YCL statement on Greek elections – 26 January 2015
The YCL’s International Committee would like to congratulate the Greek Communist Party (KKE) for a strong showing, yet again, in the latest elections in Greece.
It also recognises the KKE’s status as the only party with a strong and historic commitment to anti-capitalist and anti-austerity ideology. In line with the Greek Communists’ position, the YCL expresses that the only viable peoples’ alternative to the current hegemony lies outside the fiscal straightjackets imposed by neo-liberalism and the European Union, with its economic agents in the IMF and the European Central Bank, amongst others. The YCL also shares the opinion that abandoning the currency and fiscal union is crucial to the future economic sovereignty of peoples throughout Europe.
Whilst it is encouraging to see the leftist and populist SYRIZA do well electorally with an anti-austerity message that has spread throughout Greece, the limitations of governance must be recognised and the YCL reiterates that NATO and EU membership needs to be seen as irreconcilable with a real fight against austerity. What’s more, the social-democratic character of SYRIZA is not compatible in the long term with the struggles that communists must lead now and in the years to come.
The YCL also expresses its concern at a relatively strong showing by the neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, highlighting once again the fact that where capitalism is at its most exploitative, the brutal force of fascism rears its head, fooling the people and doing capitalism’s most ugly work of dividing the working class.
Only a Communist Party committed to the goals of smashing capitalism’s structures can pave the way for a new vision of a socialist society, whether in Greece, Spain or Great Britain. What is needed is not a ‘southern front’, but a working class front.
From the KKE’s English language website:
“In the elections on the 25th of January, the KKE received 5.5% of the vote, an increase of 1% (+ 60,000 votes) in comparison to the parliamentary elections of 2012, marking a positive trend οf forces to rally around the KKE again, a trend that had also been witnessed in the EU parliamentary elections, the regional and local elections, in the KKE’s initiatives in the labour movement.
“As a whole, the election results reflect the great discontent and anger of the people against ND and PASOK, the parties that plunged the people into poverty and unemployment during the economic crisis.
“Of course they express to a great extent the false hope that the new government of SYRIZA might follow a political line in favour of the people.
“Based on the official statements and positions of SYRIZA before and during the election campaign, the KKE has assessed that the new composition of the Parliament and the formation of a government of SYRIZA – either on its own or in a coalition government – will follow the beaten track: the EU one way street, the commitments to big capital, monopolies, the EU and NATO with the negative implications for our people and the country. Once again the people will pay the price for these choices.”
Read more at http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-strengthening-of-the-KKE-marks-a-tendency-for-forces-to-rally-around-it-again/
