SUNDAY’S general election in Greece saw the working class voting for Syriza, because of the lack of any revolutionary alternative, to keep the New Democracy out, while masses of youth did not vote at all, disgusted with Syriza’s betrayal of the huge 62% ‘No’ Austerity vote in the July 5th referendum, barely two months ago.
Tsipras greeted his supporters following the result by forming a repeat coalition with a right wing nationalist party, and pledging that his re-election meant stability for Greece and represented a ‘crystal clear mandate’ to carry out the savage austerity cuts that Syriza had cravenly agreed to in return for an EU bail out.
In fact it means that ahead is an all-out conflict with the working class and the youth who, in order to live, will have to battle against the measures that Syriza has pledged to its masters in Brussels to introduce. His unstable government will not last for long after the working class hits back, to defend its jobs, wages, pensions and the lives of its families.
It must be noted that the election itself was not in any way an endorsement of the treacherous betrayals carried out by Tsipras. 45% of Greek voters refused to vote, the highest abstention rate in the history of Greek parliamentary election since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974.
This contrasts with the turnout for the referendum held in June when 62.5% voted and registered a 62% vote against the very EU/ECB austerity programme that Tsipras went on to accept. In other words, a huge number of Greek workers, especially the masses of youth, turned their backs on Syriza and refused to vote either for them or any of the other pro-bail out parties like New Democracy or the social-democrats of PASOK.
Nor did the Greek workers turn to the fascists of the Golden Dawn party, who some predicted would benefit from their extreme nationalist rejection of the EU. Although Golden Dawn remains the third largest party in the Greek parliament with 18 seats (compared to Syriza’s 145 and New Democracy’s 75) in fact their number of votes has gone down since the last general election in January, giving them only 7% of the vote.
Equally, the other main anti-austerity party, Popular Unity, formed by Syriza MPs who split from Syriza after Tsipras caved in and accepted austerity, failed to attract enough votes to gain even one MP. Clearly the Greek working class and youth have little time for these opportunists who sat on their hands throughout all the months of Tsipras’s capitulation to the bankers and bosses and only flounced out at the last moment.
The picture that emerges from the election is clear. The Greek working class was not prepared to go back to the old, corrupt right wing parties of New Democracy and Pasok that presided over the crisis for years. Equally workers and youth refused to be driven into the arms of the fascists of Golden Dawn.
Neither did they put their trust in the opportunists of Popular Unity. The result was a product of mass abstentions and a grudging vote for Syriza and Tsipras. Having won the election, and vowing to continue to rule in a coalition with his former partners the tiny nationalist Independent Greeks party, the real war begins as Tsipras and Syriza are instructed by Brussels to implement the austerity programme he agreed with the EU bankers.
This programme which is unprecedented in its savagery includes slashing pensions, hiking up tax levels for workers (while reducing the taxes of businesses), and privatising every state-run service, including selling off public lands for private exploitation. None of this can be implemented peacefully by Syriza, it can only be carried through in a war against workers and youth.
For years the Greek working class and youth have fought at every turn against all the austerity piled on them in order to pay off the debts of bankrupt Greek capitalism. Now a party of the Fourth International must be rapidly built to lead the Greek Socialist revolution, as the first shot of the European socialist revolution. There is no other way forward!
