The
crisis of Greek capitalism is clear for all to see. The bosses want
draconian economic policies to be implemented, but the workers have
already given more than they can afford to give. Bosses and workers are
on a collision course as the call for a 24-hour general strike on
February 24 clearly demonstrates.
Greek capitalism is at a critical point in its history. After 16
years of permanent growth in its GDP, we have now entered the second
year of “negative growth”, i.e. decline in production. In 2009 GDP fell
by 1.6% and in 2010 a similar figure is expected. In some European
countries there are signs of a recovery – albeit weak and unstable ‑
but Greek capitalism, the weakest link in the chain is falling into a
deep slump.
We saw a sharp fall in industrial production of 24.5% in 2009
(September 2008 to September 2009). The Minister of Labour, Andreas
Lomverdos, at the end of last year, speaking in parliament, predicted
that in 2010 Greece would see a fall in investments of 20%.
Unemployment meanwhile is growing rapidly. In 2009 186,000 jobs were
lost.
Unemployment shoots up
In November of last year the official rate of unemployment was
pushed up to 10.6%, up from the figure of 9.8% in October. A year
earlier the rate stood at 7.8%, which gives an indication of the trend
throughout the whole of 2009. There are now well over 500,000
unemployed in Greece.
This is in a country of a little over 11 million people. It would be
like having 3 million unemployed in a country the size of Britain or
Italy. From 1999 through to 2008 unemployment levels had been falling
in Greece. Now we see a sudden sharp rise. However, this is not the end
of the story. The Minister of Labour recently announced that
unemployment could soon hit the 20% mark, which would mean a doubling
of the number of unemployed to around one million.
This crisis of capitalism is bringing into sharp relief the
structural weaknesses of Greek capitalism. Its main weakness is its
very limited productive base. Industry as a percentage of overall GDP,
already weak in the past, has actually gone down over recent years as
Services have shot up, as the chart here shows:
Structure of Greek Economy
| % of GDP |
1984-85 |
1994-95 |
2003-04 |
| Agriculture |
13.5 |
10.7 |
6.9 |
| Industry |
30.5 |
24.4 |
23.8 |
| Services |
56.0 |
65.0 |
69.3 |
The other weakness of Greek capitalism is revealed by its heavy
dependence on the state. The Greek bourgeoisie developed much later
than the stronger more powerful national bourgeoisies of countries like
Britain, France and Germany. The backward nature of Greek capitalism
has always meant therefore that private capital required massive
subsidies from the state.
Until recently the Greek economy was expanding, but one has also to
look at what this growth was based on. Traditionally Greece had a low
level of credit spending but during the recent boom this changed
dramatically with a massive expansion of credit at all levels. As of
2003 consumer spending based on credit took off significantly. There
was a massive shift to retail lending that started in 2003 with the
total liberalisation of consumer credit. The banking system was taking
“lessons” from countries like Britain and the USA. A databank was set
up to gather credit histories of individuals seeking credit card loans
and mortgages.
The then deputy governor of the Bank of Greece (the central bank),
Panayotis Thomopoulos, was boasting that, "Greece has 55% of the
European average in relation to consumer credit as a percentage of GDP,
so there is still some way to go. There is room for consumer credit
growth of at least 20%." The logic was that with such a relatively low
level of credit there was much room for expansion. The Alpha Bank
released data indicating that mortgage lending as a percentage of GDP
was 17% in Greece in 2003 compared with 32% in the eurozone. Again, the
idea was that with such a low percentage there was room for more.
Easy credit was thus one of the elements that contributed to the
boom. There were other factors such as EU aid and state spending,
particularly around the period of the Athens Olympics which saw massive
funding being supplied, most of the funding coming from the state which
spent over 7billion euros.
Now these two sources of economic growth, state spending and credit
from the banks, have dried up. They have gone beyond the limit of what
is materially possible. The banks are in crisis and the state is
overburdened with debt.
Debt skyrockets
The budget deficit jumped dramatically in the second half of 2009
from 6.2% of GDP to 12.7%, doubling in just six months. Three factors
contributed to this sudden leap in debt. First there were lower tax
revenues due to the impact of the recession. This adds to the already
chronic level of tax evasion in Greece. Secondly, for some time the
Greek government had been hiding the real level of debt and state
expenditure from the EU. This was in order to facilitate funding from
the EU. Now of course it has all backfired. And thirdly, the outgoing
New Democracy government last year, in an attempt to win the elections
and stay in office was spending money it didn’t really have to spend,
for instance, delaying the question of “labour reform” on such issues
as temporary workers. Now officially the national debt stands at 112.7%
but it has been estimated that the real figure is closer to 120%.
This situation explains the present crisis affecting Greece, which
could have dramatic effects for the whole of the eurozone. The Greek
bourgeoisie together with the EU Commissioners are getting extremely
concerned, not so much because of the rate of the budget deficit and
overall level of debt – other EU countries have equally high budget
deficits, among them Britain – but because of the grim perspectives for
the Greek economy.
The world crisis of capitalism is revealing which countries have the
strength to resist in the world market, which countries have an
industrial base that allows them to compete and survive in the world
market. Greek wages are low compared to most eurozone member states and
yet instead of going up Greek competitivity has actually gone. That
indicates the parasitic nature of the Greek bourgeoisie, which has not
invested sufficiently in productive capacity and technique. The cost of
labour per unit of production in the past ten years has actually risen
by 30% compared to Germany, where wages are far higher. The reason for
this is that the average German worker is more productive because he or
she has far more advanced technology and machinery to work with. Thus,
although German wages may be higher, the amount that each worker
produces in a day’s work is far greater than in a country like Greece.
The serious bourgeois fear that Greece – because it is falling
further and further behind its competitors ‑ will not be in a position
to pay its debts and will in fact accumulate more, thus preparing the
conditions for the country defaulting on its payments. This year 13 of
the 16 eurozone countries will be under observation by the EU
Commission, but of these Greece is the one that is giving greatest
concern to the EU officials.
The international and Greek bourgeoisie are putting immense pressure
on the Greek government to carry out serious cuts, like those applied
in Ireland. In fact in Greece they use the example of Ireland
constantly. What they conveniently forget is that not so long ago
Ireland was considered a model “neo-liberal” economy. In spite of this
Ireland also is very much in crisis and is having to apply stringent
cuts in spending.
As we have seen, Greek banks played an important role providing easy
cheap credit. Now the Greek banking system is facing a severe crisis.
In the past Greek banks invested heavily in Eastern Europe and Turkey.
Now, however, because of the crisis in countries like Lithuania and the
Ukraine, Greek banking profits have plummeted.
Karamanlis, leader of the bourgeois New Democracy party has been forced
to resign over the abyssmal election results. Photo by New Democracy.A year ago Karamanlis’s New Democracy helped the banks with a €28 billion handout.
This was partly in direct cash, and partly through the government
becoming guarantor for the banks’ exposed loans, thereby transforming
the private debt of the banks into public debt. Now the Greek economy
faces a situation of practically permanent slump conditions. Serious
bourgeois analysts are comparing the situation to that of stagnation
faced by Japan in the past.
A large number of Greek families have survived in the recent period
only by getting further and further into debt and we will see in the
coming period many of these facing personal bankruptcy. Also, many
small businesses will face collapse in the next period. Debts will not
be paid and therefore the banks will suffer even more.
In 2009 the Greek banks received loans from the ECB (European
Central Bank) at rates close to 1% and then they passed this on as
loans in Greece at the rate of 4%. This reveals the utterly parasitic
nature of the Greek banks, that were getting money for nothing and with
the easy profits they were making, instead of facilitating lending,
they were reducing their deficits accumulated in the previous period.
Similarly to other European countries that had massively bailed out
their banks, the huge amounts of public money thrown at the banks did
not induce these to make mortgages easier to get. In fact the growth of
credit fell year-on-year in June 2009 by 7.9%. This affected both small
businesses and family households.
What made things worse at the end of last year was when Trichet of
the ECB announced they were going to cut loan facilities to Greece.
This prepared the present nightmare scenario for the Greek financial
system. The situation is so critical that any major bank could collapse
in Greece in the coming period, and this time the government would not
be in a position to carry out a large-scale bailout like last time.
This means that the only option open to the bourgeois is to apply
“shock therapy” as they call it, with massive cuts in social spending,
involving the sacking of large numbers of public sector workers, wage
freezes and so on.
Crisis in New Democracy
This is causing huge political problems for the Greek bourgeoisie.
It is the present deep crisis of Greek capitalism that led to the
defeat of the conservative New Democracy party back in October. Not
only was it a defeat; with only 32.3% of the votes it was the biggest
defeat for the party since 1974, when it was founded.
That defeat has led to a big internal crisis in ND, with a bitter
leadership battle following after the leader resigned. The two main
contenders were Dora Bakoyanni and Andonis Samaras. Bakoyanni is the
daughter of a previous Prime Minister, Mitsotakis and also the
ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs. Samaras in the 1990s led a split from
the ND when he brought down the then Mitsotakis government in 1993,
although in the late 1990s he returned to the ranks of the ND.
During the contest all opinion polls indicated that the ND with
Bakoyanni at the head would find it difficult to recover in the coming
period. This is because Bakoyanni is totally identified with US
imperialism, the policies of the recent Karamanlis government and the
bourgeois elite and is a very unpopular politician in Greek society.
Samaras on the other hand has the image of being a rebel against the
leadership, a populist who uses patriotic rhetoric, such as on the
question of “Macedonia”. This is regularly used by the right wing in
Greece to divert attention away from the real social problems. To this
day Greece insists that Macedonia cannot us this name, but must call
itself FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia). The reason for
this, they claim, is that Macedonia could develop aspirations to expand
into Greek territory, as the northern part of Greece is also called
Macedonia. The idea that little weak Macedonia could ever seriously
threaten Greece is laughable, but it is kept in reserve to frighten
Greeks and foment nationalism.
The problem of the Greek bourgeoisie is that its direct political
representative, the New Democracy party has been seriously damaged by
its recent period in office. Therefore one section of the bourgeoisie
understands the need to clean up the image of ND and give it a new
profile if it is to play a role in the future.
There is also the added factor that Bakoyanni seems to have been
involved big time in the Siemens scandal, which involved the Mitsotakis
family. The German company Siemens allegedly paid over 100 million
euros to Greek officials in order to win state contracts.
Considering all these problems, Samaras was seen as a populist
leader that would be able to unite the social base of the party,
galvanising the right-wing vote.
The ND thus proceeded to organise open primaries for the position of
party leader and Samaras won with 52%, and Bakoyanni coming second with
39%, and Psomiadis coming in third. The latter, the mayor of Greater
Saloniki, represents the extreme right of the party.
From the bourgeois point of view this was a good result as they hope
that with this “new leadership” the party will be stronger. In fact at
the end of 2009 ND was picking up in the polls somewhat, falling only
10 percentage points behind the PASOK, whereas just after the elections
it was 20 points behind. Samaras is now trying to consolidate the
right-wing voters and may even appeal to the extreme right-wing LAOS
party of Karatzaferis for collaboration in parliament.
Dilemma of the new PASOK government
in spite of everything the right wing could do, it was the PASOK that
emerged as the big winner in the elections. But the new Papandreou
government is very different to the previous PASOK government of
Simitis. Simitis governed at the peak of the boom and during a period
of relative lull in the class struggle. Except for the year 2001 he
governed during a period of falling strike figures. Now the economic,
social and political situation in Greece is very different.
Back in 2001, after a general strike, Simitis was forced to withdraw
his proposed attacks on pensions and other welfare reforms. Because of
the boom, he could afford to delay some of the planned attacks on
welfare. Now this new PASOK government has far less room to manoeuvre.
The ruling class is putting huge pressure on it in a period where there
is no economic growth. And at the same time the Greek labour movement
and the youth is in a stage of recovery and reawakening.
Since 2004, under the ND government there were eleven general
strikes, three of which were very big. There were many youth movements
in the universities and schools, culminating in the December 2008
semi-insurrectionary explosion after the killing of a school student by
the police. We saw then the courageous stand of the school students who
were the most active protagonists of that movement.
In such a situation Papandreou realises he must tread carefully. In
fact, in the first couple of months in office he tried to ignore the
pressure coming from the bourgeois, both in Greece and internationally.
He was publicly insisting that the rich should pay and not the poor and
the pensioners. This reflected the huge pressure he felt from below,
from the millions of working class families that are taking the brunt
of the present crisis, who voted in the PASOK because they want a
government that will govern in their interests.
Thus, one of the first measures he introduced was to give small
subsidies of between €300 and €800 to the pensioners and the unemployed
and also to impose a special tax on the rich and the private companies.
This provided a small revenue income of €300 million euros as a one-off
tax that was applied only for this year. This was clearly not what the
bourgeois were expecting from Papandreou.
This contradictory approach of Papandreou reflected the pressure
from below, of the social base of his party, the working class. An
example of these contradictory class pressures being brought to bear on
the PASOK government was when Papaconstantinou, the Minister of
Finance, announced a wage freeze for all those in the public sector
earning over €2000 a month. The leader of the PASOK MPs in parliament,
Papoutsis, came out publicly against and the government was forced to
back off. But then the pressure of the Greek and international
bourgeois was brought to bear again on the government and in
mid-December 2009 a wage freeze in the public sector was finally
announced, together with other measures to create a “better mood” in
the markets.
Before all this – and in order to pile on even more pressure –
Greece was demoted by the credit rating agencies from A to B, which has
had the effect of making borrowing for Greece more expensive, i.e. it
has to borrow at a rate of interest 2-3% percentage points higher, thus
actually contributing to making the debt even bigger. The banks started
to feel the squeeze even more as this situation was clearly eating into
their ability to make easy profits.
It was this outside pressure that pushed Papandreou into another
about turn and proceed to impose the original proposal of a wage freeze
in the public sector as a well as freeze on hiring news staff – with
the exclusion of Health and Education. This also did not meet all the
demands of the bourgeois as most hiring in the public sector in Greece
today is precisely in Health and Education. They considered this as
Papandreou playing games with them! They in fact defined it as a “joke”.
However, in attempting to appease the bourgeois, Papandreou also
announced some further measures of privatisation. Before being
re-elected he had promised the renationalisation of Olympic Airways and
OTE (telecommunications). At the same time, in order to appease the
workers, he imposed a 90% tax on bankers’ bonuses! This attracted the
wrath of Kathimerini, one of the serious bourgeois journals in Greece
that accused him of “populism” as according to them this was not the
solution to the problem.
The pressure of the bourgeois media has been unremitting. There has
been a constant barrage against Papandreou, demanding he take action.
This led him to announce a radical change in the Greek social security
system and he opted for one similar to that introduced in Chile under
Pinochet. The plan is to guarantee a small minimum pension for all and
the rest is to be covered by workers having to turn to private pension
funds. This goes hand in hand with plans to cut pensions and raise the
age of retirement.
From the very beginning – in fact even before the elections –
Papandreou has been fully aware of what his task is, but due to his
fear of arousing the working class he tried to compromise, trying to be
all things to all men. But Greek capitalism has no time to spare. The
level of the state deficit means they must cut and cut and cut.
Greece is staring default in the face. The EU has stepped in only to
avoid the IMF coming into what is part of the eurozone. In these
conditions the pressure is remorseless. Papandreou’s initial measures
were only a prologue to what we are seeing now, an even bigger attack
on welfare.
What Papandreou is aware of is that the PASOK can be pulled in
different directions. Already there are clear signs of a division
within the government. There are two basic wings. One is gathered
around Papaconstantinou and Pangalos (the vice-premier) who represent
the openly “neo-liberal” wing that is demanding more cuts. Another wing
is gathered around Nora Katseli, the Minister for Growth (ex-Trade and
Commerce), that is demanding measures to put more pressure on the banks
and to provide greater relief for the poor and the indebted.
Pressure on the trade union leaders
Papandreou is attempting to balance between the two wings. However,
it must be said that there are no fundamental differences between these
two wings at this stage. Both wings declare themselves for the
“market”. At this stage there is not yet a genuine left opposition
inside the party. That is something we will see in the future, starting
first in the trade union wing, the PASKE faction in the GSEE (general
confederation of workers) and in ADEDY (public sector workers).
The trade union leaders linked to the PASOK until recently were
still trying to hold back the ranks. For example, while in the recent
big public sector strike, ADEDY was no longer in a position to hold
back the pressure from below, the leaders of the GSEE did not call
their members out. Now, however, under the pressure from below and
because of the big attacks on the workers, the trade union leaders have
been forced to abandon the “dialogue table” and call a 24-hour general
strike for February 24.
What has the attitude of the Greek working class been towards
Papandreou since he was elected? First of all one has to remember that
it was the working class that voted him in. Initially it would be
natural for them to wait and see what he could achieve. They do not see
him as the enemy, but as a “friend”. But as each day passes, and as the
policy of Papandreou is exposed more and more for what it is, important
layers of the working class have been rapidly losing these illusions.
The truth is that the mass of the working class, since the beginning
of the recession, has been in a state of shock, of fear. Mass sackings
created a spirit of terror, of fear of losing their jobs. This was
enhanced by the role of the leadership, which has offered no
alternative. This is also true of what in Greece is called the
“traditional left”, i.e. those parties that emanate from a Communist
tradition, the KKE (Communist Party) and Synaspismos. These two parties
combined received over 12% of the vote, which highlights the fact that
a significant layer of the Greek working class and the youth already
have no confidence in the PASOK government. The problem is that their
leaderships have proven incapable of offering a real alternative
perspective to the working class.
The trade union leaders are also facing a dilemma. In reality they
have no coherent alternative to the policies of the PASOK government.
We can see that on the question of social security “reform”. In spite
of the government attacks both Panagopoulos, the President of the GSEE,
and Papaspirous, President of ADEDY, continued to “dialogue” with the
government for a “common solution” to all the problems. But as we have
seen, the pressure of the situation forced the ADEDY leaders to call a
general strike on February 11.
The government has been terrorising the people with the idea that
there is only enough money to pay pensions for a further four years.
They ignore the real problem, which has always been the fact that many
private firms evade paying into the social security funds. The fact is
that 30% of all Greek companies do not pay into these funds, because
they operate in the black economy. In the eurozone the level of evasion
is only 5-8%. If the companies that operate in the black economy paid
contributions for the workers they employ, the social security funds
wouldn’t be in such a sorry state.
What is required is workers’ control over the social security
system. That is the only way of solving this problem. Instead the trade
union leaders attempted to limit everything to negotiations with the
government over how much the age of retirement should be raised by and
how much pensions should be cut!
Working class being radicalised
The initial impact of all this was to create confusion within the
workers’ movement and a certain paralysis. That is already beginning to
change now. It started with the “stage” workers (workers paid with
funds provided by the EU special “stage” programme for “work
experience”). These are mainly young workers in the public sector that
are on half wages and without permanent contracts or any rights
whatsoever.
was the sector that felt the main brunt of the attacks of the PASOK
government. They were in fact all sacked! This provoked big strikes of
this 25,000-strong workforce (and three big demonstrations) who then
attempted to link up with other sections. Incredibly, the initial
response of the trade union leaders was that nothing could be done
about this and that the workers must accept the sackings!
We also saw the reaction of the dockworkers against the
privatisation of the Piraeus docks that had been sold to the Chinese
company, COSCO. Before the elections the PASOK leadership had promised
to reverse this privatisation, but once elected it reneged on its
promises. The strike of the dockers, because it came early in the
process, and because there was no leadership, was eventually defeated.
All this led to confusion within the working class and a kind of
“wait-and-see” approach towards the government. The problem was that
the workers were not in a position to wait for long. They have already
made enough sacrifices and there is hardly any room for more.
This is what has led to a complete change in mood of important
layers of the working class, and especially of the youth. There has
been a clear turn to the left in the consciousness of a significant
layer. That mood surfaced clearly in December 2008 and is now surfacing
again.
This radical mood of the youth is reflected in their voting
patterns. Among the youth between the ages of 18 and 25 years, 25%
voted for the KKE and the Synaspismos, i.e. more than twice the level
of support among the wider population. Within the same age group only
17% voted for the ND, about half what this party receives from the
population as a whole.
An opinion poll published in Kathimerini already at the end of
November revealed that 46% of Greeks have a positive opinion about
socialism; that 21-26% of people between the age of 18 and 34 expressed
the view that “we need a revolution”; and 60-65% of all age groups
expressed the view that “we need deep social change”.
This reveals how profound the change in consciousness has been.
Unfortunately this is not yet reflected fully in the leadership of the
left. And because of this crisis of the left we see certain layers of
the youth being attracted to the ultra-left fringe and certain
anarchist moods prevail. The journal Vima published an article in early
December based on a Police Report that revealed that up to December
2008 the anarchists in Athens had 800 members, but had now reached
2000-2500 members.
In fact last year on the traditional November 17 rally to
commemorate the 1973 massacre of the Polytechnic students, the
anarchists had a large turnout, second only to that of the KNE, the
Communist Youth who gathered 2500 youth behind their banners. These
facts are further indicators of the level of youth radicalisation.
Because the reformists offer no solution, a layer of the youth seeks
the road of practical, “direct action” and that is why the anarchists
attract a certain layer at this stage.
In the same opinion poll published by Kathimerini it was found that
4% of youth declare themselves communist, but another 4% declare
themselves “anti-authoritarian”. This is a reflection of the crisis of
reformism. Unfortunately, the marvellous revolutionary potential of a
layer of the youth is being dragged down the blind alley of anarchism.
These are, however, very favourable conditions for the Marxists to
intervene and offer an alternative to the impasse of both anarchism and
reformism. As the labour movement and the working class as a whole put
their mark on the situation, the limitations of the ultra-left will
become clearer.
Under growing pressure from the EU and the Greek bourgeois,
Papandreou has announced stringent measures, with severe cuts in social
spending. This provoked the partial general strike of February 11. It
was partial because it was not called by the whole of the trade union
movement. ADEDY called a strike of the public sector. This is where the
full brunt of the attacks is being felt. But PAME, which is the KKE
faction inside the GSEE also added its name to the call. This produced
an important reaction with big rallies across Greece. As we have seen,
it is clear, that the leaders of the PASOK faction of the GSEE, the
PASKE, would prefer to hold back the workers back, using their
authority as PASOK trade unionists. But the anger of the workers is
growing day by day. There is a limit to what these leaders can do.
There have been strikes by taxi drivers against changes to how they
will be taxed. Customs officials have taken strike action against
measures that would cut their wages. Public servants took part in the
big strike against a pay freeze earlier this month. Yesterday
Papaconstantinou, the Finance Minister, could not get into his office
because striking government workers had set up a picket outside his
ministry building. Outside the same ministry former workers of the
recently privatized Olympic Air were demonstrating.
Meanwhile, the government’s austerity measures are provoking further
strike action. Customs officers ended a 48-hour strike yesterday, but
have announced more strikes for next week. And this has all culminated
in the GSEE leaders call a 24-hour general strike for next Wednesday,
February 24. The fact that the GSEE leaders have finally been forced to
call a general strike is an indication of how strong the pressure from
below has become.
Ultra-left tactics
Now the movement is becoming generalised, but in the recent period
the antics of the PAME leaders did not help in building up a united
working class movement. They have been for some time on what can only
be called a “Third Period” type ultra-left binge. The leaders of PAME
have no real alternative to offer, and to cover this they have been
involved in a kind of “revolutionary gymnastics”.
Back in December they called their own “general strike” on 16th .
They made no attempt to appeal to the PASKE workers for joint action.
There was no preparation, no campaign to convince workers, no
resolutions in the trade unions. It was basically a KKE strike, a party
strike, with a clear division of the working class. They first
announced the strike in the KKE journal, Rizopastis! In the process
they even managed to alienate the Synaspismos trade union members,
accusing them of being simply the “same as PASKE”.
The fact is that the majority of workers voted for the PASOK and
were not keen to join a strike which they saw as being against “their
government”. They were waiting to see what “their government” would
come up with. On November 24 there had already been another such
sectarian approach to calling strikes. There was a PAME strike and
demonstration, which was so small that it was clear that not even all
the KKE members had turned up.
On the December 16 strike there was even division on the left. The
KKE (PAME), the Synaspismos and the various small left groups, all
organised their own separate rallies. This was not the best way to
inspire the PASOK workers that there is a serious alternative on the
left.
However, in spite of all these limitations, it is the sheer pressure
of the situation that has led to the recent February general strike of
ADEDY with PAME. And now the PASKE leaders have finally bee n forced to
call, strike action as well.
Situation in the Communist Party
These ultra-left tactics on the part of the KKE trade union front
have led to some internal criticisms inside the KKE itself, with open
discussions with dissenting views being expressed in the KKE journal
and website. There was also a much more open pre-congress dialogue last
year. This is something new for the KKE. However, it also explains on
the one hand a growing number of expulsions from the party and at the
same time the ultra-left trade union tactics of PAME, the KKE front
inside the GSEE. This has nothing whatsoever to do with Lenin’s tactic
of the united front. It has a lot more to do with the ultra-left turn
at the end of the 1930s under Stalin known as the Third Period.
In an attempt to cover up their own opportunism, the party
leadership at the last party congress pushed for the reaffirmation of
the party’s adherence to Stalinism, justifying the Moscow Trials in the
1930s. All this is an attempt to isolate the party ranks from the
impact of the real objective situation. They try and hide behind the
banner of Stalinism, somehow trying to show that this means they are
still loyal to the ideas of Communism.
Greece has a longstanding historical Communist tradition. Prior to
1974 the main party of the Greek working class was the KKE. To this day
its youth wing, the KNE is the biggest left youth organisation in
Greece. This creates problems for the KKE leaders, for such large
numbers of youth inevitably bring into the party the growing pressures
from the objective situation. In order to cover their own limitation,
therefore, the KKE leaders cover themselves on the left by expressing
allegiance to Stalin and Stalinism. In spite of this however, in the
past this has not saved them from huge opposition mounting from below
and opposition currents and even splits emerging within the KNE. Under
the present circumstances it is inevitable that opposition will grow
once more, as thousands of communist workers and youth seek the genuine
ideas of Lenin and revolutionary Marxism.
The Synaspismos
It is precisely this rigid adherence to Stalinism on the part of the
KKE leaders, combined with ultra-leftism in the trade union front that
explains why the Synaspismos exists. This is a party that was born out
of splits in the KKE in the past. Synaspismos was originally an
electoral coalition towards the end of the 1980s, bringing together the
two Greek Communist Parties, the pro-Soviet Communist Party of Greece
(KKE) and the Greek Left, the successor to the eurocommunist Communist
Party of Greece (Interior). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the
openly Stalinist wing of the KKE purged all the other currents from the
party and broke from the coalition that had made up the Synaspismos.
Since then, to the left of the PASOK there have been two parties,
the KKE and the Synaspismos. The Synaspismos is a much more open party,
where there is greater freedom to express dissenting views. Synaspismos
has promoted an electoral front known as SYRIZA, which has within it
many different left groups. However, the bulk of the front is made up
of the Synaspismos.
The pressures of the objective situation have led to an open
left-right conflict within the party. The right wing is more inclined
to seek an alliance with the PASOK, and also in favour of liquidating
the party. The left wing reacts against this and has been moved further
left under the hammer blows of events.
In 2004 for the first time the left wing of the party took the
position of chairman when Alekos Alavanos was elected party leader. In
2008 he was replaced by Alexis Tsipras, again from the left wing of the
party. But the right wing of the party has been a constant thorn in the
side, with its attempts to pull the party further to the right.
For the past few years the idea has been raised to transform SYRIZA
into a party. Tsipras has defended this idea in the past, even issuing
an open call on all left groups to join a single party with the right
to organize tendencies. This is part of the struggle against the right
wing of the party, which is very small numerically, but has a large
representation in the parliamentary group, with 5 MPs out of the total
of 13 that SYRIZA has.
Before the October elections the right wing of the Synaspismos was
making a lot of noise about splitting and moving towards an alliance
with the PASOK. They based this on the perspectives that the PASOK
would need the right-wing SYRIZA MPs to give it a majority in
parliament. In the end the PASOK won enough seats to govern on its own
and the prospect of a split receded somewhat. However, there is much
resentment within the ranks of the Synaspismos against this wing, as it
is seen as openly working against the party.
The coming period
In the coming period the severe crisis of capitalism is going to put
all the labour movement organisations under immense pressure. The
present PASOK leadership will show in practice where it really stands.
Papandreou will have to carry out the policies dictated by the bankers,
the capitalists, the EU officials. There will be huge cuts in public
spending, sackings of public sector workers, wage freezes and so on.
Unemployment will continue to increase. This will mean enormous
suffering for the masses.
The workers have voted in the PASOK, but with the present policies
the leaders of the party will prepare the conditions for another
defeat, as Simitis did in the past. This will provoke open divisions
within the party as the workers will push for a break with right-wing
policies.
The situation inside Synaspismos will also become more tense, as the
ranks move against the right wing, as they strive for a policy more in
line with the interests of the workers and youth. The KKE will also be
pushed into an ever more radical stance.
A huge majority of the Greek workers voted for left parties in the
recent elections. The forces are there for a radical transformation of
society. Unfortunately, the present PASOK leadership, rather than
acting on the aspirations of the workers who voted them into office,
are bending under the pressure of the bosses. But this situation cannot
hold for ever.
Inevitably, the pressures of the situation will push the workers and
youth of Greece to seek a revolutionary path. That can only be provided
by the ideas of Marxists. The present crisis shows quite clearly that
what the Marxists have argued for all along is the only way out. The
workers’ parties should abandon any attempt to tinker with the
capitalist system and adopt a programme that puts an end to capitalism,
which is the source of all the problems.
The only way of achieving the modest demands of the workers, jobs
for all, good healthcare, decent housing, decent pensions and so on, is
through the nationalisation of the banks and the major companies of
Greece, to be run under workers’ control and management. There is no
other road.
