As a member of Left Unity, Id like to express my sharp disappointment and condemnation—as well as, frankly, disgust—at yesterday’s news that freshly elected Syriza announced that they will form a coalition government with a party called Independent Greeks (whose Greek acronym is *Anel*), who, though adhering to anti-austerity policies on several issues, are also--according to several credible sources-- *a rightwing party, notable for their xenophobia, anti-Semitism and homophobia. This is obviously completely unacceptable. Indeed, in fact, it flows from the very diverse amount of unprincipled consequences which always have and always will be the result of attempting to achieve socialism through a bourgeois parliament, however well intentioned I dont doubt those strategies conceived by people in Syriza to be. And, incidentally, exactly the same applies to those that either support and/or seek to achieve similar things outside of Greece, including the right-wing, reformist wing of Left Unity--who currently, for the record, have a majority on the embryonic partys leadership. Left Unity should put out a public statement ASAP that makes clear that our organisation condemns this decision. In light of this, as well as other issues, revolutionaries, however, should not be sectarian in their approach to partial successes such as the one Syrizas recent serge from a modest position to electoral triumph at a national level in a matter of months still, nevertheless, represents. On the contrary, not only do we welcome the fact that a party openly describing itself as radical left, and openly declaring it doesn’t intend to play ball with the ruthlessly neoliberal *troika*, has won the most votes in a general election, but we don t in effect leave it at that and advocate proceed from then onwards to merely shout slogans from the sidelines. Instead, revolutionaries should seek to work both inside and outside Syriza, and inside and outside its sister parties such as Left Unity, to prepare a revolutionary political alternative over the coming months. So, whilst of course utterly and always defending the Syziia led government against the attacks on it from Greek and European Capital, from the Greek Fascists’ of *Golden Dawn*--attacks which have already been witnessed from either source, and will not, of course, be stopping any time soon--we should also argue, agitate and organize for several significant changes in Syrizas policy; starting--as quickly as possible--for them to *immediately break* this disgustingly un-principled coalition they’ve entered here yesterday with an openly reactionary and racist party. And, following on from this, revolutionaries should argue for and populize a *fully revolutionary programme*, which is based on the burning needs of the Greek working class and it’s allies amongst the lower petit-bourgeois (etc), and has as it’s *crowning policy* is the formation of a *workers government.* Such a programme, is what revolutionary Marxists call a *Transitional programme*, based on and re-elaborated and updated in light of the particular conditions of a particular country at a particular time, but firmly rooted nevertheless in the fundamentals and the successive historical conquests of Marxist theory, strategy and tactics. Syizia, however, though proposing some radical reforms on some issues, and though they have undoubtedly gained sizeable working-class support, is *not* currently a workers government. It is what revolutionary Marxists call a bourgeois workers government. And the struggle for a workers government, though most likely to be a sharper and more quickly occurring one than in other European countries due to unparalleled depth of the current crisis of Greek society even when compared to the corresponding crisis across the continent , is still a struggle that revolutionaries should argue, struggle, and agitate for in *all* European countries—including, over time, in Britain. That is to say, yes, of course, different tactics, relating to a recognition of different conditions and *tempos of development* present in each individual country should of course be taken into account during the various hammering out processes of programmes, strategy and tactics in each different European countries. But they should all very much be *variations on the same theme.*
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 01:25:35 +0000