The Covid-19 pandemic stresses the criminal responsibilities of those who have been attacking the public healthcare system and the social state. Ten years of memoranda and neoliberal attacks have created a huge deficit of medical staff and equipment. Today, the neoliberal governments must be held responsible for the epidemic crisis before the society. The provocative support of the private capital, the privatization of public hospitals, the marketization of health, the abandoning and disparagement of the public sector, they all have the signature of the political forces that have governed our country the past years. In these difficult times, everyone admits that the hope for the health of the people lies in a well-equipped and -staffed public healthcare system. The expensive private … [read more]

SYRIZA has shaken the resisting popular spirit, once dominant throughout the period of the massive struggles against the memoranda, and it has proven to be the worst graveyard of the Left, of its values and its diversity. The conservative shift of the society is quite strong, not only in Greece but also in Europe. The overwhelming electoral difference between New Democracy and SYRIZA proves that a society constantly trained on the logic of “the least bad option is the best option” will eventually choose the worse option. We have seen it happening thousands of times in the past, we see it happening again. New Democracy´s best promoter has been Tsipras himself. The policy of SYRIZA has legitimized the past memoranda policy of New Democracy and has consolidated the doctrine of TINA … [read more]

It is nowadays obvious that the European Union has, in reality, nothing to do with the heavy promises and colorful declarations that from time to time have been. If for the former generations it has been related with feelings of well-being, prosperity and security, as expressed by the moto “A powerful Greece of Euro, part of the European Elite” etc, for the young generations it is not the case anymore. The youth has known a European Union, which: - Imposes unending Memoranda, faces our country as a colony and auctions its wealth and its productive forces, like in the case of the public corporations (ex. The case of the Greek Airports), which, through Public Debt imposes the Privatizations’ Fund, which passes companies from the Greek public sector to… the German … [read more]

The basis of Popular Unity lies in the resistance of the Greek people, unprecedented in its persistence and numerical strength, particularly in the first two years of imposition of the memoranda. This struggle expressed generalized resistance to the strategic plan for imposing permanent austerity, the stripping of workers of every right, seizure of property, the dissolution of democracy, and the imposition of a regime of limited sovereignty. A mere month after the Greek people’s “oxi” in the referendum, the passage of the third memorandum has brought dramatic changes to the political landscape. The leadership group in the government that emerged from the elections of January 25 violated the very social contract that linked it to the popular majority, sowing disillusion and … [read more]

We fully support the demand for the orderly disintegration of the eurozone. Also the reference to positions held in Germany against the bailouts with a tendency to social chauvinist undercurrents (which in difference to Fassina we believe do not prevail) is a correct democratic argument. "If you do not want us we are ready to go." The Euro establishment including dominant Berlin, however, will not accept this as they have no alternative to the eurozone. Eventually we do not want to preserve the EU (like Fassina does) as we believe that breaking with the Euro regimes going for a left Keynesian programme (which we see as the next step) will require the break with the EU altogether. We should not forget that the Maastricht treaty as the very foundation of the Euro regime is an outright … [read more]

See the respective report in the Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-Greece-sign-status-of-forces-agreement-409492 And Mondoweiss: http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/greeces-syriza-military This hardly can be read as accidental: Although one could claim that Kammenos belongs to the small rightist coalition partner of Syriza, namely Anel, it is difficult to believe that such an important foreign policy decision could have been taken without the acknowledgement of the prime minister and the dominant coalition partner Syriza. This is all the more important as Syriza had vowed in its party programme to severe the relations with Israel. Also this promise together with Tsipras’s visits to Moscow seems to be part of the bluff which ended in the totally lost gamble. … [read more]

The tragic capitulation and decline of the Greek government, which is directly linked to the radical left, needs to generate alarms in all popular, democratic and left forces in Europe. A government that was elected to overturn austerity, agreed on the same or worse austerity measures, after 5 months of “negotiations”. A government that promised to return to the Greeks their dignity and lost popular sovereignty, accepted the ultimate humiliation, such as the dismissal of the Minister of Finance on the Eurogroup on 27/06/2015 and the international humiliation of the Prime Minister at the summit of the Eurozone countries ( 13/07/2015). The most humiliating part for the Greek people was the return of a much more severe and punitive version of the Juncker proposals, which had been … [read more]

The clear NO of 61% of Greek people against the blackmails of the Troika and especially the German government raised up hope of people all over Europe to stop the unsocial regime of cuts. The German „Left Party“ publicly supported the OXI on places and streets. The majority of our M.P.s will vote on Friday against a third loan-package and its neoliberal conditions. With her threats and financial terrorism Merkel speaks for the interests of banks and big companies, whom she wants to save with these credits, but not for the workers and unemployed, who have to pay the bills for it. The „Antikapitalistic Left“ supports your resistance against all attempts to reverse the results of the referendum or to bend the knees towards the blackmails of troika-institutions. We keep our … [read more]

Journalist [Mrs Xenakis]: Mr. Alavanos, you 'welcomed' the Brussels agreement with harsh characterizations. You spoke about “betrayal of the people. "Now, after some days, I would ask you if you insist in this very sharp thesis and why? Alavanos: In the referendum, the question was clear: Yes or No to the plan Juncker. And the message of the people was clear: a sweeping NO. A week after, the government signed the Tsipras Memorandum, which is much worse than the plan Juncker. Let's imagine something very similar: while, in the 1974 referendum, the people of Greece had voted against the king, a week after Konstantine returned not just as a constitutional king but as emperor. If this is not treason, then what is treason? J: Many say that what succeeded Mr. Tsipras was the best he … [read more]

In the 5th of July 2015 the huge majority of the Greek people (61%) rejected the insolent demands of the EU for the extension and deepening of the austerity and pro-capital restructuring policies in Greece. These demands were codified in the so-called Juncker Plan for Greece that set barbaric terms for the extension of the previous austerity program (the 2nd Economic Adjustment Program for Greece) in exchange for releasing much delayed tranches of the troika loans to Greece. These tranches were urgently needed for repaying instalments of previous loans by the troika. As I have argued in a previous note (‘The Greek referendum and the tasks of the Left’) SYRIZA was led unwillingly to call this referendum because of the failure of its unrealistic program for a ‘decent compromise’ … [read more]

But the shortcomings of Syriza’s leadership are obvious and endangering this possible popular victory. They have had nearly half a year to dissolve the widespread paradigm within the popular masses of being able to ending austerity while maintaining the Euro. All Greek attempts to pressurize Berlin into a “compromise with dignity” along the last months clearly taught that this is completely impossible. Instead of helping the people to understand the need of a rupture dissolving the impossible electoral mandate of January, instead of openly and convincingly preparing a plan B, Syriza keeps sticking to the contra factual idea that they can soften austerity within the Euro regime. They presented the referendum as nothing more than the last bargaining chip to threaten the troika into … [read more]

For six months, after its January 2015 election victory, the SYRIZA government began negotiations with the EU. In these negotiations SYRIZA was confronted with the stubborn and increasing intransigence of EU and its companion institutions (the ECB and the IMF). SYRIZA very soon accepted the logic and the structure of the troika program; that is the Economic Adjustment Program for Greece popularly called the Memorandum. It simply tried to modify it by making it less front-loaded (i.e. delaying the implementation of reductions in pensions and hidden wage cuts, reducing fiscal primary surplus targets and thus making fiscal policy less austere). It also asked for facilitating debt servicing (by rolling back debt, leveraging and ‘financial engineering’) and an increase in aid funds … [read more]

The NO vote will be a vote for confrontation with the EU and not for a renegotiation with it. The delegations and the participants of the Athens anti-EU Forum call for a massive popular NO to old and new memoranda, to unemployment, to austerity, to the infringement of social and political rights, to the abolition of national sovereignty, a NO to debt, to euro and the EU! They call for a common front of struggle of all the popular and democratic forces for a victory of the NO vote. The breakdown of the negotiations of Greece and the EU prove beyond doubt the true nature of the EU and its companion institutions (the ECB and the IMF): They represent the interests of capitalists and bankers. They impose neoliberal policies. They undermine democracy. They suppress popular and national … [read more]

1. Seven years since the outburst of the financial crisis, we see the European Union becoming even more reactionary, anti-popular and neoliberal. Austerity is the pan-european recipe, and no-one is allowed to question it. The most anti-popular policies are today inscribed in the EU flag and the euro-constitution. This is not just a coincidental direction. Neoliberalism, austerity, the cancellation of social rights, the degradation of the world of work are deeply inscribed in the nature of EU. European Union was at the center of the global crisis and it proved once again that it cannot change, be reformed or be improved. On the contrary, the member states of EU are imposing increasingly harsher policies for the social majority, and increasingly favorable policies for the banks, the large … [read more]

Berlin: nothing short than full-fletched capitulation The German minister of finance, Wolfgang Schäuble, has made it candid-clear: no credit extension without complete surrender to the conditions dictated by the creditors’ financial oligarchy. This despite the fact that everybody knows that Greece will under no conditions be able to serve its debt. The German message therefore serves first of all to make clear to the entire southern periphery as to who is to command and who to obey. This will turn out to be a hubris of the type of Bush’s military “export of democracy” to Iraq. Syriza not to accept complete surrender For the last two months the Greek government has been trying to play cat and mouse. On one hand they signaled their readiness to agree to the troika’s … [read more]

They just take as valid the narration of pro-euro mass media which in their turn repeat and amplify the German version, that is intended to prove that the Greek government signed the terms of unilateral surrender. But it is not just that! It’s evident that they are so much blind with their conceit to point the finger at the victims and not at the torturers. The moral of the story is that, in their opinion, Euro-Germany scored a massive victory and, furthermore, the Greek matter would be closed, deleted. Probably things are not like that. It is a fact that the SYRIZA government, in return for some money that was urgently needed, undertook to effectuate most of the oppressive clauses of the old Memorandum enjoined by troika. But this is not all. SYRIZA also initiated emergency … [read more]

The signing of Eurogroup’s 20/2/2015 declaration by the SYRIZA-ANELL government signifies a point of no return. During the previous period SYRIZA has been retreating continuously from its programme and his electoral declarations. He has already abandoned debt’s write off and is begging for its extension. He has abandoned the nationalization of the banking system. He has forgotten his declarations about ‘tearing apart the Memorandum’ and already declared that it accepts 70% of it. He has abandoned any notion of confrontation with the EU and its policies and instead, by hiding behind the unrealistic and hypocritical position of ‘no confrontation, no submission’, he accepts a disgraceful compromise with EU’s dominant countries. SYRIZA in the post-electoral negotiations with … [read more]

Up to now the bold posture of the Greek prime minister Aléxis Tsípras against the European oligarchy and especially the German rulers has won him the hearts of the popular masses – this is true not only for Greece. Across Europe Tsípras has become the rising star of the victims of neo-liberalism and the capitalist crisis directly challenging Angela Merkel’s leadership. His message was crystal clear: an end to the lies of the elites, who say salvation can be brought only by driving down peoples’ living and social standards – while the oligarchy continues to shamelessly enrich itself. The new Greek government defies the appalling logic of the financial markets, the alleged reason of the economy, which has continuously been widening the gap between poor and rich. Democracy is … [read more]

1. The victory of a party of the left and the defeat of the hateful coalition forces of ND-PASOK and those managed the Memoranda of the last four years (GAP, LAOS, DIMAR) are very important developments and the positive outcomes of the elections. The forces that pushed the people into economic devastation, that humiliated, fooled and belched the people, they received a powerful blow. The rates, however, of ND did not precipitate, we did not have a collapse of the same type as PASOK, and the ND will be the main political pole of the bourgeois interests, along with the Nazi party, which remains strong despite its downturn, and constitutes a significant force to the right-extreme right of the political system. 2. We had a pre- electoral period, in which the winner was already known and … [read more]

First of all and prior to proceeding to the main body of this speech I wanted to express the General Secretary’s gratitude for your invitation. Dimitris Kazakis personally and The United People’s Front (EPAM) as a whole are humbled and honored to be invited to become a part of this convention and join forces with likeminded people from all across Europe. Unfortunately, due to Mr. Kazakis’ heavy schedule he wasn’t in a position to actively participate in this convention himself but he wanted to thank you personally for the invitation. One of the most quoted remarks made from Karl Marx is the well known phrase regarding history. Heavily influenced by Hegel’s notion regarding history, Marx in his ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon’ stated that "History repeats ... … [read more]