News thread Upcoming Greek elections & SYRIZA split

[PhoenixAsh]

Since the opposition, as expected, failed to produce a new government within the constitutionally alotted time frame after Tsipras resigned his office the elections are now a fact.

I wanted a thread to collect news surrounding the developments around the upcoming elections and would especially appreciate input from Greek comrades or people who read Greek with news and updates from Greek sources.

What I have gotten so far:

After the failure of the opposition party leaders have met with the president to explain their position on how to move ahead. This included the leader of the SYRIZA split which is now formally a party.

Opposition parties are worried about the electoral results and the possibility of SYRIZA losing their mayority which in their opinion could mean will pave the way for future political crisis and new elections in December. This will leave the country effectively in a governmental crisis and practically ungovernable and could seriously damage the economy.

This fear seems to be mostly caused by several factors.

For one the concept of SYRIZA is still immensely popular with Tsipras being the most favored politician by a landslide in Greece. So....It stands to reason that it will get a lot of votes.

This is countered by the unknown factor of the split off of the left wing from SYRIZS, Popular Unity, which not only took a rough 20% of the National elected officials as well as the groups (SYRIZA is a coalition) that are the most influential, most organized and most active in unions as well as in direct action platforms.

On top of that....

Over the last few days a very large part of the locally elected officials in the prefectures have resigned from SYRIZA seriously affecting the political infrastructure of that party and bolstering that of Popular Unity.

As far as I have heard (and this is unconfirmed from independent sources) in some district this number reaches 30 to 50 percent.

Meanwhile Popular Unity is reaching out to the radical and anti parliamentary left to create a broad social movement against austerity and against the memorandum. This effort seems to be somewhat succesfull as they have managed to at least gain vocal and public support from prominent figures. (more information on this is needed).

The KKE in the meantime is denouncing PU as a reformist platform & the left reserve of the bourgeoisie. It blames the failures and deception of SYRIZA on Trotskyists & Maoïsts and their social democratic opportunism and incidentally all the other parties that were born out of the KKE....because that is what makes the largest part of SYRIZA.

The warn that the PU is creating a dichotomy between the EURO and Drachme to distract from the real problem of capitalism and therefor will nor pose a solution. To counter this they call in the electorate to strengthen the KKE (by voting for them) because the KKE has the only alternative platform that will work (and will enact that when they gain electoral victory). This is that platform: (source: KKE website)


Because it is the only force that has a truly realistic alternative hopeful proposal for the way out, the axes of which are disengagement from the EU and NATO, the unilateral cancellation of the debt and the socialization of the country’s wealth, with the people holding the reins of power.

In other words the KKE's solution is to have a revolution right now through the elections. They currently stand at 5.5 to 7 % with their main candidate being slightly less popular than Michaloliakos of GD. Not to mention that the vast majority of their own union party members of PAME vote overwhelmingly for SYRIZA.

So good luck with that...I guess.

Short of this electorally pushed revolution....They have no other alternatives. So at the current context of zero class consciousness of the working class and "the people" the KKE talks about.....It is kind of an all or nothing thing. Which IMO means the KKE is effectively the other left reserve of the bourgeoisie. But who knows...

[PhoenixAsh]

In the meantime the first polls have emerged.

I have to get the exact results but as it stands now:


Tsipras has ruled out a coalition with ND, PASOK and TO POTAMI.

65% of the voters are opposed to snap elections and say this move was unnecessary and damaging.

SYRIZA leads 23% over 19% for ND.
PU polls at 3.5%

And ANEL will most likely not make the minimum requirement of 3% as it stands at 2% in the polls.

[PhoenixAsh]

Here it is:

http://www.electograph.com/2015/08/greece-august-2015-interview-poll.html?m=1

KKE stands to win 1.1%and GD 2.4% (out of memory).
Largest winners are ND and PASOK.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

http://www.electograph.com/2015/08/greece-august-2015-rass-poll.html

Latest poll forecasts SYRIZA to win 130 seats, ND 72 seats, PU 17 seats and KKE 19 seats.

So either Tsipras will have to go back on his word and form a coalition or agreement with one of the other pro-bailout parties, or Greece will have the ludicrous situation of SYRIZA being propped up by PU (and potentially the KKE? Though this seems unlikely).

The economic plight of Greece is a great shame. It seems as though the democratic process has been re-invigorated in the country, in terms of genuine ideological debate and ordinary people's understanding and interaction with politics (I think Paul Mason said after visiting there that the Greek people have become the world experts on Greek political economy!). It is telling that this can only happen with the Greek people essentially staring down the barrel; shows that resistance isn't futile, but that capital (including its political arm, the EU), will do anything to convince us all that engagement in politics is futile.

[Epictetus]

Are you intentionally lying about KKE's position or are you just misinformed?

[Armchair Partisan]

Are you intentionally lying about KKE's position or are you just misinformed?

For the rest of us misinformed liars, could you explain what you are talking about?

[Epictetus]

The part where OP says KKE wants some sort of revolution through elections.

[PhoenixAsh]

Are you intentionally lying about KKE's position or are you just misinformed?


The part where OP says KKE wants some sort of revolution through elections.

Here it is:

http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-alternative-solution-that-is-in-the-peoples-interests-is-to-be-found-on-the-path-to-overthrow-capitalism-This-requires-a-strong-KKE-in-every-sector-and-neighbourhood.-00001/

Do notice this is the website of the KKE. And here is the quote (emphasize mine):




The rally was the launching pad for the call to strengthen the KKE in the elections to reach every popular household, starting from today.

“You have tried them… Now the solution is to be found on the path to overthrow the system, joining forces with the KKE”, was the slogan written behind the podium of the rally, expressing in a condensed way the call of the communists for the people to evaluate their experiences from the previous years and months, to judge using their experience what they hear and see today, to reach the ballot box holding the list of the KKE in their hands.


So no. It is not me alleging that. It is the KKE actually writing that.

[Epictetus]

Where does it speak of overthrowing the system through elections? It calls the people to join forces with it to strengthen its power. This is typical KKE rhetoric; they (wrongly imo) view the parliament as an extra field in which to conduct struggle and propagandize their ideas and a secondary one at that. This is what KNE will tell you, this is what you can read it Rizospastis, this has been their position in the last decade.

[PhoenixAsh]

O right. Yes. Well I see....they have only tried to do so in the last decade of their entire parliamentary adventure since 1944 in which they formed a bourgeoisie government twice....and in which they consistently failed to radicalize their own union members to a point where the majority isn't even voting for the KKE, failed to not act as cops for the bourgeoisie state during massive escalating protests, failed to create a mass movement under their own banner (or any banner) and failed to outnumber GD in membership.

And what is more managed to get the LOWEST bottom 3 voting scores in the last 40 years (and actually since 1951...IF we are going to get technical) of their existence during an absolutely abysmal pressing crisis for the working class in the period 2009 to today.

During which period the GD votes have increased 20 fold and KKE managed to organize themselves into their votes being nearly halved.

Since 1974 (and we'll forget about the period that preceded that) they haven't actually proposed an effective revolutionary platform outside some rhetorical cos-play....but they of course did manage to effectively study the socio-political and economic situation in the USSR to learn from it and grow (yes...also on their website)...and they now believe the time is ready... this time was not actually ready in 1989 when they were at their zenith....but now that they are in their lowest ranking 3 in actual support...well...things have changed. Not even in 2007 was the time right...you know...when they had 600000 people backing them...nearly twice as much as they have now....

They are out-organized and out-massed by bourgeoisie initiatives and the majority of the workers walking in their strikes are PAME members....and vote en masse for SYRIZA and other parties.

Well done KKE. Well done.

So...at what point are they going to actually get revolutionary....instead of handing revolutionaries over to the cops?

I am only asking because what the KKE is proposing and has actually been doing in the last 50 years....is exactly what I said: vote for them...they'll usher in the revolution and lead the working class to victory.

[Epictetus]

I can't answer any of this, nor will apologize on behalf of a party whose revolutionary strategy is outdated and diluted beyond repair. I'm only pointing out that you're mistaken regarding what their call for votes means. KKE's activity is actually more evident in the workplace, the local councils etc; they don't just appear active before some major election. You should also be cautious when making references to their history, since the post-coalition gov't KKE is an entirely different beast than what it was in the 90s and before, with its youth almost totally renewed, many members purged and others rehabilitated. There's a good amount of officially published self-criticism in their journals and website, although I can hardly imagine anyone, except perhaps for a political historian, being interested in this type of soporific analysis.

[PhoenixAsh]

I know what they like to pretend their call for votes mean. Their history and current actions/in actions and even downright collaboration however means that they are effectively calling for votes. Whether that is intended as a multi platform approach doesn't actually matter since the reality of the situation disallows for the other platforms to be in any way shape or form an option...even if they were being effective.

And that last part is the big issue. They are not. They are in fact so ineffective that the working class that is actively helped by the KKE decided over the last 6 years of the crisis to largely abandon the party to the point where their support almost halved and, as of yesterday's polls, they seem to do only marginally better than in January. This of course may change but to give you an idea...they need another rough 300.000 votes to even get to the point of 2009 where they had nearly 600.000 votes.

Now if we were to focus on the history of the KKE after the 1989 fiasco (and mind you...the KKE seems to have no issue whatsoever to condemn groups and parties based on their history...at all...and still condemn certain groups as traitors because they split from the KKE and on that ground alone refuses to coordinate and cooperate with them) then effectively the history amounts to preciously little.

In the last 25 years the party failed spectacularly to organize the working class along revolutionary lines. Their largest efforts are to aid in strikes and lend political and organizational support to PAME which have been the most active in organizing demonstrations. The KKE claims these demonstrations and claims PAME as the result of their own initiative. In the last elections the KKE gained 330.000 votes. PAME has >850.000 members (according to the KKE in 2012...and the numbers are estimated to be around 1 million now). This means that the vast majority of PAME doesn't actually vote for the KKE....nor does it actively support the KKE or subscribe to the KKE line. There is only one period in the KKE history the KKE managed to get > 850.000 votes and that is when they helped form a government.

And that is reflected in the organisation activities of other revolutionary groups as well as social democrats (such as sections of SYRIZA like DEA) having a huge influence and play in fact a huge role in supporting strikes and unions work within PAME affiliated union groups. And in fact a lot of effort in organizing strikes comes from non KKE political groups and groups the KKE actively opposes.

When it comes to organizing and actively mobilizing people the KKE is mostly absent or is found bashing and heavily criticizing local initiatives (that eventually manage to become quite amazingly popular) and are out organized by such often amateurishly started initiatives.

To that end their influence in very limited and the only moments the KKE does manage to actively front a lot of people is during election rallies for both the local, regional and national level.

This is not just a failed and flawed strategy. It is also a strategy that realistically amounts to the KKE not actually doing much outside of drawing votes and waiting...waiting and more waiting and fronting reformist and semi-reformist platforms while pretending to be an actual revolutionary alternative on the short term.

And the KKE knows this. They have addressed the issue of PAME membership not being in any way shape or form conscious and that most of the PAME affiliated unions aren't in fact revolutionary and are often even skeptical to the KKE if not downright rejecting ideology....and so their politics come down to nothing more than outdated radical language that leaves them well established and most influential in parliament.

And at this point we haven't even began to address the numerous moments of betrayal of revolutionary groups, individuals being handed over to the cops by the KKE and the occasions the KKE actively worked with the bourgeoisie to maintain order and deescalate demonstrations and riots. But that is an aside...although symptomatic of how little the KKE has actually changed inspite of their rhetoric.

So what the KKE says...whether they downright say it or not...is by fronting the platform they currently do (one that will lead them out of the crisis on short notice)...is that they will usher in a revolution if they manage to get enough electoral success. Because that is all they can actually do...and they are pretty aware of that reality they just do not like to admit it.

[Sasha]

ND closing in on Syriza by only 0,4 percent in the polls