PASOK – New Democracy Co-government – The Return of the Bankruptcy’s Responsibles

All masks have been dropped and the decay of the political scenery appears in front of us. The “anti-right” and “democratic” PASOK of “anti-authoritarian” Papandreou is making an alliance with the “accursed” Right, for the sake of “the country’s salvation”. The “popular” Right of the “super-patriot” Samaras -which was supposed to oppose the Memorandum until yesterday- is now giving an oath of faith to the Troika, the bankers and the speculators, to the new -worse than the previous- Memorandum decided on October 26th. The group of the willing ones, of the by occupation “savior”-patriots of Karatzaferis [leader of the far-right political formation of LAOS], as well as of the neoliberal Talibans of Ms Bakogianni [former leading cadre of New Democracy, who split to form Democratic Alliance] and the walk-ons of Kouvelis [former leading cadre of the reformist left party SYN, who split from a right point of view to form the Democratic Left] and the Green-Ecologists, have rushed to join in the staff created to service the “country’s salvation”, this shelter of crooks.

The Mass Media of deception could not be absent from it. They have taken to an orgy of blackmailing, day and night, as well as to an unprecedented ideological terrorism about what working people, poor strata and the youth have to wait for, in case we don’t receive the sixth installment, we don’t sign the new Loan Contract, … we don’t sign whatever the capital, speculators, the E.U. and imperialists ask for. “We are about to crash”, have been yelling M. Kapsis and Ms Tremi [leading journalists of bourgeois media], accompanied by a number of corrupted, well-known journalists and censors of the decayed bourgeois regime who repeat various improbable scenarios (we will become like Hodja’s Albania and Kim-il Sung’s N. Korea, our children will not have milk and petrol will cost two thousand drachmas per litre (equivelant to 6-7 euros) etc.). Of course, greek capitalism has crashed since the beginning of 2010 -this is known to everybody- and since then, it has been in the intensive care with no hope of recovery. More than that, the living standards of the working people and the youth are heading rapidly to the standards of Albania and the living and reproduction conditions are quickly turning to those of a villein.

All these politicians and journalists have understood nothing at all. They have not understood that they are not alone, that they cannot form the political process with their black propaganda and their Privy Councils. For a long time, the political processes have been determined mainly by: 1) The crisis of the capitalist system in Greece and, of course, globally – especially in the Euro-zone / E.U. 2) The overall crisis of the political scenery, of the bourgeois parties and institutions and of the bourgeois power. More or less, this is the case for the E.U. as well. 3) The labor and popular movement which has come to the forefront for two years now and has gradually turned to a decisive factor.

The huge, multiform and continuous mobilizations, struggles and acts of disobedience of the working masses and the youth have completely de-legitimized the memorandum / bourgeois policies, have disintegrated PASOK and have launch its fall. The “squares movement”, the “June revolt” and the giant 48hour General Strike of 19-20/10 have made this fall a matter of few days -indeed, it took place a few days later, after the extremely important events of October 28th [national celebration of resisting the fascist invasion of 1940, with military marches held all over the country attended by officials of any kind and rank], when all the “representatives” were chased away from their “thrones”! The consensus of all the bourgeois parties (especially the two big ones), which was, at first, promoted by Merkel and Sarcozi and, later, adopted by all the bourgeois staffs, was an open confession that no bourgeois party was able by itself to bend the labor movement. So, the current co-government of PASOK – New Democracy (with the support of the others, especially of LAOS!) is a decisive step for the future developments. It is an effort of the capital, bankers, speculators, and the E.U. to implement the decisions of October 26th, taking cruel measures (financial and political) in order to save the capitalist system in Greece and the E.U.

This co-government, which has no legitimization what so ever, is, among others, the result of trampling upon every constitutional, democratic and popular process, a government completely autonomized from society and a bonapartist one. As such, it is normal to have on its head a technocrat like Loukas Papadimos, an agent of the bank capital. This government is opening the door to a transformation of the regime in which the parliamentary cover will probably remain, but which will be armored against any intervention of the labor and popular movement in the political scene. If PASOK’s taking and keeping the power was a political coup d’état, the co-government, with the blessings and the instructions of Merkel and Sarkozi, is an even bigger one. This new political coup d’état, burdens New Democracy, the “popular” Right, much more than PASOK and results in seriously undermining its effort to present itself as opposed to the policies of the Memorandum and, in this way, reconstruct itself and keep a big part of its popular power. Whichever maneuvers the leadership of New Democracy has used to avoid taking the blame for the co-government / coup d’état and burden it on PASOK, apart from being ineffective, they have also increased the political crisis, ridiculed the political system and alienated the masses even more.

This coup d’état and the attack against the working people which is being prepared cannot be encountered with elections for the bourgeois parliament, as the reformist left KKE (the greek CP) and SYN/SYRIZA (Syriza is a broader coalition around SYN, in which also a part of the greek far-left organizations participates) has been asking for. We need to get away from parliamentary policies, move on to the election of a Constituent Assembly, organize the struggles to come and open the door to the power of the working people and Socialist Democracy.

The co-government is, at the same time, a confession of the capital and the E.U. that, until now, all their efforts to bend the labor movement and impose their policies, at least to the necessary degree, have failed. On the contrary, the course of the labour movement has been upward, clashing, revolting –but also a course of radicalization, politicization, questing of an alternative solution outside the standard political system, if not even outside the bourgeois system, at least for some, major parts of the working people. Undoubtedly, masses are looking for solutions outside the system, as well – and we must not be deceived by the fact that they always personalize situations and policies. All these things show that the labor movement is strengthened, even more after the fall of PASOK. So, a new period of great importance has started, a period in which bourgeoisie, with its political staffs nearly unified under the high supervision of the E.U., is preparing for the next clashes. The struggle which is going to be fought by the working class of Greece is also a struggle of the working class of Europe, which greatly explains the interest that the global bourgeois and imperialist staffs have been taking in its outcome.

The crisis of the Greek capitalism is neither reversible nor manageable. After the outbreak of the crisis in Italy and, as all evidence are showing, the forthcoming crisis outbreak in France, the problem of the E.U. is not only, or mainly, the crisis of Greek capitalism, but how to avoid its overall economic collapse, whose first victims will be the Euro-zone and Euro.

Workers’ Struggle (paper of OKDE), 13.11.2011