Le Socialiste
19th December 2012, 08:01
Panos Petrou, a leading member of the Internationalist Workers Left (DEA) that co-founded SYRIZA in 2004, wrote a report on the coalition's conference Nov. 30-Dec. 2. The full report can be read here (http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/19/where-is-syriza-headed), but here are some of the more notable things to be found:
The draft declaration:
The draft was very broad and ambiguous, having included all of the different opinions inside SYRIZA. Considering the level of agreement among the various forces in SYRIZA, this was to be expected. But there are some important and urgent reasons to clarify specific issues today.
One such issue is the particular character of the period right now. The coalition government is facing serious problems, and if an election is called, SYRIZA might come to lead a government before its founding Congress in the spring.
Another is the urgent questions we face because of the situation is so dire in Greece. There are some issues that are a matter of life and death, both for SYRIZA and the left as a whole, and for the working class. So we need to be adamant on some crucial choices that may have to be made soon.
Political debates and issues over SYRIZA's future:
As SYRIZA gets closer winning an election and forming a government, the pressures to adjust the coalition's politics in a more "realistic" direction are increasing.
There have been many signs that elements of the leadership of Synaspismos want to pave the way for such a shift. These leading members go beyond the ambiguities in the draft declaration. In their public appearances and in interviews, they will interpret the basic agreement on what unites SYRIZA in order to moderate the politics, or even to contradict that basis of unity.
Growing calls amongst the coalition's leftwing for cooperation/collaboration with the Communist Party and ANTARSYA:
SYRIZA must remain committed to winning a "government of the left," with appeals to the Communist Party and ANTARSYA for collaboration.
The conference and the voting results:
The leadership of Synaspismos tried to head off political discussion--in order to avoid an open debate on the contentious issues mentioned above--so the political differences at the conference were mainly expressed in voting for the new leading body of SYRIZA.
Together, these forces [Synaspismos, KOE, AKOA, Roza, and former PASOK members] formed the "United Ballot." This alliance was in favor of the draft declaration as it stood and generally supported the idea that SYRIZA was moving in the right direction and there were no serious disputes at the present time. It won 75 percent of the votes.
The Left Current and Left Regroupment tendencies in Synaspismos, along with DEA, Kokkino and APO, formed the "Left Platform," which won 25 percent of the vote.
The 25 percent of the vote won by the Left Platform was a very positive starting point for opening up a serious debate inside SYRIZA about the direction of the coalition.
In order to properly evaluate the outcome of the conference, we must keep in mind that the 75 percent of votes won by the United Ballot is not a homogenous block. While the Left Platform tried to express the need for a visible left wing of SYRIZA, this doesn't mean that the majority which voted different is all part of the right wing of the coalition.
The United Ballot included a very wide range of forces, from the most moderate members of Synaspismos who are pushing to adjust SYRIZA's program toward "realism" to very radical left-wing comrades who may have thought that the best way to move SYRIZA forward was to argue their positions within the framework of the majority or who prioritized the need for the coalition to appear "united."
In addition, there was an effort among elements of the majority to appeal to rank-and-file members' desire for unity and the generally optimistic mood of this first conference in order to present the Left Platform as "splitters" who want to argue for no reason. This made it harder for many delegates to support the Left Platform, no matter how much they agreed with its positions.
One indication of this came in the voting on amendments to the draft document proposed by the Left Current and supported by the Left Platform. Both were voted down, but the totals revealed the Platform's ideas aren't confined to only 25 percent of SYRIZA. The amendment insisted on a "government of the left" and that unity should be sought with forces such as the Communist Party and ANTARSYA won the votes of nearly 40 percent of delegates. The amendment on the debt and the eurozone fell just a few votes short of a majority. And this happened despite the polarized climate toward the "splitters" of the Left Platform.
There's more to the original report, so I'd encourage folks to check it out. Interesting developments are taking place within SYRIZA. Let's discuss 'em.
The draft declaration:
The draft was very broad and ambiguous, having included all of the different opinions inside SYRIZA. Considering the level of agreement among the various forces in SYRIZA, this was to be expected. But there are some important and urgent reasons to clarify specific issues today.
One such issue is the particular character of the period right now. The coalition government is facing serious problems, and if an election is called, SYRIZA might come to lead a government before its founding Congress in the spring.
Another is the urgent questions we face because of the situation is so dire in Greece. There are some issues that are a matter of life and death, both for SYRIZA and the left as a whole, and for the working class. So we need to be adamant on some crucial choices that may have to be made soon.
Political debates and issues over SYRIZA's future:
As SYRIZA gets closer winning an election and forming a government, the pressures to adjust the coalition's politics in a more "realistic" direction are increasing.
There have been many signs that elements of the leadership of Synaspismos want to pave the way for such a shift. These leading members go beyond the ambiguities in the draft declaration. In their public appearances and in interviews, they will interpret the basic agreement on what unites SYRIZA in order to moderate the politics, or even to contradict that basis of unity.
Growing calls amongst the coalition's leftwing for cooperation/collaboration with the Communist Party and ANTARSYA:
SYRIZA must remain committed to winning a "government of the left," with appeals to the Communist Party and ANTARSYA for collaboration.
The conference and the voting results:
The leadership of Synaspismos tried to head off political discussion--in order to avoid an open debate on the contentious issues mentioned above--so the political differences at the conference were mainly expressed in voting for the new leading body of SYRIZA.
Together, these forces [Synaspismos, KOE, AKOA, Roza, and former PASOK members] formed the "United Ballot." This alliance was in favor of the draft declaration as it stood and generally supported the idea that SYRIZA was moving in the right direction and there were no serious disputes at the present time. It won 75 percent of the votes.
The Left Current and Left Regroupment tendencies in Synaspismos, along with DEA, Kokkino and APO, formed the "Left Platform," which won 25 percent of the vote.
The 25 percent of the vote won by the Left Platform was a very positive starting point for opening up a serious debate inside SYRIZA about the direction of the coalition.
In order to properly evaluate the outcome of the conference, we must keep in mind that the 75 percent of votes won by the United Ballot is not a homogenous block. While the Left Platform tried to express the need for a visible left wing of SYRIZA, this doesn't mean that the majority which voted different is all part of the right wing of the coalition.
The United Ballot included a very wide range of forces, from the most moderate members of Synaspismos who are pushing to adjust SYRIZA's program toward "realism" to very radical left-wing comrades who may have thought that the best way to move SYRIZA forward was to argue their positions within the framework of the majority or who prioritized the need for the coalition to appear "united."
In addition, there was an effort among elements of the majority to appeal to rank-and-file members' desire for unity and the generally optimistic mood of this first conference in order to present the Left Platform as "splitters" who want to argue for no reason. This made it harder for many delegates to support the Left Platform, no matter how much they agreed with its positions.
One indication of this came in the voting on amendments to the draft document proposed by the Left Current and supported by the Left Platform. Both were voted down, but the totals revealed the Platform's ideas aren't confined to only 25 percent of SYRIZA. The amendment insisted on a "government of the left" and that unity should be sought with forces such as the Communist Party and ANTARSYA won the votes of nearly 40 percent of delegates. The amendment on the debt and the eurozone fell just a few votes short of a majority. And this happened despite the polarized climate toward the "splitters" of the Left Platform.
There's more to the original report, so I'd encourage folks to check it out. Interesting developments are taking place within SYRIZA. Let's discuss 'em.