https://socialistaction.org/2019/02/23/greece-macedonia-regarding-the-prespes-agreement-and-the-nationalist-rallies/
Greece & Macedonia: Regarding the Prespes Agreement and the nationalist
rallies
/ 16 hours ago
MACEDONIA-REFERENDUM-POLITICS-GREECE
People wave Macedonian and European flags as they attend a Sept. 16
rally in Skopje for “yes” in the referendum on whether to change the
country’s name to “Republic of Northern Macedonia.” (ROBERT ATANASOVSKI
/AFP/ Getty Images)
By OKDE-SPARTAKOS
Greek section of the Fourth International
Τhe Prespes agreement between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia
imposes in the clearest manner the hegemony of the Greek state over the
neighboring Macedonian state and constitutes an overwhelming diplomatic
and political victory for the Greek bourgeois class. According to the
agreement, the Republic of Macedonia was forced to change its
constitutional name to Republic of North Macedonia, to refrain from any
claim over the recognition and rights of the Macedonian ethnic minority
in Greece, to rename its public buildings and infrastructure (national
highway, Skopje airport) so as to not include names that are considered
part of the Greek history (Alexander the Great etc.), to submit its
school textbooks for revision to an equal parity committee with Greek
officials and to secure the free right of investment to the Greek
capital in the country. In return, Greece consents to the admission of
Macedonia to the NATO and the EU, which both the U.S. and European
imperialism favor as a means to gain ground in their rivalry with Russia.
The problem that the agreement is supposed to be solving is a problem
created exclusively by Greece itself, on the basis of its economic
intrusion into the Republic of M and its capability of exerting its
economic and political coercion over the country, to the point of
economic strangulation.[1] The Greek side emerges as the definitive
winner, since it has managed to compel another state to change its
constitutional name, which is something unprecedented in peacetime, as
the SYRIZA government boasts; and it has certified, once again, its key
role in securing the domination and expansion of the imperialist
economic and military institutions (EU, NATO) it takes part in.
The SYRIZA government is trying to present the agreement as a rational
solution of a burning national issue, with mutual concessions and gains
for both sides, and as a powerful blow to nationalism on either side of
the border. In fact, though, both the content of the Agreement and the
official rhetoric of the government officials and the prominent SYRIZA
members leave no doubt about the supposed progressiveness of the
Agreement. The government brags, on the one hand, that it has succeeded
where all previous governments failed and, on the other, that it has
fully implemented the national line determined by those previous
governments, especially by the Karamanlis right-wing government and its
notorious veto at the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.
It is indicative that the adherents of the Agreement support it in the
name of the national interests as well as of the facilitation of Greek
investments in the Republic of Macedonia. As for the argument that the
admission of the Republic of Macedonia in the EU and the NATO will bring
peace and prosperity to the Macedonian people, it is just not serious.
Of course, this is all inconceivable for the nationalist mob that has
claimed the public space for itself since last year, against the
supposed betrayal against Greece and the Greek part of Macedonia.
Starting with the nationalist rallies of January and February 2018 in
Athens and Thessaloniki and ending up to the rallies of this year (far
less massive, nevertheless), a heap of human dust, including fascist
organizations, formal and informal religious groups, nationalist unions,
retired military officials, ridiculously dressed up Macedonian warriors,
and reactionary circles within parliamentary parties came out and tried
to dominate the public discourse.
Putting forward the aggressive irredentist motto “Macedonia is one and
only and it’s Greek,” the extreme right rallies managed to gather some
thousands, including some that don’t really belong to the extreme right;
but they certainly did not achieve their objective, since they remained
far smaller than the respective rallies in the early 1990s.
Nevertheless, the impact that the nationalist and populist discourse as
well as the national myths have on certain popular strata, and the often
violent attempt of the hit squads of the Golden Dawn[2] and other
fascist gangs to massively go out to the streets again, enjoying some
consensus too, meant increased duties for the internationalist
antifascist movement. OKDE–Spartakos has highlighted those duties from
the very beginning and struggled to undertake some of them, given its
modest forces.
The bourgeois opposition in the Parliament aided and abetted the
nationalist rallies and criticized the government in a cheap,
old-fashioned, reactionary manner. This was not without contradictions,
though. The parliamentary group of Potami[3] was dissolved, torn between
its pro-European neoliberalism, which dictated a vote for the agreement,
and its flirting with the New Democracy,[4] which dictated a vote
against. PASOK[5] voted against the Agreement, but had to expel the
Democratic Left, who voted for, from its Centre-left Alliance (KINAL).
At the same time, the relationships between PASOK and the group of the
former Prime Minister Papandreou (the one who introduced the first
austerity pact in 2010)[6], who was also in favor of the Agreement, were
tested.
New Democracy was officially against the Agreement, but, in practice, a
doublespeak was obvious among its deputies, with some of them trying to
compete with the Golden Dawn in terms of nationalist paroxysm, and
others only raising minor issues while supporting the basics of the
Agreement, despite their vote against. It is no secret that a New
Democracy government would have approved the same Agreement. However, in
the opposition, New Democracy chose to invest on an old fashioned
ultra-nationalist rhetoric, despite the pressures of Merkel and the
European People’s Party (both the European People’s Party and the Party
of European Socialists supported the Agreement, as a means to enlarge
the European Union).
On the occasion of the Prespes Agreement, but also reflecting deeper
trends, the political set-up has been rearranged. The Independent Greeks
(ANEL)[7] have officially left the government, objecting to the
Agreement. However, SYRIZA was able to obtain a new majority in the
Parliament and stay in power with the support of individual deputies
from almost all bourgeois parties in the Parliament: Potami, Enosi
Kentroon,[8] New Democracy, and ANEL (whose parliamentary group was
dissolved too). It seems that, after quite a lot of years, a new
two-party system might be emerging (SYRIZA vs. New Democracy), hoping to
make the bourgeois political system restabilize.
It is anyway meaningful that both the adherents and those opposed to the
Agreement are perfectly unanimous on the objective for economic
intrusion of the big domestic capital in the Republic of Macedonia,
against the rival bourgeois classes, as well as on the need to defend
the “national interests” against the supposed foreign threats (which is
practically the same thing). In face of the accusations by the
opposition, thus, the supporters of the government insist that the
Agreement is a response to the supposed irredentism of the neighbors,
that it helps preserve “our” history, that it provides a protective
shield against the nationalist plans of Albania and Bulgaria, and that
it takes the Republic of Macedonia away from the influence of the main
enemy, Turkey, which is, according to all, the biggest threat for “the
country,” that is, for Greek capitalists.
A special mention must be made of the issue of the Macedonian ethnicity,
which the Agreement arguably recognizes, according to the bourgeois
opposition. SYRIZA is right (and cynical enough) to answer that the term
Macedonian/Citizen of North Macedonia in the Agreement only refers to
citizenship, and not to a particular ethnicity. According to its
constitution, the Republic of Macedonia is a multinational state, with
several officially recognized ethnic groups and minorities, where each
citizen has the right to self-determination regarding their ethnicity.
This is the legacy of the Yugoslavian Constitution of Tito.
In Greece, this sounds inconceivable simply because it is the only state
in the Balkans where no ethnic minority is recognized, thus identifying
citizenship with the Greek ethnicity. This is exactly the biggest
scandal about the Agreement: it wipes the Macedonian nation and ethnic
community from the map, and SYRIZA is very proud of that. In SYRIZA,
they obviously believe that the best way to fight nationalism is to make
“rival” nations disappear.
The second point on which the government and the bourgeois opposition
are unanimous is the negation of the existence of a Macedonian minority
in Greece. The Agreement concludes this issue once forever, thus
consolidating the oppression and sanctioning the persecutions that
ethnic Macedonian citizens have suffered by the Greek state for decades.
Unfortunately, the mainstream left opposition, both the parliamentary
(KKE)[9] and the extra-parliamentary (Popular Unity)[10], shares the
same basic assumptions. They only emphasize on the role of NATO in
imposing the Agreement, omitting the oppressive role of the Greek state.
They equate “nationalism and irredentism” on both sides of the border,
and, in effect, they reject the Agreement because, in their opinion, it
does not adequately secure the Greek side. They deny the existence of
the Macedonian nation, which is a striking contradiction with the very
history of the Communist Party, which in the 1920s adopted the position
for an independent Macedonian state and in the 1950s organized an
autonomous Macedonian guerrilla army within its ranks during the Greek
civil war. The leadership of the Popular Unity even expressed their
sympathy for the nationalist rallies, although they didn’t dare to
officially participate.
Against this background, as soon as the Agreement was first proposed,
OKDE-Spartakos determined a double task: to oppose the Agreement from an
internationalist viewpoint; and to fight against the nationalist
campaigns and rallies of the bourgeois opposition and the fascists. This
required us to promote our internationalist positions as well as to
claim the public space against the extreme right and the fascist groups.
Last year, along with other internationalist and antifascist
organizations, we took the initiative to organize an internationalist
demonstration against the nationalist rally in Athens, on Feb. 4. The
demonstration was supported by several left and anarchist groups.
Insisting on the position that the starting point to build an
internationalist opposition to the Prespes Agreement is to recognize the
Macedonian ethnic minority in Greece and the Republic of Macedonia under
this very name, we organized a number of meetings and mobilizations in
the context of our internationalist collaboration with other groups. We
have also created links with the Macedonian left Party Levica and
participated, along with other anticapitalist and revolutionary
organizations, in a common international meeting in Skopje, to promote
the fraternization of Macedonian and Greek workers.
Our view was, and still is, that the Agreement is not about a conflict
between a supposedly progressive solution put forward by SYRIZA and the
nationalist right-wing and fascist opposition. It is a conflict between
the modernized and rationalized bourgeois nationalism of SYRIZA and its
allies, on one hand, and the reactionary, old-fashioned and loud-mouthed
nationalism of the oppositionist bourgeois parties. Our opposition to
the Agreement is founded exactly on the role that the Greek state is
playing both as an autonomous player and as an agent of its
international imperialist allies.
The reappearance of the fascists in the streets made it necessary to
organize a new internationalist demonstration in Athens, on Jan. 20, to
oppose the nationalist rally that was announced for that day. Our
demonstration was successful and broke the monopoly of nationalists in
Athens downtown. A qualitative breakthrough in comparison with last year
was the active involvement of ANTARSYA[11] in the preparation and in the
demonstration, which secured much broader participation. Let’s remind
that last year, ANTARSYA confined itself to a campaign of propaganda
against any participation in the nationalist rallies (which was of
course important in itself, since ANTARSYA was the only visible
political force to do it, whereas the Popular Unity was ambivalent), to
a mobilization for defending the offices of its organizations against
possible fascist attacks during or after the nationalist rallies
(necessary as well, but nevertheless not enough) and to a rather vague
and passionless initiative of heterogeneous political groups which ended
up with a declaration of hardly any political value. By participating in
the internationalist demonstration of January 20 this year, ANTARSYA has
improved its influence in the antifascist and internationalist movement.
In contrast with had happened on January 20, in the mobilizations
organized by KKE, the Popular Unity and other smaller groups for the day
when the Agreement was initially supposed to be put to the vote in the
Parliament (January 24) it was impossible to promote an internationalist
political position (against the nationalist rallies and the extreme
right mob, against the policy of the government, for the right of the
Macedonian people to self-determination and maintain the constitutional
name of their country, for the recognition of the Macedonian ethnic
minority in Greece). The nationalist position of KKE and the Popular
Unity made it impossible to march with them. Realizing that it was
impossible to change the character of these mobilizations, ANTARSYA made
the correct choice to not participate, insisting on the internationalist
profile built in the demonstration of January 20.
The fight against Greek nationalism and the imperialist ambitions of
Greek capitalists in the Balkan and in the Eastern Mediterranean is
crucial for the fraternization of the peoples and working classes of the
broader area. It is also a precondition for the emancipation of the
domestic working class, since a people that oppresses another can never
be free either. It is, finally, a prerequisite for the defeat of the big
imperialist institutions, the NATO and the EU, whose Greece aspires to
be the official representative in the broader area.
NOTES:
[1] After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Greek governments contended
that the use of the name “Republic of Macedonia” by the new independent
Macedonian state would imply a claim over the titular region in Northern
Greece. However, this was only a nationalist conspiracy theory, since
the Socialist Republic of Macedonia had already been a constituent
country of Yugoslavia under this very name for decades. Moreover,
Macedonians had long been established as a nation distinct from the
Greeks, Bulgarians and Albanians residing in the broader geographical
area of Macedonia. The geographical area of Macedonia is nowadays
divided between Greece (50%), the Republic of Macedonia (40%) and
Bulgaria (10%), while a small part belongs to Albania.
[2] The Nazi party.
[3] Liberals.
[4] The largest right-wing party.
[5] Social-democrats.
[6] Papandreou left PASOK in 2015, to form his own party (KIDISO), which
nevertheless entered the KINAL alliance around PASOK in 2017.
[7] The extreme-right government partner of SYRIZA from 2015 until the
first days of 2019.
[8] A minor centrist bourgeois party.
[9] The Communist Party of Greece.
[10] A left reformist split from SYRIZA, after the introduction of the
3rd memorandum by the first SYRIZA-ANEL government (August 2015). The
Popular Unity failed to elect any deputies in the last election.
[11] ANTARSYA is the anticapitalist front which OKDE-Spartakos
participates in.
Share this:
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
February 23, 2019 in Europe. Tags: Greece, Macedonia
Related posts
Document by Greek Trotskyists: National Liberation Struggles in the
Former Yugoslavia
Lessons from the Greek elections
Greece 2015: Lessons of the defeat
Post navigation
← Cuba-Canada relations: Diplomacy from below
Get Involved!
Donate to help support our work
Get email updates
Join Socialist Action
Newspaper Archives
Newspaper Archives Select Month February 2019 (8) January 2019 (16)
December 2018 (12) November 2018 (15) October 2018 (10) September
2018 (8) August 2018 (12) July 2018 (13) June 2018 (11) May 2018
(19) April 2018 (15) March 2018 (17) February 2018 (14) January 2018
(13) December 2017 (13) November 2017 (13) October 2017 (16) September
2017 (15) August 2017 (16) July 2017 (17) June 2017 (16) May 2017
(17) April 2017 (14) March 2017 (13) February 2017 (19) January 2017
(13) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (19) October 2016 (12)
September 2016 (10) August 2016 (10) July 2016 (14) June 2016 (14)
May 2016 (9) April 2016 (12) March 2016 (14) February 2016 (8)
January 2016 (11) December 2015 (11) November 2015 (9) October 2015
(8) September 2015 (10) August 2015 (7) July 2015 (13) June 2015 (9)
May 2015 (10) April 2015 (12) March 2015 (9) February 2015 (11)
January 2015 (10) December 2014 (12) November 2014 (11) October 2014
(9) September 2014 (6) August 2014 (10) July 2014 (11) June 2014
(10) May 2014 (11) April 2014 (10) March 2014 (9) February 2014 (11)
January 2014 (11) December 2013 (10) November 2013 (11) October 2013
(17) September 2013 (13) August 2013 (10) July 2013 (11) June 2013
(15) May 2013 (14) April 2013 (14) March 2013 (12) February 2013
(10) January 2013 (17) December 2012 (7) November 2012 (8) October
2012 (19) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (27) July 2012 (18) June
2012 (3) May 2012 (19) April 2012 (14) March 2012 (17) February
2012 (19) January 2012 (17) December 2011 (3) November 2011 (33)
October 2011 (14) September 2011 (13) August 2011 (34) July 2011 (24)
June 2011 (19) May 2011 (19) April 2011 (15) March 2011 (15) February
2011 (15) January 2011 (15) December 2010 (17) November 2010 (1)
October 2010 (6) September 2010 (3) August 2010 (8) July 2010 (7)
June 2010 (2) May 2010 (10) April 2010 (3) March 2010 (8) February
2010 (3) January 2010 (9) December 2009 (6) November 2009 (5)
October 2009 (16) September 2009 (3) August 2009 (2) July 2009 (5)
June 2009 (2) May 2009 (7) April 2009 (6) March 2009 (16) February
2009 (9) January 2009 (10) December 2008 (11) November 2008 (8)
October 2008 (16) September 2008 (14) August 2008 (18) July 2008
(12) June 2008 (3) May 2008 (2) April 2008 (3) March 2008 (14)
February 2008 (11) January 2008 (11) December 2007 (8) November 2007
(1) July 2007 (1) June 2007 (1) April 2007 (1) March 2007 (1)
February 2007 (3) December 2006 (11) November 2006 (11) October 2006
(13) September 2006 (15) August 2006 (11) July 2006 (18) June 2006
(7) May 2006 (14) April 2006 (6) March 2006 (14) February 2006 (5)
January 2006 (2) December 2005 (9) November 2005 (8) October 2005
(13) September 2005 (12) August 2005 (9) July 2005 (16) June 2005
(16) May 2005 (16) April 2005 (12) March 2005 (14) February 2005 (19)
January 2005 (15) December 2004 (14) November 2002 (17) October 2002
(19) September 2002 (22) August 2002 (21) July 2002 (15) May 2002
(21) April 2002 (21) February 2002 (15) January 2002 (15) December
2001 (17) October 2001 (24) September 2001 (18) July 2001 (19) June
2001 (18) October 2000 (17) September 2000 (21) August 2000 (19)
July 2000 (16) June 2000 (26) May 2000 (21) April 2000 (22) March
2000 (28) February 2000 (18) January 2000 (20) December 1999 (20)
November 1999 (26) October 1999 (25) September 1999 (18) August 1999
(40) July 1999 (38) June 1999 (24) May 1999 (27) April 1999 (25)
March 1999 (26) February 1999 (29) January 1999 (24) July 1998 (12)
Search
View socialistactionusa’s profile on Facebook
View SocialistActUS’s profile on Twitter
View SocialistActionCT’s profile on YouTube
Subscribe to Our Newspaper
Upcoming Events
No upcoming events
Category Cloud
Actions & Protest Africa Anti-War Arts & Culture Black Liberation Canada
Caribbean Civil Liberties Cuba East Asia Economy Education & Schools
Elections Environment Europe Immigration Indigenous Rights International
Labor Latin America Latino Civil Liberties Marxist Theory & History
Middle East Palestine Police & FBI Prisons South Asia Trump / U.S.
Government Uncategorized Women's Liberation
View Calendar
Blog at WordPress.com.
Follow
--
---
Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind
and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the
fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
___
