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Greece: Syriza have already betrayed the working class The justification for Syriza agreeing to extend Greece’s bailout programme - that it would buy some time and allow for a “breathing space” in other to negotiate less draconian conditions - has proved to be completely baseless. In the wake of the February 20 agreement - in which Syriza accepted that the country’s debt would be paid it full, recognised the troika institutions and agreed to introduce further austerity measures - there has actually been an intensification of the pressure upon Greece. This was summed up well in the complaint from an unnamed Greek official quoted in The Guardian that the “agreement was supposed to give us four months of financial stability and instead they are using it to asphyxiate us.” Weakness The Syriza led government’s earlier cave in has now left it in a very weak position. By accepting the general terms of the bailout it cannot resist what is demanded to honour those terms. The only “negotiation” is over the details. Indeed, given Syriza’s absolute commitment to the EU and the euro, and its broader perspective that the task of the left is to preserve capitalism, its capacity for resistance was always going to be very limited. Even potential options that exist within capitalism, such as debt default or/and seeking alternative funders, have been ruled out. The Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has declared that: “Greece will always meet its obligations to its creditors”. Just how committed the Syriza led government is to that declaration was in evidence in its efforts to make its May repayment to the IMF. Despite fears that the Greek state would default the repayment of a loan of €750 million was made a day ahead of schedule. However, this was only achieved through the plundering of country’s public finances. Using a law enacted in 1951, which obliges all state institutions with cash reserves to place them in the Bank of Greece, the government was able to extract money from the state healthcare insurer, the Athens Metro, the water and electricity utilities, as well as the public pension fund. Through these means the government has access to around €3 billion, but this is dwarfed by Greece’s total debt of almost €300 billion. It is also nowhere near enough to cover the debt repayments of €17bn that are scheduled over the next three months. What the plundering of public funds has actually done is to make the Greek Government even more dependent upon the Troika’s bailout loans. Demands If Syriza thought that the repayment of the IMF loan would be taken as sign of its reliability, and prompt the Troika to approve the transfer of further bailout funds, it was gravely mistaken. Rather than approval the Greek government is faced with demands for the details of the austerity programme it has agreed to implement. What is being demanded by the Troika are further social cuts, privatisation, and structural reforms. In general terms the Syriza led government is not resisting any of this. It supports privatisation and has pressed ahead with the sale of its stake in the lucrative Piraeus Port Authority. It also supports the deregulation of the labour market and has promoted a social partnership approach in which unions play a role in “creating more efficiency”. Where there is reticence is around the specific issue of pensions. The reduction of retirement benefits is a central demand of the Troika - it wants the average retirement rate to be reduced from €487 to €320 and early retirement exemptions to be removed. Under these terms everyone would have to work up to the higher retirement age (which was raised to 67 in 2012). Such a lengthening of the work life of Greek citizens amounts to a massive pension cut. It is compounded by the high levels of unemployment which mean that few workers are able to remain in a job until they reach 67. Moreover, as a result of previous austerity measures, entire families are forced to subsist on the modest retirement funds. Access to a pension in Greece is therefore an issue that affects many more people than pensioners. Such is the sensitivity that the previous conservative government rejected similar proposals from the Troika for fear that they could provoke a social explosion. Now there is the prospect of this savage attack on living standards being carried out by a supposedly left wing government! It is in this context that the latest crisis, with the rolling back of an IMF payment, is to be seen. Syriza is expressing desperation and suggesting that, if forced, they will default. They are looking for some concessions that they can offer their supporters. It is evident that no substantial concessions are forthcoming. Isolation A notable element of the ongoing debt crisis is the degree to which Greece has remained isolated internationally. The appeal for a reasonable compromise from Syriza, and its willingness to move nine tenths of the way towards that, have been completely rebuffed. Not one government or financial institution has shown any sympathy to such appeals. If anything the international stance towards Greece has become even more hard line. Syriza’s fanning of nationalist sentiment, such as the demand for war reparations from Germany, has also contributed to the isolation of Greece. This type of politics only services to obscure the reality that the divisions in Europe of those of class rather than nationality. For at the same time as millions of workers across Europe suffer the impact of austerity the capitalist classes (including those in Greece) reap its rewards. Imperialism Rather than break out of its isolation through building alliances with working class organisations across Europe the Syriza led government has instead sought to gain leverage by using Greece’s strategic position to exploit the tensions between the US, EU and Russia. However, Greece still remains firmly within the NATO bloc, and there is no indication that Syriza wants to reorientate the country towards states such as Russia or China. It has signalled that it remains a reliable ally of imperialism. The Greek government has committed itself to maintaining military spending in order to meet NATO requirements on the percentage of their budget that member states should give over to defence. In March, Tsipras signed a contract for the modernisation of five surveillance aircraft at a cost to the state of €500 million. Syriza has also committed itself to the War on Terror. At a recent security summit focusing on eastern Mediterranean the Greek government endorsed a declaration which committed states in the region to jointly combat “terrorism” and “violent extremism”. One of the parties to this is the Egyptian military regime whose head, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, was photographed shaking hand with Tsipras. It has also been reported that a summit that on access to undersea energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean involving Greece, Cyprus and Israel is being planned. The purpose of all this is for Syriza to demonstrate its credentials as a strong defender of the interests of Greek capitalism and also of the existing imperialist order in the Mediterranean. Repression The assertive international stance by Syriza led government is also reflected at a domestic level. Though it still enjoys popular support (which is increasingly centred on nationalist sentiment) there are indications that it is preparing for the political backlash that will follow any new bailout agreement. Varoufakis has declared that the government “wouldn’t be fit for the purpose if we were not prepared to take the political costs which are necessary to stabilize Greece and lead it to growth”, while Tsipras has pledged that he will do whatever is required to maintain “law and order.” Alongside such political statements practical measures are also being taken to prepare the state for major confrontations with the Greek working class. The main orchestrator of this is the public order minister Yiannis Panousis. He has declared as his objective the “reconciliation of the citizen with the policeman” and the development of a policing policy that moves from “monitoring” to acting “when security is threatened”. Of course the history of policing in Greece has never been about just monitoring it also been about repression. Police violence against demonstrators and strikers was common during the most intense period of struggle against the Troika between 2011 and 2013. Plans by the government to create special police body for demonstrations and protests, which would be armed with clubs and pistols, point to an escalation in the level of repression. The forced dispersal of the small scale protests that have taken place since the election, such the student occupation at the Technical University in Athens, are an indicator of its intolerance of dissent. Political trap Hand in hand with economic pressure and state repression there is also a political attack. The objective of this to crush the electoral revolt (limited as it was by the politics of Syriza) of the Greek people and force them to accept a continuation of austerity. The favoured mechanism for this is a referendum on any new bailout agreement. While put forward initially by Syriza this proposal has now won the support of other EU states including Germany. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has claimed that such a referendum “would be the right measure to let the Greek people decide if it is ready to accept what is necessary, or if they want to have the other thing.” It would enable Syriza to abandon what little remains of its election platform, give a veneer of democratic legitimacy to policies dictated by the EU that are overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek people, and also justify the suppression of any opposition. Of course a vote held under such coercion - with threats of complete economic collapse - wouldn’t be democratic at all. It would be just a means to deliver a political defeat to the working class. Revolution Despite the expectations around Syriza which have been built up by a large section of left its objectives have always been modest. Starting from the position that the working class has been historically defeated and that any socialist project is impossible it presents itself as a party that can play a role in stabilising capitalism in Greece and across Europe. Its whole strategy is centred around making an appeal to the capitalist class and the international institutions for a reasonable compromise. Despite its radical image its proposals differ little from those put forward by Keynesian economists such as Paul Krugman or by the trade union movement. Syriza’s position is actually not so different from that put forward by the the Fine Gael/Labour government when it first took office. Yet all these appeals, whether they come from liberals, social democrats or even conservatives, have been rejected. This is because the reasonable compromise doesn’t exist. From the perspective of the capitalist class, which sees the restoration of profitability as the only way to revive the economy, austerity is entirely reasonable and rational. For them policies such as spending cuts, wage reduction and privatisation are not ideological choices but absolute necessities. In the face of this implacability parties such as Syriza, who base themselves on the assumption that capitalism can be reformed or at the very that least that austerity can be eased, are in complete disarray. The options for them are to abandon their election platform or adopt a more confrontational approach towards capitalism. Of course, given their commitment to preserving capitalism, the former is the only option that really exists for them. Syriza is the already a long way down that path and the other populist parties, such as Podemos in Spain, will go the same way. Sinn Fein in Ireland have pulled the remarkable trick of imposing austerity in North of Ireland while continuing to claim anti-austerity credentials. The experience of Syriza demonstrates the severe limitations of an anti-austerity strategy based solely on electoralism. While workers across Europe may vote against austerity their votes are not recognised. This is because the capitalist class and their institutions will not allow a democratic choice against austerity. Austerity is the only programme on offer and any election platform that challenges it, even in a limited way, will be crushed. In such a context the only strategy that workers have left - not by choice but by necessity - is the revolutionary one of overthrowing capitalism. This may sound extreme, but given what the working class in Europe is facing (as exemplified by Greece), any other option would be completely inadequate. |