalism is deep and the crisis of greek capitalism even deeper (when a lot of stalinists and centrists ignore it, even today). OKDE does not resort to easy and fake clichés such as “Greece is a rich country”. The problem lies in the capitalist way of production and the bourgeois power - and those must be changed with a government of the working people and the socialist way of production. However, the answer to the wreck of SYRIZA’s strategy is not that “everything will be solved in Socialism”, as KKE says, or that “the EU is responsible for everything”, as NAR says etc. More than that, the answer does not lie in using methods and formulas such as “away with the bourgeois and nationalist ministers and the hustlers” (as if we were under a Kerensky government). All the above only show bewilderment or even lack of policy in front of a new situation. KKE considers SYRIZA to be the twin brother of the memorandum supporters (NAR is also close to this view) and tries to expose it in the eyes of the left and the labor movement using ravings, but it cannot achieve a lot.

14. Having all the above in mind and standing firm in our strategy (program, policy and building up of our organization), we have to examine our tactic in this complicated, stormy and full of abrupt and sudden shifts new situation. Today, the tactic of Revolutionary Marxists cannot be one-sided (“Ahead to bring down the government of SYRIZA”), as it is certain that such an event will objectively mean a great defeat of the labor movement and probably, the prevalence of reactionary forces - and this is not because the SYRIZA government is an Alliente type government or something like that, or a left government, but because of the existing relation of forces. The strange thing is that the people who are suggesting or implying this development, today, did not even mumble such a thing for the memorandum supporters. Moreover, they have a very defeatist/pessimist estimation of the situation and the movement. Our tactic should to be dialectical - that is, it should combine the “overthrow of the government” with the creation of a credible alternative that will be able to replace the current government, which, sooner or later, will collapse, or compromise, or even clash with the capital, the EU/Eurozone, or just because this clash will come anyway. The circumstances for the creation of a reliable alternative on the other side than SYRIZA and on its left of SYRIZA are quite favourable -though not easy-, as the bourgeois parties of ND and PASOK continue to shrink (all the polls and developments in all the social sectors are showing such a thing) and this is an evolution taking place in the whole Europe; bourgeois ideology (part of which is the EU “ideal”) is disintegrating, at least as it is actuated by its traditional vehicles and parties. In addition, the tendency or pursuit to the left continues (also in the whole Europe). A reliable alternative tactic for today means that: a) We patiently explain why the strategy of SYRIZA leads to a dead end or even to disaster. b) We try to abolish the memorandums and the measures coming from them (labour relations, dismissals, unpaid work, uninsured work, work hours, auction of properties, confiscations, power or water supply cuts, solidarity campaigns, etc) in practice, through movement means, especially at workplaces, schools, universities, neighbourhoods. We try to put pressure anyway we can and create movements for the abolition of the memorandum measures in education, health, social security, everywhere. c) We try to stand by the working people struggles and reinforce them anyway we can as the rise of struggles is the key factor of the developments and an essential precondition for: c1) the further elimination of the danger of the memorandums and the memorandum forces, c2) the elimination/ reduction of the danger of the far right and fascist forces, c3) the creation of a wall against the EU/Eurozone blackmailing and for the exit from this union of capitalists and imperialists, c4) possibly, the stoppage of the rightward turn of SYRIZA, c5) the building up/creation of an alternative and of its revolutionary vehicle. d) We struggle for the reinstatement of all the conquests and rights which have been, arbitrarily, removed by the memorandum forces in collaboration with the political-economic elite of the EU. We struggle to stop the privatization of organizations, public goods and services. We struggle for the re-nationalization of the public enterprises that have been privatized. e) No policy that stays attached to the EU/Eurozone and the demands of the loaners and the speculators can hope to anything positive, that is, to cope with the crisis, solve the problems that working people have been facing, restart economy etc. It is not enough to abolish the memorandums and all the measures coming from them -which must, of course be abolished right away- neither is it enough to abolish the whole debt - which must, also, be abolished right away. We must get out of the EU/Eurozone and the Euro, right away, or else, it is certain that gradually, there will be a slide towards memorandum policies, that is, towards a constant domestic devaluation (as it is the case in all european countries, especially of the South), because this is the framework and the rules of the EU and of the straightjacket of the Euro. e1) policy can achieve and hope to achieve a restart of economy if it does not nationalize banks and the key sectors of economy under workers’ control. f) An essential element of such a program is the unity of the working people and the struggle for unity, the unity of labor movement in the struggles and for the struggles. This means that the struggle against dividing actions and the division of the struggles, under the pretext of either “class purity” or “class collaboration” (both are sides of the same reformist tactic which leads to defeat) is also essential. g) The struggle for a Government of the Working People completes our alternative, not only in opposition and on the left of SYRIZA, but also because without a shift in the structure of power, it is impossible to realize all the changes and reforms which have in their centre the working people, the poor strata and the youth. The formalist reformist reasoning which deals with the power of classes through a parliamentary standpoint and the amount of election votes is wrong and disastrous for the labor movement.

– The gap in the Left constitutes a challenge for our organization. It must find the suitable paths and the suitable alliances, in order to make our program a reliable alternative in the movement and greek society.

Ο.Κ.Δ.Ε.

www.okde.gr

Οργάνωση Κομμουνιστών Διεθνιστών Ελλάδας

Organization of Communists Internationalists – Greece

ergatikipali@okde.gr