Theorie als Praxis

Ich hatte hier neu­lich auf das von Left Voice mit Kostas Skordou­lis von der ANT­AR­SYA-Mit­glieds­or­ga­ni­sa­tion OKDE-​​Spartacus geführte Inter­view hin­ge­wie­sen. Ges­tern ver­linkte er bei FB einen eng­lisch­spra­chi­gen Arti­kel von Genss(Inn?)en aus der Tür­kei. Ich habe dazu bei FB fol­gen­den Kom­men­tar gepos­tet:

I agree with the main part of the fourth last para­graph: ‚ANT­AR­SYA […], made a pro­po­sal to Popu­lar Unity […] based on the unity of action and some poli­ti­cal prin­ci­ples against the new cut downs for a col­la­bo­ra­tion during elec­tions. These prin­ci­ples con­sis­ted of the com­plete can­cel­la­tion of the loan, natio­na­liza­tion of the banks under workers’ con­trol and sup­port for the workers’ struggle against the cut downs. Howe­ver Popu­lar Unity showed that their per­spec­tive is not­hing more than a sof­te­ned ver­sion of Syriza’s pro­ject by not accep­ting this offer. While Syriza star­ted to resem­ble PASOK, Popu­lar Unity is a can­di­date for being Syriza of the future. With this situa­tion in hand, ANT­AR­SYA deci­ded to run for elec­tions on its own.” And I agree also with: ‚ANT­AR­SYA should mobi­lize and strengt­hen the orga­niza­tion of their own power and their great cir­cle in the upco­m­ing period […].’

Pain­ting: ANT­AR­SYA (left) pro­phe­cies the fate of SYRIZA (right below)

Howe­ver, I do not agree with the main the­sis of the arti­cle (‚So with Tsi­pras out of the equa­tion, more radi­cal [read: more left] ele­ments will become effec­tive.’) and neit­her with last sen­tence of the fourth last para­graph of the arti­cle: ‚On the other hand, des­pite the inten­si­fy­ing cri­sis and Syriza’s betra­yal, KKE still can­not exceed their nor­mal 6-​​7% limit because of their incu­ra­ble sec­ta­ria­nism.’ – And?! ANT­AR­SYA pro­bably will not exceed the 3 % limit. Is it because of an ‚incu­ra­ble sec­ta­ria­nism’ of ANT­AR­SYA as well?!

I’m not Greek; I do not live in Greece and I can’t read Greek. The­re­fore it is dif­fi­cult for me to make a pro­per ana­ly­sis. Nevert­he­l­ess, after all what I have read in Ger­man, in English and Cas­ti­lian wit­hin the last about 10 ten weeks about Greece give me the impres­sion: The situa­tion is much more com­pli­cate; is even worse.

Yes, the KKE is signed by ‚incu­ra­ble sec­ta­ria­nism’. But that is, for my point of view, not the rea­son, why it can’t exceed the 6 – 7 % limit.

Maybe ANT­AR­SYA made some mis­take as well (I don’t know). But I’m sure, such hypo­the­ti­cal mis­ta­kes are not the rea­son, why it can’t exceed even the 3 % limit.

The real pro­blem is: There is no mass sup­port in Greece for any (!) policy more left than the policy of SYRIZA (with all its for­mer illu­si­ons and cur­rent capi­tu­la­tion). The for­mer illu­si­ons and the cur­rent capi­tu­la­tion are not only SYRIZA ones; there are also the own of the people, of the Greek mas­ses. – And in the other Euro­pean coun­tries the situa­tion is even worse; most worse, maybe, in Ger­many.

As far as I have read, the grea­test mani­fes­ta­tion in Greece since Tsi­pras’ signing the new basic agree­ment in Brus­sels in the morning of the 13th of July had about 15.000 par­ti­ci­pants. That is less than 10 % of the great mani­fes­ta­ti­ons in Greece bet­ween 2010 and 2012.

As far as I have read, there are in Greece cur­rently nearly no occupa­ti­ons of enter­prise plants and buil­dings of the public admi­nis­tra­tion. Con­trary to what the aut­hor says, ‚strikes and pro­tests’ are NEVER ‚fired up ine­vi­ta­bly’ – there is always to do a deci­sion for it before. And every time alter­na­tive deci­si­ons for resi­gna­tion or the ali­gn­ment for fascist ten­den­cies can be made. The aut­hor him­self sta­tes cor­rectly: ‚In a case where the strikes and street pro­tests are weak, the chance for Gol­den Dawn to make a bre­ak­th­rough will increase.’

And nearly all polls assume, that the par­ties on the right to SYRIZA will receive more votes than in Janu­ary. And SYRIZA its­elf made, as we all know, a sharp u-​​turn from anti-​​austerity to neo­li­be­ra­lism. And on the far right popu­list ANEL will decline, but the Nazi-​​Party Gol­den Dawn will increase even more.

On the other hand, Popu­lar Unity will receive some votes; maybe a little bit less, maybe a little bit more than the KKE. Howe­ver, as the aut­hor of the arti­cle indi­ca­tes rightly, – except of the cur­rency ques­tion, PU sha­res the basic illu­si­ons of ‚Good Old SYRIZA’. But in any case it will not receive more than one third of the votes of SYRIZA in Janu­ary. That means also: It will receive less votes than SYRIZA in May 2012.

So, what we have to see is not a left cur­rent in Greece, rather a trend, that strengt­hens the right wing! Com­pa­red with all that, the fact the KKE and ANT­AR­SYA will gain each about 1 or 2 per­cent points more than in Janu­ary is a quan­tité neglia­ble.

Last point: I also do not agree with the term ‚Syriza’s betra­yal’. There was nobody say­ing some­thing dif­fe­rent than that, what he or she really inten­ded. SYRIZA had up from the begin­ning a self-​​contradictory pro­gramme: ending the aus­te­rity, but stay­ing wit­hin the Euro zone; making eco­nomy “more social”, but not inten­ding to smash the bour­geois state and to over­come the capi­ta­list mode of pro­duc­tion. Ever­yone could knew, that this will not work – at least not in our cur­rent period of capi­ta­list cri­sis and bour­geois class attack. Ever­y­thing was fully trans­pa­rent. There was no secret plan of Tsi­pras for betray­ing the mas­ses in Greek. Surely, there were as well some machi­na­tion behind the stage; but such machi­na­ti­ons are never the most ele­men­tary aspects of the class struggle.

Tsi­pras said before the Janu­ary elec­tions, what he will try. He tried this – and, of course: He fai­led. There was no betra­yal and no tre­a­son.

And of course ANT­AR­SYA knew all this a long time before the Janu­ary elec­tions – and said it. The­re­fore espe­cially ANT­AR­SYA has no rea­son for com­plai­ning about being betrayed. Rather ANT­AR­SYA was a well-​​working Cas­san­dra.

“Rea­son” for com­plai­ning about being betrayed do have only people, who shared the for­mer illu­si­ons of SYRIZA – and still think, it could have ended up with that illu­si­ons dif­fer­ently, than it ended up in rea­lity.

Hope­fully, one day the Greek mas­ses will end the tra­gedy and start to hear to our beloved Cassandra-​​ANTARSYA. Really?

Sorry, for my idio­syn­cra­tic Ger­man English.