Monday 6 July, 2015
By KD Tait
No to blackmail. No to humiliation. No to austerity.
The determination of the Greek workers and youth to end austerity has been expressed in a defiant rejection of the Troika’s ultimatum.
Today, Syriza has an overwhelming second mandate to carry out its promise to break with austerity, to end the misery, to stop the punishment of the Greek people by the European ruling class.
No means no. No surrender, no compromise, not one more cent to the parasitic banks.
There must be no more delays, no more concessions and no more negotiations with the hangman about the length of the rope. The Greek people have decisively rejected austerity, whether it’s offered by the Troika or by Tsipras.
The government should take the offensive and demand the immediate end to the currency blockade. Any attempt to blackmail Greece by withholding euros should be denounced as an act of war against the Greek people.
The government must give itself the powers to wage an effective struggle to end austerity within the eurozone. It must respond to sabotage and blackmail with decisive measures:
– Faced with lockouts and redundancies workers should occupy and demand the government nationalise under workers’ control, with no compensation to the bosses
– Those who have taken their wealth abroad should forfeit their wealth and property at home
-Against the investment strike the banks should be nationalised and merged into a single state bank under democratic control
Faced with threats from the Generals, the movement should organise a militia for its own defence – no more 1967s!
If there is a protracted struggle over currency supply, it will be necessary to organise a temporary alternative currency. Nevertheless, this is not a solution; the goal should be to fight alongside the working class of Europe for an end to austerity throughout the European Union.
Syriza must prepare for the consequences of Grexit but should refuse to take responsibility for ending either the free movement of labour or the adoption of a worthless currency.
If the EU expels Greece, then it will be clear that the European ruling class has exacted a vindictive retribution against the people who dared to say no.
There is only one force that can stop this outcome. The working class of Europe, which has seen and respects the inflexible will and determination of Greek workers and youth, must come to their aid by mobilising against the offensive launched by our own rulers.
Despite the No vote, the Tsipras wing of Syriza’s leadership remains determined to strike a deal with the agents of European capital. That would be a capitulation and an insult to the courageous struggle waged virtually alone by Greek workers for seven years.
The only way to stop the government negotiating the slow strangulation of ‘debt relief’ is to cut the rope and make any deal impossible to implement.
The movement that mobilised to win the No vote must remain in the streets and ensure Syriza defies the Troika and implements its programme. Syriza must break the popular front with Anel and appeal to the supporters of the KKE and Antarsya to join it in a united front of the Greek working class against the European ruling class.
Sabotage and how to stop it
Such resistance will provoke a dramatic escalation of the struggle. The longer Syriza defies the diktats of the Troika, the sharper will be the capitalists’ efforts to sabotage the economy and overthrow the government.
In these conditions of open conflict between capital and the Greek working class, the current form of government will prove inadequate to the task of resisting the capitalist onslaught and implementing its programme.
For this struggle, a new form of government will be needed – not one based on the civil service, judiciary, police and army who have been trained and organised to defend the capitalist state – but one held accountable to the working class through councils of recallable delegates elected by workers and youth.
This government would not be a collection of ministers but would involve the great mass of workers in the organisation and governance of society. This would be a workers’ government.
The aim of a workers’ government is to deprive the capitalists of their economic dictatorship and to put production and distribution in the hands of the working class according to a plan which meets the immediate needs of ordinary citizens.
The major industries and infrastructure must be placed under the control of workplace committees to improve productivity and prevent sabotage. Seize the banks to safeguard the savings of the ordinary citizen. Confiscate the wealth and property of the oligarchs and traitors who have secreted their money in Swiss banks – spend it instead on pensions and employing the millions of unemployed to repair the damage done to the fabric of Greek society.
This means a direct confrontation with the interests of capital and, therefore, the preparation of self-defence against the bosses’ reaction. Anything less than this will disarm and prostrate workers before the counter-revolutionary forces.
The police must be disarmed and defeated. There must be an appeal to the rank and file of the army and an independent force prepared that can resist elements that join the generals in battle against the workers.
The decisive hour is at hand. The course of the European struggle will be determined by the actions of the Greek working class in the next days and weeks.
The time has come for the Greek working class to seize the initiative, to take its destiny into its own hands, to prepare for a fight to the finish. Every conscious worker and youth in Europe will come to their aid.
We say the struggle of the Greek working class is our struggle, too. Their victory will be a victory for the European working class.
We must carry the fervour and fighting spirit of Syntagma into the Plaza del Sol, the Place de la Republique, into the squares and streets of every capital in Europe.
The choice is not between reform or revolution but between revolution or counter-revolution. The failure to seize the hour will see the initiative pass into the hands of our enemies.
Just as the prospect of the defeat of austerity and the opening of a new stage of socialist revolution is before us, so is the threat of counter-revolution which will weaken workers everywhere.
Solidarity with the Greek revolution!
For a socialist united states of Europe!
