Why is Syriza a hopeless option for revolutionary forces

Why is Syriza a hopeless option for revolutionary forces

Revisionist left across the world , struck with historic phase of  desperation and depression , was charged with a gladly wave after the victory of Syriza in the recent bourgeois elections in Greece and it’s coalition with right wing party Anel to form the new government. But it’s a matter of few weeks after the new government came to power that the true face of Syrizan politics is out in open. In the recent talks held with the European union , Syriza failed to keep the promises it made to the working class of Greece before elections. 

The Syriza government literally succumbed to the neoliberal agenda of Germany in the recent agreement with the European Union. In the agreement Syriza government has agreed to the old memorandum and ‘application’ laws which were responsible for the unemployment , inflation and poverty levied on the Greek masses. The electoral promise to the people by Syriza on its attitude towards the European union was also fulfilled and turned out to be just opposite. The Syriza promised that it will come up with such a draft of legislature which will nullify the old memorandum and special ‘application’ laws . But instead it agreed to the same old memorandum and special laws. Thus Syriza continues to follow the same policies in this regard as the previous government and if we leave aside its “burning” ultra-left slogans , it’s political roadmap seems to be noway different from the previous government. Infact Syriza has gone ahead with the continuation of the debt agreement , rather than the memorandum, but as we all know that the continuation of debt agreement actually means the continuation of the memorandum itself.

Continuation of the debt superintendence in the new agreement with the European Union means that in order to draw the new batch of financial help for the month of June , Greece will have to frame new ‘special’ anti-people laws in its parliament. Thus neither the Greek working population will be relieved from the economic domination of the European union, nor will they get the leavings and refuse which was promised to them by Syriza before the formation of the government. Now Syriza is openly admitting that it will implement even the petty reforms only if the lenders and financial conditions of the country allow them to do so. It is the same Syriza who called the European commission , IMF and the European central banks as “Troika” of imperialism, but now merely considers them “three institutions” . The new agreement made by Syriza serves the profit of the capitalists as were the agreements by the former governments and burdens the imperialist economic crisis on the working class.

Thus it is crystal clear now that the Syriza government has continued the same economic policies as the previous governments of New Democracy and Pasok which were responsible for the miseries of the Greek masses since last few years and served the interests of profit and finance . European union has refused any help to the Government till June as it wants to ensure that the new Greek government faithfully continues the previous policies , at the cost of deduction in minimum wages and denying the reimplementation or increment in the pension scheme. This means that European union wants to ensure that the Syriza burdens the imperialist economic crisis over the Greek working class, and the new Government is faithfully proceeding in that direction. But despite this there are fair chances that the crisis doesn’t end and there is full scope that the Greek government fails to give back the loans of IMF on time. One more reason behind this is that Syriza government has decided not to increase the corporate taxes and taxes for rich and upper middle class. Plus it is also planning  to raise the most reactionary tax i.e. VAT in tune with the demand of IMF in this regard. While Syriza is doing everything possible to reach an agreement that will satisfy finance capital, there are concerns within ruling circles that the troika’s intransigence leaves no room for Syriza to manoeuvre and placate social opposition that will grow as austerity worsens. In a sign of growing tensions, Panos Kammenos—who leads Syriza’s coalition partners, the right-wing xenophobic Independent Greeks—is ramping up his party’s nationalist bile. Greece’s Syriza-led government is endorsing the US-led “war on terror” and promoting militarism to divert rising social opposition to its sweeping austerity policies. At a conference on defence and security organised by the American-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce in Athens on Tuesday, Greece’s defence minister and leader of the far-right Independent Greeks (Anel), Panos Kammenos, said Greece would allow NATO to use its military bases for wars in the Middle East. Kammenos declared, “Greece is ready to undertake this initiative in NATO’s southern sector.” He added that Greece would allow the use of its “facilities, our armed forces and large bases in the region of the southern Aegean, to facilitate the forces of the alliance in the war against terrorism.” Kammenos’ comment underscores the reactionary character of the Syriza-led government. Since it came to power in January, having campaigned on promises to end austerity, it has repudiated its promises and intensified draconian austerity measures demanded by the troika—the European Union (EU), European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Now Syriza’s austerity policies are accompanied by its support for reactionary wars conducted by the US and its European allies in the Middle East. In fact, the differences inside the Syriza-Anel coalition government on the escalation of imperialist wars in the Middle East are of a purely tactical character, over how quickly and how openly to adopt a pro-war posture. Both Syriza and Anel are committed, however, to supporting US-led wars and the broader geo-strategic interests of the imperialist powers of NATO. Soon after taking office, Tsipras made clear his support for NATO foreign policy by declining to veto EU financial sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine. Instead, Syriza voted to escalate EU sanctions against Russia as the US and NATO threatened war with Moscow. Before the election campaign, during Tsipras’ meeting with officials in the major imperialist countries, Tsipras repeatedly made clear that Syriza would not jeopardise NATO policies if it were elected.

Thus in the present scenario , Syriza government is left with no other options to pay the loans but privatization. And in this regard , Syriza has given green signal for privatization of the public sector industries. Even the strategic areas of Greek economy like Airport, Piraeus port etc. are set to be handed over to the multinational companies. These privatizations will lead to handing over of more than 50% shares into the hands of corporate houses. Thus it is the implementation of the same policies under which ‘Troika’ forced the previous Greek governments on deduction upto 30% of GDP in public expenditure,  upto 29 % on wages in public sectors and 27% deduction in social security. Thus Greece is heading towards a terrible crisis once again. This crisis would have been prevented only if the Greek government nationalized all the banks and big companies , had it declared all the mines and minerals in its region as collective public property, would have formulated state investment scheme and implementation of employment generating economic plans, sever all its ties from the Eurozone and establish its own currency and would have made monetary flexibility in its economy so that the domestic produce could be evenly and equitably distributed . But implementation of the above mentioned steps would actually mean opposing the capitalist class of the country and the European imperialists, Curbing of the properties of the super rich corporate capitalist class, abolition of private property and beginning of a socialist establishment. Of course these changes would not have been peaceful. The country would have witnessed a revolutionary civil war and only a fierce violent class struggle would have decided the fate of the country’s future. The political ideology of Syriza doesn’t allow her to follow this path. That is why Syriza had to buy a time of four months in which it hopes to build up an opinion in Greek and whole of Europe on the welfare policies and meanwhile succeed to persuade the imperialist forces to end up austerity policies which is merely a castle builder. In the case of non-fulfillment of this “day-dream” , the Syriza government will continue to drift more and more towards the “right” side of political and economic sphere and in course of time there will remain no difference between its economic policy and that of European social democrats. It won’t be surprising if the condition of Syriza turns out to be similar to social democratic party, Pasok in times to come.

Since Greece’s problems stem from the worldwide capitalist crisis of overproduction , and Syriza , for all its “far left” designation , is not committed to the overthrow of capitalism and establishment of socialism , it is self evident that a Syriza government cannot save Greece any more than any other bourgeois government can. The choice facing a Greece that continues to be capitalist is between , (a) continuing to service an unpayable debt while the economy sinks into oblivion ; securing easier terms of repaying all or part of the debt and (c) defaulting. All these options , under the present economic system will have repercussions for the well being of the working class of the whole of Europe including Greece.

Anyways, Syriza had already relieved the capitalists and corporate houses of their fears before the formation of the government by saying that they need not be afraid of Syriza. The politics of Syriza , clearly prohibits a revolutionary change. Tsipras once said that his party doesn’t believe in Bolshevism and the era of “storming the winter palace” is over. Of course it is useless to expect that in the new socialist revolutions , “storming the winter-palace” or something of  that sort will happen , but the words “storming the winter-palace” used by Tsipras were actually metaphor for change through revolutionary path and according to him , snatching of power by one class from another by force is useless. In its new avatar of social democracy and neo-revisionism , Syriza accommodates in it , all the flavors of world bank nurtured spices like bourgeois feminism, identity politics, NGO brand social movement , grass root democracy , representative democracy. This new form of social democracy has the same objectives as the old one and that is being the last line of defense for the capitalist system.

References:
http://ahwanmag.com/archives/6042
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/03/17/gree-m17.html
http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=1103