“No up to the end.”
A fine slogan. I'd offer another, "What part of No don't you understand?"
These are truly amazing time we're living in. The transition from
National Governments to International Corporate Oligarchies.
There's a new version of Monopoly. It's played with Euros, but only
the banker gets them. The property is actually nations. You can
figure out the point of this game. And when it says, Go directly to
the Black Hole, do not pass Go and do not collect 200 Euros, that is
the end of that player...really!...the real end.
The game comes with little German swastikas and a bottle of chloroform.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/13/15, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://socialistaction.org/interview-with-greek-socialist/
Interview with Greek socialist
Published July 12, 2015. | By Socialist Action.
July 2015 Greece NO 2
As we go to press, on Sunday, July 12, Greece’s Syriza government has
just submitted a new proposal to EU leaders and financial institutions
that contains significant concessions to their demands for austerity.
This proposal follows by days the referendum vote by the Greek people
that strongly rejected any further austerity measures.
As background to understand the highly charged situation in Greece, we
are reprinting an interview with Manos Skoufoglou, member of the
leadership of OKDE-Spartakos, Socialist Action’s sister party in Greece,
and of the Antarsya anti-capitalist left coalition.
The interview was conducted on July 6, a day after the referendum, by
Laura Valet, from the French on-line Revolution Permanente (representing
a current within the Nouveau Parti Anti-capitaliste that reflects the
views of the Trotskyist Fraction-Fourth International). It was published
in the English-language TF-FI journal Left Voice, and is reprinted here
with very slight editing for syntax and style.
*****
Yesterday, more than 60 % of Greeks voted “NO” in the referendum. What
does the vote mean for Greece?
Manos: It is clear that this was a class-based vote. If you check out
the data, it is pretty obvious that all the workers’ districts and towns
voted massively against the agreement, that is, more than 70%. And in
all bourgeois areas in Athens for example, it was exactly the opposite,
maybe 70% or more voted “Yes.”
The question in the referendum itself was not very clear—it was
deceptive because it only referred to the proposal that the so-called
troika (IMF, ECB and EC) made ten days ago. But it did not include the
proposal of the government itself. So we could say that it was deceptive
because if you voted “No,” then the government, and that is what they
are doing now, will try to renegotiate.
However, the referendum turned into a social and a class confrontation
between the working class and the bourgeois class. And it also showed
that the middle strata, that is, the petit bourgeois sectors, lost so
much during the crisis that it is not worth it to be afraid of the
collapse, the bank run, or the exit of the eurozone. So the lower
sectors of the middle strata voted “No” along with the workers.
What have been the objectives of Tsipras and the government thus far,
and what do you think of the resignation of Yanis Varoufakis this morning?
Manos: Tsipras’ government had not planned this referendum. They were
obliged to call for a referendum because their negotiation tactics did
not work. What Syriza was trying to do these last days was to find the
way to distribute the burden of the new measures, that they would take
anyway, in all social classes, so they were trying to tax the rich and
the enterprises and at the same time they proceed to further cuts in
wages and pensions, privatize ports and airports, increase the VAT,
raise the age limit for retiring, etc.
They had already refrained from the commitment not to make any new
attack against the working class, but they wanted to find a compromise
to distribute the burden among all the social classes. However, the
European Union, the bureaucracy and the technocrats from the bourgeois
classes would not accept that because it was not only a matter of
measures to be taken. The real thing is that they would not allow any
kind of hope or illusion that people can avoid or escape the way of
austerity.
So they would pressure on the government, and the government was in a
difficult situation because they wanted to sign, this is pretty obvious,
because they are afraid that the economic system will collapse and they
are not willing to break with any rules of capitalism, as it could be
for example the nationalization of banks immediately. They do not want
to do that. They wanted an agreement but at the same time an agreement
would have signified political suicide because people did not vote for
them to take this kind of measures.
So this meant no other way out than calling for the referendum. During
the week, it was obvious that Tsipras was trying to find a compromise
using the blackmail of the referendum, and in the middle of the week it
was also probable that he cancelled the referendum in order to re-launch
the negotiation. But fortunately, this did not happen and we had this
big “No.”
But again, this morning Tsipras called the leaders of the Parliament
political parties, apart from Golden Dawn, to meet in order to talk
about the next step. This means that they call not only the Independent
Greeks, their right-wing partner in the government, but also New
Democracy and Pasok that supported the previous government, and also To
Potami, which is a new capitalist party strongly supported by the
European Union.
Along with the right-wing president of the Republic, they are trying to
find a national unity solution, which does not necessarily mean a new
government but it might mean a consensus about a new proposal to the EU.
Varoufakis resigned, and this is a symbolic pressure that the European
Union inflicted on the government. All this shows that the government
will try to use the “No” for their own interest and then find a better
position in the negotiations. But the problem is that this is not what
people wanted because they voted “No” to all austerity.
Yesterday after the results of the referendum were announced, thousands
of people gathered in Syntagma square. What is the feeling of the people
and what are they hoping for?
Manos: Of course it is relief and hope what the people felt yesterday.
People were hoping a victory of the “No” in the ballot, but they did not
know that it would be that impressive, with a difference of more than
20%. They gathered in Syntagma and in other squares all over the
country. It was a victory.
Everybody felt relief that the former Prime Minister resigned from the
leadership of his party, New Democracy. At the same time, the most
conscious of the movement among workers already knew that the next step
would be difficult because government would go for a new round of
negotiations and at the same time because of the blackmails that the EU
and the bourgeois class would continue to make against the people.
I know that the national union confederation of private sector workers,
GSEE, declared their support for the “YES” campaign. What do you think
about that?
Manos: This is an important question because the bureaucracy of the
national confederations has already been traitorous many times in the
past, but this treason is of historical importance. It is something
different. In the past, they were against austerity measures in word,
even if they did not do anything to fight against them and they always
found the way to release the pressure and the anger of the people. But
this is the first time that they openly took a position by the side of
the bourgeoisie. This is why we also organized a demonstration against
their national headquarters, in order to denounce them and their treason.
However, there were some unions that took position against the national
confederation, as the national federation of local government workers
and some local unions as well. The national federation of schoolteachers
denounced the decision made by the national confederation. On the other
hand, the union of the workers in banks supported the “Yes” and many
other unions did not take any position.
So this means that the working class had to confront at the same time
the alliance of all the bourgeois parties that cooperated for the “Yes,”
all the private mass media that has terrorized people, the EU, and at
the same time workers had to confront the bureaucrats of the national
confederation—and this made the victory of the “No” even more glorious.
This makes our duty to keep a real “No” and do not let the reformists
and social-democrats of Syriza slide towards a different “Yes” even more
urgent and important.
Are there some sectors of the working class and the youth that are
living through the experience with Tsipras and the Syriza government and
that want to take the fight against the Troika and austerity further?
Manos: I think that Syriza and Tsipras are still popular among the
popular strata. But at the same time, there are sectors of the militant
vanguard that realizes the limits of the government. There are sectors
of the movement that I hope will try to avoid the government betraying
in the next days. Or even if the government betrays and signs an
agreement, I hope that there will be those sectors, or part of them, to
create an alternative to Syriza from the left.
At the same time, the Communist Party has totally ridiculed itself by
calling for abstention. According to some polls, more than 2/3 of their
voters did not follow their voting instructions. Then, there is a strong
possibility that some people split with the Communist Party and with
Syriza and start looking for an anti-capitalist alternative. And there
are some good signs about that. On Thursday, for example,
anti-capitalists and the far-left organized a big demonstration in
Athens calling to vote for “NO”, but also against any agreement and
against the EU. This demonstration got together more than 5000 people.
What do you think about the left platform within Syriza? Did they take a
position on the negotiations and the attitude of the government?
Manos: The first thing to say is that the government is quite autonomous
from the party. For instance, even the political secretariat of Syriza
learnt about the referendum on TV. This means, first of all, that the
party cannot control the government. Even if the left of the party could
take over the party, they could not take over the government. But I do
not think that taking over the party is possible anyway, because the
leadership of the left platform is in the hands of former sectors of the
Communist Party that have entered Syriza, headed by Lafazanis, who is a
Minister in the government, and he is highly enthusiastic about the
recent choices of Tsipras, so the referendum has managed to incorporate,
at least for the time being, the leadership of the left platform.
If they have to vote for austerity measures, there might be some
deputies who will vote against. But I do not think that Syriza can be
changed from the inside and I think that the left platform had very few
initiatives during, for example, last week. Despite the fact that we
cooperate with them in several cases, then at the end the commitment to
Syriza’s discipline blocks. A few weeks ago, there was a strike in the
hospitals, and it was the first big strike against the government, and
they voted against the strike.
What was the “NO” campaign like? Which was the role of the
anti-capitalist left in the campaign?
Manos: The first thing to say is that despite the disagreements that
exist within Antarsya, and we do not hide them, I think we played a very
important role in the campaign for the “No.” The militants of Antarsya
organized many demonstrations, activities, and protests in workplaces,
in mass media headquarters, in the national confederation of private
sector workers, in the headquarters of the EU in Athens, etc.
Apart from that, what we tried to do was to participate in the massive
demonstrations in the center of Athens along with everybody, and we also
organized the radical demonstration on Thursday. It was a short time so,
apart from some specific cases, it was not possible to form local united
committees for the “No” campaign.
Anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists participated in the campaign as
well, which is something new because they are usually for the boycott.
We coordinated in action with all the forces that wanted to do it, but
at the same time the anti-capitalist and revolutionary left had its own
slogans.
Now what we are trying to do is prepare ourselves because we will
probably have to organize a demonstration this week against a new
agreement or at least against the attempt to sign a new agreement. Our
slogan now is “No up to the end.”
We organized a counter-demonstration against the reactionary big
demonstrations for the “Yes” in the center of Athens last Thursday, and
we did it with some other far-left groups, because Antarsya did not
agree as a whole. I think our group played an important role with some
important initiatives and we will continue to do so.
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Posted in Economy, Europe, International. | Tagged Antarsya, Greece,
Manos, OKDE, Tsipras.
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