The January 25 elections was one more “triumph” of civil democracy. It was further proof of the discrediting of a rotten political system, where more than 1/3 of the electoral body turned its back on the “fiesta” of democracy and did not go to vote. Out of the approximately 9.800.000 voters registered in the electoral records participation was at 63,5%, meaning that the valid votes were about 6.180.000, while the other 3.620.000, which accounts for 36,5%, did not go to vote. Out of those who voted, SYRIZA got 36%, i.e. around 2.200.000 voters, meaning that out of all the registered voters, SYRIZA’s government was based on less than 1/4 of the electoral body.
A triumph therefore of “popular dominance” and democratic centralization! In the end it’s not the majority through representatives that “governs” as is supposed, but the minority. It has been proved yet again that the political system of civil parliamentarianism is disparaged by millions of citizens. It was proved that precisely because of this disparaging of the political system as a result of the economic crisis, all the governments of recent years are minority governments and that self-reliance is now impossible. In reality, one could say that the main power are those abstaining
from electoral illusions and staged circuses of professional liars and fraudsters, right or left.
Millions of citizens do not hope for and do not expect anything from any political party. But rage and resentment, when not accompanied by active political action for the subversion of the authority of the supranational economic elite and the civil parliamentarism that supports it, bring no result. We will only ever get rid of the current suffering if the rage and resentment of millions of citizens transforms itself into dynamic political action. Into a wide social and class tendency that places itself the prospect of revolution, the violent and armed subversion of capitalism and the state with a prospect of direct democracy, where instead of people outsourcing social matters to professional politicians they practise it themselves through structures of self-management. As expected, the results of the elections on January 25 brought a coalition government of left and right.
Because how else could you define ANEL [Independent Greek party, the right wing party SYRIZA made a coalition with], a party that comes from the entrails of the traditional nationalist right wing. It has a far-right agenda, with nationalist and orthodox dogma such as “country-religion-family”, a political line characterised by state authoritarianism, law and order dogma, increased intolerance, fear and conspiracy theory talk and an iron fist attitude against those considered dangerous for the country i.e. immigrants, anarchists, armed fighters.
All that is missing are the swastikas. But the SYRIZA people’s thirst for authority as well as that of the ANEL made this weird marriage between left and far-right possible, on the rotten base of a nebulous anti-memorandum block, a marriage never seen before, not only in Greece but also internationally. But the Golden Dawn nazi party is also considered an anti-memorandum party. Contrary to SYRIZA, it is steadfastly against the European Union. An overwhelming majority of its voters are from the area of the traditional nationalist right wing who were disappointed by New Democracy, who until recently expressed the majority of this area and part of which always considered the collaborators and traitors of the (nazi) occupation, the “Chites” [members of group X, military group that cooperated with the nazis during the occupation of Greece] and Security Battalion members [para-military groups that worked closely with the German-Italian forces during the occupation of Greece] “Greek patriots” who saved the country from communism by making an alliance with the Germans.
Many of the voters of ANEL share the same opinion. It is therefore paradoxical that while many, even anarchists, voted for SYRIZA as a bulwark against the far-right, SYRIZA is cooperating with a part of the far-right political spectrum in order to govern. It is a given that many voted for SYRIZA in desperation, believing that they were choosing the lesser of two evils. And the same goes for those anarchists, who by trampling on their own values, voted for SYRIZA because they had promised to abolish the C’type (high security) prisons for political prisoners and armed fighters and because they believe in the mitigation of state oppression authoritarianism by the new government concerning mobilizations and demonstrations. But even if the government of SYRIZA-ANEL, in a tactical move, were to abolish the C’type prisons, this would not excuse voting and the trampling on revolutionary anarchist values.
Because demands are won with struggles, as the history of the revolutionary movement has shown, not with concessions by each relevant authority, which, for tactical reasons, in this case for reasons of assimilation of the anarchist-antiauthoritarian milieu, knows how to use the carrot and if necessary also the stick. The vote of anarchists for SYRIZA was bought. It is a ridiculous phenomenon to see anarchists demonstrating alongside the youth division of the governing party, which cooperated with far-right members of ANEL on the Imia incident anniversary, against the gathering of Golden Dawn.
Movements have carried out anti-fascist struggle, armed anti-fascist struggle – such as the anarchists in Spain in 1936 – and not the elected governments. Now the coalition state of SYRIZA and far-right ANEL is “anti-fascist”!! Just as Samaras’ government was “anti-fascist” because it imprisoned members of Golden Dawn!! In reality, all those who consider themselves a fighter or anarchist and voted, have not shown that they made a good tactical manoeuvre, but proved their political weaknesses, the lack of political will to contribute to creating an anti-capitalist revolutionary movement in order for us to subvert the regime which is responsible for the crisis and the ills it has caused.
With their stance they proved that they have been assimilated and become the tail of a government that is the leftist crutch of capitalism. Obviously they have forgotten the historical chant we used to shout at protests, “the bosses are the same – right and left”. The assuming of government by SYRIZA does not change the stance of those anarchists who consider themselves consistent and are dedicated to the struggle for revolution, the struggle for the subversion of capital and the state and in this struggle SYRIZA, like every government, stands in the way as an obstacle and an enemy.
As I said in the text “The solution is not given by elections but by the armed people”, the duration of the SYRIZA-ANEL coalition will be short and will have the same luck as the previous governments of Samaras and Papandreou. Because it will decompose and collapse under the weight of its contradictions and the breach of their pre-election declarations, not being able to avoid responsibility for the policies it will be obliged to enforce and the compromises with the lenders and the supranational economic elite.A big question for the post SYRIZA era is what political reserves does the system have for managing the crisis in Greece. Additional proof of the already obvious instability of today’s government that will speed up the crisis and its collapse, is not only the pluri-tendency of its components, but also its cooperation with the far-right ANEL.
It is a given that this government will disappoint many of those who voted for SYRIZA, precisely because of the great expectations it created and because of its “leftist” profile.Already the declarations of the new government on the night of the elections from the mouth of the new prime-minister Tsipras – that they would not come into conflict with the lenders and the supranational economic elite – presage the coming compromises. Because there is no middle road between conflict and subjugation. And since the new government will not create conflict, it will have to subjugate.
What we said as Revolutionary Struggle has been proved, that neither SYRIZA nor any other party of the regime desires war with the supranational elite and the lenders, and that their only concern is authority, to eat from the pie of authority.Already the matter of abolishing memorandum conventions, as some members of SYRIZA had propagated before the elections, is a thing of the past, now in the time-box of history, and has been replaced by what was expected, the renegotiating of the memorandums and the debt.
This means that they do not refuse the memorandum, or the debt, i.e. the shackles of the Greek people.Even before “the cock crowed”, we had the first and main treachery and breach of the pre-election declarations for which they were voted. Although they declare that they are suspending completion of some privatizations, such as part of Pireus harbour (OLP) and the National Electricity Company (DEI) or the Public Natural Gas Company (DEPA), they state that they will respect the conventions that exist so far and that it is for investment, namely for the exploitation of the people, the workers and the natural resources of the country for capital.Lafazanis, the minister of production reconstruction and member of the left platform and defender of the Drachma [Greek currency before the euro], stated that he is for the privatization of DEPA, as well as saying that all memorandum laws will be abolished bit by bit.
As for the new minister of economy Varoufakis, he states that he is in favour of privatization giving the example of privatizing OLP. Prime minister Tsipras, on Bloomberg, assures that the country will fulfil its obligations to the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while Varoufakis at his meeting in Paris with his French counter-part, states that he is in favour of a new contract or a new deal with the partners-lenders. This means the adoption of a new program, irrelevantly of whether its called a memorandum or not, with obligatory enforcement of new measures, cuts, or corrective structural changes.He said the same at the banquet in the City of London organized by Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch. Let me recall that the previous Samaras government was also going to take new measures, after the last evaluation by the troika, with the adoption of a new program that in their words was not be a new memorandum.
The retreat of SYRIZA concerning their pre-election declarations continues unabated under the weight of the lenders and especially after the decision of the ECB not to accept Greek bonds, a decision that although it will be effective as of February 28th when the current program-memorandum ends, will come in effect many days earlier in order to put pressure on the Greek government to submit under fear of liquidity, shortage and bankruptcy as the cash reserves of the country are becoming increasingly more scarce. Thus the regressions, the blatant contradictions and the self-denials of statements and declarations, continue. Although Varoufakis, when meeting Dijsselbloem spoke of tearing up the memorandum, in his meeting with Schauble he stated that he will respect 67% of the memorandum obligations.
As for the new vice-minister of Economy, Valavani, although she initially asked for the resignation of the management of the TAIPED (Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund), with the prospect of evolving it, a week later she set aside her decision under the weight of developments. Otherwise, they continue to fool the people about the end of the memorandum era. They are the most vulgar dealers of hopes of a whole people.
Already the first samples what we wrote as Revolutionary Struggle a few days after the elections, when we attacked the Management Oversight of the Bank of Greece, the infeasibility and utopianism of the socialist-democratic proposals of SYRIZA have been proved by its complete retreat on all matters of management of the crisis and its transformation into a socialist-neoliberal party. There has never been a faster rebuttal of pre-election promises in the history of Greek politics than the SYRIZA one.
The policy of the SYRIZA-ANEL government is not different to the policy of its predecessors and sooner or later will lead to its political bankruptcy and collapse, as happened to its predecessors. You cut the chains that hold the Greek people, namely the debt and the rescue memorandum-program, completely. You do not negotiate their lengthening. This can only be carried out by a revolution with the people armed, and this happens: with the non-recognition and unilateral deletion of the entire debt, the abolishment of the memorandum laws and the deletion of all debts of the people towards the banks, the return of small properties repossessed by banks, the abolishment of the banking system and the socialization of bank assets.
As well as the re-appropriation and socialization of the wealth of capital and state, big businesses and multinationals.
A re-appropriation that will include liquidity, movable and unmovable property. The economy reconstruction will be funded and supported materially on the basis of self-management and self-organization, just as industrial and productive reconstruction will be supported, the reconstruction of agricultural production and the self-organization of social life everywhere. Only such a revolutionary procedure will provide a solution to the suffering caused by the capitalist crisis. It will eliminate class and social divisions, it will give the management of social matters to the people, through structures of self-organization and self-management, through a con-federal system of popular assemblies and labour councils that will enact libertarian communism.
Therefore it is the duty of all fighters, it is the duty of the anarchist-antiauthoritarian milieu, it is the duty of all of us to work for the creation of a revolutionary movement for the subversion of capital and the state and exploit the political bankruptcy of the clowns of SYRIZA and the political system generally.
NO TRUCE – NO ASSIMILATION — LET’S BUILD A REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT — ARMED COUNTER-ATTACK FOR THE SUBVESRION OF THE STATE AND CAPITAL
Nikos Maziotis, member of Revolutionary Struggle — Domokos prisons