For months the crisis in Greece has roiled Europe and captivated the world. It’s not just the economy that is collapsing in Greece — it is the old political order and its established parties. And we are all seeing the rise of radical alternative forces — emerging from the margins, and grabbing for a chance at power.
A revolutionary reporting team is preparing to go to Greece. Without money it will not happen.
In Greece, the helicopter has become a symbol of “Just get out!” It means people are demanding that their government and oppressors just get in a helicopter and flee the country.
The following is a May 15 press release from the Communist Organisation of Greece (KOE).
Greece is in such a sharp crisis, that revolutionary forces are operating under radically new conditions: Their task is not merely to refine and declare their program, or consolidate their own existence. They are now directly involved in bringing millions to a fighting front against the existing political establishment and the old social order. The question is not merely agitating — denoucing or exposing the power-that-be. There is a chance to actually overthrow them.
In this moment, the questions of how to speak to millions, and how to find a road from crisis toward a popular revolution are very very practically posed.
Kasama offers translations of KOE statements — even though we understand they (and their context) are often hard to understand from here. We urge you to study the background, and become fluent in the issues and context of this deep crisis. Because there is much to be learned about how a revolutionary crisis is different from ordinary times, and there is much to be learned when revolutoinaries in other parts of the world grapple seriously with carving a path to revolution (not just in their minds or desires, but in the actual wilderness of real political life).
In this press release (as in the revolutionary discussions of Greece generally) the term Troika is used as one description for the main target of the revolutionary forces. A troika is the name for a three-horse team pulling a sleigh or cart. And Troika (in the current Greek context) means the three forces most directly oppressing the people of Greece through extreme and crushing demands for austerity and debt repayment:
The European Union (an attempt to form a large unified market based on Europe’s major imperialist-capitalist powers)
The International Monetary Fund, which (on behalf of global capitalist forces imposes extreme austerity on struggling peoples and economies.
And the European Central Bank.
You’re discredited. Get out!
They are continuing their provocations against Greece. For them, the matter at hand is prolonging of the status quo.
The President has put an (unsigned) Memorandum into the public spotlight — It is attributed to Papademos, the Prime Minister of the Troika and it announces that public funds available to the Greek government have simply dried up. This reminds us of the declaration made two years ago by Papacostandinos, the then-Minister of the Economy, which compared the Greek economic situation to the Titanic. That declaration was what opened the door for the Troika.
The following piece first appeared in the Greek weekly “Left Road,” a newspaper affiliated with the Communist Organization of Greece (KOE). The article appeared before the recent May election, but still provides some valuable background to the seemingly unresolvable crisis in Greece and the therefore-emerging possibility of a revolutionary way out.
The KOE is a member of the Coalition of the Radical Left and has been extremely active in the mass uprisings associated with the Arab Spring and the intense austerity imposed by the European Union and its finance capitalists. Thanks to Taki Manolakos and Sanhati for the English translation.
Previous Kasama discussions have gone into the crisis in Greece, the political forces there, and the possibility of revolution.
The necessity of transformation causes cracks in Greece’s political system
By Rudy Rinaldi
The Greek elections, the Coalition of the Radical Left,
the political stakes, and reactions to Tsipras’ proposal
The proposal of Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) for a government of the Left has caused large cracks not only in the space occupied by political parties but also the central configuration of political and economic administration. Few believed that they would rise from their beds on May 7 to find a government of the Left in the country. But despite that, his proposal nevertheless caused a significant debate, triggered a strong reaction from the Establishment’s political duopoly of the establishment, and sparked curiosity from other Left forces.
The following is a statement from the Communist Organisation of Greece (KOE). Previous posts here on Kasama have explained more about the particular players (like SYRIZA, the Troika, etc.)
Their attacks will misfire
May 14, 2012 — The orchestrated attacks against SYRIZA from pro-memoranda parties, the Troika, TV stars, big media, and other elements will lead to an outcome contra their aspirations. These attempts to depict SYRIZA as an “irresponsible” force, “adventurist”, a force that “cannot govern”, “does not speak truth to the people”, and much more, will misfire.
Their big fear is that there will be a continuation of what we see in progress : the conversion, in other words, of diffuse radicalisation that is developing in Greek society these past two years, into a political energy connected with the Left. A political energy that will be acquired, in a whole and to a larger degree, into consciousness, organisation, and objectives.
Who are these elements introducing themselves today as “irreplaceable” because only they possess the high art of governing ? They are the same ones who were engulfed by the elections precisely because they governed in recent years while driving the country towards collapse.
The three-horse troika has become a symbol for the three forces most directly oppressing the people of Greece: the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank.
Eric is the national organizer of the Kasama Project, and reported from Greece last summer as part of the Winter Has Its End team.
by Eric Ribellarsi
I would like to share some of the thinking and questions that have been going through my head as of late:
1. I have noticed that a great deal of the response (among radical people in the U.S.) to the jolting political developments has been starting from whether enough seats can be attained to form a left government. Actually, it seems no government can be formed, which is probably a very good thing — from the point of view of revolutionary openings.
But more, merely counting parliamentary seats and seeking one or another left coalition is a wrong starting point:
The main thing to note here is that the long-standing establishment political parties of capitalism have been shattered, that the Greek parliament has become increasingly polarized between a hard left and a hard right. This is more what a society looks like before a revolution or a civil war than before some grand resurgence of social-democracy and rescue of capitalist stability.
A communist orientation in such moments and crises requires exploiting these cracks and fissures to unravel the previous system.
For Greece it is now clear that the revolutionary breakthrough of the working class and the people is irrevocably connected with the overthrow of imperialist dependence. Therefore we must exit the EU and NATO, oust the foreign bases, and break every military, political and economic bond with imperialism. The productive-economic problems of the country and foremost the debt issue cannot be seen or solved outside or before the revolutionary overthrow. It can only be seen as a whole.
The situation in Greece
The people and the working class of Greece struggle for the overthrow of imperialist brutality and subjugation.
The situation in Greece is critical both for the people and the working class. Because of the imperialist dependence of the country, its position in the EU and the Eurozone, its military-political dependence in NATO and its military-political role as a NATO-US springboard, the social and political developments in Greece cannot be seen apart from the developments in SE Mediterranean, the M. East., N. Africa, the Balkans and the quarrels inside the EU.
All contradictions and geo-political aims of the imperialist powers in the region, along with the special but critical issue of the future of the EU, are influencing all developments in our country, having in their background the world crisis. That is the reason that Greece is in the first page of the Media something that is proportionately greater than that of other countries similar to Greece (Portugal, Ireland).
“From early on, the KOE has pointed out that the overthrow of today’s regime, the only way out of this nightmare for the people and the country, will be carried out by the people themselves when they rise up.
“This belief is what guides the KOE in its actions.
“We should not deceive ourselves into thinking that any regime change can be brought about by going through regular parliamentary procedures….
“The arena of elections, under present conditions, is one in which a large portion of the immense dissatisfaction felt by the people will search for a positive means of expression…
“The elections could provide a means of expression for popular anger that may lead to the complete overthrow of the political status quo in favor of the political forces that have acted against the Troika policy over the last two years.”
“The KOE has acted according to the belief that a universal, unified, broad social and political front is needed. To achieve this goal we need to cast a broad, unified front in support of the left wing and all the political powers in support of democracy, independence, and popular and national sovereignty. …
“A broad, electoral alliance, infused with popular radicalism would in itself show the people that the different parties participating were more concerned with the dire need to find a different political path than with their own petty politics, and this will reinstate their lost credibility. “
Dimitris Christoulas, a 77-year old retired pharmacist shot himself at Athens’ central Syntagma Square.
His suicide has sent shockwaves through Greece — expressing the despair, anger, frustration, and the sense of utter rejection felt by millions against the savage reshaping of their lives by great banks and external powers.
Here is his note:
“This traitorous occupation government literally annihilated my ability to survive — which had been based on a decent pension, for which I had paid into (without any government help) for 35 years.
I am of an age that prevents me from offering a decent individual response (without of course ruling out the possibility of being the second person to take arms, should one person decide to do so).
I find no solution other than a dignified end, before resorting to going through garbage in order to cover my nutritional needs.
One day, I believe, the youth with no future will take up arms and hang the national traitors at syntagma square, just like the Italians did with Mussolini in 1945 (at Milan’s Piazzale Loreto).
–Dimitris Christoulas, Syntagma, Athens, April 4th, 2012
Greek Protests Continue As Lawmakers Pass Severe Austerity Measures
by Derek Gatopoulos and Nicholas Paphitis
ATHENS, Greece — Greek lawmakers on Monday approved harsh new austerity measures demanded by bailout creditors to save the debt-crippled nation from bankruptcy, after rioters in central Athens torched buildings, looted shops and clashed with riot police.
The historic vote paves the way for Greece’s European partners and the International Monetary Fund to release $170 billion (euro130 billion) in new rescue loans, without which Greece would default on its mountain of debt next month and likely leave the eurozone – a scenario that would further roil global markets.
Lawmakers voted 199-74 in favor of the cutbacks, despite strong dissent among the two main coalition members. A total 37 lawmakers from the majority Socialists and conservative New Democracy party either voted against the party line, abstained or voted present.
Sunday’s clashes erupted after more than 100,000 protesters marched to the parliament to rally against the drastic cuts, which will ax one in five civil service jobs and slash the minimum wage by more than a fifth.
At least 45 businesses were damaged by fire, including several historic buildings, movie theaters, banks and a cafeteria, in the worst riot damage in Athens in years. Fifty police officers were injured and at least 55 protesters were hospitalized. Forty-five suspected rioters were arrested and a further 40 detained.
As the vote got under way early Monday, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos urged calm, pointing to the country’s dire financial straits.
“Vandalism and destruction have no place in a democracy and will not be tolerated,” Papademos told Parliament. “I call on the public to show calm. At these crucial times, we do not have the luxury of this type of protest. I think everyone is aware of how serious the situation is.”
Our project is starting to produce its collections as e-books — in formats suitable for both Amazon’s Kindle and B&N’s Nook. (Thanks to Enzo for this great work of design and conversion.)
Here are our first two Kasama e-books. More to come.
In addition, volunteer to help expand these offerings:
Help us test these files — where do they work? Where don’t they work?
Help us by writing clear instructions for downloading. (Send them in, we will post them for readers on a new e-reader page)
Help us get them posted on as many e-book resources as possible.
Help get our many other writings and pamphlets converted to e-reader formats.
Help us develop a list of online communist ebook resources (just post links in this thread).
Let us know if you volunteer for any of these tasks.
* * * * * *
Out of the Red Closet:
Gay and Lesbian Experiences in the Previous Communist Movement
While we are discussing e-books, why don’t we share here (with each other) other available revolutionary ebook sources — starting with contributions made available by our comrades at the Marxist Internet Archives.
There will be a public panel discussion this weekend in New Orleans:
From #Occupy to Revolution:
How Could Our World Actually Change
Speakers: Eric Ribellarsi, Jim Weill, Mike Ely
Saturday, November 5, 11 am – 2 pm Avery Alexander Plaza (formerly Duncan Plaza) in front of City Hall.
Sponsored by the Voice Collective
Firsthand report backs about the revolutionary experiences in Nepal, Greece, and within the Occupy Together movement in the US. Discussion the possibilities for a new revolutionary movement in the U.S.
Jim Weill and Eric Ribellarsi have recently returned from deep investigations into the “movement of the squares” in Greece—and after learning from the ideas of active revolutionaries within that movement. They also bring insights from their explorations of the Maoist revolutionary movement of Nepal, which has mass support in the millions and is sharply confronting the unsolved problems of overthrowing the old order and making much needed radical changes.
Mike Ely is a veteran revolutionary with a history that starts from his work with the early Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, the intense strike wave among coal miners in the 1970s, and covers decades of experience attempting to build revolutionary organization.
“This puppet “government” must realize it: they can no longer govern, they are completely isolated, and they will fall under the popular rage.”
Note: in the article that follows the KOE speaks of “the occupation” — This can be a bit confusing since (in the U.S. at the moment) occupation often refers to people’s occupations against the government. In Greece there is such a peoples movement “in the squares” — but the occupation they are talking about involves the foreign bank and European Union takeover of Greece and its imposition of austerity on the people.
Statement of Communist Organization of Greece (KOE):
On National Day, the Greek people have shouted a tremendous “NO” to the new occupation
28/10/2011
[Translator’s Note: See, in the previous communication (27/10/2011), the background of the National Day, and the call of KOE to transform the official celebrations all over Greece into manifestations of the popular rage against the new occupation. On 28 October 2011, just a few says after the General Strike and the unprecedented demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people, the masses have again sent a clear message against the new occupation and the puppet Papandreou regime. The “events” of 28 October 2011 are of great importance; they made the whole system shake, and the Greek people took a new step forward in its protracted struggle.
]
Today the Greek people have spoken. Today the Greek people smiled. Thousands and thousands of citizens in big and small cities all of over Greece have honored in the most appropriate way the anniversary of the anti-fascist struggle, protesting against the new occupation. Under the popular rage, the “government officials”, the political representatives of the troika, were forced to step down of the celebration tribune from almost every city where military and school pupil’s parades where taking place.
For months, people have been besieging the Greek parliament building and occupying the main square in Athens– refusing to accept the life-crushing austerity being demanded by global banks and the European Union.
Among them have been the communist militants of the KOE, the influential Greek communist organization that supports preparations for a revolution.
One of the main left parties has been physically protecting the parliament building — openly defending the state within a growing crisis that seems pregnant with the possibility of revolution.
This open and rather shameless defense of the state has intensified the political conflict — amid a generally heightened and unresolved crisis. Different forces are picking sides, and it is unclear where events will go. A revolutionary crisis is not out of the question.
We arrived in Greece this summer just as street-fighting broke over Athens. For days the police rained tear gas on the people who occupied the capital’s main Syntagma Square.
People would disperse and reform right on the steps of the parliament. The subways were turned into medical centers for the wounded. There is a worldwide movement of rebellion and resistance building. What started in Tunisia and Egypt has shaken and overthrown governments, then jumped to Spain to Greece to England — and now to New York City and across the United States.
In Greece a generation is waking up. They call themselves the Indignant. They reject old politics and the old parties. They refuse to accept the cutbacks and austerity measures imposed by the global banks and the European Union. They are determined, angry and righteous.
By re-posting story from a publication that proudly calls itself “capitalist tool” we are not endorsing its analysis.We are posting it here to highlight the ways in which the bourgeoisie, or at least an influential section of it, views the current crisis of capitalism as expressed in the various upheavals around the world, most recently in London.
The U.K. Riots And The Coming Global Class War
Joel Kotkin, Contributor
The riots that hit London and other English cities last week have the potential to spread beyond the British Isles. Class rage isn’t unique to England; in fact, it represents part of a growing global class chasm that threatens to undermine capitalism itself.
The hardening of class divisions has been building for a generation, first in the West but increasingly in fast-developing countries such as China. The growing chasm between the classes has its roots in globalization, which has taken jobs from blue-collar and now even white-collar employees; technology, which has allowed the fleetest and richest companies and individuals to shift operations at rapid speed to any locale; and the secularization of society, which has undermined the traditional values about work and family that have underpinned grassroots capitalism from its very origins.
Our new Kasama pamphlet contains two essays on the Communist Organization of Greece. — a creative revolutionary formation playing a leading role within Greece’s “movement of the squares.” It is now available for download in printable PDF format. And will soon be available in epubs format for e-readers.
What unfolded in Athens’ Syntagma Square was not expected, and for much of the left in Greece, there is a real fury that something like this dared to develop without them. There is a painful irrelevance settling in on strategies that have no faith in the people and their uprisings, and instead wish to fold everything into official political arena and its parliament.
The one thing in this experience that I have been most impressed with was the KOE’s creativity and willingness to shift when something unexpected happens, and at the same time holding on to a revolutionary strategy. Without calling for imposing a very different situation on our own in the U.S., I will say that I think there is a great deal to learn from the methods of revolutionaries like the KOE and others. And there are also things to learn about the intense tensions this has produced in and around KOE – as they try to resist tailing a new movement, as they try to replace discarded assumptions, and as they face inevitable generational differences (which are naturally intensified by new and younger recruitment).
Eric forwarded this article from the British Guardian (July 31) about the “We Don’t Pay” organization, closely associated with the Communist Organization of Greece (KOE).
Greece debt crisis: The ‘we won’t pay’ anti-austerity revolt
With Greece in financial meltdown and rocked by protests we look at the growing civil disobedience movement
by Angelique Chrisafis
Thessaloniki — Among the chic bars along Thessaloniki’s historic waterfront, one restaurant stands out. “We want our money!” reads a banner dangling from the terrace of an American-themed diner and grill. Inside, 12 staff have changed the locks, are serving cans of supermarket beer to supporters and taking it in turns to sleep nights on the restaurant floor in protest at months of unpaid wages and the restaurant’s sudden closure. This is the new symbol of Greece‘s spiralling debt crisis: a waiters’ squat.
We in Kasama, and many others, have been engaged for several years now in trying to imagine new ways to fuse revolutionary ideas with the popular discontent of the people. It is part of what drew our Winter’s End reporting team to Greece and what draws us now to discuss the Communist Organization of Greece (known as the KOE, and pronounced ‘Koy’).
All around the rim of the Mediterranean Sea there has been an eruption of massive anti-government movements. Many people in the U.S. know about the “Arab Spring” that swept North Africa – starting in Tunisia, then Egypt, and Libya – and erupting in nearby Yemen and Syria. Meanwhile, similar mass movements also filled the city squares on the European, northern side of the Mediterranean – though these movements in Greece and Spain have been much less well known than eruptions on the southern, North African side.
Among the common features of these “movements of the squares” is that they have drawn large numbers of youth into political life – often with a sweeping sense of rejecting previous politics (both existing governments and the oppositional parties). There is a sense that everything “before” is corrupt, complicit and exhausted, and everything “after” must now make a break. And while there are obviously deep concerns and frustrations that drew people into the squares, it also stands out that the politics of these eruptions were extremely unformed: People have had only a vague sense of what they wanted to put in the place of current politics.
Kasama has been running a series of reports by the “Winter has its end” journalist team — starting with their reports from Greece. Here is a video that gives another view of the upsurge in Greece against the government and bank-imposed austerity.
Before coming to Greece, I’d heard about Exarchia. It is fabled as a strong-hold of anarchists, so much that the police are often afraid to enter it. It has been a strategic center for launching militant political movements throughout the city. It was also a very important place during the 2008 uprisings that shook the country, for it was hear that 15 year old Aleksandros was murdered, sparking the uprisings. This I knew, but what I saw went even beyond all of that.
Walking through Exarchia for the first time, I immediately saw that the graffiti here was the most densely concentrated I have seen in my life (sorry Detroit). And the art is radical as fuck. The walls were lined with red stars, circle-a’s, images of rebels with gas masks, portraits of the murdered young radical, Aleksandros. Political posters were on every wall, on top of other politics posters. One popular image seems to be Felix the cat (a symbol of anarchist syndicalism) emblazoned on a red star.
