What can revolutonaries learn from Greece?

[RedKobra]

Why, given the appalling political situation, is there not a strong revolutionary movement? And what does this mean? Why, despite everything are Greek leftists still putting their faith in social democratic parties like Syriza?

Does anyone have an analysis?

[Epictetus]

It's a country that benefits from the exploitation of true proletarians while lacking a significant industry of its own. The major representative of Communist ideology in Greece is KKE, which has proven itself to be outdated theoretically.

[Mr. Piccolo]

This is a very good question and I have thought about it myself. It looks like there have been protests and strikes aplenty in Greece, but from what I can tell there have been few signs of any willingness or desire among the Greeks to see a complete regime change. There still seems to be faith in electoral politics.

Perhaps it is due to the persistence of liberal ideology? Maybe there is fear that a revolution would bring about military intervention by NATO? Greece is a NATO country and I could see NATO intervening against the threat of a real revolution.

[Comrade #138672]

Maybe because the left is still recovering from the fall of the Soviet Union. In a way, the revolutionary left has to re-discover itself.

Also, SYRIZA is not a homogeneous party. It has both radical and reformist factions. We will have to see what develops out of it, and, of course, support the radical elements.

[Samurai Socialist]

This is a great question and I actually think this really the central issue in thinking about the current popular leftwing parties throughout Europe. But this situation is not just confined to Greece - there is not really any revolutionary movement with any support to speak of anywhere in Europe. And, as mentioned above, why not, when people are being pushed to the point of utter desperation?

My belief is that this is a consequence of the hold that capitalism exercises over the individual psyche. We are so bombarded with advertising and capitalist media messages that capitalism, and our own participation in the system, becomes fundamental to the formation of our identities. We literally (or figuratively, depending on your point of view) are the system. This being the case, protest becomes much more than just activism and for most people it involves redefining their sense of self.

Until the common psychological attachment to capitalism is loosened it is hard to imagine real popular support for a radical leftwing organisation trying to institute some radical vision of socialism. All over Europe we still see people complaining about the system and sympathising with the unemployed while also spending up to and beyond their means. Capitalist identity formation engenders Marxian false consciousness and empathy is secondary to commerce.

While pushing for true socialism we need to simultaneously promote cooperatives and other related social structures to try to combat this psychological hold. As long as capitalism dominates the psyche it will be near impossible to see strong revolutionary movements in Europe.

This is just an opinion and I hope I'm wrong in this prediction but time will tell...