Hamid Taqvaee
30 June 2015
Many have described the deadlock in the talks between Greece
and the EU, and the call for a referendum, as the start of a countdown. But
countdown to what? To a Greek exit from the Euro? To the Syriza government resigning?
Or…?
The EU leaders and Troika, who insist on implementing the
austerity programme, call the referendum effectively a vote on whether Greece stays
with or leaves the EU; or at least they say so in order to frighten people from
voting no. They know that the majority of the Greeks want to stay in the Eurozone
and EU, and so are hoping, through the threat of a Grexit, to sway the result to
a yes to austerity. In the meantime, Alexis Tsipras has said that if the result
of the referendum turns out to be yes, he will respect people’s decision, but
will not be the executor of Troika’s programme. In other words, a yes vote will
mean that the Syriza government will step down.
Based on such analyses and claims, Greece now apparently stands
on the brink of a choice between either leaving the EU or for the government to
resign. Supposedly, the countdown is bound to result in one of these options.
The truth, however, is something else.
The roots of the
Greek crisis
Syriza came to power on a platform of no to austerity. The
referendum too is about whether to accept or reject Troika’s new austerity
package. The Greek government plans to use people’s no vote to reject Troika’s
offer and sit round the table from a stronger position. Tsipras has already
said this in so many words and asked Greek voters to reject the offer. It’s
very likely that the people of Greece will say no to the austerity package, and
also very possible that the Syriza government will be able to use this to bolster
its position in the talks. However, this will not get rid of the crisis, nor
even lessen it.
The root of the Greek crisis is not the austerity programme
or the inability of the Greek government to repay its debts. These are the
symptoms of the problem. The real problem is the economic system which for its
survival needs austerity. I.e. the crisis-ridden capitalist system in Greece;
the system of the top 1% in Greece and in the rest of the European Union.
Over the last decade, Greece, as one of the weakest of the
European economies, has become a guinea pig for neo-liberal economic ‘reforms’.
The elements of these so-called reforms include: slashing public and social
services and health and education; deregulation and giving the market a free
hand to set the prices, wages and all the conditions for the sale of labour
power; income tax hikes, tax breaks for corporations, etc. The Greek economy,
given its lower productivity, lower organic composition of capital and its
technological lag, relative to the other EU members, has to drink up this poisoned
chalice of ‘reforms’ in order to save capital from its crisis. However, even
from the viewpoint of capital’s operability, this solution has so far failed to
solve anything. The result has been nothing but financial sleaze and corruption
at the top, and growth of poverty, economic insecurity, inflation and 60%+
unemployment for the rest of society. The question is: where does referendum
fit in in all this? Which way’s the society heading?
Revolution or
referendum?
Some left critics of Syriza in Greece and outside think that
talks with the creditors and the referendum are useless, and say that the
solution is revolution against capitalism. There is no doubt that the solution
for Greece – and any other capitalist country – in order to get rid of the
problems facing the working people, the society’s 99%, is revolution against
capital, or, more precisely, the political and economic expropriation of the
capitalist class, the ruling 1%. But revolution does not happen out of the
blue. The class struggles have to escalate and deepen and become polarised over
capital’s very existence. The ‘no’ to austerity has to grow into a ‘no’ to
capital. And this can only be achieved in the process of struggle. Since the
rise of Syriza to power six months ago, the class struggles in Greece have polarised
over the issue of austerity. The election of Syriza, the tug of war in the
talks and now the call for a referendum are all moments in the battle over austerity.
In this battle, apparently the Greek government and people stand on one side,
and the EU, IMF and ECB on the other. The real conflict, however, is between
the camps of labour and capital; between the justified human demands and dreams
of the masses, crushed under capitalism’s crisis, and the requisites for
capital’s operation and profitability. Thus, as mentioned, the Greek crisis
does not have a solution in itself and within the framework of either the rejection
or acceptance of austerity. Whatever the outcome of the referendum, the Greek
crisis and its economic and social consequences will not end - not even
diminish for any lasting period - since the issue of the profitability of Greek
capital, and the securing of the preconditions for this profitability, will
still be there. Precisely for this reason this struggle can and must end in the
deepening and growth of the general social consciousness from a critique of
austerity to a critique of capital. The referendum this Sunday, just like the election
of Syriza six months ago, is a link in the chain of the deepening struggle
between the two camps of labour and capital in Greece.
What’s to be done?
What can and must be achieved politically within the current
crisis in Greece is essentially based on the following two axes: firstly,
swaying the general social discourse and climate from a critique of austerity
to a critique of capitalism, relying on people’s everyday experiences; secondly,
organising the masses in council-like organisations for direct intervention in
their political destiny (the experience of the Occupy Movement could be
instructive here).
The overwhelming majority, ‘the 99%’, should come to the
realisation that, firstly, standing against them are not just the European
states and Troika. The fundamental problem is the capitalist relations and the
rule of the capitalist 1% in Greece itself. And, secondly, that expropriation
of the capitalist class will take place not from the top, through the corridors
of the talks with Troika, but from below, with the direct intervention of
workers and the masses in factories and production centres, in districts,
neighbourhoods and streets.
It is clear that this radicalisation of the society will not
happen of itself. Only a radical communist and interventionist party, engaged
in society’s everyday struggles, can and must be the agency for driving this agenda
forward. This force is not the Syriza government. However, one must hope – and
this is completely possible – that such a radical force will emerge and come
forth in the process of the tumultuous events that lie ahead. Whatever form and
shape this may take, the conditions for the rise of a revolutionary left pole
in society are becoming more favourable day by day. The referendum itself could
provide the conditions for the development of such a force.
Whatever the result of the referendum, Greek capitalism will
emerge from this referendum more hopeless and rudderless, and, at the same
time, more disgraced and discredited. A Grexit will rapidly open people’s eyes
to the fact that the main issue is not merely the austerity programme or Troika
but the capitalist system and relations in Greece itself. People will find out that
the domestic capitalists are in fact the fourth pillar of Troika. Continuing
with the status quo means remaining within the EU and cautiously implementing the
austerity programme. But this will also quickly bring people to the conclusion
that the problem does not have a gradual and negotiated solution; it must be
resolved at the root.
So the answer to the question put at the beginning is that
yes the countdown has begun, but a countdown to the society’s further turning
away from capitalism and ultimately to the settling of accounts with the
capitalist 1%.
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First published in Farsi on rowzane.com, 30 June 2015. Translation:
Bahram Soroush
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