Negotiations With Trioka Show Greeks What They Face, Now a Debate Must Begin in Greece: Democracy or the EU?
The political groundswell in Greece that elected a coalition of the radical left, Syriza, has had its popular mandate destroyed in its negotiations with the troika, European bankers and the IMF. The bankers made an example of Greece by refusing to budge on the requirements of the debt repayments and are holding Greece in a banker’s vice — no matter what the people of Greece want. This is a warning to Spain, Italy, Ireland and other debtor nations warning them that democratic votes to not change the bankers notes.
Syrzia should not take this defeat as the end of the process, but rather as a new understanding of their predicament and the need to find new strategies and tactics in order to regain their freedom, liberty and democracy. The bankers will be watching Greek politics very closely, so this is no easy task, but it is a task they must pursue unless they want to accept living under the bankers thumb with all of their democracy squashed out of their nation — a nation where democracy was first born may not be an example of the death of democracy.
Stathis Kouvelakis teaches political theory at King’s College London and serves on the central committee of Syriza writes in Jacobin “The strategy of Syriza’s leadership has failed miserably. But it’s not too late to avert total defeat.” He writes that “given that the target of the outrageous budgetary surpluses has been retained, along with the totality of the troika machinery of supervision and assessment, any notion of relaxation of austerity appears out of touch with reality. . . the course of the ‘negotiations,’ with the revolver of the ECB up against its head and resultant panic in the banks, the Greek positions underwent near-total collapse.” He notes that Greece had no support from any other country in Europe.
What is the strategy that can work? First, Syriza must face reality and tell the Greek people the truth, they must stop “passing off meat as fish” (quoting a Greek saying). Kouvelakis concludes:
we must look reality in the face and speak the language of honesty. The debate on strategy must finally recommence, without taboos and on the basis of the congress resolutions of Syriza, which for some time now have been turned into innocuous icons.
If Syriza still has a reason for existing as a political subject, a force for the elaboration of emancipatory politics, and for contribution to the struggles of the subordinated classes, it must be a part of this effort to initiate an in-depth analysis of the present situation and the means of overcoming it.
“The truth is revolutionary,” to cite the words of a famous leader who knew what he was talking about. And only the truth is revolutionary, we may now add, with the historical experience we have since acquired.
Richard Seymour of the London School of Economics writes “Syrzia’s Mauling at the EU Negotiations” summarizes the situation writing:
After a period of enjoyable defiance, during which they won the backing of the overwhelming majority of the Greek people – 80% according to a poll taken before the latest deal, published in today’s Avgi – they have come back with small change. Pushed to the point where they were at risk of a collapse of the banking system, and unprepared for a Grexit (and thus unable to use it as a bargaining chip), they accepted the most comprehensive drubbing.
He argues that the Syriza experience, having an anti-austerity government, go to the wall against the Troika, has now clarified what the Greek government (and any other who defies the Troika) is facing.
it is only because we have now had the experience of an anti-austerity government go to the wall in an attempt to reverse austerity within the eurozone that we can now contemplate the emergence of a significant anti-euro constituency within Greece. Further, there will be opportunities to build this: every time the troika rejects a needed reform, this can and should be held up as an object lesson in what Europe means.
So, Syriza helped more than the re-election of New Democracy would have to understand the true situation. This will result in a debate within Syriza:
. . . there will now be a huge argument within Syriza over the acceptance of this deal, and the old slogan of ‘not one sacrifice for the euro’ will make a come back. Manolis Glezos, an iconic figure from the antifascist resistance and prominent within Syriza, is the first to have gone public with his dissent. He is calling for a campaign up and down the party not to accept this deal, and will vote against it. He will not be the last. Next week, there will be a rally in Syntagma Square, with the slogan ‘We’re not afraid of Grexit’.
He concludes describing this moment as “a nodal point and not the end point in the process of Greek workers finding a solution to their dilemma.”