THE Greek leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) Alexis Tsipras in an interview with the Athens left daily Avgi on Sunday stated that ‘we believe that the renegotiation of the terms of the bail-out Accord is the most profitable strategy for both sides,’ meaning Greece and the EC-IMF who imposed the barbaric Accord of austerity measures.
He explained his logic by stating that ‘our evaluation is that no-one is to profit from a bankruptcy and no-one of our (European) partners wants the distrurbance of the cohesion of the Eurozone.’
Thus, Tsipras said, ‘a negative stand on renegotiation will have immediate consequences on a system which is already tested by the spread of the crisis.’
Tsipras accepted that ‘the Accord has been revised twice already and in front of the prospects of a new PSI (EU directive on the re-use of public information) and of a new bail-out, it is possible that our lenders will prefer to leave Greece to her fate.’
Answering a question on the prospects of a Left government being formed after next Sunday’s general election Tsipras stated that, ‘our firm position is that a government is needed to push on with the annulment and the replacement of the Accord with a National Recovery Plan for economic and social development, and to renegotiate the bailout agreement.’
He added, ‘that can only be done by a government of the Left with strong popular support,’ and he specified the KKE (Greek Communist Party) and the Democratic Left party (DIMAR) as ‘government partners in a government of the Left.’
Speaking on Spain, Tsipras said that ‘developments reaffirm our position, that the crisis is a European problem.’
He pointed out that ‘only the solution proposed by the European Left is proved to be realistic.’
Tsipras added that ‘in constrast, the insistence of the European Right and of the Social-Democracy to austerity measures programmes, lead the Eurozone to the rocks.’
Tsipras castigated the Spanish right-wing Prime Minister Rajoy for ‘leading his country into the IMF before he even completed a year in power.’
Asked about his meeting with the Ambassadors of the G20 countries, Tsipras replied that he wanted to present SYRIZA’s ‘true programme’.
As to the Golden Dawn fascist party’s attacks, Tsipras described that party as an ‘extreme right-wing party, a fascist gang of dangerous and disturbed personalities.’
As to the first acts of a possible Left coalition government Tsipras said that such a government will cut down on the waste spending and get rid of all private advisors.
‘From the very first days,’ he said, ‘the government of the Left will table a Bill in the Vouli (Greek parliament) for electoral proportional representation; we will annul the present law for the responsibility of ministers, and we will move to the recapitalisation of the banks through so-called common shares so that the State has voting rights.’
Tsipras stated that, ‘then we will introduce the National Recovery Plan to replace the (EC-IMF imposed) Accord with three immediate aims – the relief of the crisis’ victims, the stabilisation of the economy, so that further worsening and bigger catastrophe is prevented, and the formulation of visible positive conditions for an exit from the crisis.’
Attempting to assure SYRIZA’s voters that his party won’t betray, won’t get corrupt and that it will carry out its promises, Tsipras could only say that ‘for transparency we need a system of rules and checks.’
He then added that ‘the restoration of the elemental trust of society to the political system, whoever is in government, must go ahead immediately; in this time when the political establishment collapses, the responsibility for such a change falls on the back of the Left.’
In this lengthy Tsipras interview there was no mention of the restoration of workers’ wages and pensions, nor the abolition of high taxes on the working class households, nor measures to get the 1.1 million unemployed back to work.
In marked contradictions with the SYRIZA programme and his own, and other party leaders’, earlier speeches, Tsipras stated that the EC-IMF Accord of austerity measures is now open to negotiations when previously he categorically had stated that the Accord will be annulled.
SYRIZA’s programme states that the recapitalisation of the banks must lead to their nationalisation.
Now Tsipras states that the State will hand out the 50bn Euros and will only have voting rights on bank boards!
Although Tsipras repeatedly states SYRIZA’s central aim, the formation of a Left government, he never mentioned socialism.
His interview was clearly aimed to pacify Greece’s overlords, the EC and IMF, as he did in his meeting with the G20 Ambassadors.
Tsipras did not reply to the criticisms of the KKE (Greek Communist Party) and of ANTARSYA (the electoral anti-capitalist alliance of left-centrists such as the Greek SWP) that there cannot be an exit from the crisis within the EC and Eurozone.
Tsipras’ and SYRIZA’s fundamental role was revealed in his faith that there must be a ‘restoration of the trust of society to the political system’, that is rotten and bankrupt capitalism, and in his insistence that today when the ‘the political establishment collapses’ SYRIZA is the best party to save it!
Tsipras’ and SYRIZA’s positions and aims are in complete constrast and fundamentally opposed to the demands of the Greek working class, youth, small farmers and professionals who have been devasted by the EC-IMF Accord to the point of struggling for survival, with the banks and the state demanding more and more pieces of flesh.
Although it is clear that the revolutionary resistance movement of Greek workers will vote for a Left government, there is no doubt that they very soon will have to engage into an historic fight against Tsipras’ and SYRIZA’s capitalist government.
In such a revolutionary situation both the KKE and ANTARSYA criticise SYRIZA only from a theoretical point of view, since they have consistently and consciously refused to call that it is the period for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a socialist revolutionary government.
The Revolutionary Marxist League (RML), the Greek section of the International Committee of the Fourth International, have been campaigning for the immediate building of a mass revolutionary party that will fight for such a socialist revolutionary government and not a left capitalist government.
