(en) Greece, Athens,On Syriza and its victory in the election - by the TPTG (an anti-authoritarian communist group)

On the 25th of January of 2015, for the first time in Greek history, a left-wing party, 
SYRIZA, won the general election with a majority of 36.34%, 8.5 percentage points above 
Nea Dimokratia (?New Democracy?), the traditional right-wing party and the main force of 
the departing government coalition. However, SYRIZA didn?t win an absolute majority since 
it gained 149 seats in parliament (a minimum of 151 seats is needed to win a vote of 
confidence). In consequence, they formed a coalition with ?Anexartitoi Ellines? 
(?Independent Greeks?), a right-wing nationalist populist party which gained 4.75% of the 
votes and 13 seats in parliament. Such a collaboration became possible due to the firm 
opposition of ?Anexartitoi Ellines? to the memoranda austerity programs in the previous 
years despite the great differences in issues like immigration and foreign policy between 
the two parties.

The working class and the petty bourgeoisie vote for SYRIZA was a revenge vote against a 
right-wing government whose harsh austerity programs had disastrous effects on their lives 
and had pushed them to depression and suicidal tendencies. It was a vote against the 
politics of fear that had promoted not only police repression of struggles but also 
numerous daily, small and depressing ?civil wars? among the workers. It was a vote against 
the constant and monotonous propaganda of ?there-is-no-alternative? dogmas. Nothing 
illustrates the popularity of SYRIZA?s alternative political program better than this 
example: inside the Amygdaleza concentration camp, the ?illegal? immigrants who had 
revolted against their incarceration in the summer of 2013 and who are not eligible to 
vote were rhythmically chanting ?Tsipras-Tsipras? in the face of their wardens on the 
night of January 25.

As we will show in greater detail in the remainder of this text, SYRIZA?s main positions 
are a) the write-off of the biggest part of the Greek government debt as well as other 
debt relief measures and b) the abolition of the memoranda austerity (i.e. capital 
devaluation) programs. It is interesting to note that only recently SYRIZA cadres have 
expressed optimistic views concerning the acceptance of their positions and proposals by 
the creditors, i.e. the rest of the EU member-states, the European Central Bank (ECB) and 
the IMF. It is possible that this optimism is connected with the fact that the ongoing 
deflation and stagnation within the European Union, in connection with the recent oil 
price slash, has led to the launching of a very large ?quantitative easing? (QE) 
bond-buying program by the ECB, amounting to 1 trillion euros, to provide demand stimulus 
to the European economies. This recently announced QE strategy signals a policy of 
inflationary devaluation of money capital within EU as a whole, by means of the 
euro-currency depreciation that might prevent the imposition of new harsh austerity 
measures to specific EU-member countries or the tightening up of budget deficits, even 
though this shift does not mean that good ol? fiscal terrorism will be abandoned as a tool 
to attack proletarians in EU.

Furthermore, a few European government officials have expressed support for or sympathy 
with the positions of SYRIZA, such as the finance minister of Ireland who, two weeks 
before the Greek general elections, backed the idea for a European debt conference or the 
chancellor of Austria who criticized the austerity programs and expressed the will to 
discuss specific debt relief measures. It seems that, because of the lingering economic 
stagnation, a small but growing fraction of the European capital is pushing for the 
abandonment of the hard austerity policy promoted by Germany. Recently, several prominent 
economists and financial columnists have not only acknowledged that debt relief is 
necessary but have actually endorsed SYRIZA?s program for the replacement of expenditure 
cuts by demand stimulus spending.[1] Even if Martin Schulz, the German social-democrat 
president of the European Parliament, expressed the conviction that SYRIZA will not 
achieve a haircut on the Greek debt, he nevertheless spoke about proceeding to a ?compromise?.

At the same time it seems possible that SYRIZA will use other instruments of foreign 
policy such as the ability to veto decisions in order to press for concessions from the 
European Union.

?ow SYRIZA came to be the majority party in Greece

SYRIZA is the acronym for ?Synaspismos Rizospastikis Aristeras? which is translated into 
English as ?Coalition of the Radical Left?. SYRIZA was created in January 2004 as a 
coalition of several leftist political parties and groups with the most important ones 
being Synaspismos (Coalition of Left, of Movements and Ecology), AKOA (Renewing Communist 
Ecological Left), KEDA (Movement for the United in Action Left), DEA (Internationalist 
Workers Left) and KOE (Communist Organization of Greece). SYRIZA was transformed into a 
single-party before the general elections of June 2012 when it seemed possible to win the 
elections in order to be eligible to receive the bonus parliamentary seats given to the 
majority party under the current Greek electoral system. Synaspismos was by far the 
strongest and biggest constituent of SYRIZA and was initially formed in 1989 as a 
coalition between KKE (the pro-soviet Communist Party) and Greek Left, the successor of 
KKE Interior (a euro-communist party which split from KKE in 1968). KKE left Synaspismos 
in 1991 when the hard-liner Stalinist faction purged all the more social-democratic 
oriented members, including the General Secretary of the party, who resigned and remained 
in Synaspismos. AKOA split from KKE Interior at the end of the ?80s whereas KEDA split 
from KKE at the beginning of the ?90s. DEA was a split from the Trotskyite Socialist 
Workers? Party (associated with the International Socialist Tendency) and KOE the 
successor of a splinter group from the maoist party KKE-Marxists/Leninists.

The creation of SYRIZA is directly connected with the political ferments and developments 
which took place during the period of the ?anti-globalization? movement and the prevalence 
of the so-called anti-neoliberal discourse within the ranks of the movement. Specifically, 
all these seemingly heterogeneous political groups united around the opposition to the 
neoliberal restructuring of the capitalist welfare state and opted for a return to a more 
social-democratic management of capitalist social relations. The organizational vehicle 
for this unification was the ?Space for Dialogue for the Unity and Common Action of the 
Left? formation which prepared the Greek leftist participation at the 2001 Genoa 
?anti-global? demonstration. Without a doubt, there are still different positions within 
SYRIZA with regard to a series of issues such as the nationalization of banks or the 
participation in the Eurozone but at this point the more ?radical? social democrats, who 
support the nationalization of banks as well as the so-called Euro-sceptics, who are for 
the exit from the Eurozone are at the losing side within the party.

***

Before the outbreak of the ?debt crisis? in 2010 ?which was a manifestation and 
aggravation of the protracted capitalist reproduction crisis in Greece? and the imposition 
of the shock policy of constant and variable capital devaluation through the mechanism of 
the infamous ?memoranda? ?i.e. the austerity programs connected with the loans given by 
the Troika (IMF, ECB, European Union)[2]? in the years that followed, SYRIZA had never won 
more than 5% of the vote in both the European and the national elections. SYRIZA emerged 
as the main opposition party in the repeated general elections of 2012 only after the 
retreat, recuperation or defeat of the struggles against the imposition of the policy of 
capital devaluation (16.78% of the vote in May and 26.9% in June 2012).

This development is greatly related to the central role played by SYRIZA within the 
?movement of the squares? which erupted at the end of May 2011 and lasted in a vigorous 
manner for more than one year. The main manifestation of the ?movement of the squares? in 
Greece was the occupation of Syntagma square (the central square of Athens opposite 
Parliament), which lasted for two months in the summer of 2011. This movement seemed to 
give a perspective of overcoming the sectional logic of the trade unions and a perspective 
of questioning the political parties of the left as alienating forms of representation of 
working class practices as well as the political system as a whole. However, it remained 
at the level of political protest and the demand for ?real / direct democracy?, although 
its role in calling strikes against the medium-term agreement and in the organization of 
the battles against the police forces of capitalist rule in June 2011 was crucial. The 
party mechanism of SYRIZA and other organizations of the left took part incognito in key 
organizational groups in the square and thereby succeeded largely in dominating the 
content and the forms of struggle by promoting a nationalist leftist ideology of ?national 
independence?, ?productive reconstruction of the Greek economy?, ?cancellation of the 
odious part of the debt?, etc. Furthermore, this mechanism did its best to limit the 
struggle to a purely symbolic level, undermining any practical suggestions that were made 
for the expansion of the struggle to the workplaces and the unemployment offices, while it 
promoted provocateurology against those that clashed with the forces of order in mass 
demonstrations at that time.

The ?movement of the squares? was based either on the creation of new ?popular assemblies? 
in the neighbourhoods of Athens and in provincial towns or the temporary reinvigoration of 
already existing ones (with their genealogy going back to the December 2008 revolt). In 
the period following the movement of Syntagma square there was a current of mobilizations 
promoting ?refusal of payments from below? organized mainly by the assemblies. The 
mobilizations mainly focused on the refusal of payment of: a) electricity bills, which at 
this point and for the next 3 years included a surcharge for a new property tax, b) 
transport tickets, the price of which had been increased, and c) highway tolls, which 
have been multiplied and at the same time their fare has been increased. The members of 
SYRIZA and other leftists, who participated in the ?popular assemblies? promoted a shift 
of the focus of the mobilizations from proletarian antagonistic activities ?e.g. the 
reconnection of electricity in working class houses or the blockade / sabotage of ticket 
cancelling machines in the metro stations ? to legal actions which often involved the 
apparatuses of the municipalities administered by left/social democrat mayors.

SYRIZA?s attempts to recuperate the mobilizations were widely successful and a rather easy 
task due to the latter?s interclass composition and political content: the assemblies, 
even when they were predominantly composed of proletarians of all sorts, never defined 
themselves as working class collectivities; they were rather perceived by the majority of 
their members as assemblies of local citizens/private individuals/private property owners. 
From there it was a short step to be subsumed into the social-democratic discourse of 
?citizens? social rights?, ?common goods rights?, etc. which has been promoted by SYRIZA. 
For example, the neighbourhood assemblies have organized a series of so-called solidarity 
activities, such as soup kitchens, self-organized health centers, co-operative (simple) 
commodity exchanges, service exchanges (e.g. foreign language classes) within an 
interclass anti-government framework. This self-managed austerity strategy was widely 
adopted by SYRIZA, which, as will be shown below, has included a ?social? or ?solidarity? 
economy as one of the ?pillars? of its program for the ?productive reconstruction of the 
Greek economy?. Today, SYRIZA controls a plethora of such rank and file ?solidarity? 
organizations including self-organized health centers and pharmacies, commodity exchanges, 
poverty relief groceries, etc. Our position that the boundaries between such projects and 
charities led by the Church and NGOs are blurred has been confirmed by the recent 
declarations of support for the philanthropical mission of the Church, which were 
expressed by the president of SYRIZA at a meeting with the Archbishop in a church charity 
institution. Furthermore, SYRIZA utilized the neighbourhood assemblies in order to 
strengthen its local branches, which often copied the assembly form and recruited members 
from the neighbourhood assemblies.

The ability of SYRIZA to substitute (to a limited, yet substantial, extent) the functions 
of the disintegrating welfare state in Greece has been augmented by its recent gains in 
the local elections. For example, SYRIZA administers the Regional Administration of Attiki 
(the most-populated Greek region where the city of Athens is situated) since September 
2014 and has implemented the reconnection of electricity to a significant number of poor 
households providing 360 euros per year to each household where electricity has been cut off.

Moreover, after the defeat of the struggles in the public sector (with the exception of 
the struggle against the new employee and workplace unit evaluation system, which is still 
pending), a defeat which occurred due to a number of reasons, some of which have been 
presented in our above-mentioned texts, SYRIZA emerged as the political party which would 
restore the status quo ante by cancelling the redundancies and the lay-offs at the 
universities and, more broadly, in the public services and re-opening ERT (the national 
radio and television broadcasting network which was closed down by the previous 
government, dismissing about 3000 employees). In the case of struggles against factory 
closures, SYRIZA has actively promoted the self-management of factories by their former 
employees based on the example of VIOME[3] as well as the organization of the distribution 
of their output through self-organized commodity exchanges without intermediaries. The 
self-management of bankrupt enterprises and the creation of new cooperative enterprises, 
the self-organization of the output distribution/consumption networks and the creation of 
associations of self-managed enterprises that will provide supporting functions such as 
legal, consulting and accounting services ?in order to create economies of scale? or even 
the creation of cooperative credit institutions constitute the program of SYRIZA for the 
?social economy? pillar of their ?productive reconstruction? plan.

On the same terrain of political representation, SYRIZA?s power was augmented by its 
resolute opposition to the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn?s impact on the 
national constituency was highly reinforced after the recession of the ?movement of the 
squares?. This movement had combined a grassroots ?revolt from the left? with a ?revolt 
from the right?. After its retreat, the most passive and racist part of the grassroots 
?revolt from the right? against austerity measures found a political representative in 
this political party. This representation was encouraged by the governing right-wing party 
and the mechanisms of the ?deep state?. When its members? physical violence against 
immigrants and leftists ran amok in September 2013 and its autonomisation from the state 
became obvious, their right-wing brothers in government were obliged to put its leadership 
in jail. However, the real winner of this state anti-fascist campaign was SYRIZA, which 
had supported all the anti-fascist activities of the previous years inside and outside 
?popular assemblies?.[4]

The dominance within the anti-austerity movement of the nationalist discourse concerning 
the renegotiation/reduction of government debt ? a statist reduction of payments from 
above (a concern shared also by Golden Dawn) as opposed to the proletarian refusal of 
payments from below ? and the ?productive reconstruction of the Greek economy? combined 
with the dominance of the social-democratic discourse about ?citizens? social rights?, 
?common goods rights?, ?self-management? and the ?social-economy? to pave the way for the 
emergence of SYRIZA as the next ruling party. After actively undermining the potential 
development of the struggles in the workplaces, the squares and the streets into a 
proletarian movement that could threaten the rule of capital and its state, SYRIZA managed 
to transform their defeat into its electoral power. A large section of the working class 
and the petty bourgeoisie rested their hopes for the reversal of the politics of capital 
devaluation on the polling success of SYRIZA. The new government coalition is the 
reconnection of the grassroots ?revolt from the left? with the more active and non-fascist 
?revolt from the right? on the capitalist state level. Normally, this will open up a new 
round of revendicative struggles of the working class and the petty bourgeoisie.

What happens to left political programs when social movements retreat?

It is interesting to draw up a list of the changes of SYRIZA?s political program from 2010 
till today. In order to illustrate the changes more clearly we have divided them into the 
following categories.

Government debt management: the main position of SYRIZA?s program concerning the 
restructuring of government debt has remained the same since 2010, i.e. to renegotiate the 
government debt with the aim of writing-off its biggest part. Recently, they have invoked 
the historical precedent of the 1953 debt relief treaty between the Federal Republic of 
Germany and creditor nations after the London Debt Conference. On the other hand, the main 
changes can be summarized as follows: a) in 2010 and 2011 SYRIZA argued for direct 
borrowing from the European Central Bank (ECB) at very low interest rates, similar to the 
ones offered to private banks, whereas in their most recent program they argue for 
?quantitative easing? policies through the purchase of government bonds by the ECB; b) 
since 2012 SYRIZA has proposed a deferred payment of interest until the Greek economy 
recovers as well as the establishment of an ?economic growth clause? regulating its 
repayment; and c) in 2011 SYRIZA argued for an extensive audit of the government debt in 
order to cancel its odious part, a position which has since been removed from the program. 
It is also telling that in 2010 and 2011 SYRIZA asserted the abolition of the European 
stability pacts whereas in 2015 they just ask for the exclusion of public investment 
programs from the restrictions of the Stability and Growth Pact. Furthermore, in 2010 
SYRIZA advocated the restriction of the free movement of capital e.g. through the 
imposition of the Tobin tax, a position which has since been purged from the program. Last 
but not least, in the program of 2015, SYRIZA calls for the establishment of a substantial 
grace period so that the Greek state will not have to service any debt for a number of 
years in order to immediately channel funds into investment spending as a lever to 
?restart the economy?.

Banking system and private debt: there has been a fundamental change of the program of 
SYRIZA with regard to the banking system. In particular, in 2010 and 2011 SYRIZA advocated 
the nationalization of the banks whereas in 2015 they are only speaking about the 
establishment of a public investment bank and a number of specialized public credit 
institutions for small enterprises, self-managed enterprises and farmers. Every reference 
to the nationalization of banks has been erased. Since 2011 SYRIZA has included in its 
program a provision for the settlement of non-performing loans of households and 
enterprises while the 2015 program promises that the auctioning of primary residences will 
be forbidden. Moreover, the 2015 program advocates the settlement of private debts to the 
state due to taxation or due to outstanding contributions to the social security funds by 
setting upper limits to debt installments, which will be connected to household income. At 
the same time, they promise to stop property foreclosures and criminal prosecutions of 
individuals, who will voluntarily settle their debts to the state.

Privatizations / nationalizations: SYRIZA has not changed its position about stopping the 
privatization of public utilities, public enterprises and infrastructure. However, its 
initial position in 2010 to ?gradually? re-nationalize ?strategic enterprises? such as 
telecommunications, electricity and infrastructure such as ports, airports and roads has 
gradually been abandoned. Since 2012, SYRIZA has connected the re-nationalization of 
?strategic enterprises and infrastructure? with the availability of funds in order to buy 
out stocks and property rights, a condition which practically means that 
re-nationalization will not take place. Also, since 2012 SYRIZA has advocated the transfer 
of the ownership of natural and mineral resources to a public treasury in order to use 
them as collateral for the issuance of government bonds. Their position in 2010 for the 
re-regulation of the market (utilities, etc.) has been abandoned.

Public investment: SYRIZA programs have not changed since 2010 with regard to their 
intention to increase public investment as a lever both for growth and for the so-called 
productive reconstruction of the economy. In this context, they promise to raise the 
expenditure on scientific research, mainly conducted in the Greek universities, and 
facilitate certain industries (e.g. medicine production). In 2015, SYRIZA is calling for a 
European ?new deal? that will reverse deflation and fuel growth in Europe through an 
EU-backed public investment program.

Taxation / expenditures: the position of SYRIZA in 2010 and 2011 of imposing a tax of 45% 
on the undistributed profits of big capitalist enterprises has been erased from its 
program since 2012. Also, their promise of abolishing tax exemptions for shipping capital 
in 2010 and 2012 has been watered down since in their most recent program they only talk 
about reviewing all exemptions and the abolition of only those, which are ?not related to 
shipping activity per se?. As far as the taxation of ?natural persons? is concerned, the 
2010-11 position of increasing direct taxation of the richer strata has disappeared, 
whereas in the program of 2015 they are only speaking about the gradual reduction of 
indirect taxation ?after deliberation?, contrary to their position in 2010 for an 
immediate reduction of indirect taxes and their position in 2012 for the reduction of 
value added tax in tourism and dining. However, in the 2015 program SYRIZA promises to 
increase tax-free income for all natural persons to 12.000 euros, to abolish the new 
property tax, the heating oil tax and the poll tax imposed on self-employed workers. 
Furthermore, they promise to reduce the tax burden of small enterprises. As far as state 
expenditures are concerned, during 2010 and 2011 SYRIZA advocated increasing social 
expenditure and the reduction of defense expenditure whereas after 2012 SYRIZA has only 
talked about freezing the reduction in social expenditure. After 2014 their position is 
that they will maintain a balanced government budget, a position which is usually 
equivalent to the continuation of austerity despite and in contradiction with their promises.

Wages / labour relations: the program of SYRIZA in 2010 promised an increase in wages, 
pensions and unemployment benefits. In 2011 their position had changed to the immediate 
restoration of wages and pensions to the levels of 2009, before the imposition of the 
memoranda programs. In 2012 they only advocated freezing wage and pension reductions and 
the gradual restoration of wages to the levels of 2009, whatever is meant by that, and 
only promised the immediate restoration of the minimum wage. In 2015 they are just 
promising the immediate restoration of the minimum wage to the levels of 2009. As far as 
labour (i.e. exploitation) relations are concerned, in 2010 they advocated the imposition 
of new restrictions on lay-offs whereas after 2012 they have only promised to abolish the 
2010 legislation, which provides for the ?liberalization? of the labour market by making 
lay-offs easier, reducing severance pay and limiting the application of collective 
agreements. SYRIZA still advocates the reduction of precarious labour through the 
abolition of indirect employment and the curbing of outsourcing in the public sector. 
However, they contradictorily admit that they will use subsidized programs of temporary 
labour in municipalities as well as ?training programs? in order to reduce unemployment. 
Also in the programs of 2012 and 2015 SYRIZA promises the criminalization of employing 
undeclared (?black?) labour and the reinforcement of the state agency which observes 
labour legislation. Last, in their most recent program they promise to fully restore 
Sunday holidays for retail shops.

Benefits: SYRIZA promised in 2010 to increase unemployment benefits. In their most recent 
program their position is just to restore unemployment benefits to 2009 levels (461 euros 
for 12 months). In 2012 they promised to extend unemployment benefits to the self-employed 
while in the 2015 program they are talking about the redesign of unemployment benefits in 
order to cover part of those self-employed workers without income. While they advocated 
the extension of the duration of unemployment benefits to 2 years in 2012, in their most 
recent program they promise such an extension only for long-term unemployed workers. 
However, they promise to abolish the imposed restriction on the total length of benefits 
(400 total subsidized day benefits per 4 year period). Also, they have included in their 
recent program a number of benefits for the alleviation of extreme poverty, i.e. free 
electricity and food tickets for 300.000 households, free housing for homeless people 
through the utilization of empty municipal buildings and empty hotels which will be 
subsidized, free medical care for the unemployed and people with no social security, free 
transport for the unemployed and workers with a very low-income. SYRIZA had understood 
that it could gain many votes by promising to provide a pittance to the significant group 
of pauperized households.

Pensions: back in 2010 SYRIZA promised to abolish all the laws that had attacked social 
security rights and pensions since 1990 and recognize the debts of the state to the social 
security funds. In the 2012 program this position had been erased and they only promised 
to restore employer contributions to their previous higher levels, fight contribution 
evasion by employers, freeze pension reductions, ?gradually restore pensions? to their 
previous levels and abolish the 2011 exemption of many jobs from the ?hazardous 
occupation? category which is favorable to workers. As was mentioned above, the promise of 
2010-11 to restore pensions to 2009 levels has been replaced both in the 2012 and the 2015 
programs by a promise to freeze pension reductions. Furthermore, in the 2015 program they 
claim that they will review the exemption of jobs from the ?hazardous occupation? 
category, contrary to their 2012 promise to immediately abolish this exemption. They also 
claim that they will reduce retirement ages by 2 years, i.e. restore retirement age to 65 
years for full pensions and to 60 years for reduced pensions. Moreover, they promise to 
abolish the new method for calculating pensions after 1/1/2015, as well as the 
restrictions for the award of a reduced pension which exclude many workers from the right 
to a pension (i.e. according to these restrictions, a worker should have made 
contributions for 100 workdays per year within the last 5 years).

?Social economy? (self-managed sector): in 2010 the program of SYRIZA did not give much 
emphasis to the ?social economy? apart from a reference to supporting farmer associations. 
This started to change in 2012 when the program promised to provide incentives and 
accommodations for the development of the ?social economy?. This has completely changed in 
the 2015 program, where it becomes evident that SYRIZA gives much weight to this sector 
both for the reduction of unemployment and for the ?productive reconstruction of the 
economy?. This change reflects the growth of the ?social economy? sector, as more and more 
proletarians partially cover their needs or even make both ends meet by engaging either in 
such projects or in low cost businesses. Specifically, they promise to help the takeover 
and self-management of bankrupt enterprises by changing the bankruptcy law. Also they 
promise to support cooperative enterprises and associations through tax exemptions, 
European subsidies, funding by specialized public credit institutions as well as through 
the creation of supporting facilities providing consulting, accounting and legal services.

Public sector jobs: The 2012 program promised the abolition of the law for redundancies 
and lay-offs in the public sector. In the program of 2015, SYRIZA promises that public 
sector workers, who have been laid off or made redundant, will return to their previous 
positions. They also promise to abolish the new employee and unit evaluation system and 
replace it with an evaluation system that will be based on ?objective factors and 
indicators?, whatever is meant by that. Furthermore, they intend to aboolsh the new strict 
disciplinary law for public sector workers which was imposed in the context of the 
memoranda legislation. Last but not least, they promise the creation of thousands of 
permanent stable public sector jobs in education, health care and social protection as a 
part of their commitment to create 300.000 jobs in total in the public, the private and 
the self-managed sectors.

***

The previously presented and rather long-drawn out catalogue of the changes in the program 
of SYRIZA illustrates convincingly the gradual watering down of its positions towards a 
more timid social democratic direction, as well as their contradictions. The gradual 
adjustment of SYRIZA to realpolitik shows that, after pruning out most of the positions, 
which are considered to be unacceptable from the standpoint of the dominant neoliberal 
capitalist strategy in the Eurozone, and by keeping and maybe enriching the most harmless 
ones such as those concerning the so-called social economy, it can transform itself into a 
?fresh? and rather competent manager of the capitalist state.

TPTG, January 2015

Appendix: On some theoretical debates inside SYRIZA that were quickly put aside

The anti-state communist minority in Europe and elsewhere, who still concern themselves 
with issues of communization, the capitalist state and value theory might be interested to 
know that one of the main architects of SYRIZA?s program ? and a member of the negotiating 
team of the new government with the rest of the EU member-states ? was, until some years 
ago, the main theoretician of the Althusserian faction of SYRIZA and a leading critic of 
the neo-gramscian state theory and the left ricardian labour theory of value!

Here are some interesting quotes from his texts:

It?s the parliamentary ?filtering? of different class practices (the practices not only of 
the bourgeoisie and its allies but also of the working class and its allies) that makes 
their ?representation? inside the state feasible; that makes their subsumption to the 
general capitalist interest practicable? It?s not a particular party but the whole 
parliamentary system that ties the lower classes to the ?political class? of capitalist 
rule. It?s not a particular party but the capitalist state as a whole that constitutes the 
real ?party?, the real ?representative? of capital, the political condensation of 
capitalist rule. That?s why, since the era of Marx, all the ?visions? and the attempts of 
the reformist political vehicles to ?conquer? and socialize the state have ended to the 
nationalization of the visionaries and a rude awakening.[5]

Classical political economy was an embodied labour theory of value and a theory of the 
exploitation of wage labourers by propertied classes. The main currents of Marxism adopted 
this classical theory of value and exploitation by removing Marx?s critique of it. This 
theoretical mutation is closely connected to the ideological and political mutation of the 
Left from a movement of radical contestation to a power of management and reform of the 
capitalist system? In its ?conservative? version this problematic raises the issues of the 
?fair? pay of the worker, her ?dignified living conditions?, pay rises in accordance to 
productivity of labour etc. In other words, the immediate demands of the workers in their 
conflict with capital are raised to the status of a ?social ideal?, since the forms of 
capitalist relations of power are taken as a ?necessary fact?. In its ?radical? version 
this classical theory of value and exploitation envisages a ?capitalism without private 
capitalists?: ?socialization?, i.e. public property of the means of production goes hand 
in hand with the maintenance of all forms of the capitalist economy and the capitalist 
state? The transition from capitalism to communism is necessarily related to the abolition 
of value form, i.e. money and the commodity, and the form of enterprise.[6]

Fair enough, Dr. Milios! Thanks for this excellent critique of reformist politics! But 
what has this self-understanding got to do with SYRIZA?s program? Absolutely nothing! The 
problem of the disconnection of theory and practice is well known in the revolutionary 
movement ever since the era of German social democracy. Many decades ago, Paul Mattick had 
criticized Kautsky for his inability to imagine that a Marxist theory should be 
supplemented by an adequate Marxist practice. So, his understanding ?that for Marx, value 
is a strictly historical category; that neither before nor after capitalism did there 
exist or could there exist a value production which differed only in form from that of 
capitalism? was totally useless.[7]

With the academicization and professionalization of Marxist theory in the last decades 
things have become even worse. In public political meetings, conferences, reading groups, 
summercamps, demos etc. one constantly comes upon hundreds of leftist PhD students, 
researchers, journalists etc. Most of the times one finds oneself wondering whether it is 
a genuine interest in anti-capitalist politics that brought them there or if this 
involvement is just a necessary step towards a profession guaranteed by the capitalist 
state, a capitalist enterprise or a reformist party.

Footnotes

[1] In a letter sent to Financial Times on 22/1/2015 entitled ?Europe will benefit from 
Greece being given a fresh start?, Stiglitz, Pissarides and other ?top? bourgeois 
economists supported a) the replacement of public expenditure cuts with public investment 
programs that will increase demand and stimulate growth as well as with ?more efficient 
tax collection?; b) a ?further conditional increase in the grace period, so that Greece 
does not have to service any debt, for example for the next five years and then only if 
Greece is growing at 3% or more?; c) ?debt reduction, especially of bilateral official 
debt to further increase the fiscal space available? and d) ?significant money for 
efficient investment projects, especially for exports?. The same letter recalled the 
substantial debt relief of the German debt in the 1950s and essentially replicated many 
proposals originally put forward by SYRIZA.



[2] For an extensive analysis of the capitalist crisis, its management by the Greek state 
and the Capitalist International (IMF, EU, ECB, etc.) and the class struggles that took 
place in Greece after 2010, see our texts: ?Burdened with debt?, ?Preliminary notes 
towards an account of the ?movement of popular assemblies??, ?Down with the Stalinists! 
Down with the Bureaucrats?, ?Burdened with debt reloaded?, ?Counting Defeats: Internal 
devaluation, the failure of working class struggles in Greece & the Sino-Greek ?success 
story?? and the interview of our group by Juraj Katalenac ?An Interview? which are 
available at: http://www.tptg.gr/?page_id=105.

[3] VIOME is a building material factory, a subsidiary of Filkeram & Johnson, which has 
been taken over by its workers after its bankruptcy and abandonment by its owners. For 
more information cf. http://www.viome.org/.

[4] For more about the issue of fascism/antifascism in Greece, see our forthcoming text 
?Antifascism vs fascism: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce?.

[5] John Milios, Marxism as conflict of currents, Athens, 1996.

[6] John Milios, The critique of political economy as a critique of the Left, Theseis 
#101, 2007. This interpretation of Marx?s theory is based on Michael Heinrich?s work and 
the Neue Marx-Lekt?re school of thought but we can?t go into details here.

[7] The quote is from Paul Mattick, Karl Kautsky: From Marx to Hitler, Living Marxism, 
vol.4, #7, 1939.