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Greek conservatives election victory
THE RIGHT-WING New Democracy party (ND) won a decisive
victory in the March 7 general election in Greece, winning 165 seats in the
300-seat parliament against 117 seats for the ruling social democratic PASOK
party. This is not a defeat for ‘socialism’, however, as most of the
international media have claimed. Rather it is a massive rejection by working
people of the neo-liberal policies of previous PASOK governments.
The former PASOK leader, Kostas Simitis, had been able to
win the previous two elections (in 1996 and 2000) by taking advantage of a
favourable combination of circumstances and going early to the polls. This time
he failed. Neither Simitis’s last-minute promises of increases in wages,
pensions etc, nor his handover in January to the new ‘Messiah’, George
Papandreou, the son of the former PASOK prime minister, Andreas Papandreou, was
enough to save the government.
This was the most non-political electoral battle in 30
years. The media concentrated on the personal characteristics of the two party
leaders, Papandreou and Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of a previous prime minister,
Konstantinos Karamanlis. Papandreou attempted to fight the elections mainly on
the basis of his ‘charisma’. Not accidentally, the top-ranking in personal
preference votes for candidates went to ‘stars’ like Panayotis Fasoulas (an
ex-basketball player), Antzela Gerekou (an actress), and J Ioannidis (the coach
of national basketball team). This reflected the fact that there were no
significant differences between PASOK and ND. PASOK is a party of big capital,
just like ND. Those on the left who still consider PASOK a ‘left party’ are
simply denying reality.
Workers and youth used their vote to ‘punish’ PASOK – this
is the basic explanation for the electoral result. It was not this or that
specific ‘mistake’ – as the leaders of PASOK are arguing – that stopped them
winning. It was PASOK’s general neo-liberal policies which guaranteed their
defeat.
Nobody can seriously claim that there are massive illusions
amongst the working class and young people about the policies that ND will
follow. The huge majority of society believes, as all the recent polls show,
that politicians ‘are all the same’. Nobody expects better times under an ND
government. It is in this sense that the explanation provided by some,
especially from inside PASOK, that the election result represents a shift to the
right in society, is wrong. PASOK included on its electoral list Manos and
Andrianopoulos, extreme neo-liberal ex-ministers from the hated Thatcherite
Mitsotakis government in the early 1990s. Colin Powell spoke in favour of George
Papandreou during the election period, which is not surprising since, as foreign
minister, Papandreou had supported the Bush administration in whatever they
said. The ND would have to try extremely hard to be more right-wing than the
present day PASOK.
The media reported polls showing that tens of thousands of
traditional left-wing voters voted ND in order to punish PASOK. They wanted to
make PASOK ‘understand’ that it cannot carry out anti-working class policies and
get away with it.
On the other hand, at the base of society, extremely
important processes in the direction of radicalisation are taking place,
especially amongst the new generation. The large anti-war movement, the huge
general strikes against the attacks on social insurance, the struggles of
workers and youth over the past few years, have all been extremely important in
developing a new radical consciousness. ‘But how can all these struggles be
reflected on the electoral front?’, many workers and youth are asking.
Many working people also ask how it is possible, after all
these struggles, for the establishment parties to retain about 86% of the votes
cast, while the two parties of the left, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and
Synaspismos (Left Progressive Party), only won 5.9% (12 seats) and 3.2% (6
seats) respectively.
The truth is that these processes are not reflected on the
electoral level, at least not yet. On the one hand, the electoral system is
designed to promote the two-party system. This distorts immensely the real
feelings and wishes of hundreds of thousands of left voters. On the other hand,
and more importantly, the election result is due to the state of the mass
parties of the left.
The traditional party of the left, the KKE, is a Stalinist
party. It refuses any kind of collaboration with the rest of the parties of the
left, and considers itself to be the only left party. It is completely
unattractive. Synaspismos, on the other hand, is extremely mild in its
criticisms of capitalism. During the election, ‘socialism’ was never mentioned,
and neither were the words ‘capitalists’ and ‘workers’. The party only managed
to discuss the struggle against neo-liberalism.
The left parties blame the two-party system for the mess in
which they find themselves. They are wrong. Actually it is their political and
ideological mess that is responsible for the strength of the two-party system.
These elections have confirmed, once again, what our paper, Xekinima, has
consistently argued: the Greek workers’ and youth movement needs a new left,
based on clear class lines, defending genuine socialism and internationalism.
The ND won the elections by promising everything: to cut
unemployment and provide better wages, pensions, health and education, in a
‘flourishing’ Greece built by ‘all the Greeks together’. Karamanlis’s vision
will never come about, of course. And his honeymoon period in office will not
last long.
The logic of capitalism, based on greed and competition for
profit, will soon lead to new attacks against the working class. This is
especially so as the Greek economy is weak, the economies of the EU are
stagnating, the Olympic games in Greece will be over in a few months time –
meaning a loss of revenues and the end of the Athens construction boom – while
funds from the expanded EU will be drastically cut after 2006.
Life under a ND government will not be good for working
people. They will face more unemployment, inequality and poverty, and massive
privatisations and new attacks against public education, health and other state
provisions.
But there will also be new struggles. All those who might
expect PASOK to lead these struggles and to defend workers’ interests will be
severely disappointed. PASOK will not provide a left opposition to the ND either
on the political front or on the industrial front.
The development of struggles over the next period will
depend more and more on rank-and-file initiatives. The need to coordinate
struggles from below, through action committees and networks of struggle, to
develop new fighting workers’ leaders to replace the old trade union
bureaucrats, who have become part of the corrupt establishment, at the head of
local and industrial movements – these are the most important tasks for
socialists during the next period. This is a task that goes, hand in hand, with
the need to built a new left to replace the bankrupt workers’ movement
leaderships; a new left based on socialist ideas, internationalism and workers’
democracy.
Andros Payiaposos,
CWI Greece
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