The weaknesses of the Syriza-led government’s position are weaker still if viewed in terms of the international balance of power.
The brazen blackmail of the European “institutions” and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is designed to force the government to choose between direct subordination to the lenders or rapid collapse.
To paraphrase a famous saying from the time of the Russian Revolution — one that we can appreciate today: Without a transformed policy in Europe, without the outbreak of a political resistance movement led by the left in Spain or Ireland or France or Italy, we will perish.
This reality places a clear obligation on the members and leaders of Syriza, among many others. Our policy must be to maintain an active call for a Europe-wide uprising to overthrow austerity.
In the mainstream media, the Syriza party is depicted in a negative light: as a dead weight that prevents its leadership from taking bold action (action to the liking of the lenders and markets, of course); as a nest of fossilised Marxists how won’t allow the enlightened leaders of the government and the state to make the necessary overtures — for example, to the To Potami party — and guide the government safely to the calm waters of the centre-left, with an acceptance of the European lenders’ oversight of government policy and a commitment to remain in the euro, no matter what.
Indeed, the party of Syriza does have this important “defensive” role to play. Under the conditions of vast internal and international pressures, it is an irreplaceable factor for enabling the government to remain connected to the original policies and program Syriza was founded to stand for. Precisely because it can require accountability, the organization of the party at its base, among its rank-and-file members, must be maintained and decisively strengthened.
But a defensive role is not enough. The party organizations of Syriza must take aggressive initiatives, attempting to mobilize a mass challenge against our common political opponents.
This insistence on a radical left program, on standing for the people, and on popular mobilizations is the only way forward for Syriza as a party. In fact, it is the only way forward for the government, caught as it is between the Scylla and Charybdis of local and international capital.
The mainstream media regularly display their contempt for the Marxist-radical wing inside Syriza and demand that the party’s leaders eliminate it as a condition for being recognized as “reliable” and “realistic.”
This wing within Syriza is real and with more influence than many media analysts acknowledge.
(Abridged with thanks from the website of the ISO-USA).
