Greek communists blast the “left traffic cops” of capitalism
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Feb. 15 statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE).
The “left traffic cops” of capitalism
The government of the “leftwing” SYRIZA party that joined together with the nationalist ANEL party in government, has been face to face since the beginning of January 2016 with major popular mobilizations, which have been caused by the unbearable economic situation experienced by the workers and other popular strata. The people in this country are facing the serious consequences of the capitalist crisis for the 7th year running, like unemployment, for example. The SYRIZA-ANEL government is seeking to implement a third memorandum, which it passed together with the votes of the other bourgeois parties, aiming to transfer the new burdens onto the shoulders of the working class, the poor and medium farmers, the self-employed. It is continuing on the path of taxing the people heavily, reducing the gains of the workers and people and is seeking do the same via the new social-security law.
But how can a “left” party manage capitalism in these conditions?
The SYRIZA government claims that there is no other path for the country, other than the path inside the EU, inside capitalism. It accuses the KKE of arguing for “fantastical”, “unrealistic” policies, for “things that cannot be implemented” etc. And it even argues that because it is a “left” government it can implement this specific political line much better than the previous “rightwing” and social-democratic governments.
At the same time, they claim, for example in a recent article published in SYRIZA's newspaper, “Avgi”, that “globalized capitalism steals the toil of the farmers, not the government.” These type of “thoughtful” analyses attempt to justify the government and its political line.
In addition, a few days earlier, the Minister of Labour, Giorgos Katrougalos, in his response to a question tabled by MPs of the KKE that asked what the government will do about the case of the “Softex” company, which decided to close its factory in Greece, laying off hundreds of workers, stated the following:“we exhausted every possibility to exert pressure that a Ministry of Labor in a capitalist country can”, however the employers answered that the closure “is a final decision taken by the shareholders”. He also said that “There are limits to what a Ministry of Labor can do in a capitalist state.”
So the cadres of SYRIZA are implementing the following tactic: When the decision reaches the deeper causes of the problems of the workers and poor farmers, the question of capitalist profit, the role of the European Union, its Common Agricultural Policy, they present themselves as “realists” and as being “in touch with things” and accuse those that highlight the need of coming into rupture with the EU and also with capitalist ownership and power as being stuck in ... 1917 and proposing things “that cannot happen”.
And when the discussion focuses on the responsibilities of the government, they discover “globalized capitalism”, “the limits that exist in capitalism.” But SYRIZA must answer the following question: If globalized capital is to blame, how should one describe those that pass laws that serve this wretched system, those that as a national government serve its functioning and goals, driving the small and medium farmers off the land? How should we label the servants of capitalism? Maybe as its “leftwing traffic cops”?
Popular Unity (LAE) and “good” privatizations
However the other section of SYRIZA, “SYRIZA mark 2”, named “Popular Unity”, follows step by step the social democratic-reformist line of fostering illusions amongst the workers. So the MEP of Popular Unity N.Chountis, in a question tabled to the European Commission, asked in relation to the privatization of the electricity company (IPTO), “How is the ruling out non-European companies from the tender bids for the 20% of the company that will be awarded to a strategic investor consistent with EU legislation and the need to achieve a better price”. A few days earlier, in his speech on the same subject in the plenum of the EU Parliament, he characterized the “Commission's model for privatizations” as being a “failure”.
The MEP of Popular Unity seems to have taken on the task of “correcting” the “failed EU model of privatizations”, bringing other “players” into the game so that a better price can be achieved for the sale of IPTO.
It is apparent that the cadres of Popular Unity were well trained through their participation in bourgeois management, during the 1st SYRIZA-ANEL government, and have become experts in privatizations and advancing capitalist barbarity.
International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE