LEO PANITCH, PROF. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, YORK UNIVERSITY: Well, he was punching the air with his fist in a show of victory before thousands of people in the square just outside the university. And what he said was, first of all, that this was a victory for hope, a victory against the torture of the Greek people, a victory against austerity. He made it very clear that this wasnt just about a victory against the troika. He said the troika is history, given this victory. But he made it very clear this was a victory against what he called the elite and the oligarchs in Greece. I think people need to understand that this is a positive outcome of a clear class struggle. (...) He means the very small number of Greeks who own the Greek economy. This doesnt get talked about much. The enemy gets portrayed as Angela Merkel, etc., but who she is defending, of course, is the ruling class of Greece, who brought Greece into the European Union on the terms it was brought in. Were talking about the great shipowners, the people who used to identify with Aristotle Onassis, although hes been succeeded by a new generation, who werent paying any taxes until last year. Since the military coup in 1967, the first thing they did was remove all taxes from Greek shipowners. And they werent paying any taxes until last year. Were talking about the families who own the private media, the television companies, the newspapers, who own the development companies, the construction companies. They dominate merchant trade. And they are the ones who have benefited from privatization, in partnership with foreign companies who bought up parts of Greece. So its very much a victory for the people. And I think what is particularly remarkable is that its a victory for the Greek left. The left that fought the civil war back at the end of the war, having fought the Nazis, they were defeated in the Cold War. Part of the deal done between Stalin and Roosevelt and Churchill was to leave Greek in the Western sphere of influence. And although it had been the left that had led the struggle for Greek liberation, they were excluded from power, they were excluded from being teachers, civil servants, marginalized and defeated after the Greek Civil War. And its that left that has been chanting--as Tsipras went to cast his vote today in his polling booth in Athens, people were standing around in the streets saying, its finally our turn. Now, its been the young whove been energized, but theres a tremendous sense of historical continuity in this respect, that its finally the turn of the left. And this is not an old Stalinist left. That old Stalinist left associated with the Greek Communist Party, the KKE, got about 5 percent of the vote, and they campaign vociferously against SYRIZA, who they see as traitors for trying to stay in the European Union for being the kind of party which is mobilizing, associated with the social movements, etc. So this is [incompr.] new left but has roots in the long, strong history of the Greek left. Its a great moment for the Greeks. And because theyve been the first ones to do this anywhere in the world since the onset of this crisis--you know what happened in Latin America and Bolivia and Venezuela, in Ecuador and so on, occurred before the crisis. This is the first breakthrough by the left since the 2007 and 2008 crisis began and neoliberalism became more deeply entrenched.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 19:47:39 +0000
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