Zur Veranschaulichung
Newsweek, 4. 9. 2013
Pakistan’s Greek Tragedy
For migrants seeking a better life, Greece can be cruelly inhospitable.
It was one of his usual journeys. Late every Thursday, Shehzad Luqman would bicycle through the streets of Athens to the house of a farmhand, a friend who would often give him fresh produce. On Jan. 17, Shehzad set out on his bike, met his friend, but never made it back. Residents along a portion of Shehzad’s regular route say they heard the sound of a crash, cries for help, and a motorbike speeding away. The 27-year-old Pakistani immigrant was dead; he had been stabbed in the chest by two neo-Nazis in their 20s dressed in black, according to eyewitness accounts. The next day, protestors laid siege to the city center. With Shehzad’s body in a wooden coffin in the middle of the throng, immigrants and Greeks protested side by side against the rising tide of xenophobia that has engulfed their country.
Shehzad, who came to Europe seeking a better future, was a casualty of the Greek economic crisis. Six years of negative growth have left the country devastated, its economy resembling that of a country at war.
Unemployment, 11 percent in 2007, is now 30 percent—and it’s nearly double that for young Greeks.
All this has fueled anger in the streets and resentment especially toward immigrants who mop up the low-paying and few jobs that are available. Hate crimes are on the rise, making life for refugees and labor fleeing war zones or poverty in Asia and Africa even grimmer. In such circumstances, Shehzad’s killing was not unusual. “This attack was not an isolated case,” says Amnesty International’s Marek Marczynski. “We have seen a dramatic escalation of racially motivated attacks over the recent past.”
According to official figures, some 700,000 legal immigrants make up 6.5 percent of Greece’s population. The size of the Pakistani community, one of the largest, is estimated to be about 80,000-strong; only 30,000 of them are in Greece legally.
Wariness of outsiders and immigrants, especially Muslims, has been longstanding in Greece. The fear of foreigners reshaping the fabric of Greek society is manifest in the capital’s absence of mosques for tens of thousands of Muslims from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. While there are mosques in other cities of Greece, Athens remains one of the few European capitals without a proper mosque. And so Muslim immigrants have improvised, setting up scores of makeshift mosques secreted away in garages or abandoned warehouses.
Yielding to pressure from the European Union, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has lately announced that he will ensure a mosque is built. But this belated concession carries another cost. It gives the far-right more visible targets. Last winter, during the last prayer of the day at a makeshift mosque in an immigrant neighborhood of Athens, two men in black first lobbed a pig’s head inside the structure and then set the mosque on fire.
Fortunately, no one was injured in the attack.
Rights groups accuse the police of doing too little to solve hate crimes. Some have even accused law enforcement officers of being affiliated with extremist organizations. The role of the media is not glowing either. In an attempt to shift attention away from the country’s economic malaise and continuous tax increases on the lower- and middle class, the media and the government often parrot the agenda of rightwing groups. In fact, since the crisis started, the rhetoric of the far-right has come to dominate the public discourse. In order to woo and assuage angry voters, the government has tried co-opting them by implying that immigrants are in some ways responsible for the high unemployment Greeks face. As a result, extremist organizations that once operated in the shadows have been emboldened into greater prominence.
In line with the hostile public mood, last year the police undertook a large-scale operation to sweep clean the streets of Athens and other major cities of immigrants. Policemen continue to stalk the cities in large groups, stopping dark-skinned persons and demanding to see their papers. Even those who have their papers in order face a hard time, glowering bystanders only seeming to encourage the police to detain everyone being subjected to summary interrogation. Even hapless tourists have gotten caught in the net. In all, some 80,000 immigrants were detained by police last year after the operation began, according to the menacingly-named Ministry for the Protection of the Citizen, until their papers were cleared. Of these, some 4,500 were undocumented immigrants who were promptly exiled to detention camps. There, they waited for their cases for asylum to be processed failing which they faced deportation.
For those who enter Greece now, as a toehold to access other European countries, life is often hell. The entry to Europe is fraught with danger. Hundreds of immigrants have drowned attempting to make the crossing between Turkey and Greece. Those who make it are often treated as criminals and jailed in inhumane conditions, in small cells with no toilets. From the foothills of the city, you can see all of Athens: an ugly sea of cement by day transformed only by the city lights into something vaguely beautiful by night. The Guantánamo-style internment camp, with its white prefab containers, wired off from the rest of the city is a prominent eyesore.
Recently, about 1,000 immigrants in the camp went on hunger strike, demanding their release. “We’re human beings, not animals,” one of the protesting detainees said in a recorded message provided to the Greek media by an NGO. “They’re keeping us here because we don’t have papers. They treat us as if we’re murderers. They can’t keep us here for the rest of our lives. We’re 1,700 people in here. We can’t put up with this anymore.”
Inside the camp, there are immigrants who entered the country illegally as well as refugees and asylum seekers. But it also houses those who couldn’t manage to have their working permits renewed. The NGOs providing legal assistance to the detainees paint a horrific picture of the camp’s conditions. Hygiene and health care are not available, they say. And for one whole month, detainees were not provided soap. Even the police union has stepped forward to warn that the conditions are abysmal and could turn dangerous if the mental wellbeing of the detainees is further tested.
On Aug. 10, a riot erupted at the camp. After 10 detainees managed to escape, the captors clamped down on everyone inside. The detainees were punished by being forced to stay in their humid cells without electricity. The ‘privilege’ of yard walks was rescinded.
Last October, a little before dawn, about 150 Pakistanis were shoved into police buses and whisked off from the camp to the airport for expulsion. The majority of these Pakistanis were leaving voluntarily, unable to cope with the poisonous political environment in Greece, where parties like Golden Dawn have become part of the mainstream.
A tall, tired-looking young Pakistani, Mohammed Arshad, was taken from the camp—where he had waited anxiously for his deportation for four months—in handcuffs. “I haven’t been to Pakistan for the past five years,” Arshad told Newsweek on the police bus to the airport. “I’m married with two children and my family is in Pakistan. I’ve only been back to Pakistan once,” he said in passable Greek.
Arshad had come to Greece a decade earlier. He painted houses and did construction work: “I used to work every day, even on weekends.” He lost his job last year and struggled to get his work permit renewed to stay on in Greece, but he was bilked by conmen profiting from the desperation of immigrants. “I went to a lawyer in Athens and paid €2,500 to get my papers to stay for two years,” he said, “but they turned out to be fakes.” Arshad went to a second lawyer to sue the first one. He was asked to pay €1,200 for the job. “They needed more money, but I didn’t have any more money.”
Arshad maintained that he had all the qualifications to get his work permit renewed, but added that the law requiring 120 days of work to qualify for it is “too strict and unfair.” He worried about what he would do for a living once he was back in Pakistan, which has its own economic troubles. Two stone-faced policemen in plainclothes escorted handcuffed Arshad onto the unmarked plane chartered by the Greek government for the mass expulsion. They flanked him on the seven-hour flight to Pakistan.
Even for some immigrants who remain in the country, Greece is fast losing its appeal. Manzoor Hussain, 40, thought his Pakistani name might sound too long or too foreign and wind up impeding his prospects. So he became known as Sakis by his neighbors and customers in Athens. Every day for 12 years, Sakis would open his convenience at 6 a.m. and work until 11 p.m. His 12-year-old daughter, Zara, would help mind the shop after school by stocking the shelves and helping customers. (Sakis’ wife died from cancer when Zara was 2.) The shop was doing well enough for father and daughter to get by.
Then, in June 2012, Sakis closed his shop for the last time. The taxes had gotten too high and business had slumped dramatically. So, like thousands of other small shop-owners in Greece, Sakis decided to call it a day. That last day, he put stacks of soda cans and chips and other perishables in nylon bags to take home. The rest of the inventory he gave away to friends and old, loyal customers for free. In a few short hours, the shop was bare. “This shop was my life,” he says. “But during the crisis it became like a jail to me. It just raised my debt.”
Zara tried her best to cheer up Sakis as they wound up the family enterprise that hot summer day.
Zara was born in Greece, speaks Greek without an accent, and is a straight-A student who hopes to become a doctor. In a few weeks, she would move to London and stay with her aunt. There is no future in Greece, she said at the time. Schools, hospitals, universities are all buckling under the strain of unending austerity cuts.
“I’ll stay back for a few months,” her father, Sakis, had told Newsweek. “I’ll try to get a job. If nothing works, I’ll go to London too.”
http://newsweekpakistan.com/pakistans-greek-tragedy/
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Aktuelles
Griechenland Zeitung
19.12.2013
Faschisten in Griechenland
Keine staatlichen Gelder für Neo-Faschisten in Griechenland
Am Mittwoch hat das Parlament in Athen mit großer Mehrheit beschlossen, die Finanzierung der neo-faschistischen Chryssi Avgi zu stoppen. Gegen diese Entscheidung stimmte u.a. ein Volksvertreter des Linksbündnisses SYRIZA.
Die neo-faschistische Partei Chryssi Avgi (CA) wird bis auf Weiteres die letzte Rate der staatlichen Parteifinanzierung in Höhe von 300.000 Euro nicht erhalten. Das hat am Mittwoch die Vollversammlung des Parlaments mit 241 Mandaten beschlossen; 26 haben gegen diesen Beschluss votiert, fünf haben sich der Stimme enthalten und 28 waren abwesend.
Für den vorläufigen Finanzierungsstopp der griechischen Neo-Faschisten haben die beiden Regierungsparteien Nea Dimokratia (ND) und PASOK, sowie das Bündnis der Radikalen Linken SYRIZA, die Demokratische Linke DIMAR und die kommunistische KKE und einige Parlamentarier der „Unabhängigen Griechen“ (ANEL) sowie unabhängige Parlamentarier gestimmt.
Rechtspopulisten gaben keine Richtlinie
Nicht anwesend bei der Abstimmung waren Ministerpräsident Antonis Samaras sowie der Vorsitzende der DIMAR Fotis Kouvelis. Gespalten waren unterdessen die Parlamentarier der rechtspopulistischen ANEL. Deren Parteichef Panos Kammenos hatte im Vorfeld angekündigt, dass es zu diesem Thema keine konkrete Richtlinie der Partei gebe und dass die Abgeordneten in dieser Frage frei entscheiden sollten. Kammenos selbst hat an der Abstimmung nicht teilgenommen.
Keine Finanzierung von Sturmtrupps
Grund für den vorläufigen Finanzierungsstopp ist der Vorwurf, dass die CA eine kriminelle Organisation gegründet habe bzw. eine solche anführe. Auch wird der Verdacht gehegt, dass die CA mit den staatlichen Geldern, die ihr bisher gesetzlich zustanden, Sturmtrupps ausbildete, die Angriffe gegen Ausländer und politische Gegner durchführte. Zudem sollen mehrere Morde verübt worden sein, eventuell sogar Auftragsmorde. Drei Parlamentarier, unter ihnen auch der Parteichef Nikos Michaloliakos, sitzen wegen dieser Vorwürfe seit Wochen in Untersuchungshaft. Die Finanzierungsgegner im Parlament vertraten in etwa die Ansicht, dass die Verfassung staatliche Gelder für den regulären Betrieb einer jeden Parlamentspartei vorsieht, nicht aber für die Ausbildung derartiger Sturmtrupps.
Vielfältige Stellungnahmen
Die parlamentarische Vertreterin der rechtspopulistischen ANEL Chrysoula Giatagana erklärte, dass man einen solchen Finanzierungsstopp nicht beschließen könne, nur weil die Parteiführung in Untersuchungshaft sitze. So lange die Vorwürfe nicht bewiesen seien, dürfe man nichts Derartiges verabschieden. Auch Manolis Glezos, Volksvertreter der größten Oppositionspartei SYRIZA, hat gegen den Finanzierungsstopp gestimmt, allerdings mit einer anderen Argumentation. Gegenüber Journalisten stellte er fest, dass man die CA „nicht mit Beschlüssen bekämpfen kann, sondern nur politisch“. Die anwesenden CA-Vertreter stimmten Ebenfalls gegen den Finanzierungsstopp.
Lebensmittel nur für Griechen
Unmittelbar vor der Abstimmung hatten die Neo-Faschisten vor ihren zentralen Büros im Athener Stadtteil „Stathmos Larissis“, nahe dem Hauptbahnhof, kostenlos Lebensmittel an etwa 800 Personen verteilt. Die Anwesenden mussten ihren Ausweis zeigen und beweisen, dass sie „reinblütige“ Griechen seien. Erst dann erhielten sie jeweils vier Tüten u. a. mit Kartoffeln, Früchten, Fleisch, Milch und langhaltbaren Lebensmitteln für die Weihnachtstage. Die CA-Parlamentarierin Eleni Zaroulia, die gleichzeitig Ehefrau des in Untersuchungshaft sitzenden Parteiführers Michaloliakos ist, erklärte gegenüber der Presse, dass die bisherigen staatlichen Gelder aus der Quelle der Parteifinanzierung für derartige „Aktionen für unsere Mitbürger“ ausgegeben wurden.
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UNHCR
Golden Dawn probe yields crucial new incriminating evidence
16. 12. 2013
Investigating magistrates Ioanna Klappa and Maria Dimitropoulou, tasked with probing the activities of the far-right Golden Dawn party in order to determine whether it constitutes a criminal organization, are sifting through a bulk of new evidence seized from the homes of party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris and parliamentary deputies Yannis Lagos and Nikos Michos. The most valuable insights were gained from documents and photographs, which had been erased, but police managed to recover.
Among the findings are a wealth of text messages exchanged between GD lawmakers and members as well as photographs that allegedly show MPs at paramilitary-style events. Images leaked to the media show Kasidiaris brandishing a number of firearms in photographs and leading paramilitary-style training of Golden Dawn members. There are also pictures of Golden Dawn members performing Nazi salutes and one wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit. The material also includes speeches given by Michaloliakos and other party members in which they fail to recognize parliamentary democracy and declare themselves to be in favor of its overthrow.
Sources: ekathimerini.com, tanea.gr, enet.gr, greece.greekreporter.com, enetenglish.gr, newsit.gr
http://www.unhcr.gr/1againstracism/en/golden-dawn-probe-yields-crucial-new-incriminating-evidence/
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Interview mit Petros Konstantinou
Aufruf zur Solidarität
Petitionstext
Socialist Review
The resistable rise of Golden Dawn
Socialist Review spoke to Petros Constantinou, an Athens councillor for the left wing Antarsya coalition and the national coordinator of the Movement Against Racism and the Fascist Threat (Keerfa) in Greece.
Where is Greece at the moment in terms of the rise of Golden Dawn and the anti-fascist movement?
After the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas on 18 September there was an explosion of anger against the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, and against the government that was giving it cover.
What happened was that in September the neo-Nazis launched a series of attacks on working class areas that targeted trade unionists. It was during these attacks that they murdered Pavlos. Golden Dawn was hoping that it would be able to spread terror across all working class neighbourhoods, but this tactic backfired 100 percent.
On the day of the murder Keerfa organised huge demonstrations, and within one week we mobilised some 50,000 to march on the central headquarters of Golden Dawn in Athens. This was a workers‘ demonstration that was supported by the biggest public sector union. It was the biggest anti-fascist demo that we have ever organised in Greece. This forced the governing New Democracy party to clamp down on the neo-Nazis and to stop them covering up their attacks.
Unfortunately the radical left Syriza party opposed the demonstration, and instead organised a concert (which only one hundred attended).
The government crackdown took many people by surprise. Was this simply a response to the demonstrations, or do you think there was growing fear among bourgeois circles of what Golden Dawn represents?
New Democracy was split over its approach to Golden Dawn. One faction has been pushing for a more open cooperation with Nazis, wanting to draw them into the government. The other wing disagreed with this approach. But the outbreak of the mass anti-fascist movement put an end to the idea that Golden Dawn could join the government. They were not planning a crackdown, but after the demonstrations the government had no choice.
Golden Dawn seemed unstoppable. These were not Euro-fascists, attempting to put a softer face, but out and out Nazis. How much support do they have in Greece?
Golden Dawn won electoral support as a result of the huge political crisis that was developing in Greece after the government imposed austerity measures. The traditional ruling parties, the right wing New Democracy Party and the social democrats of Pasok, both collapsed. They lost more than 50 percent of their vote. This opened up a space for racist demagogues like Golden Dawn who presented themselves as people who would punish a corrupt political system.
What we saw over the last year was Golden Dawn trying to transform their electoral support into „storm troops“ in local neighbourhoods and to spread terror. Golden Dawn has a Nazi nucleus that has been building for years. This Nazi core, its leadership, was pushing for a hard line, and they were expecting to make advances across the country because the government and the police were providing them with political cover.
They built a base of support in centre of Athens in order to attack immigrants, trade unions and the left. So they expected to do the same on a national scale. Instead they triggered massive popular resistance.
After last year’s general elections there was a mushrooming of militant local anti-fascist demonstrations – mobilising altogether some 100,000 people. This was followed by a massive wave of protest for „Athens anti-fascist city“ on 19 January. So our movement was growing in strength for a while, and was beginning to isolate them. That is why Golden Dawn’s September offensive ended in disaster.
What is Keerfa’s political and organisational model?
Keerfa is based on the tactics of the united front. The heart of this strategy is to unite all democratic and radical forces against the neo-Nazis, in order to stop them marching and spreading their racist poison, and oppose their attempts to launch pogroms in the neighbourhoods.
We launched Keerfa in 2009 following the first wave of anti-austerity protests in Greece. It was obvious that we were entering a period of deep economic crisis. The government at the time responded to the onset of the crisis, and the mass protest movement against austerity, by stoking up racism.
The government launched a racist campaign against immigrants, which included the opening of new detention centres and a mass campaign of stop and search on the streets. This created a space for the fascists to grow.
When we launched Keerfa it attracted many trade unionists and leftists, but crucially it gained the backing of the strong Greek-Pakistani community that helped to launch the anti-war movement a decade ago. It was at the forefront of resisting Islamophobia and racist attacks. Once this community became involved in Keerfa others joined – such as the Asian and African communities.
We are not expecting the government to push on with its clampdown on Golden Dawn. The government is continuing with its programme of austerity, unemployment is continuing to rise, and desperation is continuing to spread among ordinary people. So the government is opening the door for Golden Dawn to rise again.
While the government was cracking down on Golden Dawn, Greek police raided a Roma camp and discovered the so-called „blond angel“. What was behind this raid?
The case of the „blond angel“ is a reminder that problem is that racism is getting worse in Greece, and has to be seen as part of a wider trend. The first is what happened with Lampedusa, where an estimated 400 immigrants drowned recently.
Lampedusa is the Italian Island that has become a staging post for migrants attempting to enter Europe. The European Union has already approved a programme called „Eurosur“, a maritime surveillance system designed to intercept these migrant ships.
On a visit there the Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras proposed a new European coalition to strengthen control over the borders. One reason why so many people are dying attempting to reach Lampedusa is because the Greek government erected a 50 kilometre fence in Evros to halt the flow of people crossing over from Turkey. Instead refugees are making the perilous journey across the sea.
The second issue why racism looks worse in Greece is what happened with the „blond angel“. This raid is a stark illustration of the overt racism against Roma people in Greece. The police say Roma are full of „criminal gangs“, involved in drug dealing and so on. When the police raided a Roma camp they found nothing incriminating. Then one officer discovered a blond child and assumed she had been kidnapped, because according to the police the Roma are never „blond“ – they are „dark“. It turned out that she was not kidnapped or „sold“ by her mother. The case illustrates the depth of racism, and how it is constantly being used.
What do you believe are the priorities of the anti-fascist movement?
The anti-fascist movement remains crucial, and we are going to organise to a huge demonstration on 22 March next year. It will be part of a European-wide day of action. We need to build the unity of workers, of students, of all the left wing militants to obstruct the fascists, and to stop them on the streets.
Recently Golden Dawn attempted to organise a national demonstration in Athens demanding the „liberation“ of their imprisoned leaders. Only 400 of their supporters turned out, which is a fiasco for them. One the same day we organised a counter-demonstration of some 2,000, and despite the massive police presence, we were able to isolate them. Unfortunately again Syriza failed to support the demonstration.
Keerfa is based on the united front and clear anti-fascist tactics. In contrast New Democracy has invited the parliamentary parties into the so-called „constitutional arc“ against the neo-Nazis. So they proposed some measures against the Golden Dawn party under the pressure of the mass movement. We have not demanded that Golden Dawn be outlawed, but we did demand a cut of the state money going to them. We have demanded that their offices be closed down, because these are bases for their storm troops.
The government charge that Golden Dawn is a party involved in criminal acts falls under the anti-terrorism law. This law was passed to stop the left, undermine workers‘ occupations, picket lines and so on. Unfortunately Syriza – which has many MPs in the Greek parliament – voted for it, apart from two of its MPs, one of whom is a hero after he pulled down the Nazi flag from the Acropolis during the wartime German occupation. Syriza is not supporting counter-demonstrations; in contrast Keerfa has been at the forefront of organising opposition to the fascists.
Why has the state brought charges against you and other Keerfa leaders?
There are three cases against us because of a press statement. The charges in the first case are „provoking fear in the population“, „damaging Greek international relations“, „undermining
confidence in the currency, the state and the army“ and „disseminating lies“. Two of these emanate from state security, because we accused the police of executing two Albanians.
The second case arose after we supported a revolt in a migrant detention centre. The third arose out of another case being presented by a Golden Dawn lawyer aimed at a journalist from the Workers Solidarity newspaper – due in court on 12 December. The lawyer is angry because Keerfa called him a „fascist collaborator“.
These cases have not reached the court, and there is mounting pressure from the trade unions and others to stop them. If found guilty we will get huge fines and probably spend some months in prison, and they will also order us to retract the press release, which we will refuse to do, and so set off other more serious charges.
We are going to fight these charges because it is attempt at censorship, to stop our criticism of the state and our campaign against the Nazis. They want to silence our voice.
http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=12449
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Wir schlagen vor, die englische Version der Petition betreffend Petros Konstantinou zu unterschreiben!
We, the undersigned, strongly object to the Nazi-style prosecution of Petros Constantinou, coordinator of KEERFA (The Movement United Against Racism and the Fascist Threat) and a councillor of the Municipality of Athens, and call for its immediate end.
According to the prosecution, Petros Constantinou is being charged for violating article 191 par. 1 of the Criminal Code by “disseminating false information” which “provoked anxiety or fear to the public or… disturbance to the country’s international relations”. The offence was supposedly committed through a statement, issued by the co-ordinator of KEERFA, in which he criticized the executions of Albanian prison escapees by the Greek Police (ELAS) as an application in practice of the death penalty by police officers and as an escalation of state repression.
The prosecution began on July 22, 2013 by the State Security, in cooperation with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn. Evidence of that is the fact that the only document filed in the case is a libel that appeared on the site of Golden Dawn, full of lies and Goebbels-type slanders.
This prosecution is an anti-democratic act with the sole goal to silence the anti-fascist and anti-racist movement in Greece. At the same time as the fascist and racist criminal activities of neo-Nazis remain unpunished and Petros Constantinou himself is being openly threatened with murder (graffiti saying „Petros you will die“ was painted outside his party office), it is a provocation to prosecute him for his movement activism, defending the rights of immigrants and refugees and the democratic freedoms of all against the fascist threat.
The preliminary investigation has been completed after the case was marked as “urgent”. The government and prosecutors are thus preparing to send the co-ordinator of KEERFA to court, in the context of what is now broadly viewed as a cooperation of the state and the Samaras government with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, targeting the action of the movements, the left and solidarity with immigrants.
We demand an immediate end to the prosecution and the withdrawal of the charges against Petros Constantinou.
PS. Two new prosecutions started! One from State Security for a press release in solidarity to immigrants revolt in a concetration camp of „Amygdaleza“. The second is a prosecution from the lawyer of neonazi party Golden Dawn for a press release against the sending to court of journalists of newspaper Workers Solidarity.
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In loser Verbindung zum Thema:
Socialist Review, o. D.
The greek crisis and the Left
Socialist Review interviewed Thanasis Kampagiannis, a member of the Greek Socialist Workers Party (SEK), about the political situation in Greece, the moves to the right by Syriza and the prospects for workers‘ resistance to austerity and the Troika (the EU, European Central Bank and IMF).
The crisis that followed the move by the government to shut down ERT, the public TV and radio broadcaster, seems to have left the government in a weaker position and led to the departure of the Democratic Left from the ruling coalition. Can the government survive?
After December, when the Greek government voted for new austerity measures and secured the political and economic support of the Troika, the Greek ruling class started an ideological offensive, claiming that the economic crisis was over and that the political situation would now stabilise. This is what Samaras, the prime minister, labelled „the Greek success story“.
Six months later the government was still stuck in the same old quagmire: decline of GDP, lack of investment, failure of big privatisations and growing quarrels between the three government partners – New Democracy, Pasok and the Democratic Left.
This is when Samaras decided to go onto the offensive and shut down ERT. He thought that this would make him seem a powerful leader, that his government partners would accept his leadership and stop the constant internal rows, that the union of workers in ERT would be isolated and victory would be a game-changer. It is now common sense even among bourgeois commentators that he heavily miscalculated the balance of forces.
Shutting ERT led to a massive nationwide movement of support for its journalists and workers, who occupied the channel and operated it under their control. As a result of this, the Democratic Left was obliged to leave the government. Finally Samaras had to run to the help of Pasok’s discredited leader Venizelos, who he made a vice-president in the new two-party government.
The ERT crisis is just the prelude for the kind of fights the government needs to wage if it is to survive. It is common knowledge that after the end of the second Memorandum [the bailout agreed between the Greek government and the Troika] in mid-2014 the Greek state will have a huge public debt (now at 180 percent of GDP) or will be unable to borrow from the markets and will need a new Memorandum or a new „haircut“ on Greek debts.
This would bring a new round of austerity measures and this is already an extremely weak government, made up from the two parties widely seen as bearing the main responsibility for the crisis. It is difficult to see it surviving for long.
How is the movement against austerity in the unions, workplaces and streets evolving?
The ERT struggle continues, with the government trying to lure journalists and workers to a new state broadcaster. But now the crucial front will be the lay-off of 25,000 public sector workers planned by the end of the year. This means the closure of schools, hospitals and many local government services. August was a month in which the workers‘ demonstrations never really stopped: the strike of the public sector union, ADEDY, was massive and militant.
The coming weeks will see big confrontations on all fronts, with education and health workers at the fore. Already hospital workers are in turmoil: a rank and file coordination committee has been created pushing for a 48-hour strike alongside hospital unions preparing to occupy. The teachers‘ union is set to decide on an indefinite strike from 11 September.
The government has also announced it will speed up the privatisation of water, energy and the transport system to fill the hole in its budget. The first response to all that will be the big annual demonstration in Thessaloniki on 7 September.
What is Syriza’s relationship to the movement now that the party is in the official opposition?
Syriza is more cautious. Its electoral rise was a result of the strike movement, the movement of occupying public squares, the mass demonstrations and pledge to form a „government of the left“ against the pro-Memorandum forces. But its strategy treats this movement as an object, with the left government the subject. This is not an abstract observation; it has repercussions in the here and now. Since the elections in June 2012 Syriza has portrayed itself as a „responsible“ party, ready to take office.
There have been commentators (including from Syriza) who say that the radicalism of Syriza reflects the vitality of the movement. As the movement has receded, so Syriza is now less radical, they say. This clever abdication of responsibility was, however, proved false during the teachers‘ strike in May.
The government, using the law, conscripted teachers after their union announced a strike during the May exams. Some 20,000 teachers participated in local assemblies of their union, defied the conscription order and voted for strike. Within two days the union leadership called the strike off. This was a coup against the rank and file, where Syriza’s leading trade unionists were central to this move. What were revealed were the strategic limitations of Syriza faced with deepening social conflict.
Syriza’s recent conference appears to have marked a shift to the right by the party’s leadership. Can you give an assessment of the outcome of this conference and explain what lies behind this shift?
The conference has marked the consolidation of the shift I described. It was organised in a way that boosted the prestige and prime ministerial credentials of its leader, Tsipras. Syriza is now a single party of 30,000 members. The party’s central message is that it will aim to renegotiate the loan treaties with the Troika, but it will not make any unilateral moves, even if the cancellation of the Memorandum remains a goal. This government will be a „national salvation“ government. So Syriza will seek the support and participation of other forces, notably the right wing Independent Greeks, and probably the Democratic Left and others.
Syriza’s leadership is pursuing this strategy because it wants to send signals to the ruling class that it is not as dangerous as its opponents imply. The problem with this strategy is already evident: polls show that the majority of people now think the election of Syriza would bring no meaningful, radical change. This belief is the main explanation why the party’s support is stuck and the fight between New Democracy and Syriza is so close.
After the conference this strategy continued. On 4 August the leading Syriza economist and finance minister in-waiting, Giannis Dragasakis, gave an interview in the centre-left paper To Vima to emphasise this turn to „realism“, saying that a Syriza government would not go for „the policies of deficits“, while limitations set by the euro are taken „for granted“ and „healthy entrepreneurship“ has nothing to worry about.
Has the left in Syriza been able to challenge the moves to the right by Tsipras and the Syriza leadership? How do you assess the left in Syriza?
The left in Syriza, grouped around the Left Platform led by Panayotis Lafazanis, had already accepted before the conference that it is in a minority position. In the conference it did not present a separate platform, but proposed four amendments (the annulment of the Memorandum and the loan treaties, the nationalisation of the banks, a break with the euro if necessary and the rejection of collaboration with parties other than those of the left). It lost the vote on all of them.
On the organisational issues, it failed to stop the dissolution of the „constituent“ organisations of Syriza, making the control of the leadership over dissenting voices much tighter. The compromise reached was to give some constituent organisations time to disolve.
The Left Platform did better in the elections for the Central Committee (up from 25 percent last year to 30 percent). The left also argued against the move to elect the party president (ie Tsipras) directly by the party conference, rather than by the Central Committee as has happened until now. The left was also defeated over this and neither did it present a candidate of its own, leaving Tsipras’s political authority unchallenged.
The outcome of Syriza’s conference ought to settle the argument on the nature of the party. The dividing line in this often heated debate was not whether there will be a battle inside Syriza regarding its political trajectory. What was contested was a narrative that presented Syriza as a radically new, unique formation, comprising reformists and revolutionaries fighting for leadership in a strategically open field. After the conference it is clear that Syriza is a left reformist formation, shaped by the governmental „realism“ of its leadership and the subordination of its left wing, with an internal structure mirroring that of its biggest and oldest constituent organisation, Synaspismos.
How has the anti-fascist movement challenged the rise of Golden Dawn till now? What has been the left’s response to that?
The anti-fascist movement has presented a real obstacle to Golden Dawn’s effort to recruit and create stormtroops in neighbourhoods, even if it is still polling between 10 and 12 percent. This was not automatic though. It meant overcoming all kinds of wrong ideas and attitudes towards the rise of the Nazis: where they came from, whether it is correct to confront them, whether we need a mass movement or small „squaddist“ teams of street fighters, and so on. The anti-fascist movement has engaged in lots of local mobilisations in neighbourhoods and workplaces. But there have also been big moments like the national demonstration of 19 January.
KEERFA (United Movement against Racism and Fascism), which SEK is part of, has been very important in both the spread and the centralisation of the anti-fascist movement. One of the main arguments that we have had is that anti-fascists also need to target government and state racism, which legitimises the neo-Nazis.
So, as well as KEERFA being at the forefront of building anti-fascist demonstrations, we have expressed solidarity with the immigrant strawberry pickers of Manolada, campaigning for the shutting down of the concentration camps for immigrants, demanding their legalisation and citizenship for their children, exposing racist police brutality and so on.
During this year the left as a whole has been better on the anti-fascist front. Syriza at first ducked the issue of building an anti-fascist movement, presenting a future change of government as the remedy for the rise of fascist groups. The Communist Party (KKE) initially ignored the need for anti-fascist mobilisations using sectarian arguments. Things are now changing. The best recent example was the cancellation of the Nazis‘ scheduled „festival“ in Kalamata, banned by the authorities after a massive movement that united all parts of the left in the city. We want to see more of this. The international anti-fascist meeting that KEERFA is organising on 5-6 October in Athens is a good chance to discuss our experiences and decide future initiatives.
SEK is a part of Antarsya, the coalition of the anti-capitalist left. Can you tell us what Antarsya’s perspective for the next few months is?
Antarsya held its second conference on 1-2 June. The pressure on Antarsya to liquidate and give way to Syriza (which was at its height during the May-June 2012 elections) has now receded. Instead the conference was modestly larger than the previous one (with more than 3,000 members participating in the proceedings) and new groups have been created in towns and localities.
Our tasks are first and foremost to help the workers‘ movement win its confrontations with the government. This means giving political and organisational support to the militant minorities that have formed in all workplaces as a result of the experiences of the past three years of struggle. Antarsya proposes the most militant forms of struggle (strikes, occupations and forms of workers‘ control) while at the same time insisting on the need for solidarity to overcome the danger of isolation. Concrete victories today are the only way for the working class to acquire confidence. Workers‘ struggles and the collectivities created out of them will be crucial for defeating this government and for dealing with the government that will follow.
The stakes will then be very high and Antarsya is preparing the movement for that moment.
At the same time, the struggle needs to be politicised. That is why Antarsya decided to prioritise anti-racism and anti-fascism, the fight for democratic rights, and so on. A very important weapon in this effort is its anti-capitalist programme: cancellation of the Memorandum and the loan treaties, nationalisation of the banking system, workers‘ control of production, employment for all, and radical measures. This programme means a break with the EU and the euro, a key link in any anti-austerity programme.
In the next ten months Antarsya will also need to participate in elections, European and municipal in May 2014, and maybe a general election in the meantime. So building the movement, sustaining the political struggles and participating in elections are all part of Antarsya’s perspective.