No, Syriza has not surrendered
Tom Walker looks at what Greece’s government has agreed – and argues that buying time is not the same thing as breaking promises
Surrender! Capitulation! Betrayal! Syriza hasn’t even been in office for a month, but already the obituaries are being written.
Some on the left, of course, had written them long before January’s election. Syriza, you see, has failed to declare the revolution. So far, so familiar. But over the last few days some more sensible forces seem – as with the coalition deal in the early days of the Syriza government – to have got a little carried away in their horror at this week’s debt deal, believing the German government’s crowing rhetoric that Syriza has suffered total humiliation.
This is a deal that has been described in quite the opposite terms by Greek prime minister Alexis Tspiras: he called it ‘a decisive step, leaving austerity, the bailouts and the troika’. Unless he has quite suddenly and unexpectedly taken leave of planet Earth, there is more going on here than meets the eye.
To discover the truth we need to not only look at the deal, or even the media spin around the deal, but examine what the text they have signed up to will mean in practice.
No agreement to austerity
Much of the reporting of the deal led on the claim that Syriza has ‘signed up to austerity’ – and that would be a massive U-turn if it were true. But this rests on some mischief with the terminology.
What the Greek government has signed up to is to continue running a budget surplus, as opposed to a deficit. That is not, in itself, austerity. Austerity is the practice of balancing budgets through cuts in public spending.
Yet the agreement, as Tsipras has said, cancels the previous Greek government’s planned cuts to pensions, as well as scrapping VAT rises on food and medicine. The reforms Syriza will submit as part of its end of the deal look set to include a massive crackdown on tax evasion and corruption – meaning a shift away from spending cuts towards raising the revenue through taxation.
The Eurogroup statement also includes some flexibility for surpluses to be ‘appropriate’ given economic conditions. In other words, until the Greek economy returns to growth, the punishing targets of the previous government can be eased back – meaning there wouldn’t be as much money to raise as previously. This should free up some cash to tackle Greece’s humanitarian crisis, through Syriza’s promised measures such as free electricity and meal subsidies for the poorest.
And Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has added a very important and under-reported rider: ‘Nobody is going to ask us to impose upon our economy and society measures that we don’t agree with… If the list of reforms is not agreed, this agreement is dead.’
Breathing space
Of course, this is hardly anyone’s ideal programme for government. While it is not true that the hated ‘Troika’ has returned, Greece must still deal with ‘the institutions’ (the European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF) – the distinction being that it now has the potential to negotiate with the different institutions one by one. Greek democracy remains partially suspended, at least for the four-month duration of the deal, subject to negotiation and oversight.
But look at the situation Syriza were in before you condemn. Multiple credible sources claim that, if they had not agreed to the deal, Greece’s banks would have collapsed within days – and Syriza would have got the blame for taking the country into a new crisis. As Varoufakis said, ‘Greeks were being told that if we were elected and we stayed in power for more than just a few days the ATMs will cease functioning… Today’s decision puts an end to this fear.’
Defaulting on the debts and leaving the euro might be preferable in the long term – though support for that course of action among Greece’s people remains very low – but it would mean huge short-term chaos and pain that Syriza’s negotiation has managed to avoid.
In any case, the deal is not signed in blood. It can be ended if it goes as badly as some commentators are saying. The option of ‘Grexit’ and default hasn’t gone away. It is clear, though, that it is not currently part of Syriza’s mandate, and those who put forward that alternative in the election received only a fraction of Syriza’s votes. Default was always going to be a last resort, not an opening gambit: it will only be politically possible if no alternative remains.
Give Greece a chance
Insofar as the Syriza government is having to compromise – and clearly it is making compromises short of surrender – that represents not so much their failure as our own. Syriza has always been clear that we cannot expect Greece to defeat austerity alone.
The various European ministers on the other end of the continuing negotiation with the Greek government need to be feeling the pressure. We need a huge movement across Europe in solidarity with Greece, and we need to be throwing ourselves into building that movement, not reclining in our armchairs ready to say ‘I told you so’.
We must put everything we can muster into shifting the political balance of forces across Europe. We now have four months of space in which to do so: we need to make them count.
There is clearly a division among the elite now over the issue of austerity, with the US government, the Adam Smith Institute and various prominent economists not usually associated with the left backing Greece’s proposals. That crack is waiting to be forced open.
This battle is a very long way from over. There are more key moments this week, and no doubt there are many weeks and months of crunch points still to come. The last thing we should be doing is abandoning Syriza because it hasn’t fulfilled all our hopes in the first few weeks after its election. And it’s also no use flipping backwards and forwards between enthusiasm and dejection based on each day’s round of negotiations.
The future of austerity across Europe now rests on what happens in Greece. If we give up on them, we are giving up on our own struggle too.
‘Give Greece a chance’ has been one of the slogans aimed at the European Central Bank et al. It applies just as much to us on the left.
This article was first published by Red Pepper magazine. Tom Walker is Left Unity’s media officer.
10 comments
10 responses to “No, Syriza has not surrendered”
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Good article, Tom. As you say, the duty of socialists everwhere remains to build support for the new Syriza led Greek government and the working class of Greece – against the pretty overwhelming economic power of the Troika institutions and globalised capitalism generally.
We have to recognise however that economically Greece was always a very small power player in the Eurozone, and that the recent years of Austerity and wholesale capital flight by the Greek capitalist class (to London banks and property in the main) has left the tiny Greek economy pretty much wrecked. This means that the room for progressive manoeuver by the Syriza/ANEL coalition is extremely limited. The current tactical manoeuvers by the Greek government to temporarily satisfy the German led demands for continued ever deepening Austerity Max – whilst buying time to deliver at least something to the Greek working class – is perfectly understandable. However, it is hard not to see the recent Greek government manoeuvers as a series of very short termist “wizard wheezes” – driven by pretty much “on the hoof” responses to the determination of Germany and their particularly right wing political allies – rather than a component of a well thought out forward strategy.
As things stand the Greek economic crisis is so severe – and the stakes so high for any concessions to Greece by the German led Eurozone powers (ie, the risk of “infection by inspiration” to fight Austerity in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland in particular), that my guess would be that Grexit remains a very real outcome in a fairly short timescale. Even the severe economic consequences of Greece leaving the Eurozone would be preferable to the dire political consequences of a repeated and deepening series of compromises by the Syriza led government to the Troika institutions demands.That route leads to the inevitable political disintegration of the always very diverse Syriza coalition of parties, the discrediting of there being a “Left route” to escape from Austerity – and a very likely mass lurch to the fascist Right. This is MUCH more likely than a lurch further Leftwards to the benefit of the Greek revolutionary Left or the Stalinist ultralefts of the KKE. Only a Syriza led government steering firmly Leftwards can actually open up the opportunity for further radical Left advance.
It is the duty of those of us on the Left fully in sympathy with Syriza therefote to both offer unlimited solidarity , but also to warn against the real danger of a policy of unlimited compromise – leading to collaboration.
As the gap between the policy advocated by Syria to win votes and the policy it follows the win the Troika’s approval Left Unity supporters might find it difficult to work out with whom they should offer ‘unlimited solidarity”.
Manolis Glezos, the 92 year old Syriza MEP – the hero of the Resistance who tore down the swastika from the Acropolis and who spent more than a decade in prison and nearly five years in exile under a succession of right-wing Greek regimes – has apologised to the Greek people for contributing to the ‘illusions that Syriza has fostered.
https://21centurymanifesto.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/syriza-veteran-manolis-glezos-apologises-for-illusions/
Did you actually read my highly nuanced post, Nick ? I think not.
Paul Mason is currently posting up some useful blog articles on the developing Greek/Syriza crisis . His analysis is that ever widening circles of Syriza , in the leadership and the rank and file , are coming round to the impossibility of continuing for long within the Eurozone straightjacket under German-led Austerity Max.
Eventual Grexit looks ever more likely – with all the massive problems that radical route will also produce for the Greek people. I think our job as radical socialists is to combine unconditional solidarity with Syriza with the retention of the right to offer fraternal criticism. Only the posturing ultraleft and the strange Stalinist ultralefts of the likes of the KKE are starting off from the outset with the assumption that Syriza are a bunch of bourgeoise sell out merchants. In reality they are sincere socialists trying to deal with a desperately difficult situation, not of their making.
As Tom’s article above says , we need to “cut them some slack” to explore various tactical approaches within the Eurozone – before the more likely route of Grexit is probably adopted. A Greece under overwhelming global speculative attack trying to rebuild, or even survive, using the Drachma is going to be no picnic – and would bring the class struggle in Greece to an entirely new level. The hard fact is that the Greek crisis is so far ahead of progressive political developments in Spain, Portugal, Italy, that an isolated , impoverished, Left-led Greece is much more likely currently to fall under a new military-fascist regime than move forward to revolutionary socialism. Syriza simply has to try to buy time for the Austerity crisis in the wider European arena to produce more radical Left governments which can assist it. The challenge in buying time via compromise and manoeuver is of course not to so bend to the Troika’s demands that the government loses its base of mass popular support. If that happens, the radical right Nazis of Golden Dawn are waiting their chance (as are their deep state security apparatus backers).
Here is a selection of the criticisms from sections of the Left to balance this debate. I have not gone into it in detail, so remain agnostic, but those who want to do so at this point should look both at the above and at the below before making up their minds:
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/02/21/gree-f21.html
http://openeurope.org.uk/blog/greece-bends-eurozone-will-find-short-term-agreement/
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/greece-capitulates-bailout-reaches-four-month-deal.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41071.htm
John Your two contributions to this discussion, and that of Tom, illustrate with great clarity the difficulties that arise when you offer unconditional solidarity to a political party that gathers votes on an impossible prospectus.
Before the election the KKE tabled a draft law to cancel the agreements with the EU, IMF and ECB (the memoranda) and the laws and loans agreements that implemented it. Syriza supported it.
Now that the KKE has resubmitted the law. You can guess what the stance of the Syriza/Anel government is.
In suggesting, along with Paul Mason, that austerity cannot be overcome within the framework of the EU and with the euro you are gradually moving to a position where you will have changed your opinion to agree with what you describe as the ‘strange Stalinist ultralefts of the likes of the KKE’.
The Greek communists have, of course, being completely consistent in arguing that a rupture with the system is necessary and took a big hit when a section of their electorate followed PASOK supporters into boosting Syriza on the basis of illusions.
You are right that fissures are developing within Syriza – not surprising when opportunists of every stripe (including rightwingers and anti semites) jumped on the Syriza bandwagon.
In arguing that their must be no toleration for the govrtnment that carries on the same path as the ND Pasok predecessor the Greek Communists say:
‘Those who had hoped for something better must not become disillusioned, they must react. What is even more important is that they must not give up on the goal of really abolishing the memoranda, the application laws, the anti-people restructurings. They must not give up on the struggle to recover their losses.
‘The desire of the people to be rid of the anti-people political line that is implemented via the memoranda, to be rid of the measures and supervisors, can acquire real content when the people struggle to regain what they have lost, with the following immediate demands:
‘* Immediate measures to relieve the families from the popular strata and to protect the unemployed.
* Return of the 13th and 14th salary, compulsory implementation of Collective Bargaining agreements and the abolition of the measures that attack labour rights.
* A real immediate return via legislation of the minimum wage to at least 751 euros for all, without exceptions and asterisks, as a basis for further wage increases.
* The return of the 13th and 14th pensions and the abolition of all the anti-people measures that reduced the pensions and increased the retirement age. At the same time they must demand the return of what has been stolen from the social-security funds’ reserves and that the plutocracy and state immediately meet their payment obligations to the funds.
* The liberation of the popular families from the heavy taxes, the abolition of ENFIA (the new property tax) and the solidarity tax, the abolition of VAT on basic products consumed by the people, the abolition of VAT and other taxes on heating oil and natural gas, the increase of the tax threshold to 40,000 euros for each family and a simultaneous increase of the taxation on capital.
* No seizures of first or second homes of families from the popular strata. Cancellation of interests on debts, drastic reduction of the loan repayments of the popular households.
An increase of spending for exclusively public and free education, healthcare and welfare.’
https://21centurymanifesto.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3790&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2
The problem always with ultraleft posturing – whether of the revolutionary Left variety , or its “petrified in historical amber”, 1929 to 1935 era Third Period Stalinist KKE variant, is that the demands put forward are so far ahead of the current consciousness of the working class (in this case the Greek working class) , that they are largely ignored by the class, and therefore fail to mobilise any significant mass opposition to the capitalist offensive. Therefore ironically the “smash the capitalist state NOW” demands of the ultraleft simply serve to demobilise the struggle and solidify the status quo.
Syriza, in contrast , has actually mobilised huge numbers of workers and class allies around a more limited, “transitional” series of demands – which of course overall still, though limited, cannot be met by the existing structures of economic and political power in the current economic crisis. This is the crucial point in which revolutionary socialists have to be in large numbers WITHIN Syriza – arguing for a decisive turn to the Left – but using the brief breathing space of the recent fudged compromise with the Troika /Germany to deliver small, but measurable improvements to the conditions of the wider working class. These tiny gains can build class confidence and provide mass support for the next phase of the struggle – in which Syriza’s leadership faces the age old dilemma of moving Left – or selling out .
Hectoring with ultraleft maximalist slogans from the sidelines with exactly the same stale old abuse as the KKE has offered throughout Syriza’s short existence is not going to move the struggle Leftwards – but simply confuse and divide the Greek working class further. The KKE has always assumed and wanted Syriza to fail – because they assume , with the usual vaguardist toy Bolshevik arrogance that a collapse of Syriza will lead them “the self-anointed party alone representing the historical necessity of socialist advance” , to assume the leadership of the working class. It wont. A rapid collapse of the Syriza government will lead to the vast growth of Golden Dawn, massive social conflict, and eventually a military government. The KKE will occupy the same concentration camps as their despised Syriza rivals.
The job of real socialist radicals today is to support the Syriza government as it grapples with the current phase of the negotiations with the Troika institutions, but with a critical support which supports the Left within Syriza. there may (quite quickly) come a time when the Syriza government has compromised so far that radical socialists can no longer support it. It is far, far, too early in the game to make this judgement. The Greek working class desperately needs to buy TIME – for other radical Left movements, like Podemos in Spain , to win power in other European countries – and break the desperately weak and isolated context of the current Greek struggle.
John, In essence you are justifying Syriza’s betrayal of its preelection programmee with the argument that they are correct in giving in to the Troika in order to allow the movement in other European countries to come to their rescue at some unspecified moment in the future.
This is a recipe for passivity and retreat. The backsliding of Syriza is more likely to lead to demoralisation and demobilisation than will the stance of the KKE.
This talk of ‘small measurable gains’, of ‘tiny gains’ carries the stink of betrayal. Syriza was elected to give susbtance to the hopes and desires of millions of Greek voters and a failure to deliver will inevitably give some impetus to Golden Dawn.
You talk of ‘critical’ support but a central plank of Syriza’s pitch was a refusal to recognise the legitimacy of the Troika and its demands. But now you argue now, after the election, that jthe ‘job of real socialist radicals today is to support the Syriza government as it grapples with the current phase of the negotiations with the Troika institutions.’
It is not that Syriza’s demands were ‘transitional’ in the traditional Trotskyist sense but that they are impossible to achieve without a rupture with the European Union – something implicit in the rejection of the legitimacy of the memorandum and the acceptance of the Troika (now renamed the ‘Institutions’) but impossible within the euro.
There is an important part of Syriza that does not agree with the direction the leadership has plotted and this is now joined by people, like Glezos, who feel a stromg sense of betrayal. As these people, or more importantly the voters who they represent, find it necessary to take action, in accordance with the call of the KKE, the mass movement, most particularly the workers and the poor, will find itself in conflict with the government.
I see the ‘support’ but not the criticism.
Problem is John, you don’t answer any of Nick’s points but just go off into a rant about “ultra lefts” – not very convincing. If you actually read the immediate demands Nick is quoting from the KKE they are not very different to the measures announced (then abandoned) by Syriza on coming to power.
There WAS a problem with the Syriza leadership promising the electorate that it would achieve it’s anti-austerity programme within the EU and the Euro. The left in Syriza has recognised this for some time but have not been strong enough to win an alternative. At the very least this would have been to tell the electorate the truth, that Grexit had to be prepared for if the Troika were intransigent. That would have meant capital controls to protect the banks from day one and going to the Troika with a clear threat, a further election to endorse Grexit if they remained intransigent.
Yanis Varoufakis is meant to be an expert in game theory. It doesn’t take an expert to realise if you went to that Troika meeting having committed yourself to stay in the EU and euro no matter what, that you don’t have much of a bargaining position!
I don’t buy this “breathing space” line. Breathing space for who? Certainly not the Greek workers who will continue to suffer the poverty and debt that goes with the austerity programme. And make no mistake the programme is being administered and controlled even more tightly on this government than the previous one if you look at the new conditions. A breathing space for the government? For what, to carry out the Troika’s demands while gradually losing support of its most desperate supporters.
I know people think the Podemos calvary will come charging over the hill but it is just as likely the Troika will destroy the credibility of one anti-austerity government at a time. It would be better for Syriza to fight now while it has mass support in its struggle even if it means pursuing the extremely fraught Grexit strategy. Who knows what will be left of that support after another year of austerity and recession with a Syriza government forced to carry it out on behalf of the Troika.
That said we should always be clear who is to blame first and foremost – the EU, the IMF and the ECB – and put any criticism of Syriza’s tactics in that context.
Syriza has two choices- 1) attempt to become the local agent for the bloodsuckers of the troika 2) launch a struggle against capitalism and for socialism throughout Europe. Either choice will mean a split in Syriza and its demise. The former choice is much more likely than the latter- certainly for the majority of its leadership. . Some think that a third choice is available- a pro capitalist nationalist Grexit. I dont think that is viable or desirable ( it would also result in the demise of Syriza). Those who claimed to be the British Syriza or even the Scottish Syriza are going to look very foolish to anyone who has been watching their antics and apologetics. The “international left” will drop Syriza like a hot brick and pretend that they were always critics of the Tipras leadership and Syriza’s “anti austerity” strategy. Solidarity with the struggle of the Greek working class- Yes but that does not mean covering up or excusing the hopeless “anti austerity” strategy of Syriza.
the ruling classes of Europe are in the process of demonstration to the mass of the people of Europe that they have no positive vision for the future of Europe and no positive answer to the crisis of capitalism with its growing poverty and inequality. Indeed their cruel and increasingly irrational ideology of neo liberalism, which is widely unpopular among the masses, dictates that they are going to continue to enforce their attacks on working class living standards. In Greece they are enforcing mass hunger on the poorer section of the population. They seem pitiless. To challenge these bloodsuckers you have to a serious strategy. Syriza didn’t. It aimed to convince the ruling class of Europe, through discussion, that it should end austerity since it obviously did not work and was leading to social disaster. Discussion is not going to move the troika or Berlin. Only a serious threat from the working class will. A European revolutionary re groupment is needed and this will become increasing obvious to the advanced section of the European working class in the next few years.