While we as the Party for Socialism and Liberation have our own position on the recent situation in Greece detailed in our statement here, we believe that it is crucial to also follow what other revolutionary forces in Greece and elsewhere in Europe have to say. With that in mind, we have compiled for our readers a selection of recent statements by the left parties and political figures in Europe.
Syriza’s veteran politician, war hero and member of European Parliament Manolis Glezos
Manolis Glezos, the legendary World War II resistance fighter, famous for tearing down the swastika from the Acropolis in 1941, expressed his frustration with the SYRIZA government in an article he published on the website of his “Movement for Active Citizens.” He wrote:
Before it’s too late:
The fact that the Troika has been renamed ‘the Institutions,’ the Memorandum has been renamed the ‘Agreement,’ and the creditors have been renamed the ‘partners’ — in the same manner as baptizing meat as fish — does not change the previous situation.
You can’t change the vote of the Greek people in the election of January 25.
The Greek people voted for what SYRIZA promised: that we abolish the regime of austerity, which is the strategy not only of the oligarchies of Germany and the other creditor countries but also of the Greek oligarchy; that we abrogate the Memorandum and the Troika and all the austerity legislation; that the next day, with one law, we abolish the Troika and its consequences.
A month has passed and this promise has yet to become action.
It is a pity indeed.
From my part I APOLOGIZE to the Greek people for having assisted in this illusion.
Before we continue in the wrong direction, before it’s too late, let’s react.
Above all, the members, the friends and supporters of SYRIZA, in urgent meetings at all levels of the organization, have to decide if they accept this situation. Some people say that in an agreement you also have to make some concessions. But as a matter of principle, between the oppressor and the oppressed there can be no compromise, as there can be no compromise between the slave and the tyrant. Freedom is the only solution.
But even if we accept this absurdity, the concessions that have already been made by the previous pro-memoranda government with unemployment, poverty and suicide, are beyond any limit of concession… (Translation by Panagiotis Sotiris)
Renowned Greek composer and an icon of the Greek left, Mikis Theodorakis
The renowned composer wrote a letter on Feb. 26, criticizing the SYRIZA-ANEL government and calling the people to join an anti-memorandum rally organized by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on Feb. 27, endorsing the KKE proposition to abolish all memorandums between Greece and EU bankers.
The open letter issued by Theodorakis said:
I hail the gathering to take place (on Friday) at Syntagma aimed at a Law for the abolition of the MEMORANDUMS.
Most of the people are unaware that despite the fact that a month has passed from SYRIZA’s electoral victory and that the majority of Parliament is held by the Left (in general), our country continues to be bound by the treasonous commitments:
Firstly: The submission of our national sovereignty to foreigners.
Secondly: The total restraining of the country’s public property, and
Thirdly: The abolition of our national economic and foreign policy.
In other words, terms that are fit for nations of serfs and slaves and not proud and free citizens as we want and are struggling to be as a Nation and Country.
As a free Greek I feel frustrated and shame that the new Parliament is tolerating the existence of Memorandums that shame us and humiliate us internationally bearing in mind that there are those who gave up their lives for our freedom.
Today the overwhelming majority of People said a definite NO to today’s enemies of our Nation, both in Greece and abroad.
I am glad that our nation is once again on the track on the popular struggle that concentrates its force against the first and primary target – getting rid of the foreign yoke: the abolition of the Memorandum within the same place where it had been voted as mandated by foreigners. Within Greek Parliament.
I urge all to follow the suggestion of our forefathers: “Ο τολμών νικά”! (He who dares wins)
The anti-people agreements and laws must be abolished immediately (Communist Party of Greece, KKE)
Feb. 26–While the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government was arriving at a new agreement with the EU, in essence an extension of the memorandum, which the previous ND-PASOK government had signed with the troika of lenders (EU-ECB-IMF), and the commitments that flow from these agreements, the KKE proceeded to implement one of the basic commitments it made during the elections.
So, once again, the KKE tabled a draft law to cancel the anti-people agreements with lenders (the memoranda) and all the anti-people application laws and loans agreements that had been passed through the parliament by the previous governments.
It should be noted that this draft law had also been tabled by the KKE before the recent elections. Then, as it seems for purely propaganda reasons, SYRIZA had supported it. SYRIZA, which is now in government, has come to a new agreement with the lenders and has undertaken new anti-people commitments in relation to them.
The new appeal of the Hellenic federation of Enterprises (SEV) in order for the “reforms included in the agreement of the coalition government” to be actively supported demonstrates whose interests are being served by the government’s political line.
The KKE’s initiative to table the draft law to abolish all the anti-people agreements and laws that were passed on the basis of these agreements (over 300 application laws) supports the struggle of the workers and people to tear up the entire anti-worker, anti-people framework that has been left untouched by the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government, and also to fight to recover everything they lost in the crisis. All this has been abandoned now by the coalition government, even as regards their slogans.
This will be the content of the major rally that is being organized by the KKE on Friday afternoon, 27/2/2015, outside Parliament.
One who doesn’t fight capitalism ends up losing the people (Communist Party, Italy)
Feb. 27–The SYRIZA coalition, as hastily as it came together, just as hastily it is falling apart. The reason is obvious for all to see. Tzipras not only bowed to the Troika, reaching an agreement that is nothing but the extension of the memorandum approved by previous governments with all the anti-popular laws and agreements of loan-sharking that follow, but he has also attempted to present this capitulation as a victory. The disappointed and the betrayed are obviously rebelling and the diversified coalition which included many members of the notorious PASOK is melting like snow in the sun: Today the protest of the anarchists and other pieces of the left. Many will be pushed forward to vote for the law proposal by the Communist Party of Greece, KKE, which demands the total abolition of the memorandum and the new agreements and all those anti-popular and anti-worker laws (more than 300) approved by the parliament during the previous government’s rule which the current SYRIZA-ANEL coalition has practically left intact. KKE coherently has declined to enter the populist coalition, has never supported it and has always exposed their substantial adherence to the system they claim to fight against or improve.
The uninformed and the un-attentive have not realized the ambiguous manoeuvers of SYRIZA had started even before the elections. The PAME (the most militant workers’ syndicate which is also closely linked to KKE) had clearly and openly denounced SYRIZA. Recent agreements prove their adherence to anti-people policies of the Troika.
[…]
The era of reformism is over. The people can truly defend their interests only by the fight against capitalism and the relations of production that creates servility. Everything else is the continuation of slavery in other forms. Yet there will be those who will push to talk about finding “the unity of the left,” just as there will be those who will try to say that we need more democracy, less corruption…As if bowing to the Troika on live TV after an on-line consultation or in a closed room would make a difference in the final result. The defeated, even if they are honest, will stay defeated.
The naive followers of events should be answered with the example of Greece. United for what? There is only one way to fight against capitalism: By taking action to bring it down. There is only one possible democracy for the proletarian class, the one that leads to power. Improvised coalitions or formations born without political, ideological and organizational unity simply to build consensus and occupy the parliament (without a valid alternative aiming to take and exercise power to replace the capitalist relations of production with socialism), result in a double defeat: On the one hand against the system which people wanted to reform but remains intact and on the other hand against the people themselves who will ultimately abandon the ‘pipers’ leading them.
There is only one alternative: To build ideological, political and organizational unity: fit for purpose and that doesn’t serve to grab power temporarily. Contrasting barbarism, Italian proletarians will have realize that before it is too late.
Misleading the people reduces the capacity to fight (Communist Party, Italy)
Feb. 14– We currently witness demonstrations in support of the Greek Left/Right coalition government led by Tsipras. While we respect the people who are hoping to find in those choices solutions to the grave and irreversible problems enforced on them by capitalism, we would also like to point out to the enormous mistakes that continue to be made. Is the solution through negotiation of some small and inconsistent tokens of victory or is it by putting on the plate a growing mobilization of mass demands to really revolutionize the capitalist system, exiting the military oppression of NATO and the economic and political oppression of EU and Euro? The ‘margins of reformism’, even if they have allowed some contradictory results for the masses in the postwar years, are now inexorably exhausted. Deceiving the people that there can be a ‘capitalism with a human face’ is a strategic error that considerably reduces the capacity of the masses to fight, leading the way, after the failures visible on the horizon (the same things said for Tsipras today were heard yesterday for Zapatero and Hollande) to the extreme right and populism.
We will never tire of warning the people of these risks as well as continuing to organize in Italy, Europe and the world, the reorganization of the communists, with the Marxist-Leninist theory and with a coherent and actual internationalism with which to fight capitalism and the opportunism of the false left.
Against EU and NATO! For socialism!
Statement of the Workers’ Party of Ireland on the Greek Elections
Feb. 10–Following the recent election, the Workers’ Party of Ireland sends solidarity and congratulations to our comrades in the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). The increase in support for the KKE in difficult circumstances is a reflection of its consistent political, ideological and organisational work, its principled commitment to the people’s struggles and its advocacy of the emancipation of the working class and the construction of a socialist alternative to imperialism and capitalist exploitation.
As in Ireland, the working people of Greece have suffered greatly at the hands of the Troika and a corrupt native bourgeoisie. As in Ireland, public services have been devastated and living standards decimated to protect the interests of capital. As in Ireland, the solution to these problems lies in establishing a genuinely democratic society, where private ownership and exploitation are abolished and with political and economic power firmly in the hands of the working class. By its very nature, the new SYRIZA-ANEL coalition does not and cannot seek the revolutionary transformation of Greek society necessary to liberate the people. The strengthening of the KKE as a result of its efforts during this election campaign is an important step forward in the struggle to defend the interests of the working people of Greece in the current circumstances, to weaken the bourgeois political system, to raise class consciousness for the battles ahead and to build a socialist future based on the abolition of capitalist relations of production and the complete transfer of power to the working class.
International Section
Central Executive Committee
Workers’ Party of Ireland
Statement by the Portuguese Communist Party
Feb. 13–[…]The Central Committee of PCP considers that the electoral results in Greece represent an expressive defeat of the parties that have governed the country who, with the European Union, are responsible for the policy of economic and social disaster wherein they dragged the Greek workers and people. The results express the profound discontent and a will for change translated into the votes achieved by Syriza, the political force with most votes. The result achieved by the Communist Party of Greece will contribute to pursue the struggle it develops in defence of the interests of the workers and people. Condemning the pressures and blackmail of the European Union, the Central Committee of PCP reaffirms that only an effective rupture with the policies, instruments and mechanisms of capitalist integration can provide a solution to the serious economic and social problems affecting the European Union countries. Only this path may in fact respect the sentiments the Greek people expressed in the recent elections. Reiterating its solidarity with the Greek workers and people, the Central Committee of PCP underlines that the full accomplishment of its aspiration and the defence of national sovereignty are inseparable from its intervention and struggle[…]
Statement by the Union of Revolutionary Communists of France (URCF)
Feb. 6–Syriza, which made the Greek people believe that they can get out of the Euro-austerity without leaving the Euro and the EU , is now placed in front of its contradictions and the ECB leaves them the choice to abide by discrediting, to resign loosely by opening an avenue to Nazi Golden Dawn, or valiantly resist hearing the call of the Greek and European communists to leave the Euro, the EU, the NATO and capitalism.
By its petty-bourgeois class nature, Syriza does not and can not go that far. But it’s not just Syriza and its leaders associated with PGE reformist, there are also the peoples of Europe, there is the Greek working class, there are communistic and frankly progressive forces of all countries. We all have to denounce the leaders of the capitalist EU. Together, we must reject the insidious hand of the vanquished in 1945 and we all have to scream:
“We are all Greeks, do not touch the people who gave the world mathematics and philosophy, physics and rhetoric, drama and history, citizenship and immortal emblem of the battle of Marathon and the Greek national anthem”
Nous sommes tous Grecs ! IMASTÉ OLLI HELLINES!
