Greece

Euro-solidarity can stop euro-cuts

On hearing the first declarations from the ministers in Greece’s new Syriza-led government, elected on 25 January, the invisible hand of the markets reacted. The stock market lost 8%. The interest rate on Greek bonds went up. Some EU and IMF leaders sent harder messages about the need for compliance — Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde — and some tried to be more conciliatory (Barack Obama, Francois Hollande, Matteo Renzi). Cristobal Montoro, finance minister in Spain’s right-wing government, was aghast that any government should be less compliant with Euro-austerity than his own. There could be...

"Spreading a huge message across Europe"

Elias Panteleakos, secretary of Syriza youth, spoke to Micheal McEoin in Athens on 24 January 2015. Could you tell us about what Syriza Youth does week to week? The pre-election period is a new thing for us. It's about one month, it's shorter this time. We have very little time speak to people and do activities. The main three things we did were, firstly, a campaign through social media because the election is over winter. The second thing was lots of debates with young candidates to give expression to the youth people of Greece. Thirdly we have had big debates with Alexis in discussion...

An emergency programme to fight racism in Greece

An emergency programme to safeguard SYRIZA's programme against ANEL (handing over the ministry of national defence does not help!) It is imperative to link the anti-memorandum struggle and demands with the anti-racist struggle and the urgently required anti-racist measures. That’s why the left should fight for SYRIZA to extend its programme with the following: • Legalization of all immigrants without terms and conditions (prohibitive number of stamps etc.) • Citizenship for all those of the 200,000 children of immigrants born or grew up in Greece • Asylum, shelter and full rights to all...

The ANEL coalition

Syriza fell short by two of the 151 MPs needed for an absolute majority in parliament. As widely rumoured during the election campaign and before, ANEL (Independent Greeks, a 2012 splinter from New Democracy, a nationalistic and anti-immigrant neo-liberal party with an anti-Memorandum stance) came to an agreement with Syriza. ANEL will give Syriza a vote of confidence, but ANEL leader Panos Kammenos is likely to be assigned the ministry of National Defence, with other two minor ministries being assigned to ANEL MPs. Syriza’s leaders had already said that they were aiming for a government of...

Greece shakes Europe

On the night of the election in Greece (25 January), other visitors from Britain and I watched the exit polls with comrades from DEA (a left group inside Syriza) and international visitors in the Syriza building on Leonidou Street. Then everyone converged around the Syriza tent in Klafthmonos Square. By contrast with the press crews and general buzz by the Syriza tent, the suited-up New Democracy members in Syntagma Square looked despondent. The Pasok hut near the University had been simply abandoned by its inhabitants during the afternoon; a padlock protected piles of unused election...

Speak Greek to the bosses!

As thousands of left-wingers and Syriza supporters both from Greece and from the broader European and international anti-Memorandum movement celebrated in Athens on 25 January, Alexis Tsipras made his first speech as the first ever Prime Minister of Greece who belongs to the left. Red flags were waving, the Internationale was sung, and slogans were chanted about the “Time of the left that has arrived”. Alexis Tsipras promised to scrap the memorandum from Monday, reverse austerity, beat unemployment, renegotiate the bailout agreement, fight against corruption and ensure “democracy, decency and...

Articles on Greece and Syriza

Oxi still means oxi! Theodora Polenta, 15th July, 2015 Solidarity with Greece, and with the Greek workers and left! Sacha Ismail, 9th July Greek left mobilises for “no” on 5 July Theodora Polenta, 3 July, 2015 Greece: rescue? At what price? Theodora Polenta, 24 June, 2015 Greece: any deal must be opposed Theodora Polenta, 10 June, 2015 Solidarity for all Solidarity interviewed Constantine Kokossis who volunteers at a “solidarity health clinic” in Athens 10 June, 2015 A memorandum for the rich Solidarity spoke to Petros Markopoulos, 2 June, 2015 Greece: break the stalemate Gemma Short, 2 June...

Let Greece breathe!

Syriza is set to win Greece’s general election on 25 January. A strong left wing within Syriza wants a left-wing Syriza government to confront the EU leaders and the banks which stand behind them; tackle the shipping magnates, church hierarchy, military machine, and business oligarchs who siphon off Greece’s wealth; and empower the working class. The majority leadership of Syriza is more cautious. They reckon instead to form a “government of national salvation”, a coalition with this or that centrist group, and to renegotiate Greece’s terms with the EU and the European Central Bank so that its...

The Greek left needs our solidarity

The epitome of the election campaign for 25 January of Greece’s main right-wing party, New Democracy, is ND candidate Makis Voridis — former member of a neo-fascist youth organisation and minister of health in the last government, using language from the Greek civil war of the 1940s and asking people to defend the values of “Country, Religion, and Family” against Syriza’s “communist threat”. ND leader and outgoing prime minister Antonis Samaras escalates this argument with statements in defence of Orthodox Christianity and getting himself photographed next to the fence and barbed wire on the...

Revolutionary Greek MP: "A Syriza victory could encourage the workers to fight"

Ioanna Gaitani is a supporter of the Greek socialist group Internationalist Workers’ Left (DEA) and a Syriza member of the Greek parliament. The people tried to overthrow the memoranda between 2010-13, but they couldn’t overcome the state’s reaction, the brutality of the police and legal system, the betrayals or lack of planning from their own trade union leaders. It was natural that they started moving away from their political and trade union leaders (from the neo-liberal parties) and place their hopes on Syriza. Their interest was elevated towards the question of power, even in a “distorted...

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