Political document of OKDE (August 2010)
1. For the struggles to be organised effectively and the labour movement and OGDE to act properly and win, we have to examine –the best way we can- the general framework (economic, political, social), nationally and internationally, in which these are going to take place.
This is something necessary because this framework affects and partially determines or indicates the general tendencies and attitudes of the social and political forces, the potentials and weaknesses of the struggles and the labour movement and, more generally, the potentials and weaknesses of the class struggle which determine, in their turn, the balance of class forces.
For revolutionary Marxists, the fluctuations of the class struggle do not affect the general revolutionary programme (the goal of the socialist revolution), but they affect its political programme (the Transitional Programme) and, mostly, its tactic. That is, they affect their intervention into the movement and the struggles, their social and political alliances, the building up of revolutionary parties, etc.
The deterioration of the global capitalist crisis, since the 2007 summer, the bankruptcy of many countries since then (the Baltic countries, Romany, Hungary) –among them Greece too, which concerns us particularly- the new virulent attack of the global, as well as the Greek, bourgeoisie, against the most basic social and political rights of workers, the poor strata and the youth, all these open a new phase of the crisis and they not only confirm the Marxist analysis and the analyses of our organisation, but they also put us in frond of new tasks, that is, to examine again and again, adjust and correct our policy and our tactics altogether.
2. However, it is necessary to briefly review the nodal points since the outbreak of the crisis in order to better understand this new phase, the overall crisis of the capitalist system (the long downturn wave since the beginning of 70’s) and its development. That is, it is necessary to examine this long downturn wave, which undoubtedly is the biggest in the history of capitalist system crises, in duration, as well as extent, compared to the other two (before the First World War and after the 1929 crash), possibly with more painful consequences on workers and poor strata’s living standards and, probably, with the same end –a war- which will mean, this time, not only the return to barbarism but the complete destruction of humanity, taking into consideration the level of productive forces nowadays. If the labour movement does not interfere, this is where the present crisis of the capitalist system leads. So great are the dangers that the crises of the capitalist system –and of course the current one- carry.
Moreover, through this brief review, we will see the tragic contradiction of the big or smaller sceptics and defectors who, as always in difficult times, came to the point to announce –clearly or with minced words- the end of history, ideologies and Marxism, the end of the labour class and the socialist revolution and the triumph of capitalism. Of course, we will also see those who, without “denying” Marxism, they deny its essence, that is, its method, its theory for the capitalist system crises, the labour class as the subject of revolution and as the revolutionary class, the necessity of building up the revolutionary party, the Socialist Revolution, etc.
A) The most important developments of the current downturn long wave
1.The crisis of the capitalist system has been deepening more and more since its outburst at the beginning of the 70’s and this is something shown by all the indicators –economic, social, political- and not only by them (production, unemployment, investments, deficits and debts, the health, educational and social security systems, bankruptcy of enterprises and states, failure and crisis of all the capitalist/ imperialist strategic choices, ruin of the living standards, continuous shrinkage of the democratic, political, trade union rights and personal liberties, degradation of the moral, cultural and spiritual values, ecological and nutritious crisis, etc.) Many of these indicators have shown a continuous deterioration, while others have had fluctuations but with an overall downturn course. What is more, this happens at the most favourable time for the capitalist system, that is, at a period when we had a sharp and deep deterioration of the balance of the class forces against the proletariat, as well as the reunion of the global market after the collapse of the so called existing socialism and its periphery (they used to consist 1/3 of the planet) and the ideological and political disintegration of social-democracy. This shows, in the most sharp way, in the one hand, how deep the crisis of the capitalist system is, as even such a big geopolitical and geo-economic alteration –according to the Marxists- did not manage to take capitalism out of its crisis and, on the other hand, how complete this crisis of capitalism is, as it does not depend on the fluctuations of the class struggle.
2. Since 1990, the crisis has particularly hit the three imperialist centres and especially the American imperialism, despite the fact that the Americans were the winners of the cold war and their system had, theoretically, “prevailed” against socialism.
-The American economy not only did not recover, but it grew even weaker, was obliged, in extreme degree, to be financed by the whole world and, during the recent years, all the more by China. The NAFTA plans (capitalist integration of the entire American continent under the USA leadership) collapsed and the role of the dollar in the global market was questioned.
-Japan turned from the country with the biggest surplus in the world to the one with the greatest debt (public deficit 220% of GDP) and, it essentially, stopped being the 3rd imperialistic centre of the world. Of course, Japan remains an imperialistic country.
-The EU became one of the most indebted regions of the world, witnessed the bankruptcy of 4-5 of its countries (Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, the Baltic countries), with another two being on the verge of bankruptcy (Portugal, Spain), two more being over-indebted and in a miserable economic situation (Italy, the UK) and compared to the other countries, with only one exception, Germany. Euro has lost its stability and its future is uncertain, which threatens the stability, even the cohesion of the EU. Even the future of the EU as an imperialistic centre, whose role was anyway diminished, is weakening day after day.
3. The only and sole possessors and managers of the global credit (after 1990) have, nowadays, lost almost everything. As a result: a) The basic emerging countries possess the 4/5 of the global exchange reserves, b) the imperialistic countries have turned from lenders to borrowers (losing a significant part/ advantage of the transfer surplus value) while the emerging countries have turned from borrowers to lenders and c) the two above facts give the opportunity to some major emerging countries to export more and more capital and invest in the imperialistic countries, overturning a constant of 150 years.
All the above are one more proof that the economies of the imperialistic countries not only did not recover, but they weakened even more, especially in the productive sectors of their economies. In almost all the economies of the imperialistic countries – with the exception of Germany- the productive sectors (industry and agriculture) do not participate in the formation of GDP more than 20% at the most!
4. All the imperialists’ strategic choices (neoliberalism, globalisation, new order – war), with which they tried to recover economically, control the global economy, over-exploit the Third World by imposing an even worse colonisation and neo-colonisation (the oil barrel had come to cost less than 10 dollars and the other raw materials had equally depreciated prices) have failed.
Neoliberalism has failed to all its promises: the limitation of deficits and debts, the recovery of economy, the increase of citizens’ welfare, the restriction of the wasteful and corrupted state, etc. On the contrary, after 30 years of implementation, it has destroyed the global economy leaving ruins everywhere and especially in some parts of the planet, it has attacked, with extreme cruelty, the social and political rights of workers, it has accumulated piles of debts and deficits, it has created an even more authoritarian, wasteful, corrupted and money-collecting state, it has proved that its deities –the entrepreneur and the market- are nothing more than a parasite –as far as the first is concerned- feeding from the state and the sell-out of the public and collective property and a big illusion –as far as the second is concerned.
Globalisation is today an almost forgotten case, it is in extreme crisis and about to turn into its opposite, as the signs of protectionism are quite obvious with the imperialists themselves in the leading parts. The WTO (1992) which was established precisely to promote neoliberalism and globalisation, does no longer exist, essentially, today because imperialists themselves, its inspirers and founders, do not agree with its principles (deregulation of the market, the capital and work, abolition of the customs and tariff barriers); on the contrary, they demand the protection of their products, of all their products, even the hi-tech industry ones! Moreover, they have assisted their industries and banks with huge sums (another form of protectionism) and they turn to the state printing-house to print currency, in a desperate effort to postpone the crisis, poisoning, at the same time, even more the global economy.
The New Order and the war, that, is the policy which would violently impose the imperialists’ interests, their strategic choices and the only thought are now in crisis and dead-end. Undoubtedly, at an early stage, they had some successes, especially in the Balkans and in Central Europe. However, the New Order has, now, been essentially abandoned or, at least, its aggressiveness has been diminished –of course not for ever- and even at its focal point, the Middle East and Central Asia, it faces the danger of developing into a defeat of strategic importance, maybe even bigger than the defeat in Vietnam, taking into account the current conjuncture. Everything shows that the war in Iraq (conducted to seize the heart of oil) and the war in Afghanistan (to seize the heart of the world) not only are coming to a painful end for the imperialists, but they have expanded the geo-political chaos even further (destabilisation in Pakistan and some former soviet democracies, etc). This failure will make the attack to Iran, which was and still is their basic goal, impossible, it will give Turkey the opportunity to make greater manoeuvres in relation to its policy and significantly modify its policy concerning the relations with Israel which is crucial and of strategic importance.
The failure of imperialists, and especially the Americans, is more obvious and spectacular in Latin America than in any other region of the world, as the instruments loyal to their policy are extremely few. This is also the area where the most significant political and revolutionary developments have been taking place, especially in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Finally, since 1995 (France), we have had a slow but steady upturn development –often with ups and downs or fluctuations- of the struggles and every type of mobilisations and movements. Furthermore, in some countries, we have had social outbursts and insurrections, for example in Argentina, Bolivia, Guadeloupe, Greece, etc.
5. Especially since 2001, the policy of imperialists and mainly the Americans (Bush’s staff) not only has it failed, but it has also left ruins behind, on the one hand, through its extreme doctrines (complete questioning of national sovereignty, you are either with us or against us, etc) and the war (preventive wars, the treat of nuclear weapons, etc) and on the other, through the creation of a fictional economy based on fictitious capitals (that is, through the plundering of the whole world) instead of a productive economy. As a result we have had a new deterioration of the crisis, since summer 2007.
Nobody knows exactly how much these fictitious capitals are; it is estimated that they are more than 600 trillion dollars, that is, 10 to 11 times the global GDP. Nobody knows how much the global debt is; the USA debt only amounts to about 400% of their GDP, that is, about as much as the global GDP. Both of these mythical sums, or at least part of them, are future income, already consumed or wasted for the needs of the previous years. As things have ended up, it is impossible for them to be controlled and produced/ paid off by economy. In every long downturn wave, they both appear and they are paid off in two ways: either through the war, or through the revolution. This is what happened with the two previous long downturn waves.
A lot of people, among them several Marxists, were deceived in 2001-2003 by a small recovery in economy, an increase of enterprises’ profitability and a small increase of the rate of profit, at the time, and came to talk about a new long wave of growth. Their mistake was that all those poor results were not based on real economic terms but on fictional ones, terms of a bubble and postponement of the crisis, in other words, on an enormous expansion of credit and fictitious capital (factitious demand). Profitability or even the increases of the rate of profit were the result of a decrease of payments and dismissals. It is also a mistake to consider the rate of profit as the only indicator of the capitalist crisis and it is even a bigger mistake to consider its increase or improvement as the one and only indicator of recovery and outlet for the crisis. A recovery and, all the more, an outlet for the crisis (a new long wave of growth) needs a lot more, among which a complete change of the framework capitalism used to function in, during the previous period –geo-political and geo-economic, social, political and labour relations, structure and organisation of the state, structure and organisation of work, etc.
6. The crisis, which started from the financial – credit system –as it was natural and has always happened in modern capitalism- was soon expanded to the productive sectors of economy and has developed, nowadays, in a deficits and debts crisis of the economy as a whole, with the public deficits and debts being just the tip of the iceberg. The financial crisis, which the bourgeois and their neoliberal servants yell about, is part of the capitalist system crisis, that is, a crisis of the private economy, the market and the gigantic effort of states to save the private sector and the system. For the recent crisis only, the states have spent over 10 trillion dollars, in various types of assistance.
7. The capitalists’ effort to deal with the crisis (long downturn wave) has not only accumulated piles of deficits and debts, but it has also used up all the reserves and, especially the resistance mechanisms of the capitalist system, with the result of the all the more cruel attacks at the social and political conquers of the workers, the poor strata and the youth, the small crashes, the bankruptcies of banks and, now, the bankruptcies of states and the direct threat of a global collapse.
8. The global bourgeois power crisis is deteriorating year after year. Because of its economic weakness and, up to a point its political one, the American imperialism did not manage –even though it tried using all the possible means- to impose the necessary “overall” solutions, as it used to do. The effort that all the imperialists together (G7, G8) made ended up the same way. The new effort, this time by the G20, that is, a total of more than 20 countries representing more than 80% of the global economy, appears to be heading to the same result. The reason is that they cannot agree to anything more than some general decisions which, however, either they do not apply, or they apply selectively according to their national interests. For example, in their meeting, last year, they had decided to offer 2% of the global GDP to stimulate the demand and help the poorest areas of the planet; this year, at Toronto, on 26-27 June, they decided the exact opposite -to take measures to limit deficits- and they committed themselves to limit them at half by 2013. If this happens, it will be the biggest cut of expenses after the 2nd World War. As far as their previous decision is concerned, they simply “forgot” all about it.
In order to talk about the struggles and their possible evolution, we have to examine the national framework which they will take place in, as well as the framework which the Greek capitalism is in, that is, the EU.
The crisis of the Greek capitalism is not reversible or manageable.
1. It is not reversible because:
a) Except what has already been mentioned in previous documents (especially the internal document Full ahead to the hell of IMF) it is necessary to give some supplementary evidence, since things have not stopped deteriorating, as we had foretold.
At the end of 2010, the public deficit will have reached the 345+ billion euros and approximately 140% of GDP (compared to 300 billion euros and 115% of GDP that it was at the end of 2009). This is because of the continuing borrowing and the fact that the guarantees of the public sector to the Public Enterprises of Common Wealth and enterprises, amounting to about 25 billion euros, are “dropping”. At the end of 2013 (when the period of support mechanism –IMF, EU, Central European Bank- is coming to an end), the central administration debt will have reached the 450 billion and, if we add the so called “hidden debt” (Public Enterprises of Common Wealth, Local Administration Organisations, Hospitals, etc), as the troika insists, it will reach the breathtaking amount of 500+ billion euros! For the debt to stop increasing, the government has to manage and get 13 billion euros per year from its own resources, until 2013, in order to pay interests! Without development, this is an impossible task even if the state sold out the whole public property, reduced the expenses (payments, pensions, investments, state functions) at half compared to the present and increased all the taxes considerably.
However, growth is castles in the air. Greek economy is in deep recession (the recession was estimated at -4% for this year, -2,30% for 2011 and it remains to be seen what will happen later), due to its known weaknesses, the global crisis and the extreme neoliberal measures taken by the government. The claims of the government that it has reduced the deficit by 40% in the first six months of 2010 are fairytales. They are based on sheer accounting tricks just before taking new hard measures or officially announcing the bankruptcy (“controlled bankruptcy”) -likewise, Simitis used to talk about a “strong economy” when the country was heading to bankruptcy and Karamanlis used to say that “Greek economy is shielded against the international crisis” when the country was on the verge of bankruptcy. The reduction of the deficit by 40% is exclusively owed to the reduction of expenses, that is, to the slaughtering of payments, pensions, social expenses, etc, on the one hand and, on the other, to the reduction of public investments (2,5 billion euros from the 8,2 billion euros of the budget), as well as the informal suspension of payments that the public sector has declared by not paying its suppliers and not returning the Value-Added-tax, a total of several billions of euros. On the contrary, its revenues, which are the most important, have shown a decrease for the first seven months and, in a yearly basis, this is going to surpass the 2 billion euros, compared to the anticipated goal.
The decline in industrial production and constructions is rapid and unceasing, while, according to the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 60.000 small and medium enterprises (about half of the 120.000 existing ones) are threatened with shutting down before the end of 2010. However the sector where the situation is tragic is the banking system, which survives due to the outrageous state assistance. In 5th August 2010, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, G. Papakonstandinou, announced –in a period when Greek people are literally starving, after the government measures- a new support packet amounting to 25 billion euros! Thus, in just two years, banks were assisted with 78 billion euros (28 billion by New Democracy, 15 billion by PASOK, through the Memorandum, 10 billion through the Financial- Credit Stability Fund and 25 billion now, again by PASOK).
All these have resulted in unemployment and underemployment rocketing to over 2 million people, that is, about 40% of the active population and 2/3 of the employees.
All those who believe that everything has been scheduled in the despicable Memorandum that the government has signed, are wrong. The Memorandum is a general plan which will be supplemented all the time. In fact, every 2 – 3 months (time when economy will be checked by the troika, before laying out a new instalment) we are going to have a new small Memorandum with new hard measures. Thus, even during 2010, we are going to have more hard measures (despite the government fairy tales and the poisonous “praises” of the troika). These are going to be measures of every kind: reduction of payments and pensions, cuts in social security, health and education expenses, taxes, measures concerning the working relations, privatisations … opening of the closed professions, etc. If some of these are not taken immediately, due to the municipal elections, they are going to be taken right after them, with even greater fierceness and, in any case, cumulatively, in the face of 2011, which will anyway be an even harder year (the government has to collect more than 6.6 billion euros from extra taxes and cut more than 1.6 billion euros of expenses).
b) The crisis in the EU
A potential economic recovery of the EU could, theoretically, help a Greek economy recovery. However, the EU is also in crisis, along with the global economy, all the more so, on the verge of a new deterioration of the crisis focused on the deficits and the debt. The total deficits and debts (not only the financial ones) of many of the most significant EU economies are bigger than those of Greece.
The total debt of the U.K. and Spain (public and private) is bigger than that of Greece, with the private one taking the lion’s share –about 350% of GDP for each country, while the public budget deficit is 11% and 11.2% of GDP respectively. The U.K. has to borrow about 350 billion euros this year and Spain about 250 billion euros. France has a public debt which surpasses the 1.7 trillion euros, that is, about 70-80% of its GDP and about as big as the debt of Germany, as a GDP percentage; Germany will also have to borrow over 100 billion euros this year. Moreover, we have to note that the world as a whole will have to borrow about 4 trillion euros this year, the USA budget has a 1.7 trillion dollars deficit, for this year and, in the next 2-2.5 years they will have to borrow about 3.5 trillion dollars. The Financial Times have recently written that the financial situation in the USA is worse than the one in Greece.
The bank system in the EU is in deep crisis; its biggest part is bankrupt and only continues to exist thanks to the continuous state packets and the continuous assistance of the Central European Bank. The recent stress test –despite the ridiculous criteria- showed its enormous problems. As all the analysts stressed, if the same test was conducted in 2007 none of the banks would have passed it; they passed it nowadays only due to the state assistance. We have to mention here that the German banks refused to take even this ridiculous test! Another important fact is that the Euribor (of the week, month or trimester), that is, the interest rate with which the banks lend one another, has risen by 40-50% between 2009 and June 2010, that is, as much as during the crucial days of 2008, after the Lehman-Brothers bankruptcy.
For the EU to be saved, a lot of trillions of euros are necessary, for Spain to avoid bankruptcy, several hundreds billions are needed, for Italy, over 1 trillion euros, etc (the packet of 750 billion of the EU/ IMF is not enough to save things). Moreover, this debt crisis is taking place –like in Greece- in a period when the productive sectors of the EU are continuously declining (with the exception of Germany).
So, it is most probable for the Greek capitalism to be removed from euro-zone, along with the official announcement of its bankruptcy and the return to the national currency, drachmas. Of course, the “controlled bankruptcy” has, more or less, already started.
2. It is not managable
a) The global capitalist system crisis, the special Greek capitalism crisis-collapse and the unbelievably cruel attack of bourgeoisie, the government and IMF/EU have been causing radical social shifts and changes, because of the radical impoverishment of working people, labour aristocracy and petit bourgeois layers. These shifts and changes have been causing a crisis a) in the bourgeois authority block (as this was gradually formed after the political change over: bourgeoisie, petit bourgeois layers, labour aristocracy) and as a result in the bourgeois parties, especially the New Democracy and PASOK, which intervened for, represented and served this block b) in the trade union bureaucracy which is based on the labour aristocracy and participated in co-administration, securing social peace in exchange for material and other privileges c) in the reformist parties -Communist Party of Greece and SYN/SYRIZA- which are mainly based on petit bourgeois and labour layers (especially of labour aristocracy) and used to secure the class peace in exchange for their integration to the political system.
In every period of a system crisis (1922, after the war and the civil war, after the dictatorship fall), we have had great social shifts and changes, which give birth to major political shifts and changes. Thus, nowadays, all the processes of great political changes, on the level of masses are in progress, heading to a complete transformation of the political scene as we have known it since the political change over. This is a transformation of the political scene and political shifts greater than the ones we had after the dictatorship fall, compared to the political changes of the two other periods.
b) The political shifts and changes in masses accelerate the crisis of the political scene, the political crisis and the political parties’ crisis, which were anyway facing serious problems: ineffectiveness of their choices, loosening of their relations with masses, masses representation crisis, decay, scandals, corruption, etc.
It is obvious that all these changes (social and political) are going to hit mainly the political forces which have had the management of economy, society and political life (N.D. and PASOK) and led to the current economic destruction. Today, this is revealed through their unprecedented crisis (disintegration, exits, splits, etc), as well as through the sinking of their political influence (they have already lost 20 points since the October 2009 elections and they continue to fall). Especially as far as PASOK is concerned, its crisis and electoral sinking is undoubtedly going to lead it to collapse. Is survives –and it may continue to do so, for a little while longer- thanks to the bourgeois and imperialist support in the face of the unprecedented dead-ends that its fall will create; that is why it is not impossible to witness many political coups in order to maintain not PASOK but Papandreou and its subservient company -with the help of parliamentary members and extra-parliamentary mandataries of IMF/EU- in power.
Besides, PASOK’s conquer of power and its maintenance constitutes a political contradiction, if not a political coup. For, PASOK deceived Greek people with false promises and snatched their vote in a degree rare for he country’s political history. For, it brought IMF in the country putting it under occupation, abolishing the Constitution, the Parliament, the working people social, democratic and political rights and, generally, every law. Moreover, it leads the country to bankruptcy and complete destruction.
c) The generalised crisis is, of course, going to affect the reformist parties, as well. It has already manifested itself in SYN/SYRIZA, with the exit of the so called renovating wing and developments are open to even more painful options. The Communist Party, despite its seeming stability, has been facing internal problems mainly due to its extreme disruptive policy and its return to a hardcore, palaeolithic and repulsive Stalinism. The most serious problems it faces, however, concern the organised labour class, problems which are revealed by its continuous losses at the trade union elections.
d) The capitalist crisis, nationally and internationally, as well as the mistaken approaches that the Extreme Left has had, have shown off its programmatic and political weaknesses and the orientation crisis it has been showing for a long time. But this is not all. Some organisations have presented an approachment to reformism, at least on political and practical level, as there still seems to exist, although hazily, the defence of some revolutionary positions.
The crisis and its confrontation have created a pressure for the unification of the left forces. So, there have been various movements which, as they say, seek for –and we have no doubts about their good intentions- the unity of the Left. This is not the first time. Since the political change over, we have had many such movements: During the first years they were about the unity of the reformist forces and especially the united Communist Party on the one hand, and on the other, the unity of the extreme left forces, especially among the related forces. From the beginning of the 80s until the end of the 90s, we had many such movements, which, in their majority, concerned the extreme left and revolutionary political field –all of them failed, with the exception, for quite a long period, of MERA. For the first time, since the beginning of 2000, starting with SYN/SYRIZA (2004), the unity movements have included the whole left political field (reformist as well as extreme left) and they have multiplied along with the deterioration of the crisis (the most important being the “Overthrow Front” by Alavanos, the “Left Forum of Dialogue and Common Action” and, always, of course, SYN/SYRIZA, despite its problems). However, what all these movements show is not the trends to unity, but the real trends of confusion and disorientation, crisis, fragmentation and disintegration of the reformist and extreme left forces. A significant part of extreme left has participated in SYN/SYRIZA (though this is questionable after the latest developments), while the majority of the extreme left organisations has been participating, in practice, in these new movements, leaving aside the big words and plans about anti-capitalist poles (MERA, ENANTIA, ANTARSYA). This is, of course, a result of the crisis, the political shifts and changes, confusion and disorientation.
OKDE, of course, has no objection to the dialogue and common action of the left forces, especially those of the extreme and revolutionary left. Due to its ideology, OKDE has had a unifying policy and practice; it is the organisation which includes the United Front in its programme; it is the organisation which has always been seeking the dialogue and common action of the labour movement organisations; it has inaugurated them, especially after the political change over, and has imposed them, in practice, initially to a part of the extreme left and, later, almost to the whole. However, OKDE does not consider dialogue and common action to be an end in itself, but steps towards the repulse of the attack and of the bourgeoisie – government – IMF/EU, towards the development of the labour and revolutionary movement, the building up of the revolutionary party, the socialist revolution. As long as these goals are not fulfilled by the so called unity movements and as long as they only end up in fleeting participations in elections, they do not serve any of the labour and revolutionary movement needs, they only serve subjective dispositions. OKDE, keeping its unity characteristics but subordinating them to the current needs of the movement and the building up of the revolutionary party, is obliged to separate itself from some dubious fellow-travellers.
Labour movement, labour class and other layers
1. If we make a short review of the struggles and various kinds of mobilisations that have broken out since December 2009, especially since the announcement of the anti-labour, anti-popular measures, at first by the government and later by the government along with the troika, we can easily say that it has been the biggest wave of strikes and mobilisations, in extent, duration and political depth, since at least the political change over. From December (in fact, since November considering the struggle of the contract workers) until July, we had 6 general strikes and numerous strikes and other forms of mobilisation and struggle (blockades, occupations, etc) organised by federations, trade unions and other movements. Even after the general strike of July, mobilisations and struggles continued to exist, though of lower intensity, which maintained the wave of mobilisations; its intensity is expected to turn extremely fierce from September on, because the situation is going to get a lot worse for the working people, the poor strata and the youth due to the measures that have already been taken and the harder ones that the government and the troika are about to take soon, as well as with the 2011 budget. These measures will include:
A) New cuts in payments and pensions and new tax increases (Value-Added Tax, fuel, cigarettes, drinks, etc) so that the working and retired people will lose another half monthly payment, apart from the 4-5 ones they have already lost with the previous measures.
Especially for the retired people, cuts are going to be even bigger than half a pension, because of the reduction of the state subsidy, the collapse of the social security funds due to the crisis, the plunder of the reserve funds, the policies which have been applied, etc. In fact, if the supplementary pension is reduced too, gradually or immediately, to 20% of the main pension as it is planned, or if it is completely cut out (this is also planned), then pensions will end up being just a tip. However, those who will find themselves in an even worse situation are the unemployed, because the requirements for the unemployment benefit are going to get harder and the benefit itself is going to be drastically reduced (probably at half of the 430 euros that it is today), if not completely cut out (in case of bankruptcy of the Organisation of Working Force Employment).
The employees, the retired and the poor strata are going to lose another half monthly payment due to high prices in combination with the freeze of payments and pensions (the official inflation was 5.5% in June, but the cost of primary necessities is even bigger and it is officially estimated that it has added 105 euros to the average monthly budged of a family) and, especially, due to the transfer of the public goods and services cost onto society, especially on its weaker members, through privatisations and more generally the privatisation of economy. The loss of income owed to high prices can increase even more because of the extreme increase of the grain and grain products’ prices (primary necessity) from this year on.
Privatisations, the privatisation of economy and the policies imposed by the government and the troika are going to have even more painful consequences (than the economic losses) in the short and long run, in the living standards, working relations, the educational and technical level of society, the public health and the environment, the infrastructure (public, collective and private), civilisation, culture, etc. More specifically:
a) With the pretext of the debts, but in fact, due to the privatisation or running of the public transports with private standards, prices will shortly increase by 40-50%, or even more, as far as trains are concerned.
b) The planned privatisation of the Public Electricity Enterprise –the alleged alternative plans of the government are just eyewash- is going to bring an average increase of the electricity bills by 10% in the short run and by 40% in the next three years; as far as the household consumption (especially of the poorest who have low consumption) and the farmers are concerned, this increase may reach the 100%.
c) A lot of schools and hospitals are going to be shut down all over the country, students are going to be squeezed by 30 in every class, school sub-financing is going to desperately deteriorate their condition with the result of not being able to pay for the necessary (electricity, water, heating, necessary materials for their function, etc) or even occupy the staff they need to function. This is a huge problem that teachers, students, parents, the whole society will have to face immediately as the cutting out of the free distribution of books is on the way, possibly along with the imposition of fees, at least in high schools. Moreover, fees are going to be imposed shortly in Universities and Technical Schools and a series of other allowances (free books, food, accommodation, etc) are going to be cut down or out. Universities and Technical Schools are going to be turned into enterprises where everyone will be able to buy depending on their income. More than that, privatisation of education means the fragmentation of knowledge and its replacement by skills and fragmentary “handy” “knowledge”, which means abolition of the common school syllabuses. So the problems of illiteracy and reduction of technical preparation, already obvious in society, are going to be intensified, as it has been done in the countries where these policies were applied. The gravestone of education, health, their functionaries and their users will be put when these sectors are transferred to regions and municipalities as it is scheduled (with “Kallikratis”), which will also be a giant step towards their privatisation.
d) More than 50 municipalities (the biggest in the country, with more than half of the country’s population) are bankrupt, or on the verge of bankruptcy; some of them are unable, or can hardly pay their employees. This miserable economic situation worsened this year because of the cut down of the state subsidy at half (from 1.6 billion euros to 800 million) and the deduction of municipal resources by the state. The answer of the government to this situation is even bigger cuts, selling out of municipal property and seeking of more resources from the municipalities, which mean an increase of rates, imposition of taxes and staff dismissals. It is easy to imagine what will happen if education, health, etc are transferred to municipalities and regions.
e) There will be a sharp increase of unemployment and underemployment due to the cut of expenses and the shrinkage of the public sector, the broad public sector and the Local Administration Organisations.
f) The privatisation of public goods and services will eject prices (has already happened with tolls) and deteriorate the quality of service, as it has already happened at all the other countries where privatisations have taken place.
g) The working relations will be disintegrated, initially by undermining security of employment and then, gradually, by abolishing it (this is prepared in many ways: abolition of permanent positions through the abolition of organisations or services, social security funds unification, privatisations, etc) in order to facilitate dismissals in great numbers (at least 300.000 employees- not only employees with contract).
B) In 2011, the working and retired people are going to lose: a) In the public sector, at least two monthly payments, mainly due to the United Scale of Payments that the government promotes (cuts at payment expenses of 3-5billion euros), as well as due to taxes, the freeze of payments, high prices and various other cuts. b) In the broad public sector, two monthly payments, as well due to privatisations, the privatisation of economy and again taxes, the freeze of payments, high prices and various other cuts. c) The retired, at least two pensions -for some groups, even three- especially due to the reduction of the supplementary pension to the 20% of the main one or its complete cutting out in the funds showing a deficit, taxes, the freeze of pensions, high prices, other cuts and, of course, the new social security law -we have to mention here that the threat of even bigger cuts is near because of the collapse of the social security funds. d) In the private sector, at least two monthly payments, especially by cutting down or out the 13th and 14th payment, the disintegration of working relations (abolition of collective bargainings, employs and managers’ arbitrariness, etc), as well as, by taxes, the freeze of payments, high prices and other cuts (extra working hours, etc).
In all these groups there are going to be losses due to privatisations and the privatisation of economy, as the cost of public goods and services (education, health, transport, electricity and water supply, “Kallikratis”, etc) is going to be burdened on the working people and the poor strata.
C) The petit bourgeois layers (old and new) have been suffering –and will continue to do so- an unprecedented attack. They will fall into poverty and many of them will be proletarianized losing the property they have accumulated for decades. The old petit bourgeois layers (shop owners, farmers, etc) will be extinct maybe even by 50%, basically due to the crisis, which has dropped demand sharply, but also due to their debts (e.g. 40% of farming fields is mortgaged at the Bank of Agriculture whose imminent privatisation is going to be catastrophic), the concentration and centralisation of production to big department stores and the ruthless tax hunting/ drain by the government-troika using as a pretext the eradication of tax evasion. The new petit bourgeois layers are also going to be hit, especially doctors, chemists, lawyers, notaries, accountants, etc, either with the pretext of the “opening of the closed professions”, whose basic goal is the concentration in big companies, or through a ruthless tax hunting.
D) The General Strike of 5th May is, of course, a landmark in this wave of struggles and mobilisations. It is, thus, necessary to note its most fundamental characteristics, apart from the unprecedented massiveness in the history of the trade union/ labour movement, the participation of inactive trade unions and unorganised/ non-union workers, which marked the strike, in contrast to the smaller participation of the large federations. We are going to stress only three: a) The militancy as a result of the obvious rage, which came to the point of attacking the Parliament, for the first time since the political change over, against the will of the trade union bureaucracy and the reformists, but, in accordance with the December 2008 spirit. b) The clearly political character of the strike (the slogans which prevailed were against the government, IMF, politicians, the political situation, etc), once again for the first time since the political change over. c) The participation in the General Strike and the mobilisations of many petit bourgeois layers, which signals a re-approach with the proletariat, though spontaneously and instinctively, an approach which had been ruptured a little after the political change over.
The General Strike of 5th May and the whole wave of strikes, struggles and mobilisations is not the work of trade union bureaucracy or the reformist leaderships. It was the result of the workers rage and their spontaneous movement in order to express their indignation and their political opposition. On the contrary, trade union bureaucracy, deliberately or not, let workers completely unprepared, it was too slow in mobilising them, it did not mobilise the labour parts it controls in time, it tried to cover the PASOK government, avoided focusing workers on political goals, let workers without a struggle plan, called for partial and, more or less ceremonial strikes and did not escalate the struggle to a Continuous General Strike or a political strike until the fall of the government.
However, we need to be very careful concerning the attitude of the working class. It has undoubtedly realised, in great extend, the extremely difficult current conjuncture and the even more difficult one that is on the way, as well as that it will suffer great losses in its living standards and its employment. It has also realised that responsible for this situation are the political forces of N.D. and PASOK, partly some social forces such as bankers, stockbrokers, racketeers, the corrupted politicians and, generally, the institutions that have led to the current situation. This realisation causes a constant politicisation and radicalisation of the masses, which constantly increases the trend to criticize and doubt the political –and partly the social- order of things. So the masses desperately seek for something radically different (though not formed and unified) are willing to listen to what the causes of the crisis are, adopt, at times, parts of the transition programme and, at least as far as some minority workers’ parts are concerned, have decided to fight for the complete overthrow of the situation. This radicalisation, politicisation and change of consciousness is also manifested in practise, as was shown in the General Strike of 5th May and the other mobilisations, through the easiness with which the trade union bureaucracy and the reformist leaderships are outflanked or lose their weight compared to the past.
On the other hand, there are also palpable weaknesses, the most significant of which is the absence of a united political and practical plan on how to deal with the current urgent situation, or even worse a lack of political and organisational cohesion in the trade union and labour movement due to the destructive work of the trade union bureaucracy and the reformist parties. Moreover, it is obvious that there is a lack of trust to the trade union leaderships, on the part of workers, which is manifested, even in practice, in the way workers address themselves to it (contempt, disapproval, etc). This, of course, contributes or even increases the masses’ hesitation concerning the effectiveness of the mobilisations or mobilisations themselves. All the above lead to social outbursts and revolts, which, however, are not sufficient to overthrow the situation, let alone the system which produced it. This conclusion leads to the need of a deep Reconstruction and Recomposition of the labour movement, especially now that new labour layers, without previous, weakened or forgotten traditions of the labour movement, enter the struggle.
The workers’ struggle character and our duties
The struggle that the workers, the poor strata and the youth are fighting nowadays is not a struggle to save some things from the government-troika attack; it literally is a struggle of survival and reproduction with modern terms and not the terms of a villein. In frond of this situation that has been formed there are no limits which they have to “respect”. They have every right to use all kinds of struggle in order to survive and prevent their making to villeins. All the more, now that the destructive government-troika coalition has set aside any type of legitimacy in order to save the system from the crisis. Their war has to be answered with war.
In front of the laws and decisions that the Papandreou government is no longer justified to make and, especially, in frond of the need of workers to survive, the struggle -as well as our policy- must be based on the slogan “The law is the worker’s right”. This means that the workers do not have to follow the laws of the government-troika, but they can use any type of struggle in order to be saved from the capitalist system and survive. “The law is the worker’s right” means Disobedience and Revolt in general, that is, not only against the laws and decisions of the government-troika, but also in the every-day life, which contributes to the reproduction of the system and obedience (e.g. the payment of fines, bills, tolls, “obligations”, etc).
This does not mean that we do not have to have specific tactics and that we can always promote forms of struggle that only spring from the objective reality, ignoring the subjective factors, the balance of forces, etc. Having a specific tactic also means that we have to take initiatives, even of minority character (alas, if all our actions and interventions must have the approval of the masses), initiatives that help and educate the labour movement; that is why we must always look to biggest possible participation of workers and the youth.
The policy and practice of OKDE must not be passive and that of a follower, waiting for the circumstances to mature; it must be energetic and form the developments and circumstances. That is, a) to intensify the economic, political and social crisis of the system, b) reconstruct and recompose the labour movement, c) build up a revolutionary policy along with its political conveyor, the revolutionary party, d) open the way for the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of Socialism. Specifically:
1. On a political level, OKDE’s intervention in the working class and the labour movement must put its entire programme in direct implementation, dividing it into five axes which cover the current character of the workers, the poor strata and the youth struggle, that is the struggle of survival and reproduction with modern terms and those of a villein:
a) The cancellation of the debt, as a minimum precondition to maintain the current living standards, the schools, hospitals, etc.
b) The defence of working relations (employment, payments and pensions, labour rights, etc).
c) The defence of health, social security, social welfare and solidarity (public goods and services).
d) The responsibility of the political and social forces which had the management of economy, politics and the society and led the country to bankruptcy and IMF’s occupation. Those are the ones who have to pay for the crisis.
e) The way out of the crisis (take the money from wherever it exists: nationalisation of banks, of the basic sectors of economy, etc), towards Socialism.
2. On a practical level, OKDE’s intervention must be planned on the basis of the Reconstruction – Recomposition of the labour movement, that is:
a) organisation of the working class as a class, using all the forms of self-organisation, on the basis of national and international experience, but also using the new forms that will emerge in the course of the class struggle,
b) political organisation in the OKDE university and labour parties. Our own experience has shown how important this is for the struggles and the reconstruction of the movement.
3. We intervene in the existing trade unions with the aim of their revival through a salvation programme, the activation and participation of their basis, the promotion of general assemblies and all kinds of committees. We carefully take initiatives which may have a minority character.
4. We build up new trade unions where there are no others, but we also build up other forms of self-organisation (e.g. workers’ committees), where the preconditions (number of people, maturity, etc) are not proper yet and an immediate mobilisation is necessary.
5. We organise (in forms of self-organisation as well as politically) the unemployed and the emigrants whose social weight is about equal with that of rest of the working class.
6. We defend all the workers’ rights, especially employment, without preconditions, using every form of struggle (mobilisations, strikes, occupations, forms of self-management, etc)
7. We promote forms of self organisation at the labour and poor districts, which are overwhelmed with problems –and are going to be even more in the immediate future- especially as far as employment, education, health (and drugs) and environment are concerned.
8. We create protection and solidarity networks for workers, the poor, the unemployed and emigrants, according to the best traditions of the labour movement. There is no politicisation, radical or revolutionary movement which does not pay the proper attention to those, as well as to culture, entertainment and lifestyle. The struggle for solidarity and a moral proletarian front, in practice, not only in theory –against impoverishment, the corruption of cultural and moral values, the decay and corruption of the bourgeoisie- are part of the transitional programme.
9. We gather all the power of the workers in one united policy on the basis of a salvation programme and the class independence, against the government-troika, the bourgeois parties, decay and corruption.
We struggle for the fall of the government and the release/ liberation of our country from the troika.
10. We create alliances with whoever agrees with our policy, tactics and practice, except for issues of prosecutions, dismissals, etc, in which case our participation and our alliances may be made with decreased criteria. We seek cooperation with the extreme left, as well as other militant forces, not as an end in itself but as a means to common action on specific goals and on our policy and practice.
11. We prepare the suitable structures (struggle centres) for the big mobilisations and the oncoming revolts. The political work (masses’ participation) has always to be combined with these structures (struggle centres, etc).
12. We prepare the labour movement’s self-defence for its protection and the protection of its militants.
13. We defend the interests of the working class and the movement, at any cost (sacrifices, prosecutions, etc), especially in this difficult period, when the working class is “naked” in frond of the government-troika, the state and imperialists. We, however, have on our side the support of the international labour and revolutionary movement.
14. We plan the rooting of our organisation in the working class and its expansion to other cities and towns, strictly, without delays and backing-outs. This means that: a) we choose our job on the basis of political criteria and criteria depended on intervention, even if that means financial and personal sacrifices, reaction of the family and social environment, etc. b) We build organisations in other cities/towns through our persistent and continuous intervention and the transfer OKDE’s members.
15. We “exploit” the environment (old comrades, militants, our friendly circle, etc) of OKDE, our parties, interventions, etc, inviting them to discussions, events, mobilisations, etc. We also create a kind of circle of influence with the most active and available of them and promote their participation to our parties in order not only open discussions but also for them to take part in action.
16. The period is a difficult one but it is also favourable for revolutionary Marxists. That is why we can and we must increase the recruitment in OKDE, by speaking frankly to the workers and militants of the labour movement. OKDE has not signed any contract with victory; it has signed a contract with struggle. The programme, the policy, the tactic and practice of OKDE is such a contract which includes all the preconditions for victory. A basic precondition for success is the participation in OKDE of as many militants as possible and its rooting in the working class.
Organization of Communists Internationalists (Greece)