Deep changes in social behavior and class-consciousness occurred in the Greek society during the last decade. Xenophobia and racism developed as almost “natural” reflexes to the big migratory waves. Nationalism and the return to the old good principles of “Greek-orthodox Christianity” dominated during the massive mobilization in “defense of the name of our Macedonia”. Populism and religious fanaticism characterize the speeches of the popular archbishop Christodoulos. The “socialist” ruling party PASOK (Greek Socialist Movement) moved after the complete predominance of its “modernization” wing in the middle of the nineties further to the right and continues to apply a through and through neoliberal program with all its disastrous social consequences.
The crushing of the partial
working class resistance during this period i.e. the strikes and mobilizations
of the sea workers, the school teachers, the farmers, the bank employees, the
high school students etc. confirmed the predominance of the neoliberal program
as the “only realistic way”. The traditional left parties improved completely
incapable of answering to the new problems during this decade so that their
election results stagnated or even declined.
This unfavorable political climate
in Greece changed to a large degree through the enormous working class
mobilizations of last spring for the defense of the national social security
system and pensions. The “socialist” PASOK government was forced to retreat for
the first time since it applied its neoliberal program under the leadership of
Kostas Simitis and withdrew the proposed parliamentary bill. This has caused
inside the party apparatus a chain of reactions and frictions, as well as
pressure from the bureaucracy of the trade unions and finally the reappearance
of the “old party” left wing. Furthermore, the stock exchange remains
constantly at low levels for the second year, spreading a sentiment of
disappointment into large parts of the middle classes that “invested” their money
and their hopes in economic growth and the stock market. At the same time, all
the predictions for the electoral percentage of PASOK remain at a lower level
than ever before. As a result of this very difficult situation, Kostas Simitis
decided to call for an extraordinary party congress for this autumn. But this
forced decision provokes even further political instability and uncertainty.
The party of the traditional right, New Democracy (ND), following a line of low profile populism hides its real face very carefully and mainly the neoliberal beliefs of its cadres. Its opposition is systematically concentrated on the moral denunciation of the “socialist” government and its “administrative inability”. This line proved quite successful and ND reaches, for the first time after a decade, a much higher electoral influence than PASOK as the polls show.
The two traditional “official” parties of the Greek left, KKE (Communist Party of Greece) and Synaspismos (Alliance - of Euro-communist origin) once more proved unable to express the popular sentiments of discontent and, what is more important, to inspire a perspective for a perspective of workers’ and social resistance or a left way out of the economic and social crisis. A left alternative to the government’s policies still seems to be unachievable and unrealistic.
The dead-end of the “official” left
After the collapse of the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe the CPG remains enclosed in a pure old style stalinist orientation and is mainly dominated by the agony for the survival of its party bureaucracy (*). Sectarianism, narrow national orientation and the systematic use of a leftist “wooden”-type language characterize its whole political appearance. Therefore the party leadership tried to organize separate demonstrations on the 1st of May parallel to that organized by GSEE (General Federation of Workers’ Trade Unions). But under the pressure of the enormous working class mobilizations it was forced to give in and followed the main stream organized by GSEE.
The party leadership developed a hostile attitude to everything that comes from the imperialist European countries (Greece according to the CPG does not belong to this sphere but rather to Eastern Europe) and this is also reflected in a rather suspicious attitude towards the European workers’ movement and international campaigns. Despite this, under pressure from its working class rank and file, the CPG was obliged to take part in the last “antiglobalization” mobilizations (Prague, Nice, Genoa) but kept a very clear political and organizational distance from all other forces of the Greek left by organizing completely separate campaigns. For instance, the party leadership denounced the central slogan of the “Greek Committee for Genoa” that was “The human beings over the profits” as reformist and replaced it with the real revolutionary slogan: “The human beings against the profits!”
But there is no doubt that the CPG remains the main left working party of Greece (receiving 5-6% in the national elections) concentrating the majority of the political conscious workers and continues to receive the majority of the young people moving for the first time to the left. It is obvious that a real political dialogue with the leadership of the CPG about the recomposition of the Left is almost impossible today, but any kind of dialogue about “unity of the left forces” in Greece must continuously and carefully consider the political level and the intentions of the KKE working class rank and file.
Regarding the main problems of the CPG’s most important rival on the left, the Synaspismos leadership struggles for its parliamentary survival since the party’s electoral influence fluctuates around 3% i.e. the threshold for parliamentary existence according to the Greek electoral law. Moreover the working class roots of the party are rather weak while it is successful among middle class intellectuals. The ideological origin and the social composition of the leadership led the party to unstable reformist views (with some zigzags), following a pro-European line and cultivating a lot of illusions about the perspective of the bourgeois European institutions. Not by chance the leadership of Synaspismos was the architect and the most vigorous supporter of the left-right coalition government (government Tzannetakis) in 1989 and against the old “socialist” PASOK leadership. In the beginning of the nineties the Synaspismos leadership participated at least in the first phase of the nationalist mobilizations for the exclusively “Greek” Macedonia.
Later Synaspismos, under the pressure of its own “modernization” wing and after some “clarifications” inspired by the views of the most “enlightened” parts of the Greek ruling class (i.e. the part of the Greek bourgeoisie looking for new markets in the neighboring countries), changed to a more pacifist and not so nationalist line. This is true not only for the question of the “name of Macedonia” but also for the wars of ex-Yugoslavia and the Greco-Turk relations. The medium-term target of the leadership is today the participation in a coalition government of “real modernization” together with the corresponding tendencies within PASOK.
It is evident that the leadership of Synaspismos is open to any kind of cooperation in order to maintain its parliamentary existence. Thus the “antiglobalization” campaigns offer it an opportunity to improve their in the past poor left profile and to appeal to radical youth without any further serious or immediate obligations.
For all these reasons it is relatively easy for any group of the far left to make some kind of cooperation with Synaspismos. Because of its reformist nature and its parliamentary orientation, however, it is almost impossible for any group of the radical left to reach a real political agreement for the formation of a stable alliance with a perspective beyond the next national elections.
New perspectives for the far left
after a decade of stagnation?
Two of the most important organizations of the Greek far left are NAR and AKOA. These two represent a kind of projection of the division of the official left into the far left. NAR (New Left Current) was created as a reaction by the organization of the Communist Youth of the CPG to the participation of the party in the above-mentioned government Tzannetakis in 1989. NAR claims to represent the continuity of the real Leninist tradition and has constructed around it a small “anti-imperialistic and anti-capitalist front”. The “front” looks for an independent working class orientation and developed a rather anti-nationalist and anti-militaristic practice.
But the necessary condition for the participation to the “front” is the support of NAR’s position for the withdrawal of Greece from the European Union thus leaving out a big part of the organizations and groups of the far left. Around this small NAR “front” NAR some of the older Maoist organizations and a dogmatic group of Healyist origin gather while its dynamic and electoral appeal are constantly in decline during the last decade. The appeal of this organization remains quite important in the students’ movement. Characteristic of NAR’s (like the CPG’s) sectarian approach is that it always prefers to organize separate “front” meetings and campaigns. It also rejects the unity of the trade union movement supporting the building of “clean” and “combative” red trade unions.
The smaller organization AKOA was created as the reaction of the real “renewal communists” inside the old Euro-communist Greek party (CPG-interior) after its right decline during the formation of Synaspismos in 1987-88. Thus this organization claims to continue the Euro-communist tradition while it remains in strong friendly relations with tendencies and persons inside Synaspismos. These links were decisively strengthened when AKOA supported Synaspismos in last year’s national elections.
The attitude of AKOA towards all the other forces of the far left is quite open but is rather indifferent to a real political independent alliance of the radical left with an independent working class perspective. It is obvious that AKOA refuses such a perspective due to its own undeniably reformist origins and orientation. Therefore AKOA has taken the decision together with some others smaller groups of similar political views like some ecologists, the “Theses” group, KEDA etc. to build an alliance with Synaspismos both regarding electoral cooperation but also on a more general political level. On the other hand AKOA continues to participate in broader movements like anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-globalization etc campaigns of the far left.
There is no doubt that the recently founded alliance called “Space of Left Dialogue and Common Action” (**) is an attempt to give the somehow loose alliance of organizations and groups around Synaspismos under the indisputable predominance of the leadership of this party a more stable framework with electoral and political perspectives. Synaspismos seems to need such a type of collaboration in order to compete successfully against the CPG with its more left image.
There are even more radical organizations of the left with a more revolutionary orientation like parts of the Diktyo (Network for the Defense of Social and Political Rights), a group of militants with significant activities in the defense of immigrants’ rights and a decisive role in the organization of the important “Antiracist Festival”, and DEA (International Workers’ Left), a new founded organization that recently split from SEK (the Greek branch of the British SWP’s IST), that decided to participate in the above mentioned “Space”.
The price that such organizations will have to pay for this type of collaboration could be high because the danger of political subordination to the strategic orientation of the reformist party (Synaspismos) is undeniable. From this point of view it is characteristic that it has become fashionable in certain circles of the former revolutionary left that support alliances like the “Space” to talk in a not very responsible manner about the necessity to “overcome the old and surpassed divisions between the reformist and revolutionary left” due to changes of the political period in the last years. But what can this mean if not the abandonment of the attempt to build revolutionary organizations and finally revolutionary mass parties distinct from and in competition with the existing reformist parties?
The “Initiative” and other new
attempts of cooperation
Unfortunately both NAR and AKOA as important components of the far left were not able to redefine their basic orientations during the last decade preventing thus the creation of a political formation with some serious appeal to the working class, the immigrants and the radicalized youth. The permanent hostility between these two organizations did not permit even their electoral cooperation.
As a result of this difficult situation and, that’s to say, on the ruins of the last effort to put forward a unified electoral appearance of the far left, the “Initiative of Radical Left Unity” was founded on the day after the last national elections (April 2000). The Diktyo, other groups of very different ideological origin (former Stalinists, OKDE – the Greek section of the Fourth International - and also some local independent groups of activists) took part in the foundation of the “Initiative” that is open to all organizations and groups of the far left. The “Initiative” tries to establish some stable relations and a kind of representative system in its interior giving a living example of political coexistence to the rest of the forces of the far left. The main problem of the function of the “Initiative” at the moment is the priority given by the most of the participants to their immediate work in trade unions or local activities and their relative indifference to international questions and campaigns.
An exception to the general organizational stagnation of the far left during the last decade was SEK (linked to the IST) that developed completely separate from the rest of the far left, entirely enclosed in its own world and language. But since their expectations about the imminent “revolutionary situations” in East and West have not yet been fulfilled, serious internal frictions developed. This led last year to a split and the emergence of the new organization DEA. This new organization played a decisive role in the “Greek Committee for Genoa”. Both SEK and DEA like to move around Synaspismos, but rather for their own narrow needs of action and without any serious care (at least at the moment) about the recomposition of the revolutionary left.
At the same time the right turn and further subordination of PASOK to the interests of the ruling class have pushed the older Trotskyist organization Xekinima (New Start, linked to the British organization SP, former Militant, and in the past active in PASOK) to participate openly in the activities and mobilizations of the far left.
The open existence of organizations of a political culture different to the reformist parties like SEK, DEA and Xekinima and their participation in the broader campaigns of the far left creates hope for a new perspective for the first time after many years.
The far left was unexpectedly supported by the rise of the students’ movement in May-June 2001, following the working class mobilizations of April-May. This rise that was expressed by militant demonstrations and occupations of almost all the universities of Greece was led by a united alliance of students of the far left (from NAR, the organizations of the “Initiative” and many other independent militants). This part of the students’ movement succeeded in dominating big students’ assemblies, in winning majorities for their motions against the students’ organizations of all the political parties -from ND and PASOK to KKE and Synaspismos - and in leading them to militant street demonstrations. The presence of these radical forces in the mobilizations made them the most important force of the students’ movement.
The main questions
During the last months, as the political climate has changed, the developments inside the far left have accelerated. The need for united action is acknowledged now by the majority of the far left militants and it has become clear that there is a certain pressure on the “leaders” to cooperate with other organizations or parties closer than in the past. Proposals for left unity come from different directions but the real intentions and even the meaning of the used language have not yet been clarified very well.
The connection of militants of Stalinist or Maoist origin with the Western European working class tradition is the necessary condition for the overcoming of their strong “anti-European” attitude. A decisive role in this direction is played by their active participation in the international “antiglobalization” campaigns and their immediate contact with militants and organizations from other European countries. After the Genoa demonstrations the influence of this movement already affects almost all the currents of the far left, even those that had a more or less negative approach to this question in the past, as their publications and the post-Genoa discussions show. The knowledge and understanding of the experience of similar far left recomposition processes from other European countries like the alliance of LO and LCR in France, the Socialist Alliance in England or the Left Bloc in Portugal will also have a significant impact on these discussions. Even the broader working class rank and file and youth of the CPG is now affected by these kinds of discussions.
On the other hand the militants of the Euro-communist tradition or influence must understand the urgent necessity to build a political association of the far left with an independent class orientation. Unfortunately a regroupment model like the “Space” (if it is something like that which is not at all clear) under the inevitable hegemony of Synaspismos leads the groups and the independent militants participating in this scheme with a deep but rather abstract desire for left unity in another direction. Moreover, such a one-dimensional political project excludes in the long term not only the majority of the far left but also the majority of the entire Greek left.
In our opinion the “Initiative” is an attempt moving in the correct direction (although it is not so spectacular as the “Space”) for the recomposition of the far left and must be supported by all serious tendencies of revolutionary Marxism. A broader and more active participation of militants from the revolutionary Marxist tradition in the “Initiative” could enrich the internal discussion and help its democratic formation and function.
We also consider that all the broader campaigns of the far left like the recent and very successful “Antiracist Festival” and the “Greek Committee for Genoa” must continuously remain open to the participation of the entire spectrum of the reformist parties and organizations (and particularly to the Synaspismos, of course). This is another very difficult question provoking always frictions and clashes inside the far left and for which we expect also the theoretical and practical contribution from militants of other revolutionary Marxist organizations.
OKDE
– Spartakos
September
2001
Notes:
(*) See: Andreas Kloke: “KKE holds 16th congress”, in: International Viewpoint No. 329.
(**) See: Georges Mitralias: “Overcoming division”, in: International Viewpoint No. 332. This article contains some incorrect assertions, however. It is not true that “the Greek comrades of the Fourth International have played a key role in the preparation of the ‘Space’ and the launch of the review Manifesto”, as the article claims. The truth is that some former OKDE members participate in the “Space” and in the edition of Manifesto.