Syriza splits after sell-out to banks

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SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 2015 3 Since being elected in January, Greece’s Syriza (Co­ alition of the Radical Left) was for a time the most followed movement on the international left and the hope of millions of long suffering Greek workers.

But those wishful sentiments were buried in July with the most brutal “loan” and austerity package yet, finalized in August with Europe’s leading financial in­ stitutions. The new agreement, often referred to as “the memorandum,” amounts to 86 billion euros ($93 billion) for the crisis-ridden Greek economy, already on the hook to the top capitalists of the European Union for 300 billion euros ($330 billion).

Brokered by the Syriza-led government, the memo­ randum contains vicious attacks on Greek workers— all in the name of the “free market” and capitalism. The agreement hikes taxes on foods, goods and ser­ vices; rips up labor rights (which will lead to wage cuts and mass layoffs); and increases pension healthcare costs by 50% (almost 40% of Greek retirees live in poverty).

The agreement mandates 50 billion euros to be paid by the privatization of public institutions. Virtually none of the “loan” package addresses joblessness or aid to impoverished Greek families. Most of the bor­ rowed funds will be kept out of the reach of the Greek people in Luxemburg banks, and then go right back to repay debts to private banks and institutions.

Conditions in Greece remain a nightmare for work­ ing people. Unemployment is at depression levels of 26%, and for youth it’s 60%; the number of children living in poverty is now approaching 50%; a Greek medical study found that 54% of Greeks were under­ nourished; pensions were reduced by 27% between 2011 and 2014.

The memorandum is Greece’s third loan from the predators of European capitalism, nicknamed “the Troika.” They are the European Central Bank, the Eu­ ropean Commission, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the enforcement arm of the World Bank. Both the IMF and the World Bank are U.S.-dominat­ ed institutions, which have been responsible for the mass impoverishment of hundreds of millions by imposing “free trade” policies that aid the rich at the expense of the poor.

Selling the memorandum The memorandum was negotiated by Prime Minis­ ter Alexis Tsipras, the Syriza leader who had prom­ ised voters that his party would reject all austerity deals with European banks. Tsipras submitted it to parliament on July 15, where it passed 229 to 64. Thirty-two “no” votes came from Syriza MPs, most of whom were in the party’s Left Platform, while seven other Syriza MPs abstained or were absent. The Left Platform comprised about 30% of Syriza’s Central Committee.

The loan package was then approved by European parliaments despite substantial opposition, espe­ cially in Germany, the leading funder. Despite ruffled feathers over the loan on the German right, however, German capitalism is doing well in Greece. In Au­ gust, a German firm acquired control over 14 Greek airports as part of the memorandum’s privatization provisions. In fact, Germany is the biggest investor in Greece.

Moreover, a recent study by the German Halle Insti­ tute for Economic Research found that investors have flocked to the “safe haven” of German government bonds, pushing down its interest rates paid to bond­ holders. The German government has thus saved 100 billion euros, more than the 90 billion Germany is be­ lieved to have “loaned” Greece, the study found.

That is all quite apart from the billions German im­ perialism still owes Greece and other nations for the death and destruction during World War II.

The trade arrangements of the Eurozone were es­ tablished to favor the more wealthy “Northern tier” countries like Germany and France, who impose disadvantageous economic terms on the poorer and “less productive” “Southern” countries, such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, etc.

Crisis and a split in Syriza Enraged by Syriza’s betrayal—likened by some to April 21, 1967, the day the Greek military seized power—25 of Syriza’s Left Platform MPs have formed a breakaway party called Popular Unity. Led by Left Platform leader Panagiotis Lafazanis, who was min­ ister of energy before Tsipras purged seven top Syri­ za government officials who had voted “no” on the memorandum.

Lafazanis accused the government of selling out to Popular Unity leader Panagiotis Lafazanis.

the “dictatorship of the Eurozone.” Popular Unity, he says, will continue the original reformist goals of the Syriza party, which include nationalizing the banks, canceling “most” of the debt, stopping payment on the debt, rejecting privatizations, and saying “no” to the memorandums. It will try to remain in the Eu­ rozone, if possible, says Lafazanis. So far, the party’s statements have not mentioned socialism.

Confronting a crisis of confidence, Tsipras has called for a new election for Sept. 20. He resigned as prime minister on Aug. 20, in accordance with the Greek constitution, and was replaced by a temporary caretaker government. “I feel the deep moral, politi­ cal obligation to submit to your judgment,” Tsipras explained. Many Greeks, of course, might not be con­ vinced of Tsipras’ sincerity given the fact that—just a day after the July 5 referendum, in which the Greek people had overwhelmingly rejected the Troika’s loan package, he negotiated a deal in Brussels that was even worse. The new deal slashed public spend­ ing by an additional 4 billion euros!

Moreover, a Sept. 20 election will not provide enough time for the Greek people to properly dis­ cuss the issues. Left Platform critics also cite Tsipras’ unwillingness to discuss his negotiating strategy, let alone heed parliamentary calls for a Syriza conven­ tion to discuss the memorandum before paying the Troika some 3.2 billion euros in interest on bonds that were due Aug. 20. Most cynically perhaps, Tsip­ ras has called for an election before Greeks will fully feel the brunt of the memorandum’s impact.

Helena Smith, the Athens correspondent of Lon­ don’s Guardian newspaper, astutely observed, “the application of neo-liberal policies on a resistant populace can only come from the left…” Capitalism depends on reformist parties like Syriza, especially during a crisis, which then win the trust of workers only to betray them.

The Syriza government is a capitalist coalition gov­ ernment, not a workers’ government. Since Syriza did not win a majority in the January election (36%), it needed a partner to maintain a functioning govern­ ment. Accordingly, Syriza formed a coalition with the Independent Greeks (ANEL), a right-wing party that is anti-immigrant but also ostensibly anti-memoran­ dum, and it is tied to other capitalist parties in gov­ ernment.

History has demonstrated again and again (Spain, Chile, Haiti, etc.) that the working class cannot achieve its goals, let alone make a revolution, when tied to the capitalist class. The rise of the fascist Golden Dawn Party in Greece is a grim reminder of the costs that mis-leadership may bring to a workers’ movement lacking a bold revolutionary alternative.

Not surprisingly, a poll conducted in August re­ veals that Syriza is backed by only 22.2% of voters compared to its nearest competitor, the conservative “New Democracy,” with 21.2%. In the first poll after Tsipras’ resignation, Popular Unity is backed by 8%, well past the 3% barrier for a seat in the parliament. The fascist Golden Dawn party comes in fourth in one poll, with 6%; the neoliberal “socialists” of PA­ SOK and the Stalinist Communist Party (KKE) both received 4.5%.

Realignments in the Greek left The SYRIZA coalition began in 2004. The dominant political tendency within it has been the reformist “Euro-communist” split-off from the Stalinist KKE. Both Tsipras and the Left Platform’s Lafanzis trace their political origins to that movement.

Several radical left tendencies also operated within Syriza, including Trotskyists, Maoist Stalinists, and anarchists, particularly from Greece’s Occupy move­ ment. A number of these leftists have now joined Popular Unity. The new party has taken 13 radical left groups into membership, two of them being the larg­ est organizations formerly within the anti-capitalist coalition ANTARSYA.

Popular Unity’s public statements indicate that, like Syriza, it will prioritize electoral gain over building mass workers’ movements. Popular Unity says that it wants “a wide, anti-memorandum, progressive front” and that it will present candidates in the upcoming election. In an Aug. 21 blog post, former Left Platform leader Stathis Kouvelakis stated that Popular Unity would “provide an expression to social forces that do not necessarily recognize themselves as part of the left but want to fight austerity,” thus re-opening the door to the political opportunism and unprincipled alliances of Syriza.

Standing outside Syriza and Popular Unity are the forces remaining in the anti-capitalist ANTARSYA coalition, such as OKDE-Spartakos, supporters of the Fourth International and co-thinkers of Socialist Action. ANTARSYA has exposed Syriza’s sellouts and has been very active in mobilizing against the fascist threat and protesting against the memorandum.

Seven ANTARSYA members were arrested on July 15 by cops in front of the parliament building in Athens, including at least one from OKDE. Four of the seven were found not guilty, including an OKDE member. The remaining three were sentenced with unprecedented severity, with the maximum proba­ tion period of three years.

There can be no solution for Greece under capital­ ism. Building a revolutionary party in Greece is nec­ essary if the struggle of the workers, the youth, and the specially oppressed is to succeed. Down with the moratorium! Cancel the debt! Long live international solidarity with the Greek struggle! n See www.socialistaction.org for other articles, pro­ viding extensive coverage on Greece.

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Justin Sullivan / Getty Images pillaging the environment and an outpouring of scien­ tific confirmation of global warming rates exceeding initial predictions—not to mention unprecedented and deadly heat waves everywhere—the movement has taken some important steps forward.

The NCCM demands include: “A global agreement to implement dramatic and rapid reduction in global warming pollution—Keep fossil fuels in the ground!” and “100% clean, safe, renewable energy!”

Central demands also include: “End all fracking, tar sands mining and pipelines, offshore drilling, arctic drilling! Stop expansion of the extractive economy! Wind, solar, geothermal power now! No coal exports or crude-by-rail bomb trains in Northern California!”

The coalition also focuses on a host of inseparable issues aimed at uniting the broadest sectors of work­ ing class America, oppressed people and the labor movement. These can serve the emerging and criti­ cally necessary U.S. “movement of movements” quite well as an initial political orientation for effective mass resistance to the doomsday scenario increas­ ingly pressed forward by corporate America’s “profits first at any cost,” ruling elite. The NCCM states that all of the above are “the conditions necessary to create… ● “A world united to repair the ravages of climate change:

Industrial countries and polluting corporations of the global north need to pay their ecological debt to