Which path for SYRIZA?

THE FALL of the government of New Democracy-PASOK, despite all the efforts of capital and Eurozone governments to prop it up and all the propaganda about the disaster its collapse would cause, and the call for elections opened up a historic opportunity for SYRIZA and all of the Greek and international left.

This is essentially the first time since the end of the Nazi occupation in the Second World War when the left from the communist tradition will have the opportunity to assume government power in Greece and Europe--whether alone or even just as the main force. It is also the first time since the economic crisis of 2008 where a country under financial supervision by international powers will put a left-wing government in power.

The success or failure of this experiment will have enormous political, ideological, moral and psychological consequences for the diverse grouping that calls itself the left, to the left of social democracy. It will determine the success or failure in this particular moment on what has been identified as the "democratic road to socialism."

Either the left will open up a path leading to decisive ruptures with capital (rather than simply "humanitarian" management of capitalist crisis) and opening up the socialist transition--with the great benefit being that it will counteract the famous saying that we can't fight for socialism now, that belongs to the distant future--or it risks becoming not even a classic social democratic power, but a social liberal manager of the crisis, a vehicle for the policies of the European Central Bank and its American agent, the International Monetary Fund, and ally of Angela Merkel-Wolfgang Schäuble-Jean-Claude Juncker and Co.

The real alternative to a mild form of liberalism isn't to restore the classic Keynesianism, but emphasizing the urgency of anti-capitalist action, with socialism-communism as the only strategy for a way out--through a transitional political program--of the long and structural crisis of capitalism,

In this sense, we agree with the statement often made by SYRIZA leaders that we "cannot become social democracy." But we must make a serious addition to this statement: SYRIZA can become a force against neoliberalism and for anti-capitalist subversion, but unfortunately, it can also become a government of mild neoliberalism. "Tertium non datur"--the middle way does not exist.

IF THIS is true, than there is a great importance to the question of the immediate program of the government (in its "first hundred days") in winning broad working-class and popular support of an activist character.

These first steps must mark a return to the strongly activist and radical SYRIZA of the period from 2008 to 2012, as well as the positive moments of the following period, exemplified by the struggles around [the public radio and television station closed by the New Democracy government in the spring of 2013, which sparked an occupation of the main broadcasting facility] and Skouries [a village near Thessaloniki where residents fought against the threatened environmental destruction when the government decided to allow a private company to open a gold mine].

The program announced in September 2014 at the International Trade Fair in Thessaloniki [where SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras unveiled a "reconstruction plan" that he said would be the minimum first steps of a left government] is a useful statement that significantly enhances the reach of our influence. But it is not sufficient.

In the Thessaloniki program, beyond what is necessary for the resolving the acute humanitarian crisis, we should emphasize measures that significantly change the balance of class forces and that express the dominance of popular resistance within SYRIZA. These include restoring the minimum monthly wage of 751 euros; reintroducing collective agreements and union representation; re-establishing the exemption from taxes of income up to a certain minimum level; abolishing the United Estate Property Tax [an unfair tax on all property, even if it is empty, that was imposed temporarily by the New Democracy government, and later made permanent]; restoring the 13th and 14th pension installments and increasing the minimum pension to 700 euros month; increasing spending on education and healthcare; and public investment to create jobs.

However, funding for these measures will be inadequate, if other measures are not taken, such as temporary suspension of all debt payments and increased taxes on capital, bankers, the shipping magnates and major property owners.

It is neither possible nor desirable for the policies of a left government--which is not at all identical to a government of "national salvation"--to satisfy all parts of society, as if the five years of social war between the Greek ruling class and the working majority was accident or misunderstanding

Also, we need to clarify what we mean by the unilateral and non-negotiable "abolition of the Memorandums" [the agreements negotiated by PASOK and New Democracy for drastic austerity measures in return for the financial bailout]. There must be immediate legislative initiatives around the appropriate questions, including salaries and pensions; reversing anti-labor legislation; controlling the banks; stopping privatization and the immediate elimination of the Fund for the Development of Public Property [an agency established under the old government to sell off public property, even at ridiculously low prices]; reversals of mass layoffs in the public sector and among government workers; increased benefits for the unemployed and people cut off health care, including immigrants; restoration of the right to protest and the withdrawal of special police forces; measures to confront fascism and racism and more.

This is starting point for eliminating all the significant measures produced by the Memorandums, contained in about 400 laws and thousands of decrees, edicts and ordinances.

Beyond this, we must remember that SYRIZA did not acquire its mass support nor come up with its political program only after the speech by Tsipras at Thessaloniki in 2014. SYRIZA had and still has a program that has been under development since its founding congress in July 2013.

This program is clear on the questions of the necessary political and economic instruments for redistributing wealth and the reconstruction of society on a popular basis. This includes public control and nationalization of the banks, the reversal of privatization of public enterprises with that are critical to society, and taking all necessary measures to answer the blackmail from Greek capitalists, the Troika and international lenders.

These questions have not ceased to apply as the program announced at Thessaloniki, which lays out some of the minimum and immediate steps of a left government, but not the full range of our government program, even in the short to medium term. Also, it is still a key objective, critical to implementing other parts of the program, to write off much of Greece's international debt as unsustainable. We cannot submit to half-measures, such as prolonging the payment period, or freezing or reducing interest rates.

If the nightmare of debt repayments continues, along with the balanced-budget requirements under the Memorandums, exercising social and pro-labor policies will simply become impossible. The participation of other forces on the left following the elections and the mobilization of popular forces are absolutely necessary conditions for a government of the Left, with SYRIZA at its heart, to survive--to start the process of reversing, and not simply slowing down, the many years of capitalist restructuring at the heart of the crisis in Greece and Europe.

The victory can be ours.

Translated in English by Antonis Martalis. First published at the Internationalist Workers Left website.