Παγκόσμια Συνέδρια
Βιβλιοθήκη
From: Tassos Anastassiadis <tassos.anastassiadis@gmail.com>
To: Léon Crémieux <leocmx@wanadoo.fr>
Cc: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>; Alex Merlo <muad74@gmail.com>; Maral Jefroudi <maraljefroudi@iire.org>; Juliette Stein <mathilde1917@gmail.com>
Sent: Τρίτη, 14 Ιουλίου 2020, 08:16:43 μ.μ. EEST
Subject: Re: Situation of the Greek section
Dear comrades,
I send you the confirmation of TPT & “4” agreement on your proposals with a small informative note by me.
Friendly
Tassos
From: TPT & “4” magazine
For: FI Bureau & Commission on the situation of the Greek section
Date: 14/7/2020
Dear comrades,
We received your letter concerning the nomination of the Commission on the Greek situation, and we would like to reiterate our agreement with the proposal made in January.
As we wrote in our letters of 7/2/2020 and again on 38/3/2020, we agree on the 3 points: 1) the existence of 2 separate organizations, both belonging to the Greek section of the Fourth International 2) the effort to transfer the archives to the IISG, 3) finding a solution for the debts.
We are committed to helping the commission to contribute to all aspects of your proposal, i.e finding an agreed protocol for joint initiatives for public events with Fourth International speakers and ensuring the joint publication of Fourth International documents in Greece, and with regards to all other issues (IISG and debts).
4th International Programmatic Tendency – Greece
14/7/2020
TA Informative note:
In fact, we are not very optimistic about the commitment of OKDE-Spartakos to all this, whatever they say, because, for all intents and purposes, they behave as opponents of the Fourth International. Moreover, they are not at all consistent concerning other issues, such as debts. Of course we are ready to consider that these are merely “slanders” on the part of TPT, as they claim, and base our arguments and action on the principle of the “presumption of innocence”.
And for your information, I add some points, which show that unfortunately our fears are not arbitrary. For example:
1) Yannis is constantly receiving telephone calls from the owner of OKDE’s prior offices concerning the unpaid rent arrears and I suppose that eventually TPT will be obliged to undertake the payment of that part of the debt also.…
2) Their opposition to the Fourth International is their principal motivation for what they do, so I don’t think finding a “protocol for joint initiatives on the Fourth International” will be easy. Not only have they not published any of the Fourth International documents (that exist in Greek via our translations -so they could simply “copy-paste” them if they wanted) but they have not even published the European document on Covid-19 that they have signed themselves!!! (It can be found in Greek on our site at: https://tpt4.org/?p=4533 ).
3) Another example: in June, they published an internet issue of Spartakos (it can be found in Greek at: https://en.calameo.com/books/0047129093f27827690d1 ), in which every international text has been included (good or bad -that’s not the point) for the sole purpose of presenting the International in a bad light. To prove my word, (and in order to avoid appearing dogmatic or libellous), I translate here the part of the editorial page, where they themselves present the issue of the new edition of Spartakos (no 131, June 2020), and more precisely the dossier they have “with criticism by revolutionary organisations on left governments of capitalist states and on large parties. It includes a text by Tomas Martinez Pena on the co-government by Podemos with the social-democracy in the Spanish State. It also includes a text by the new organisation of the Fourth International Toupeira Vermelha, which has left the Left Bloc in opposition to the support of the government of the Socialist Party. It includes also the text by Jeff Mackler on the Bernie Sanders campaign and a text by the organisation Socialist Democracy in Ireland, which critiques the willingness of the left organisations to negotiate a possible government of Sinn Fein, after the last elections in this country. Our dossier finishes with two articles from Asia, one on the split of the 4th International section in Sri Lanka, on the issue of supporting progressive bourgeois governments, while the other concerns the departure of the forces of Fourth International from the large party AWP in Pakistan, in the perspective of building a revolutionary party.”
Warm regards, TA
Από: Léon Crémieux <leocmx@wanadoo.fr>
Προς: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>; tassos.anastassiadis@gmail.com <tassos.anastassiadis@gmail.com>
Κοιν.: Alex Merlo <muad74@gmail.com>; Maral Jefroudi <maraljefroudi@iire.org>; Juliette Stein <mathilde1917@gmail.com>
Στάλθηκε: Πέμπτη, 9 Ιουλίου 2020, 11:22:30 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Situation of the Greek section
Dear comrades,
The last Bureau meeting in May decided to involve a commission concerning the situation in our Greek section and the statutes of our organizations. This commission is composed of Alex M., Léon, Maral and Mathilde (who, up until now didn’t give her answer concerning her participation to the commission).
This commission ought to be set up during the canceled IC meeting.
Today, we have two different organizations, OKDE Spartakos and TPT. Everyone agrees that all the comrades have to continue belonging to the International with full rights.In this mood, we sent you a letter in January (in, which one a part concerned practical questions – debts of facilities in the former office and archives, another one statute of the two organizations).
First of all, we would want to know if you agree with the proposals of this letter. We send it to you once again.
Best regards,
Léon Crémieux
Από: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Προς: Manos Skoufoglou <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>
Στάλθηκε: Τετάρτη, 8 Απριλίου 2020, 11:24:03 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Bureau secretariat to OKDE
Dear Comrades
We received your reply to our letter and were able to discuss it at the secretariat meeting on Monday 6th April.
We note that you reiterate that your desire is not to exclude TPT from the International and that you request a Commission is established to examine the status of TPT, as well as the other matters such as the archives, to report at the next IC meeting.
As precedent establishes, in the meantime the International maintains its links with this group as members of the Fourth International, notably through the elected IC member.
It is in this light that we include the signature of the TPT following that of OKDE-Spartakos on the European statement. We have integrated your two proposed amendments.
Comradely greetings
Bureau secretariat
Από: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>;
Προς: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Στάλθηκε: Τετάρτη, 8 Απριλίου 2020, 08:47 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: OKDE reply
Dear Penny/Dear comrades
Sorry to be late to answer to this declaration, due to technical problems.
We generally agree with the statement and the demands. If we may propose two very minor last-minute amendments, these would be:
Α. 3rd paragraph, we propose to omit the expression “quite rightly” when referring to the policy of containment followed by most governments. Technically, under the present circumstances, it is right indeed, but this policy is imposed by the shortcomings of the healthcare systems rather than the virus itself. The governments do not merit any credit thereof. The rest of the phrase is clear enough.
B. In the paragraph concerning migrants, where reference is made to the NGOs, we propose to add “without state or even NGO support”, since we are questioning the role of NGOs in general and demand aid by the state. Τhe NGOs play a disputable role in supporting and helping refugee and migrant populations in the concentration camps. The fact that those people rely on them is in itself sad.
We do not believe that those minor amendments would be of any harm to the text.
It is rather known that we also disagree with the demand for an audit commission, calling for the cancelation of the debt instead, regardless of whether it is typically considered illegitimate or not. However, we can understand that this might be a political difference among us, so we would not insist to amend it.
All this said, we have to express a certain concern. Why would this declaration be signed by individual organisations, and not by the FI or the “European sections” of the FI?
What’s more, we have been informed of the intention of TPT to sign the declaration. This is highly questionable, as there is no status given to TPT yet, as far as we know. In fact, to the time, TPT has not even announced to be an independent organization. We ascertain once again that we have no intention to exclude TPT, but its inclusion in the International under a certain status should be decided through the procedures laid down by our statutes. We, therefore, object to the inclusion of TPT among the signatories, as we would consider this as undermining the status of the Greek Section and an attempt for manipulation. In case the TPT signature is included, we will be forced to reconsider our decision to sign the declaration.
We do hope each and every comrade is healthy and strong!
Comradely
Manos, on behalf of the PB of OKDE-Spartakos
Από: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Προς: Manos Skoufoglou <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>
Στάλθηκε: Τετάρτη, 8 Απριλίου 2020, 11:24:03 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Bureau secretariat to OKDE
Dear Comrades
We received your reply to our letter and were able to discuss it at the secretariat meeting on Monday 6th April.
We note that you reiterate that your desire is not to exclude TPT from the International and that you request a Commission is established to examine the status of TPT, as well as the other matters such as the archives, to report at the next IC meeting.
As precedent establishes, in the meantime the International maintains its links with this group as members of the Fourth International, notably through the elected IC member.
It is in this light that we include the signature of the TPT following that of OKDE-Spartakos on the European statement. We have integrated your two proposed amendments.
Comradely greetings
Bureau secretariat
Από: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>;
Προς: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Στάλθηκε: Δευτέρα, 30 Μαρτίου 2020, 08:52 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Re: From the Bureau
Dear comrades
we hope everybody is, and will remain, healthy and strong!
please find attached our position regarding the proposals of the bureau secretariat.
Comradely
Manos
on behalf of the CC of OKDE-Spartakos
Dear comrades of the Secratariat
We had been planning to conduct this exchange of views at the IC Meeting, and this is the reason why we have not answered your proposal yet. Unfortunately, the course of events did not permit that.
Your description of the situation in Greece is quite accurate, concerning the completely separate functioning of the TPT and its different political orientation in relation with the Section.
We have to mention that in their reply to your proposal, the TPT continues in distorting the facts of reality as well as using slander to cover political and tactical differences; however, this is not the appropriate time and place to comment on that.
Concerning your concrete proposals, our position is the following:
– It is correct that TPT is de facto a separate political group. We are willing to discuss the possible means and protocols of collaboration between the Greek Section and the TPT, and we clearly state that we have no intention to exclude the TPT from the International. However, the status of the new organization along with all other aspects of the relationship between the TPT and OKDE-Spartakos should be discussed following the proper procedure which, according to our statutes and our past and recent experience, is an International Commission on Greece, which will later report to the IC and, if needed, to our next World Congress. We formally request that such a Commission is established.
– It is our firm position that the expropriation of the archive of the Greek Section was an arbitrary and unacceptable action lacking any justification. As we have also proposed to the TPT, we are willing to discuss about common access to the archive, in ways that are to be explored by a joint commission. These might include: sharing of items that exist in multiple copies, return of items (mainly books) that have been confiscated along with the archive, making copies of rare items and considering keeping a substantial part of the archive in an institute, possibly the IISG. We have to also consider if the IISG in Amsterdam can provide actual accessibility to the Greek comrades or researchers. We think that the best way to proceed is the establishment of a joint commission on the archive as soon as possible.
– Regarding our debt, the part allocated to OKDE-Spartakos is significantly higher than what you mention: adding taxes, rates, delayed telephone bills and fines, the total amount that OKDE-Spartakos has to cover is close to 2500 euros, instead of the 1580 euros you mention. Nevertheless, we have already undertaken this cost. There is nothing at all in the name of Y.F. anymore. We therefore consider this case closed.
We are willing to consider proposals as to how to implement the items commonly agreed and proceed further on.
Comradely
30/3/2019
The Central Committee of OKDE-Spartakos
Από: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Προς: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>
Στάλθηκε: Τετάρτη, 25 Μαρτίου 2020, 10:02 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Situation in Greece
Dear Cpmrades
This response was not sent to you at the time as we were expecting to meet at the IC. That it was not forwarded to you since then is our oversight.
Comradely
Bureau secretariat
Τo: the Secretariat of the Bureau of the 4th International
From: TPT (Fourth International Programmatic Tendency)
7-2-2020
Comrades,
We have received and carefully considered your latest letter addressed to us as well as to the C.C. of OKDE-Spartakos. Your proposal seems to us to be a reasonable compromise that would be able to release the forces of the 4th International in Greece from a destructive period of introspection at the exact moment when we are facing increased responsibilities on account of the continuing economic and political crisis. Thus, we are ready to support the proposal during the procedures of the next International Committee.
However, we must clarify two significant points:
1. You mention that the majority faction of OKDE participates in ANTARSYA, while TPT participates in SYNANTISI. This is not exactly the situation. The members of TPT participate in ANTARSYA as they have always done. Simultaneously, we participate in SYNANTISI as observers, without that being incompatible with our participation in ANTARSYA.
2. You also mention that what unites us with the majority faction of OKDE is our identification with the 4th International. Unfortunately, our main point of disagreement with those comrades is exactly their openly hostile attitude towards the International, as we have explained in our letter dated 9-12-2019.
Specifically regarding your suggestions for the solution of the problems between TPT and the majority faction of OKDE, we would like to make the following comments:
1. We agree with your proposal for the establishment of TPT as an independent organization, and for the recognition of the fact that both TPT and OKDE belong to the Greek section of the 4th International, along the same lines as precedents in other countries. We agree with your proposal that we agree on protocols for joint initiatives and to jointly ensure the publication of resolutions and statements of the International in Greece, which is something we have undertaken on our own up till now (in our journal, on our site, and with the publication of the decision of the last Congress of the 4th International on Ecosocialism). We hope the comrades of the majority faction will agree. However, in face of the fact that in recent years they have not been publishing resolutions or statements of the International, we cannot depend on their agreement to continue our initiative.
2. Regarding the OKDE archives, transferring them to the IISG would definitely be a positive development, and we could begin with the already existing archive. Of course, all aspects would have to be considered, especially that of its accessibility to the Greek public (researchers, etc.).
3. Concerning OKDE’s debt, for which comrade Y. F. is legally responsible, we agree with your proposal; we have already covered a large part of the debt, and we are waiting for the majority faction to cover what remains.
With revolutionary greetings,
TPT
7-2-2020
Από: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>;
Προς: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Στάλθηκε: Τρίτη, 24 Μαρτίου 2020, 07:24 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Situation in Greece
Dear comrades
we will soon send a reply, as you request
Could you please forward the answer by TPT, as I cannot recall receiving it?
Comradely
Manos
Από: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Προς: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>
Στάλθηκε: Τρίτη, 24 Μαρτίου 2020, 07:10 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Situation in Greece
Dear comrades,
In your last letter, after the cancellation of the IC meeting, you asked us about a discussion and/or a commission concerning Greece at a next meeting. Unfortunately, there won’t be a Bureau meeting before autumn.
Anyway, concerning the Greece situation, in January, we sent you a Bureau letter concerning archives, debt and the status of the section.
The minority sent us an answer at the beginning of February and we forwarded it.
So, the first step which has to be done and can be done before a meeting is the resolution of these two first questions (archives and debt). Can you send us an answer ?
After that, of course, and as soon as possible, we will have to organize with you and the minority a common meeting concerning the situation of the section and its two parts.
Revolutionary greetings
Bureau secretariat
23 March 2020
Από: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>;
Προς: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Στάλθηκε: Σάββατο, 4 Ιανουαρίου 2020, 02:08 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Re: Comments on Greek Section and its financial campaign
Dear comrades of the Secretariat
Happy new year!
We have taken account of your letter concerning the incidents in the Greek Section during last summer. The reason why we were late to reply is that we were waiting for possible developments regarding our relation with the TPT. However, their members have never appeared in any meeting or activity of OKDE-Spartakos since spring 2019, and they did not respond to our invitations to meet the leadership of the Section. They now operate as a fully separate group. This obviously makes some points in both your letter and our reply obsolete. However, it is still important to have an honest discussion between the FI Bureau and the Section. We therefore send you our full reply below.
We hope this awkward situation can be overcome, and we are willing to contribute to that.
Comradely
Manos
on behalf of the Bureau of OKDE Spartakos
Dear comrades
We can understand your concern about the situation in a section of the FI. This is why, as we already stated, we are willing to provide any clarification needed. Before we answer to your specific questions, though, we would like to make clear that we are deeply concerned both with your biased tone and with your questions and remarks. We feel we are going through a process of investigation based on allegations posed by the TPT, while it seems you are already convinced that there is nothing wrong with the behaviour of the TPT, including the unprecedented incident of the removal of our party archive. So far, we have chosen not to appeal to the FI about this shameful incident, exactly because we know how difficult and unpleasant would be for an international Appeals Commission to go through a hearing without knowing which story to believe. It is outrageous, though, to turn this situation upside down and put us in the position of the defendant us instead. We really hope we have misunderstood you.
Regarding your questions, one by one:
1. We reconfirm that, in our former headquarters, the TPT had full and exclusive access once per week. They had only to reschedule their meetings two times because of emergency meetings of our students’ commission and once because of a meeting of the broader ANTARSYA womens’ commission, which was also an absolute emergency. No TPT meeting has been ever cancelled because of a Political Bureau meeting – on the contrary, the PB was several times forced to meet out of our headquarters because of TPT meetings taking place in them. We can confirm that very often other structures or commissions of the organization had to reschedule their meetings in order to facilitate the functioning of the TPT, although we had made an agreement in the very first place that the functioning of the organization is of higher priority than the meeting of any specific internal faction.
2. Regarding access to our publications, the TPT has been allocated a space in the website of the organization indicated by a tab in the starting home page, with their founding texts and links to their own website and blog:
https://www.okde.org/index.php/el/tetartodiethnistiki-programmatiki-tasi
Their full texts for our congress were distributed on time among all our members and uploaded on our website, where anybody interested can still find them. This has always been the case about their individual views on our website and press. Since they created their own press and website, the TPT members have not asked to publish anything in our journal or website anymore.
Concerning the article they mention in their letter about Ukraine, this is hardly understandable. The article, which was written far before the formation of the TPT, is still on our website:
As about FI statements: we translate and publish FI Bureau statements according to the availability of our human resources. It has to be noted that there was not a single case when a TPT member translated an FI statement and publication in the journal or in the website was rejected. All major texts for the congress are of course translated and published (let us remind that we organized a full conference for the World Congress, with all positions translated, distributed and discussed among our membership, even the ones that had no supporter in the section). The same applies to major statements issued by the FI.
3. As soon as the TPT was formed, we have immediately recognized it and offered the maximum of facilities determined in our statutes. Our statutes (which, for your information, were not introduced by the current majority) specify that:
“Normally, after a conference is completed, tendencies are dissolved. However, this is a decision that can only be taken by tendencies themselves. In non pre-congressional periods, the organization does not make provision for any automatic facilitation of the function of tendencies. If a group decides to function as a tendency, either over one issue or over a full platform, even after a conference, they are permitted to submit their texts and proposals to the organization. It is up to the Central Committee to decide if and how further discussion shall be organized.”
The allegation of the TPT that they are “under suspension” probably refers to a subsequent decision of our CC in January. At this meeting, the representative of the TPT stated that (extract from the unanimously approved minutes of that meeting):
“TPT is not going to apply the decisions taken by OKDE-Spartakos and they have been actively engaged in a new political organization that is in the process of being founded, even participating in its leadership as observer.”
Following this official TPT statement, the CC of OKDE-Spartakos stated that:
“we make it clear that, according to the common sense dictated by the function of any organization as well as to the statutes of OKDE-Spartakos, membership in another political organization is not compatible with membership in OKDE-Spartakos.”
Hence:
“It stems from the above that, in case the TPT accedes to another organization, it can no longer be recognized as a tendency of OKDE-Spartakos, with all obligations and rights deriving from this. That is, the organization can no longer provide the publicity and means that it did so far.”
And:
“The statement of the representative of the TPT that the foundation of this new organization is not definite can only mean that the recognition shall be pending until the issue is clarified. A possible withdrawal of the recognition of the TPT, of course, would not affect the status of its members that will choose not to join another organization but remain in OKDE-Spartakos instead.”
And later:
“In order to avoid possible misunderstandings, whether in good faith or not, OKDE-Spartakos makes it clear that it does not in any way consider the positions of the TPT or of anyone of their members incompatible with membership in the organization and FI section. We nevertheless clarify that the tendencies of OKDE-Spartakos consist exclusively of members of our organization, not of other organizations.”
We have to make clear that the organization the TPT was in the process of joining (Synantisi), according to the statements of its own representative, is not a broad party or coalition, but a political organization just like OKDE-Spartakos. We do not believe that one can seriously think that it is possible to accept members of another organization in our own organization. We thus believe that the CC decision is rather common sense. Despite all that, and although certain members of the TPT have been portrayed to be full members of that organization indeed, we kept providing facilities such as the exclusive use of our headquarters in the following months, violating our own decisions and hoping to maintain comradely relations with the TPT.
About the dues: quite a lot TPT members have stopped paying long ago. A few among them went on paying a reduced amount. In any case, we can confirm that none of them has paid anything since last spring whatsoever. We can provide he relevant economic reports, if needed.
Regarding our financial matters, that are supposed to lack transparency, this is an extremely malicious accusation. We are given a report about the financial situation by our treasurer in each and every meeting of our PB and CC. We also have our balance sheet, including the one about our recent financial campaign. Besides, even the quickest look at our extremely restricted financial turnover would demonstrate how ridiculous any insinuation for non-transparent finances is. We only know how much of our restricted personal income is dedicated to our section. Our recent relocation was an extra burden, hardly affordable for our comrades, none of whom have high income.
It is an unpleasant surprise to see how easily the FI Secretariat seems to adopt accusations against the section that would be a huge insult to any militant, let alone our Treasurer, who is a long-time militant, a well-known unionist for 35 years and, soon, the first regional councilor that our section has ever elected in its history – while the moral integrity of the TPT is considered unquestionable.
4. Regarding the issue of the rent and contracts, we have already explained that nothing was in the name of Yannis. Everything was in the name of our non-profit institution and Yannis was just the legal representative of this institution. The legal representative has now changed, as Yannis wanted too, so any existing debt or future obligation has nothing to do with him. This is crystal clear.
About our previous debt: Yannis and/or the TPT have given an amount of money for our electricity and water bills, on their own initiative. Not for the rent or other bills (telephone, internet, taxes), which was totally on us. The amount of money the TPT has presumably paid is definitely comfortably lower than the sum of the dues they have not paid. In any case, we would be willing to undertake any burden they think that should be on us. It is not a substantial amount in any case.
5. Concerning the archive, which is the only real matter: first of all, we have not attributed any characterization to Yannis, our respect for whom is given, or to anybody else. To make moral judgments is not the issue here. We are sure you also know that this has nothing to do with how an organization works.
What our Bureau said, in a short internal notification, is that the archive had been stolen by Yannis and possibly some other people, as he has informed us himself. We don’t know if you have any better word to describe an action of arbitrarily expropriating a common asset, to the knowledge of nobody else, and secure exclusive access to it. If you have a more appropriate term to propose, we are willing to adopt it.
To be brief and honest, to say that the archive we had in our headquarters was the personal archive of Yannis is a blatant distortion. The core of the archive was inherited from the former FI section (OKDE) after its split in 1986, with the expelled majority of that section joining Marxistiki Sispirosi to form OKDE-Spartakos, the new section. Just before the split, neither Yannis nor any other TPT members were members of the former section anymore, so they were definitely not the ones to bring in the archive to the new organization. In the following years, Yannis, the TPT comrades, the majority comrades and external donors have all further contributed to this initial archive. Our present archive has been the outcome of a collective effort that had taken place for years.
In our old headquarters (before 2012), this archive was randomly piled up and largely kept in unacceptable conditions. It took months to put it together – and this was definitely not a task that the members of the TPT have undertaken. It was exclusively certain comrades of the majority that sacrificed a whole summer building the new archive in our ex-headquarters. After that, we have received substantial donations of new material. Most of this has been removed during this summer. Among other things, the comrades who have assumed joint responsibility for this action have “expropriated” items that were produced without the contribution of any of them – for example, publications of the former FI section at the times when none of them was a member or independent publications like “Marxistiko Deltio” in the early 1980s, which was produced under the leadership of Christos Anastasiadis, with the participation of comrades now belonging both to the majority (Takis, Kostas) and the TPT (Tasos A, Tasos G), but certainly not Yanis. The TPT members who removed the archive have also removed collections of journals donated by comrades of the majority as well as books that have been brought to our headquarters by comrades of the majority for the education of our young student comrades.
In short, if Yannis or anybody else thinks that a part of that archive is their own property, although we disagree with this kind of mentality, we are willing to discuss a settlement as long as they return to OKDE Spartakos what they don’t “own”.
References to the ELIA archive are totally deceptive. That archive, accumulated and turned over to ELIA decades ago, has nothing to do with OKDE-Spartakos itself – it was indeed an archive created by our late comrade Christos Anastasiadis, who passed away shortly after the founding of OKDE-Spartakos, more than 30 years ago. To refer to that archive is just completely irrelevant.
6. To question our right to form a financial or any other kind of provisional committee in our own organization seems to us as going far beyond any legitimate question the Secretariat could raise. To be honest, all this sounds like an inappropriate intervention. However, having nothing to conceal, the reply is very simple: the decision was taken during our summer camp, by the big majority of the CC and by the Political Bureau, which was present there altogether. The committee is accountable to the PB and, consequently, to the CC, where it has submitted an extremely detailed financial report (at your disposal).
We can only imagine that the TPT was in no position to know anything about the committee, as they have been abstaining from any kind of meeting for months, and of course from the camp. This is also probably the reason why the TPT seems to underestimate the costs of our participation in the elections – as you can understand, the fact that we ran in broader ANTARSYA slates does not mean we didn’t have to share the cost.
To conclude, it is rather obvious that membership in a rival political organization, as is apparently the case with at least some of the TPT members, the appropriation of the party archive and the permanent absence of TPT members from any kind of internal or public meeting of OKDE-Spartakos make it very hard to achieve the mutually agreeable solutions you propose.
We think that, by this, we have covered all your questions. We hope that you realize the amount of mistrust that a number of incidents have provoked, and how difficult it would be for any organization to work together under such circumstances. We are willing to take a serious discussion with the TPT, and with the FI Bureau too. But the FI leadership has also to guarantee that this will not be a biased discussion. We do believe that what is at stake is, partly, “our statutes regarding the rights of the minority” – since we do belong to the minority in the International, we expect you to take this principle seriously.
We have also to report, once again, the general sentiment among our members that the FI leadership is intervening in favour of the TPT. Of course, the recent visit of a national spokesperson of the NPA and member of the FI Bureau in Greece (Christine P.), where she spoke at a meeting organized by the TPT without making any attempt to contact the section itself, did not help raise this sentiment of mistrust.
To intervene in favour of the TPT, a group whose only aspiration is seemingly to be the proxy of the FI leadership in Greece, would be to intervene against a section that has a different position from the current line of the FI. We are sure you realize how serious this would be, and how inconsistent with both our traditions and the way the FI has handled recent cases in the name of non-intervention in the sections’ affairs, including the Spanish State and Sri Lanka.
One last note: in the TPT letter that you have forwarded, we noticed that they have attached a file titled: “The positions held by the OKDE majority regarding the FI (translated)”. Since the content of that file has not come to our knowledge, we can only imagine it is about extracts from our collective resolutions or individual contributions, that are public anyway. We already know that the title is misleading, since what we oppose has never been the FI, with its programme and traditions, but only the current political orientation of its majority. If the FI leadership is interested in a more detailed discussion about our views, we would be glad to engage in it, and we don’t need the mediation of TPT. However, it is highly questionable why a letter about organizational matters in the Greek section should mention our views of the FI orientation. It is rather clear to us that the intention of TPT is to imply that they are more credible than OKDE-Spartakos, because the latter disagrees with the FI leadership. They seemingly believe that, if you disagree, you are not to be trusted. We do believe that the FI leadership rejects such an approach.
The Central Committee of OKDE-Spartakos
Από: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Προς: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>; Nikolas Skoufouglou <nicskouf@yahoo.gr>
Στάλθηκε: Δευτέρα, 14 Οκτωβρίου 2019, 04:24:50 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: Re: Comments on Greek Section and its financial campaign
TO OKDE Spartakos
Dear comrades,
We also believe it’s more useful to have a direct dialogue with you about the questions raised by the TPT, after the letter from the OKDE leadership and the answer to this letter by the minority that we sent you.
Of course our questions mostly concern the relationship between minority and majority inside the Greek section and financial questions concerning the headquarters. Several other questions raised in these letters can’t be solved by a discussion with the Bureau but are totally internal to the section.
First at all, concerning the questions of the rights of the minority (several were raised during the discussion at the youth camp).
1/ On one hand, comrades of the TPT say that, at least 10 times, they have been prevented from holding their weekly meeting in the headquarters because it was used by other meetings organized by leadership bodies. They also explain that despite their proposal to clarify this matter in the Central Committee, the majority comrades refused to discuss it.
On the other hand, you explain it has only been the case in 2-3 occasions for emergency meetings of broader mass organisations. It’s not at all the same. Is it possible to clarify?
2/ Concerning the publications, comrades of TPT explain they have no access to OKDE’s publications and that even FI statements are never published. These views and positions are not published in any way in the website and in the monthly.
On this other hand, you explain the contrary: according to you, the minority have their own space in the website and can publish their views in the organisation’s printed press.
So, we are obliged to ask once again: what is exactly the situation of the minority concerning the publications, and is it true you don’t publish FI statements?
3/ Concerning the general functioning of the section, comrades of the TPT explain you don’t respect the rights of the minority as they are detailed in the statutes of the International. They say that the position of the tendency is only “conditional” or “under suspension” indefinitely. According to them, this situation could be reconsidered in September.
You say comrades of TPT don’t pay their dues any longer. They say they never stopped paying theirs dues and more that they have been obliged to refund utility bills of the former headquarters (see below).
They also say there is no transparency inside the organization and even during the congress concerning financial matters. It’s a serious question, for our tradition is the maximum of transparency and democratic control concerning financial question. So what’s exactly the situation concerning these matters?
Concerning the headquarters:
We don’t want to discuss the question of the relationship with the owner and the reason for which he decided to ask you to leave the headquarter. It’s an internal question with which we are not concerned. But some questions concerning this move are pending.
1/ Comrades of the TPT explain that all the official papers concerning the headquarters were in the name of Yannis Felekis. This concerns the rent and utility contracts. Concerning these contracts, they explain the majority refused to pay the bills and that they have been obliged to pay extra dues to give money to Yannis. If this is confirmed, of course it’s not acceptable.
2/ Concerning the archives, comrades of the minority say that you accuse Yannis Felekis of being a thief. They ask you to retract this accusation. When we read your letter, you say that during summer “certain comrades of the minority faction removed the archive” of OKDE Spartakos to bring it to a warehouse of their own. But, comrades of TPT explain they didn’t take archives of OKDE Spartakos, because the material moved was archives given into the personal custody of Yannis by old comrades. They say that this didn’t concern the main archive of OKDE Spartakos which, after the death of Christos Anastiadis, was turned over to ELIA. The main reason invoked by the comrades is that there was a risk of mishap.
So, anyway we don’t think it’s possible of accusing Yannis of being a thief. Is it possible to clarify the real nature of these archives? Is it the OKDE Spartakos archive? It isn’t a question of private ownership mentality, but to discuss the best way to preserve old material given by comrades. That would be resolved by discussion between comrades.
One last point: you signed your letter on behalf of your Financial Campaign Committee. TPT comrades say they don’t know when and where such a committee was decided and elected and what relationship it has with the elected bodies. It’s of course a problem for us because your letter is signed on behalf of this committee.
So, we want above all to clarify the situation, to avoid a mechanism of crystallisation inside the organisation, and to guarantee a functioning which respects our statutes concerning the rights of the minority.
As emergency points needing to be solved, we believe we need :
– to find a quick solution for the question of utility debts concerning the former headquarters ;
– also to that of the archives, as it has been detailed above.
Concerning these two items , the Secretariat is ready to provide help.
We expect that also that a mutually agreeable arrangement will be found for the use of the new headquarters.
Comradely greetings
Léon
For the Secretariat
De : Manos Skoufoglou <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>
Date : lundi 16 septembre 2019 à 18:45
À : Nikolas Skoufouglou <nicskouf@yahoo.gr>, FI Bureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Objet : Re: Comments on Greek Section and its financial campaign
Dear Penny/dear all
I am sure you too realize that this is getting sick. I personally think it is pointless to continue this indirect correspondence with TPT.
In any case, if the Bureau has any particular questions to ask, we will be glad to give you the answers.
Of course, we have the financial balance sheet from our last conference, which is at your disposal, if you wish. We also have a very detailed balance sheet of our current financial campaign so far (which, by the way, was officially launched by our Political Bureau).
Comradely
Manos
Στις Δευτέρα, 16 Σεπτεμβρίου 2019, 07:02:31 μ.μ. EEST, ο χρήστης FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr> έγραψε:
Dear Comrades
We forwarded your letter concerning the financial campaign to the comrades of the TPT-OKDE. We are therefore forwarding you their reply on this point.
Comradely greetings
Bureau secretariat
From: TPT (Fourth International Programmatic Tendency)
To: FI Bureau
Subject: Comments on the letter addressed to the FI on behalf of the “Financial Campaign Committee of OKDE-Spartakos”
Date: 8/9/2019
Attached: The positions held by the OKDE majority regarding the FI (translated) [see attached files]
Regarding the letter addressed to the FI on behalf of the ”Financial Campaign Committee of OKDE-Spartakos” we would like to make the following remarks:
As far as we know, no decision was taken by the C.C. of OKDE either pertaining to a financial campaign or to appoint a “Financial Campaign Committee of OKDE-Spartakos”; therefore, we do not know who the members are, who authorised them, or who they answer to.
We would like point out that this is the first time that the Greek section of the 4th International has addressed the International or its sections requesting financial support. It did not do so even during the dictatorship when OKDE was outlawed, or in 1974 while trying to get back on its feet after the downfall of the dictatorship, or in 1978 when its publication was under prosecution, and its legal representative, Yiannis Felekis, was in prison.
The main reason this Committee cites for this, unprecedented in the recent history of the section, appeal to the 4th International for financial support —successive elections— does not seem credible to us. OKDE did not stand independently but constituted a small part of ANTARSYA in the parliamentary and European elections, while members participated in local anti-capitalist left groups in municipal and regional elections. Consequently, OKDE, which has been involved in these electoral groups for more than 10 years, was burdened with only a small percentage of the cost of the election campaigns. In any case, this is a political choice, the cost of which should be taken into consideration (see, for example, the NPA this year) and not passed on to the 4th International, i.e. to sister sections, including those from poorer countries with huge economic problems.
As you are aware, however, the issue of the International is the main reason our tendency was formed as the OKDE majority refuses to circulate the 4th International’s communications, discussions, etc. (with a few exceptions when they are opposition articles: the only FI statement circulated by the majority was the recent resolution on Venezuela which was presented triumphantly within the organisation as a victory over TPT in the IC!). Their views are not translated and remain, unfortunately, only in Greek. As you may know, we try to ensure that our own views are translated into other languages, and these can be found on our website and in the media of the 4th International.
The letter from the “Financial Campaign Committee” also contains certain inaccuracies, a few of which we feel obliged to mention:
It states that TPT regularly used the headquarters for its meetings every Thursday throughout the year except for 2-3 occasions where there were meetings that could not be otherwise scheduled. This is an absolute lie. In more than 10 cases TPT meetings were obstructed or postponed and sometimes even prevented without notice as the OKDE headquarters were occupied on account of internal (or not) organizational procedures (Political Bureau, student faction, etc.) that could easily have taken place at another time. Moreover, when TPT submitted a proposal (a written request made twice on 29/12/2018 and 22/3/2019) to the Central Committee in order to clarify the matter, the majority comrades refused to discuss it.
It is true that the ‘relocation’ of the headquarters was made necessary because the landlord asked for them to be vacated, but one of the reasons leading up to his request was that in July 2019 the rent had not been paid for the past 6 months. Contrary to what is claimed in the “Financial Campaign Committee” letter, the owner of the property told Yannis Felekis (who is technically the lessee) that no agreement had been made with him regarding any settlement of the debt. On the contrary, he said that the OKDE Treasurer had avoided any contact with him.
Regarding the legal liability for the payment of the rent arrears it must be noted that that the lease was signed by comrade Yiannis. All the electricity, telecom, internet, etc., bills are also in his name so, consequently, these utility companies have been calling him demanding payment of the debts and threatening him with prosecution. OKDE’s debts are directly and personally borne by that comrade and, contrary to what the ‘Committee’ letter assures you, they have not and cannot be transferred to another comrade even if the legal representation of OKDE has changed (which we have no knowledge of).
It should also be pointed out that it is misleading to present the headquarters as the home of a ’70-year-old publishing house’ since there is no independent publishing house. The various ‘publishing legal entities’ we have formed over the last fifty years have been established solely so that the section’s publications (magazines and books) could be sold in bookstores. These legal entities are required to name a natural person as legal representative, and at least two members of TPT (Yiannis F. and Tasos Anastasiadis) have been legally responsible for debts that have accumulated over fifty years. We mention this to clarify that these publishing entities, dependent on the collective involvement of members of the section, were always a means to circulate our publications and not an independent publishing enterprise.
As for the issue regarding the archives the reality is as follows:
The vast majority of the publications, printed matter, etc. that make up the archives that comrade Yannis removed from the organization’s headquarters had been given into his custody by old comrades who are no longer alive. A lot of this material was amassed by Yannis in the 80’s when he found himself outside of the section, and the reason he was entrusted with it was that his ethical and political stature ensured its safekeeping The main archive of OKDE was that kept in the house of Christos Anastasiadis, and after his death, it was turned over to ELIA (Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive Society). Comrade Yiannis did not have the ownership but was responsible for the archives that essentially he had accumulated . With the situation created by the threat of eviction due to outstanding debts, comrade Yiannis felt it necessary to move the archives to a safe place. TPT did not participate in this action but acknowledges his right to try to safeguard this archive from any mishap. In any event, it behooves the Political Bureau of OKDE to retract its accusation that c. Yannis is a “thief” -an accusation that was made within OKDE (although it refrained from repeating such monstrosities among the Greek labor movement to avoid ridicule.)
According to the ‘Committee’ letter most members of TPT do not pay their dues. We must inform you that no such decision has been made by TPT. On the contrary, in addition to our dues, we have already paid a significant part of OKDE’s debt from the former headquarters —the utility bills which, as we noted above, were in comrade Yanni’s name and which, up till now, the majority has regrettably refused to pay.
It is also states that any donation will benefit both the majority and the minority of the Greek section. We are obliged to inform you that OKDE’s finances have been managed in recent years with a total lack of transparency and with no accountability whatsoever to the organization. It is telling that no financial report was presented at the last congress.
There are other parts of the letter that distort reality, but there is no point in going into such detail. Let’s just say that presenting a majority that would secure the rights of the minority is completely inaccurate. Beyond the use of the headquarters, to which TPT now has no access, it is not true, for example, that our views in the organization’s publications are ensured: not only FI statements, but also minority views were not published even before TPT was formed (as in 2015, for example, the Political Bureau refused to publish in our magazine “Spartakos” an analytical article on Ukraine which expressed a view different from the “support for the anti-fascist Donbas fight” the majority supported). In fact, this mode of function was one of the reasons for forming TPT. It is also not true that TPT refused to follow the “line” of the organization —meaning the obedience of its members to the principles and general direction of the 4th International. On the contrary, what is true is that the majority declared TPT’s position within the organization as “conditional” or “under suspension” (CC decision, January 2019) indefinitely (until the same majority decides to revoke this decision upon reconsideration, and the minority is recognized to be ‘tolerable’ or have ‘normal’ status within the organization).
The majority of the organization has stated that all this may be “reconsidered” at the first assembly of the CC in September, or at a special meeting between representatives of the majority and the minority. Although we witness daily that the majority of the OKDE leadership is very far from the principles and the function of a section of the FI, it is our hope that it will return to the tradition of proletarian democracy, especially by removing all the restrictions imposed on us and by putting an end to the mud-slinging against our comrades (Yiannis among others) and our International.
We are willing to do whatever necessary in this direction.
Comradely,
TPT
8/9/2019
Από: μανος σκουφογλου <manosskouf@yahoo.gr>;
Προς: FIBureau <fibureau@wanadoo.fr>
Στάλθηκε: Πέμπτη, 15 Αυγούσου 2019, 01:09 μ.μ. EEST
Θέμα: About the Greek Section and its financial campaign
Dear Penny/dear all
Following the discussion we had in the Spanish State, please find attached a document explaining in further detail the situation and the fact that certain rumors about our eviction and relocation are false.
As we know, those rumors have also reached the NPA leadership. We might need to send a similar letter there, excluding the parts about the FI, since the NPA is not a section.
Comradely
Manos
Dear comrades,
As you already know, the Greek section has launched an international financial campaign to support the relocation of our headquarters and of our publishing company. Following a year of consecutive elections in Greece, which meant a lot of expenses, the eviction from our previous headquarters has brought our organization in a critical financial condition. There are already several comrades, both in Greece and internationally, who have made generous contributions, but nevertheless more funds are still needed.
The FI Bureau has published our call for financial support in IVP, which is very helpful.
However, we have come across rumors that the relocation of our headquarters might be connected with a factional fight within our organization. The members of the FI Bureau who were present at the youth camp in the Spanish State expressed this concern in a meeting with our comrade Manos.
We want to make clear that the reasons for our relocation have nothing to do with the relations between the majority and the minority of our organization. It is really very hard for us to understand how such a distorted narrative has spread out and reached members of the FI Bureau.
There was a sorrowful incident last July (on which we are going to give a full account below) but this has been neither a reason nor an outcome of the eviction and relocation of our headquarters. Manos gave a detailed report during the meeting with members of the FI Bureau in the Youth Camp. However, we do believe that a formal written communiqué by our leadership is necessary and is needed in order to further clarify the developments in the Greek section.
Since 2016, a minority tendency was formed in OKDE-Spartakos, which in the last year has been transformed into a public faction. In our last conference, this tendency received 20% of the vote. According to our tradition, tendencies are proportionally represented in all leadership bodies of the organization (central committee, political bureau, control commission, etc), have their own space in the organization’s website and can publish their views in the organization’s printed press. And these were applied in the case of the minority tendency.
After the minority tendency turned into a public faction, the comrades that belong to it stated that they will no more follow the policy voted in our last Conference but they will implement their own policy instead. They launched their own website and journal and the majority of them stopped paying their dues to the organization. This had a negative impact on our finances.
Although this last decision of the minority tendency is in contrast with our statutes, OKDE-Spartakos decided to refrain from organizational measures and to continue to respect the rights of the minority tendency and provide the maximum of facilities for its function, including among other things, the exclusive use of the headquarters once a week for its meetings.
We specially mention this fact because, during the meeting with the FI Bureau members, Manos has been told that the minority tendency claims that it has been excluded from the use of the headquarters. This is not true whatsoever! They have been using the office space regularly every Thursday throughout the year and only in 2 or 3 cases they had to reschedule the day during the same week because it was necessary to host in our headquarters emergency meetings of broader anticapitalist feminist or students’ caucuses with last minute notice.
And now we come to the relocation issue. Some months ago, the owner of the building where both the headquarters of our organization and our publishing house have been located for the past seven years gave us a warning that we should leave the building within a certain time limit. This time limit was initially April 2019 and later, after some negotiations was extended to the end of July 2019. The reason for this extension had to do partly with the owner’s understanding of our election commitments and partly with our comrade Kostas personal guarantee about our payment of the existing debt to him. The issue of relocation has been repeatedly discussed in the branch meetings and in the CC meetings and a special commission was approved in order to look for new space for relocation.
During this 6-month discussion in our organization about the relocation nobody raised any objections, including the minority faction. This is why a narrative that links the eviction and relocation with any factional fight was a total surprise to us.
In early July, we managed to find a new building for our headquarters and publishing house. We announced that to our electronic membership list which includes all the minority faction members. Before we moved to our new headquarters, we had our 5-day summer school in the island of Euboea. It was during this period that certain comrades of the minority faction entered the old headquarters and removed the archive of our organization, which they brought to a warehouse of their own, where we don’t have any access. The comrade who took responsibility for this action stated that they did it because this archive is his own property. The minority faction did not assume collective responsibility for this action, but they refused to denounce the two comrades who have admittedly taken the archive away and justified them on the basis that they had contributed the most to this archive.
For reasons of historical accuracy and clarity, this is false. Comrades with more than 40 years membership in OKDE Spartakos have a different story to tell. Besides, a private ownership mentality of archives and historical sources is alien to our organization.
In the FI youth camp, we came across a narrative totally unknown to us before: according to the information that the Bureau comrades had through a previous contact with our minority faction, the minority members who took the archive did so because: a. they were afraid that the owner could confiscate it because of our debt to him and, b. they felt exposed because this debt was in the name of one leading comrade of the minority faction.
This narrative is completely unsubstantiated.
During the months that followed the ultimatum of the owner, a certain debt towards him was accumulated indeed. The main reason for this was the extreme financial pressure of the 4 different election contests that took place (municipal, regional, European, national), since the section participated in all of them plus the fact that the majority of members of the minority faction do not pay any dues for the last year. Our section doesn’t receive any kind of funding by any institution or source other than the contributions of our members, most of which are students, unemployed, underemployed or very low paid.
However, the story that certain FI Bureau members were told is pure fiction, because of the following reasons:
a. The owner had absolutely no legal right to confiscate anything, and of course he never tried to do so. Besides, in the last months, the owner was in constant contact with comrade Kostas and we have made an agreement with him as to how to pay off this debt in the near future.
b. All previous contracts and financial transactions were not in the name of the leading comrade of the minority faction, but in the name of the non-profit institution that we have founded (IKPE) in order to be able to perform financial transactions. The comrade was only the legal representative of this institution at the time. This has recently changed after he expressed his will to be done so. The legal process to change the representative of IKPE has been completed. All possible debts, therefore, pertain to IKPE and the person to handle these is the new legal representative. There is absolutely no debt in the name of any member of our minority faction.
c. If the minority faction members were afraid of a possible confiscation (something which is impossible according to the Greek Law without a judicial act), they could have well brought the archive to our new headquarters. There is no doubt, therefore, that they took an archive (which does not belong to them) for themselves.
All the above demonstrate that the eviction and relocation are not connected to any factional fight, in any other way other than the fact that the minority faction members took advantage of the absence of the majority a few days before the relocation to make this action.
We do believe that any donation will not benefit the majority or the minority of the section, but the whole section as such.
All this detail might be unpleasant, but it is the only way to deal with unsubstantiated rumors. We have tried to present facts instead of personal opinions.
In any case, our financial campaign is very important, since a considerable amount of money is needed to set up the new headquarters and to pay off previous debts.
This is not an easy task. But we count on the solidarity of our international comrades.
Comradely
On behalf of the Financial Campaign Committee of OKDE-Spartakos
