Eleni Triantafyllopoulou: We have to change the policy, not just the government!
- Written by Sadmin
- Published in ELECTIONS 25.1.15
With only 48 hours left before the elections of January 25, 2015 it is time to give the floor to the activists and candidates of the Greek Left for a last-minute comment.
Eleni Triantafyllopoulou, a member of the Communist Liberation Υouth, writes on the aims and goals of ANTARSYA-MARS, the coalition of the anticapitalist, revolutionary, communist Left and radical ecology.
Effie Achtsioglou, SYRIZA candidate, writes on the prospects of a government of the Left in Greece and the “day after” the elections.
Eleni Triantafyllopoulou, a member of the Communist Liberation Υouth, writes on the aims and goals of ANTARSYA-MARS, the coalition of the anticapitalist, revolutionary, communist Left and radical ecology.
Effie Achtsioglou, SYRIZA candidate, writes on the prospects of a government of the Left in Greece and the “day after” the elections.
ANALYZEGREECE!
Eleni Triantafyllopoulou
“Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow” – ANTARSYA (“Rebellion” in Greek) (www.antarsya.gr), is a front of the anticapitalist, revolutionary, communist Left and radical ecology. This front was created in 2009 in the midst of the crisis and a year after the December 2008 uprising (due to the assassination of the 16 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos). Several organisations of the Greek Anticapitalist Left participate in ANTARSYA, along with thousands of independent activists. In these elections the forces of the Left, from different traditions but with common goals against the policies of capitalism, EU and IMF, coordinate. Against the fragmentation of the left, the coorperation of ANTARSYA with MARS (Front of the left collusion) promotes the coordination of all forces that seek the overthrow of austerity policies and envision a radically different future.
Major developments have been taking place around the whole world over the last few years. On the one hand, the crisis that emerged in 2008 has targeted the capitalist production. The governments in the Western World and especially in the EU and the Eurozone have made efforts to restore the capitalists’ profit rate through the implementation of austerity policies and budget cuts obliging the workers, the unemployed and the youth to sacrifice working rights and to pay for a crisis that they did not cause. The attacks from the capital, the governments, the fascists, the IMF, the EU and all supranational mechanisms, take advantage of the capitalist crisis to pass a sweeping capitalist restructuring. On the other hand, we are observing social uprisings in more and more countries. People reacted and resisted against the destruction of their lives: from December 2008 in Greece, to Tunisia one year later, to the Indignados in Spain, the Occupy movement in the USA, the labor movement struggle in Greece, to Egypt, Turkey and Brazil. The current development of social movements all over the world emphasizes the need for social struggles and, simultaneously, the will of the workers, not only to participate, but also to create new and more dangerous, for the system, struggles.
The arrival of the IMF and the Troika in Greece inaugurated a new epoch. Since 2010, the Greek governments of New Democracy and Pasok have implemented austerity programmes and policies, under the terms of the ‘Memoranda of Understanding’ with the Troika. They have promoted labor law reforms that increase labor market flexibility, as well as a reduction in the minimum wage and widespread wage reductions in the private sector. Moreover, the several Memoranda also include budget cuts in health, education and social services, wage and pension reductions, laying off of personnel on limited term contracts, reductions in public sector, increased taxation, increased electricity and public transport prices and a massive privatization program. Five years have passed and we can clearly see the most tragic consequences of the Memoranda within the Greek society: new poverty, soaring unemployment rates, rapid increase of homelessness, as well as rising of fascism and racial violence.In this crucial social and political scene, ANTARSYA firstly fights against the bourgeois forces of New Democracy and PASOK and their right-wing government proposal, knowing that their program means the continuation of social devastation, unemployment, poverty and authoritarianism. We decisively condemn N.D and PASOK and all the reactionary political system and its parties (Potami, KIDISO, etc).
Moreover, we also fight against the deeply systemic party of “Golden Down”, believing that we have to smash the fascist threat and racism together with the political system that gives birth to them. In these elections it is going to be decided whether the ruthless offence on our lives is going to be continued or overthrown! Facing such a crucial political dilemma, ANTARSYA demands a radical change of policy not only the overthrow of the current government.Therefore, ANTARSYA, fights for a transitory program which gives immediate answers to the needs of the social majority and opens the road for a radical socio – political transformation. In our given situation such concrete set of transitory demands could be the immediate Stoppage of Debt Payments and the Annulment of the Debt, the exit of Greece from the Eurozone and EU, the nationalization of banks and strategic infrastructure, a reconstruction of production along socialist lines under workers’ control and the radical redistribution of income in favor of the forces of the labor. These measures challenge the core of the brutal abolition of labor rights, of the memoranda, of the blackmails of the EU and the banks, of the trusteeship, of the state violence. These measures open the road of anticapitalist overthrow, for the rupture and release from the Eurozone, the EU and the NATO, for nationalizations, labor and social control, and for the improvement of the position of the social majority.
Furthermore, ANTARSYA calls for an immediate increase of wages and pensions, the cancellation of the anti – labor, unpopular poll tax and an increase of the taxation of capital. The starting point of such a program will be the denunciation of the Loan Treaty and the Memoranda and all the laws implementing them. Imposing these transitory demands will not be a result of a re – negotiation of our social devastation with the Troika creditors but a radical anticapitalist break with the interests of capital. This is an internationalist project based on the solidarity and the common struggles of the European working class and popular movements. People will have to take things in their hands, with new militancy and demands, without an anticipation or grace period for any government.
Greece is on the brink of a very important political change. It is most likely that after the January 25 election there is going to be a new government, a SYRIZA government.
Syriza’s program promises a partial break with the austerity consensus, but lacks a plan even for this partial break. SYRIZA recognizes part of the debt and wants to negotiate how we are going to pay it. It considers the EU funds as the main financial resource for the Greek economy and will therefore be at the financial mercy of Greece’s EU creditors.
Its program says “no more cuts” without reversing the already voted cuts and without restoring, much less increasing, wages and pensions. It is a call for “Ya basta” without proposing a radical alternative. Without regaining monetary sovereignty and without breaking with the fundamental EU’s “freedoms” in favor of capital, there can be no reconstruction of production, capital controls, expropriation of closed factories or radical redistribution of income and taxation of the capital.
Moreover, the belief of SYRIZA in the Eurozone, EU, and NATO, allows little space for financial provisions and its program seems more like an attempt of “re-distributing” poverty. There is no doubt that within the framework of the EU, the policies of the IMF, the policies of Wolfgang Schäuble, Angela Merkel and the German ruling class, of Mario Dragi and the European Central Bank will still be there after the elections, proceeding with more austerity measures. The ‘negotiation’ that SYRIZA is promising results in subordination and in the perpetual continuation of the Memorandum policies with a different packaging.
Τhe KKE (Communist Party of Greece) does not give answers either. The KKE refers to people’s power but in an indefinite future, while reltying on parliament and not social struggles for a debt write-off, the exit from the Eurozone and EU.
ANTARSYA’s proposal is that we should not recognize the debt, fight for the debt cancellation and suspension of payments. We fight for the non-recognition and cessation of payments and the debt write-off, as well as for the immediate exit from the EU and the Euro. This is the only way for the vast majority to survive. The funds that are now bound to pay the debt should been given for the public health and education system. There is no way to pay back the debt without austerity. We must break the vicious circle. The only debt we recognize is the debt to the Greek insurance funds.
Therefore, ANTARSYA will contribute to a working left opposition to any government that remains within the limits of the Eurozone, EU and reactive attack. For us, the only way to get substantial concessions is through the collective will of the struggling people, a strong labor movement and new institutions in the neighborhoods that will organize social disobedience and push the radicalization forward.
ANTARSYA will at any case fight for the need of a Left independent of the system, irreconcilable, anticapitalist, anti-imperialist and revolutionary. That will not withhold popular demands in the name of what is “possible”, or the “there is no other way” dogma. We need a Left that will fight for the emergence of a strong labor movement, knowing that a huge historical opportunity is ahead of us and this opportunity should not be missed.
Eleni Triantafyllopoulou is a member of ANTARSYA and of nKA (Communist Liberation youth)
- Translated by: N/A
- The original text was first published on: Written for AnalyzeGreece!