Following the historic general political strike on February 28th (the largest mobilization since the fall of the military junta in 1974, and probably in the history of the Greek state), political developments have accelerated. The Tempi movement destabilized the bourgeois political scene and opened new opportunities for revolutionary forces.
According to the polls, ND, which was reelected in 2023 with 41% of the votes, is now at 27%. SYRIZA collapsed from second to sixth place, getting less than 6% (even adding up all the different splits that SYRIZA suffered in the last two years, the total remains under 10%). PASOK remains stuck around 13% with a downward trend. “Hellenic Solution” (a far-right, pro-Tram, one-man political party that managed to double its score and get 10% in the 2024 European elections) shows no dynamic to go higher. It’s the lack of an alternative solution that keeps the government in power.
The Communist Party (KKE) remains around 8% (lower than its European election score). Despite its growing influence on the unions, KKE–PAME seems unable, for one more time, to play a significant role in the movement. Because of its parliamentary cretinism. Because of its isolationist and divisive tactics in the movement. Because it refused to adopt concrete and combative demands (such as the expropriation of the Hellenic Train, reinstating the railways as public property, down with the government), blaming everyone who supported them as a reformist. All this creates disappointment, confusion and even splits and departures within its ranks (notably in transport unions).
The political winner in this situation is Zoe Konstantopoulou. She has climbed to second place with 15%, nearly quintupling her party’s vote share compared to the last elections (national and European). The Tempi case is a privileged battleground for her (as a lawyer, she represents victims’ relatives), suits her sharp denunciatory rhetoric and overshadows the party’s previously quirky parliamentary image. However, “Course of Freedom” remains a one-person party, without cadres or a party mechanism, with no grassroots organizations, no influence in movements and unions, and no presence in mobilizations.
Aware that events like February 28th don’t happen every day, and after a series of local events (concerts, open public discussions, etc) that followed this historical mobilization, the general strike on April 9th became the next landmark of the movement. The strike and its rallies were much smaller but still significant. In Athens, after the strike rally, a fundraising concert was held to support the public sector workers persecuted by the government. Now that the government has been shaken and the political system is in crisis, the important struggles in public health and educational systems must be continued with more determination. Workers must keep opening the fronts for collective labour agreements and significant rises in salaries, against privatizations, against evaluations and prosecutions in the public sector, against cover-up of the tempi crime. We promote demands that can unify and give the struggle perspective: expropriation of the Hellenic Train without compensation, public railways under workers’ control, punishment for those responsible for the crime and the cover-up campaign, and the demolition of the government. On this basis, we promote unified action of the revolutionary left in unions, schools and neighbourhoods. We promote forms of self-organization of the workers and the oppressed. We aim to be stronger and in better positions for the next major landmark of the movement, which is, sooner or later, expected.
