Stavros Dimas fails to win required number of votes, meaning parliament must now be dissolved and poll held within 30 days Continue reading... (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/29/greece-crisis-president-snap-election)

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..SYRIZA: “the left reserve force” of capitalism



Elisseos Vagenas

Member of the CC of the KKE

Responsible for the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE.





After the outbreak of the capitalist crisis in Greece the bourgeois class sought intensively to ideologically disarm the people by means of obscuring the causes of the crisis and the problems that the working people are experiencing in order to lead them to political choices that do not call the exploitative system into question. Thus the bourgeois political parties, both old as well as newly emerging, began to focus on isolated phenomena e.g. the economic scandals, presenting them as the cause of the crisis. “There was money. Some people (the politicians) squandered it and now the people are paying” is one of the common views. The so called “movement of the indignant citizens”, which fostered the aversion to the organized class-oriented labour movement and its goals, was utilized in these plans. This movement focused on the slogans “thieves! thieves!” and “traitors”, which were directed at the politicians. In this way it prepared the ideological ground for the “seeds” of the racist and criminal views of the fascist “Golden Dawn”.

In these conditions the KKE declared decisively that we are dealing with a crisis of the system itself which requires rupture, disengagement from the imperialist unions of the EE and NATO with socialization of the means of production and the construction of another economy and society that will focus on the satisfaction of the people’s needs and not on profit. On the contrary, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) indulged in all kind of ideological-political tastes in order to manage to become the main opposition party. It is worth mentioning several elements regarding the stance of this party, especially in the current period when it is being promoted by the “European Left Party” as “a force for the overthrow” and the forces of the ELP are represented by its president Alexis Tsipras as a candidate for the office of the president of the EU Commission.

When the “radical left” meets the far right

On 7th February 2014 the Political Secretariat of SYRIZA decided to withdraw the candidacy of the journalist T. Karipidis for Regional Prefect in Western Macedonia in the upcoming local elections that will take place in the period of the EU parliamentary elections (May 2014). Greece is divided into 13 regions. So SYRIZA was led to withdraw its candidate in a large geographical area, that of Western Macedonia (not immediately but after 5 days of inner-party soul-searching). Why? The reason was the views of this journalist that were made public, as he is a supporter of a conspiracy theory regarding the torments that the working people in our country are suffering. According to his theory the Prime Minister A. Samaras is destroying Greece according to a plan of the Jews! This extreme conspiracy theory which dovetails with the corresponding views of fascist circles has been accommodated by the radical left of SYRIZA. So much for… “radicalism”…

The undeniable truth is that this is the “tip of the iceberg” as over the last three years SYRIZA has absorbed entire sections of the social-democratic party PASOK which is in the process of disintegration.

Even if we do not focus on this episode, we will see that over recent years SYRIZA has been making a systematic effort to rescue capitalism in the eyes of the working people. How is it doing this? Let us briefly examine this.



Praising “healthy” capitalism like Obama’s

SYRIZA is claiming that neoliberalism and neoliberal capitalism are to blame for the crisis and the problems of the workers. It is extolling the policy of Obama as neo-Keynesianism and characterizes it as “progressive”. At the end of last year the president of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras praised the US president Barack Obama in a speech in Texas, USA, stating that “I feel that we can have a constructive debate with Washington on the issue of the crisis of the Eurozone. This is one of the reasons that I am happy to be here today.”

In this way the leadership of SYRIZA and the ELP is involved in the fierce competition amongst the imperialist powers. It is well known that the government of the USA, France, Italy are pressing Germany to shoulder a larger section of the losses regarding the management of the debt of the indebted states of Eurozone and limit its trade surplus. The forces of the ELP are siding with the USA. Nevertheless, this confrontation, is not related to the interests of the popular forces. It does not concern the interests of the peoples in the more powerful capitalist economies or in the weaker ones. Whatever formula is followed for the management of the crisis the working people will not be disentangled from capitalist exploitation, poverty, destitution, new anti-people measures. This is shown by the immense social and economic problems that tens of millions of working people face in the USA. Even if some statistical data indicates that capitalist growth appears on the terrain of the destruction of the social achievements, this growth will be at the expense of the people, the working people will suffer the consequences of the next and deeper crisis of capital over-accumulation.

By restricting its criticism to so called “neoliberal capitalism” SYRIZA is fostering illusions amongst the working people that there can be another “good” capitalism.



Anticipating the change of the predatory alliance



Let us bear in mind that in the 1960’s the KKE characterized the EU as “lions’ den”. In 1980 it said NO to the accession of Greece to the EEC and in 1991 it said NO to the Treaty of Maastricht that transformed the EEC into EU.

In contrast, all the other parties, including the parties from which SYRIZA emerged, supported these choices of the bourgeois class for the assimilation of Greece to the EEC and the EU.

Today SYRIZA is claiming that the EU is “violating its founding principles and goals”. The truth is that from 1957 until today, and for as long as the EU exists, whether it is split into a union of the south or of the north, whether it becomes a federation, or a confederation, it will be an imperialist union, aimed against the peoples and youth.

It is obvious that the EU does not change, either with the change of the president of the EU Commission, which is an apparatus for the elaboration and the implementation of the most severe anti-people measures, or with political reforms, because the exploitation of man by man, that is to say class exploitation, the main contradiction of capitalist society, is inherent in it.

The main question is what interests did the foundation of this inter-state union serve. It was founded in order to help the capitalists to more effectively exploit the working people in its member-states; in order to enable them to buttress their power supported by the bourgeois classes of the other countries of the union. It was created in order to assist the European monopolies in their fierce conflict with the monopolies of the other countries and regional unions.

The EU, with most of its member-states being members of NATO as well, is organizing the war with financial, political and military means. It conducted a war on European territory, it participates in the plans to intervene in Asia, Africa, today in the Central African Republic, it accompanies the USA in its anti-communism and in dealing with the movement using terror legislation.

SYRIZA, due to its position as the official opposition, bears a great share of responsibility for the conscious deception of the working people because it claims that the EU can allegedly be democratized and humanized.

Recently, in relation to the bloody events in Ukraine, SYRIZA once again discovered the “lack of an independent foreign policy” in the blatant intervention of the EU in the internal affairs of Ukraine, which was carried out together with the USA and in confrontation with Russia over the control of the markets, the raw materials and the country’s transport networks. SYRIZA argued that the EU could have a “stronger role” in favour of the people of Ukraine if it did not align itself with the USA. Then, according to this viewpoint, the EU would become a “force for stability and peace”. However, there is no greater fraud than for someone to claim that the imperialist EU can become a “factor for peace”, fostering illusions about a pro-peace imperialism! The imperialist “predators”, the EU amongst them, during the “dividing up of the loot” can come into conflict, but they always remain “predators” and hostile to the interests of the peoples.

The “front” and the “wind” of the South

SYRIZA is fishing in the “muddy waters” of the parties of the so-called “anti-memorandum arc”, of “anti-Merkelism”, and “anti-banking” version of the EU and Eurozone, of parties that condemn merely the troika and particularly Germany.

Nevertheless, it conceals the fact that the outbreak of the capitalist crisis preceded the memorandum. It overlooks the fact that the EU is a component of the Troika. The memorandum that the Greek government has signed with the troika of the lenders, is nothing other than the specialization of the general political line of the EU in the conditions of crisis in Greece. Consequently the opposition of SYRIZA to the memorandum is dust to the people’s eyes given that this party does not oppose the EU but supports it.

But why is SYRIZA only blaming the troika or Germany? Because, in this way it conceals its essential support for the EU of capital, of the monopolies. It is fostering illusions to the people that the EU can change through “a front of the countries of the South”. Nevertheless, the international allies and support that are invoked, such as the governments of the USA, France, Italy, the Mediterranean South, are enemies of the people, they steamroller the people’s rights in their countries, just as the German government does.

The EU is a hell for all its peoples. Τhe truth is that the anti-people measures concern the working class and popular strata of all the countries, regardless of memoranda and debts.

In other countries measures were taken in the 1990s and in the 2000s, in some all together as a “shock”, like Greece in the conditions of the crisis, in others gradually as in Germany. However there are differences from country to country in terms of workers’ gains, social needs, the rate of unemployment. The reason is that Greece had a weaker starting point in the Eurozone and it is not due to the bad political choices or the use of the “wrong medicine”.

For example, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a general policy which has as its aim the concentration of the agricultural production and land in fewer hands. However, it was more painful in countries which still had numerous small producers, like Greece.

The new wind of the South that will sweep the bad EU and bring a better on is a “fairy tale” that aims at deceiving the peoples. On 12th June 2012 the newspaper of SYRIZA wrote: “A new page opened for France yesterday. Victory of the left”. SYRIZA and its leadership fostered many illusions regarding the election of Hollande claiming that the EU is starting to change. Now we all know how that has developed…

Contrary to these illusions, the KKE and the other parties that participate in the European Communist Initiative assess that the EU cannot change, that it is a reactionary apparatus which has at its core the interests of the monopolies.



The odious and unsustainable debt



The KKE has demonstrated with evidence that the workers are not responsible for the public debt and must not pay for it. The propaganda of the capitalist power is trying to conceal the real reasons for the inflation of the public debt. In reality, the state borrowed in the previous years in order to serve the needs of the profitability of capital and now it is calling on the workers to pay. The debt also increased due to the enormous spending on arms programmes for the needs of NATO and the participation in imperialist missions, as well as due to the consequences of the assimilation of the Greek economy in the EU and EMU. The course of the shrinking of important branches of manufacturing, which were on the receiving end of strong pressure from competitors and shrank, is characteristic (e.g. textiles, clothing, metal, ship-building and ship-repair, production of transport means.) The expansion of the trade deficit and the rapid increase of imports from the EU had a similar impact on the inflation of the public debt.



SYRIZA, for a long time period, especially before the previous elections, argued that a “left government” of SYRIZA will separate the debt into a correct part (which must be paid) and an “odious”, “unjust” part that will not be paid. Indeed they let it be understood that possibly the largest part of the public debt is “odious” and sharply criticized the KKE for not adopting this “realistic” rationale. Nevertheless, the more the possibility of SYRIZA taking on the “reins” of bourgeois management increases, the more its position gradually alters. SYRIZA’s economist, G. Stathakis, stated in February 2014 that based on his calculations the “odious” debt is only 5%. Consequently, he recognized that the people should pay the remaining 95% of the debt. The head of SYRIZA claimed in the very same month during a visit to Italy that the crisis in Greece is the result of “a mistaken development model of over-consumption with loans”! I.e he is regurgitating the basic bourgeois ideological constructs inside and outside of Greece regarding the cause of the debt and is calling on the people to pay for the debt, as longs as it can become “sustainable”. He is calling for another “haircut” to take place, in opposition to the government of ND-PASOK, which is demanding an extension of the payment period. And these two management solutions are not merely not “radical” and “people-friendly”, but provide for new anti-people measures against the workers.



The only people-friendly solution is the one promoted by the KKE: unilateral cancellation of the debt for which the people are not responsible. Socialization of the means of production, disengagement from the EU, working class-people’s power.



“Radicalism” inside the “walls” of the system



SYRIZA is an opportunist party which very rapidly is developing into a modern social-democratic party and is fostering illusions amongst the people that there can be a better form of management for the people, despite the dominance of the monopolies. It plays with the pain of the people, with the pressure for immediate solutions without radical changes.



The speech of A. Tsipras at an event in honour of the Austrian social-democrat Bruno Kreisky is revealing. A. Tsipras clarified that the “A left government in Greece will extend a hand to Europe’s social democrats, to Europe’s free thinking liberals”, with as its plan “the project of stabilising the Eurozone – a first step towards an open, democratic and cohesive Europe.” Such a government will seek a “European Marshall Plan”, which will include: “proper banking union, a public debt centrally managed by the ECB and a massive programme of public investment.” These goals, as A. Tsipras categorically assured the audience, can be satisfied without “without any treaty changes” in the EU.



But the assurances of SYRIZA that the “state has continuity”, clearly stating that it will continue the work of the previous governments on the terrain of the anti-worker political line, of the ruins of the working class people’s rights, also highlight how it understands the so-called “governmental left”. The candidacy of Tsipras for President of the Commission reveals SYRIZA’s devotion to the EU, this union of the monopolies. The promotion of the Obama government by SYRIZA as a model is a confirmation that its governance will manage capitalism. These are assurances that the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises has assessed very specifically, praising the “useful radicalism of SYRIZA”.



About “Democracy” and “National Sovereignty”



SYRIZA is trying with its propaganda to conceal the fact that the participation of a capitalist state in an inter-state capitalist union, such as the EU, objectively means the cessation of sovereign rights. Of course, this is not due to the “German occupation”, as various nationalist groups of the bourgeois “anti-memorandum current” misleadingly claim, a sloganeering that the forces of SYRIZA have from time to time adopted. But it is a conscious strategic choice of capital in every state, and in Greece as well, with the aim of strengthening its economic and political position. Inter-state unions which are formed in the framework of an increasingly intensified capitalist internationalization, which means the increasingly more extensive interconnection of sections of capital of different states, the development of relations between them, the inter-dependence of the capitalist economies, and as a consequence the capitalist states. These are relations of unequal interdependence that of course are unequal because they are formed on the terrain of uneven development, relations that are formed with the economic and political strength as the criteria. This is the characteristic feature both of inter-state capitalist unions, as well as of the nexus of inter-state relations which are formed in the framework of the global imperialist system. The KKE argues that these relations can break, can be overturned only through the disengagement of the country from the capitalist inter-state unions and from the capitalist development path, and not by patching them up, as SYRIZA aims to do.



It is apparent from the positions of SYRIZA that this party only disagrees with the “German leadership of the EU and Eurozone”, and not with the controls on the budgets, as long as they are carried out by “legitimate bodies”. If, for example, they are carried out by the EU Parliament, there is no problem, because it says that this is the only democratically elected body of the EU.



Nevertheless, the terms “democracy” and “sovereignty” have a specific social “identity”, according to which class is in power. Bourgeois democracy is nothing other than the class dominance, dictatorship of the bourgeoisie with a parliamentary mantle and the justice that accompanies it is the justice of the bourgeoisie. SYRIZA is the vehicle of a petty bourgeois, non-class view about freedom and democracy. It makes criticisms regarding these issues from the standpoint of petty bourgeois “pluralism”. It ignores and conceals the class- and in reality restricted- character of democratic gains under capitalism. It conceals the fact that the source of authoritarianism is the political line that serves capital, which at the same time is closely connected to the implementation of the EU’s decisions. With its more general position about the EU and the Common Policies, it takes a position in favour of the creation of inter-state mechanisms of repression of the EU, which are objectively aimed at confronting the anti-imperialist movements. In its criticism it conceals the role of these mechanisms so that the EU is not incriminated (Europol, Eurostat, Frontex, Schengen etc.)



Character of the “referendum”. For what reason and in whose interests?



SYRIZA, because it sees that the EU itself has lost ground, has created revulsion and discontent in wider sections of the workers, is seeking to pose other false dilemmas in light of the EU Parliamentary elections and the local elections, it is trying to provide them with the character of a “referendum on the policies and parties that led the country to its current position”, “legitimization or not of the political line that the government is implementing.”



SYRIZA says that it will support the “healthy” sections of capital, and thus the referendum which it demands is about what sections of capital will be reinforced in the recovery phase. About which sectors will receive financial backing. Really, from whom will they receive this money?



It is demanding a “referendum” about how the workers, popular families will be even further squeezed: Through an extension of the payment period (which the government is asking of the foreign creditors) or as SYRIZA asks through a new haircut of the debt.

SYRIZA is declaring its devotion to the EU, which with its “economic governance” established the “permanent memorandum” for the peoples. So the referendum that it asks for is aimed at winning the people’s support so that it can guarantee the EU one-way street and the implementation of the EU’s permanent memorandum. So that it can better manage the poverty and destitution. It is trying to trick the workers that its proposal will bring prosperity to the people.

SYRIZA is demanding a referendum in favour of a “left government”. However the developments in France, Italy, Cyprus and elsewhere demonstrate that “left” and “centre-left” governments constitute the left “reserve force” of the capitalist development path.

The KKE notes that the workers must go to the ballot box in May with other criteria.

They must go with the criteria of punishing all those who with lies, intimidation and illusions over the previous years, and even now, try to persuade them that there can be a pro-people development for the Greek and other peoples of Europe inside the capitalist development path and the EU.

They must have as their criterion the formation of a strong working class-people’s opposition, the need to regroup the labour-people’s movement, the People’s Alliance for the struggle against the anti-people political line, the EU and the parties of the EU one-way street.

With the criterion of strengthening the struggle for a Greece with people’s prosperity, with the utilization of all the country’s productive potential, with solidarity and cooperation with all the peoples, in opposition to the chains of the European Union, capitalist exploitation and injustice.

With the criterion of paving the way for the socialization of the monopolies, the unilateral cancellation of the debt, the disengagement from the EU. So that the people can acquire their own power and become protagonists in the developments, so that they can influence them in a direction favourable to them.

The workers must utilize the May elections with these criteria, rejecting false dilemmas and false referenda, contributing to a change in the correlation of forces in favour of the people, through the strengthening of the KKE.


http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/SYRIZA-the-left-reserve-force-of-capitalism/

As Greek government collapses, Berlin demands more austerity

The collapse of the Greek government is an expression of the deep social tensions across the continent. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was no longer able to impose the European Union’s austerity dictates in the face of popular opposition. At the same time, the political crisis in Athens has sharpened divisions within the EU.

High-ranking representatives of German politics and big business responded aggressively to the failure of the Greek presidential election. They made clear that they will not give an inch on austerity policies that have produced a social catastrophe in Greece and across Europe.

The early parliamentary election that must be held according to the Greek constitution changes “nothing in the course or conditions for [EU financial] support” for Greece, Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder (Christian Social Union—CSU) told the Munchner Merkur on Monday. “Accordingly, there can be no debt relief, there can be no relaxation of the criteria.”

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (Christian Democratic Union—CDU) told the Bild newspaper on Saturday that the Greek people had no right to determine the policies implemented by their government. “Fresh elections change absolutely nothing about Greece’s debt,” he said. “Any new government has to maintain the contractual obligations of its predecessor.”

By this he means the debt memorandum between the EU, the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the Greek government, which committed Greece to implement severe social cuts in exchange for a bailout from the EU.

Schäuble not only declared he would stick to the austerity program regardless the result of the election, but spoke in favour of expanding social cuts across the entire continent. He attacked plans by the European Central Bank to purchase government bonds of European states in order to reduce interest rates for new loans.

“Cheap money cannot be allowed to reduce the drive for reforms in some countries. There is no alternative to structural reforms,” said Schäuble.

This position is also supported by Bundesbank head Jens Weidmann. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, he stated that Germany was not prepared to provide a guarantee for loans given to other European states, such as through purchases of debt by the European Central Bank.

“Policy should concentrate much more on the challenges of political economy in the EU countries, with the structural weaknesses in growth,” said Weidmann, adding in the same vein as Schäuble that even the larger EU states “require substantial reforms.”

Christoph Schmidt, chairman of the Economic Council of Experts, which is appointed by the German government to provide advice, was even more explicit. “The more the central bank intervenes to push down interest costs for states,” he said, “the greater is the danger that France and Italy will once again abandon the necessary reforms.”

Schmidt also demanded deeper social cuts in Germany. The state had to stop pumping “billions in to the social system” and expand economic infrastructure instead, he declared.

Shortly before Christmas, an international federation of 178 human rights organisations published a report on the consequences of the EU’s dictates on Greece. It drew horrifying conclusions. An estimated 2.5 million Greeks now live without health insurance. In one year, the HIV infection rate rose by 52 percent. Sixty-two people have died as a result of the re-emergence of the West Nile virus.

Pensions and wages have been cut by up to 50 percent. Since the outbreak of the crisis, the report stated, 180,000 small businesses have had to close. The unemployment rate remains very high, at 28 percent. Among youth, it is even higher, at 61 percent. This is the result of a program that Berlin intends to intensify and expand throughout Europe.

With these policies, the German ruling elite is advancing not only its social program against the working class, but also its dominance over its European rivals. A policy aimed at monetary stability has served to strengthen its position within Europe in recent years, particularly since the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 2008. However, as class tensions and the political crisis in Athens intensify, the conflicts between the European powers are also growing.

Strong disagreements emerged following the announcement by European Central Bank head Mario Draghi at the beginning of December that he planned to start purchasing government bonds. French President François Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi welcomed the move and warned of the threat of deflation in the euro zone, which they claimed could be averted only through an inflationary policy of “quantitative easing.”

There were discussions of a purchasing programme worth €1 trillion, a substantial proportion of which was to include bonds from states hit by the euro crisis. Other suggestions have called for the purchases to be in line with European Central Bank capital quotas. In this case, the country whose bonds would be purchased in the greatest quantity would be Germany.

Weidmann and the German government were critical of the plans from the outset and spoke out in favour of stricter austerity measures without financial injections from the European Central Bank. They declared there could be no further community—that is, German—liability for sovereign debt.

The conflicts were not over whether austerity policies should be pursued. Hollande and Renzi have made clear that they intend to pursue brutal austerity policies. However, they are at the same time calling for stronger backing for state finances from the European Central Bank and other European institutions.

The collapse of the Greek government has strengthened this wing. The most prominent opposition party in Greece, the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), supports a finance policy of “quantitative easing.” According to all polls, SYRIZA will emerge as the largest party from the impending elections due to its public criticism of the EU austerity memorandum.

Like Hollande and Renzi, SYRIZA has made clear that it will support the EU and its debt regime. SYRIZA chairman Alexis Tsipras reassured the EU that as future prime minister, he would not overturn previously implemented social cuts. He also insisted he was not planning to announce a unilateral repudiation of Greek state debt, but to hold new negotiations with the agreement of the creditors.

Greece’s main creditors are the European Central Bank and the EU, which have taken on a large proportion of privately owned government bonds in the course of the bailout program. A debt deal would therefore be the equivalent of a communal financing of Greek debt within the EU and would have a considerable impact on other EU states.

Both the hard money and the “quantitative easing” factions of the bourgeoisie are mortal enemies of the Greek and European working class. They are both determined to carry through a social counterrevolution, destroying all of the social gains won over generations of bitter working class struggle. They represent two different methods for extracting the trillions from the working class that have been handed over to the banks in recent years.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/12/30/germ-d30.html

The EU is a hell for all its peoples. Τhe truth is that the anti-people measures concern the working class and popular strata of all the countries, regardless of memoranda and debts.

The KKE is practically the only rational, consistently dead-on, organized group anywhere in the world.


the KKE declared decisively that we are dealing with a crisis of the system itself which requires rupture

"Nough said.

The Trots can spell it out sometimes, too...


Like Hollande and Renzi, SYRIZA has made clear that it will support the EU and its debt regime. SYRIZA chairman Alexis Tsipras reassured the EU that as future prime minister, he would not overturn previously implemented social cuts. He also insisted he was not planning to announce a unilateral repudiation of Greek state debt, but to hold new negotiations with the agreement of the creditors.

Bourgeois, lap-dog bastard.

German government threatens to force Greece out of euro zone

snip

German threats are aimed not so much at preventing SYRIZA from forming a government, as at disciplining the party. The German government intends to compel SYRIZA and Tsipras to accept the debt Memorandum just as unconditionally as had the social democratic PASOK party under then-Prime Minister George Papandreou and the conservative New Democrats under the current Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras.

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/01/06/euro-j06.html

Yep, it's all showmanship.

KKE sec gen Koutsoumbas on elections and SYRIZA

15/01/2015

ANA/MPA---Communist KKE party will not be turned into “the icing on SYRIZA’s ‘anti-popular’ cake” as this is the kind of government it will form despite the pre-election pledges on the part of some party officials and its leader Alexis Tsipras, KKE secretary general Dimitris Koutsoumbas late on Wednesday said in an interview with Action 24 TV station.

On the day after the elections, he said that “the new agreement with the partners and the negotiation of the debt – that SYRIZA acknowledges as the debt of the country, namely the people – has already been put forward along with the things that Tsipras and SYRIZA have been clearly saying during the pre-election period, presenting their own credentials to the big capital, monopoly groups, the EU itself, imperialistic organizations, saying that the country’s course in the Eurozone will not be threatened and that it will stick to what has been agreed on.”

He claimed SYRIZA was lying and offering illusions to the people saying that the EU could change and noted that the “intentional equation of Europe and EU” was confusing.

He stressed that a “confrontation does not equal a negotiation of the debt and not uttering a single word on the memoranda and the implementation laws” adding that regardless of their name there are lasting memoranda, continuous monitoring and balanced budgets in the EU.

He added that “being leftist equals being in favor of the socialization of the country’s wealth, not recognizing the debt, not negotiating on it, being in favour of the popular class and not going to London’s City for talks.”

Asked whether KKE would support SYRIZA if the latter on its first day in power submitted a proposal to cancel all the implementation laws of the memorandum, Koutsoumbas replied “No, we will not vote for it neither will we give a so-called vote of tolerance as this is pure mockery.”

“If they put forward a law that would be in favor of the people, we will vote for it; but the main issue is that any government wants KKE as an alibi so as to pass anti-popular policies,” he underlined.

He estimated the country would not be taken to repeat elections as based on the programmes of various parties – with the exception of KKE – there is an objective basis for the formation of a government.

He added that KKE would probably get the third place in the elections which would be a victory for the popular movement as being a powerful popular opposition it would claim and delay anti-popular measures paving at the same time the way for a better future.

“This is our intention and we say this to the people in all honesty,” he added.

He noted that the “third mandate for the formation of government” will be preceded by the first and the second one and made clear that “we will say what we are now saying; that we will not give a ‘vote of tolerance’ to a government led either by SYRIZA or New Democracy.”

http://www.amna.gr/english/photos/201501/15-115048m15-75115koutsoumpasDhm[1].jpg

http://www.amna.gr/english/articleview.php?id=8110

Google Translator

The Negative Role of SYRIZA in the Trade Union Movement of Greece

In view of the upcoming elections in Greece on the 25th of January 2015 we witness a campaign unfolding, from the media and other organizations, to support the SYRIZA party in Greece.

This campaign has created a fake profile of SYRIZA as representative of the Left and the workers of Greece, which is borderline science fiction. Following this campaign, the Trade Unionist Network of Europe (TUNE) recently invited its members to sign a resolution of support to SYRIZA.

PAME, which represents the class trade union movement of Greece, and which faces every day the forces of the employers and capital. PAME, given its rich internationalist record, has a duty to inform trade union forces on political developments in Greece and the role of SYRIZA in the trade union movement of Greece.

What proves the role of any organization, political or trade union, is its positions and the consistency of words and deeds. Although as a political party, SYRIZA is presented as without any “governmental sins”, in an effort to gain the support of the capitalists, it adopts deeply reactionary positions.

At the same time, already in practice, its little forces in the trade union movement and the unions that SYRIZA controls, have a dirty history of ties with the employers and of surrendering the wage and labor rights of the workers. Here we give you some specific examples.

The positions of SYRIZA and its role in the trade union movement

In the European Trade Union Movement

The forces of SYRIZA in the trade unions are promoters of the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) which is the mechanism of the European Union and the Capital in the trade union movement and the European part of the ITUC.

The forces of SYRIZA, participating in the ETUC and other international organizations, have not made any criticism
to the support of the ETUC in the anti-labor reforms of the EU, its support for the imperialist interventions in Syria, Ukraine, Libya, for its positions against the just struggle of the Palestinian people. That is why it is not by chance that SYRIZA enjoys the support by European trade unionists and organizations, who in the recent years have led the attack against the workers’ rights in their country, such from Workers Commissions in Spain.

In the trade union movement of Greece

The trade unions controlled by SYRIZA in Greece are protagonists in the cultivation ofclass collaboration, the subordination of workers to the demands of the employers. It is characteristic that the largest trade union controlled by SYRIZA (the Trade Union of Workers in Supermarkets of Athens) is the best known employer-controlled trade union. It operates under the control of the supermarkets’ managers so as to directly terrorize and subjugate the workers. It has organized NOT EVEN ONE mobilization, did NOT publish ONE announcement, it has not undertaken ONE action.

In the branches that the forces of SYRIZA signed collective agreements, the workers suffered by the butchering of their wages. Example of such wage cuts were signed in:

Retail Employees, -6.7%
Greek Oil (ELPE) -10%,accompanied by increase of daily work hours
Super Market Employees, -12%
Workers in Electric Railway, -35%
Seamen, -15%

The opposition of SYRIZA to workers' struggles was expressed numerous times in the last period. More typical are the statements made by the President of SYRIZA against the strikes of maritime workers, which he called “outrageous”.

At the same time, trade unionists of SYRIZA often act as strikebreaking mechanism, with many such examples in banks, hospitals, teachers, supermarkets and much more.

The pro-employers role of the forces of SYRIZA is also expressed through its open alliance in a number of unions, with the trade unionists of the social democratic PASOK and the neoconservative Nea Demokratia (which of course in view of the elections, SYRIZA now condemns, so as to take its position as Government). We mention only the following trade unions where there is open coalition of forces between SYRIZA, PASOK and ND, otherwise the list will not end.

Federation of Workers in Drug Industries
Federation of Workers in Food-Drink Industries
Federation of Workers of Water Supply Company DEYA
Federation of Workers in Insurance Companies OASE
Regional TU of Lakonia
Regional TU of Mesologi

In its attempt to block the class oriented trade union movement, SYRIZA’s forces even cooperate with the Nazi-Fascist Golden Dawn (as is the case in the Trade Union of Municipality Employees of Perama, the Trade Union of Municipality Employees of Leivadia and more)

Some points about the stance of SYRIZA towards PAME

The forces of SYRIZA in the Trade Union movement are characterized by strong anticommunism, hatred against the class movement, against PAME. They attacked the foundation of PAME denouncing it as “divisive”, “sectarian”, “saboteur of the movement’s unity” etc. because PAME opposed and revealed the relationship of the bureaucratic trade unionism with the employers.

Another example is their attack against the initiatives of PAME for action. The recent national rally of PAME of November 1, which rallied 100,000 workers and was organized by 1,000 trade unions and social organizations, was fiercely attacked by the trade unionists of SYRIZA.

Also characteristic is the attitude of the trade unionists of SYRIZA towards the 9-month heroic strike of the steelworkers, where they called the strikers to end the strike and adopt as demand for the government to supply cheap electricity to the industryowner! A demand which SYRIZA, later, called in favour of all the industry-owners!

Because the TUNE declared their belief that a government of SYRIZA “will also represent green shoots of change for Europe”, we are obliged to ask the militant trade unions to think whether the trade union movement should support the following positions of SYRIZA in their respective countries, as:

■SYRIZA is in favour of Greece’s membership in NATO and the European Union
■SYRIZA has committed NOT to abolish the [EU] Memoranda and the anti-labour laws they have imposed.
■SYRIZA has included in its candidates list prominent ex ministers as well as yesterday's parliamentary members of the Social democratic PASOK who have promoted and voted for the anti-labour laws.
■In the context of the so called Alliance of the South, SYRIZA expresses positive views for the anti workers governments of Rajoy in Spain, Renzi in Italy, Hollande in France.
■More characteristically, it was only on Monday, January 12th, that the president of SYRIZA stated that “Merkel has nothing to fear by a SYRIZA government”.
Does the trade union movement in Spain, Italy, France believe that their governments are in favour of the workers? Does the trade union movement support the European Union, NATO, the IMF?

On the developments in:

Ukraine - SYRIZA concealed the dirty role of the European Union in the coup d’etat overthrowing the elected government of Ukraine, which lead the country into civil war.

Syria - SYRIZA supported the USA plans to destabilize the region and called for “political and financial support to the forces of the opposition”. A support that ended up in the hands of ISIS . Can the international trade union movement be a supporter of the imperialist interventions, the incitement of civil wars, and the destabilization of regions?

The position of PAME

The class trade union movement is separated by an abyss from the logic of class collaboration, the bureaucratic and employers’ trade unionism. PAME rejects as a betrayal of the working class, the position that a government, which adopts as positions the competitiveness of the capital, participation in imperialist organizations such as NATO and the EU, can fulfill the modern needs of the working class. Workers all over the world suffer the capitalist crisis and its consequences, the attack on workers' rights and freedoms whether under social democratic or conservative governments.

The trade unions that rally with PAME, the class oriented trade union movement of Greece, in the elections of
January 25 highlight the issue that whichever government is elected, must be weak for not to be able to impose its anti workers program.

The day after the elections the argument that the European Union and capitalism is the only way, will be weaker . We must have a stronger workers and peoples’ opposition. It's PAME's duty, the day after the elections, to be in the streets, in the factories, in the workplaces, to defend the rights of workers to fight for the fulfillment of their contemporary needs.

Athens, January 15, 2015

PAME - The All-Workers Militant Front
A W.F.T.U. Affiliate
5b, Ag. Filotheis str.,
105 56 Athens, GREECE,
E-mail : international@pamehellas.gr
http://www.pamehellas.gr

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