12) "THE DEEP CRISIS CONCERNS THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM ITSELF"

From a statement from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), on the formation of a new government of the social democratic PASOK and the right‑wing ND (New Democracy), with the support of the nationalist LAOS (Popular Orthodox Rally).

     A government of the front of the parties of capital is being formed, of capital itself, with the EU in the role of chief maestro, in order to impose the interests of Greek and European capital in conditions of crisis and competition, to deal with the friction in the EU and to subjugate the people. Ostensibly the EU pressured ND and PASOK to form this government. In reality the pressure is being turned against the people. We state with certainty that this government is not going to deal with the debt or the deficits or the depth of the crisis, is not even going to deal with the possibility of an uncontrolled bankruptcy.

     The avoidance of uncontrolled bankruptcy in the following months or years does not depend on the formula of political management, which the various bourgeois governments implement, nor whether it will be a coalition or single party government. The question as to whether there will be more parties in the coalition, is chiefly related to the disciplining and subjugation of the people, because the problem of the crisis is deeper: it concerns the capitalist system itself and not its management.

     The people must know the following: that what it has experienced in the previous period it will experience now. To begin with they will take anti‑worker anti‑people measures. Afterwards the instalment will be paid and we will begin the new cycle of instalments of the new memorandum. We do not believe in the slightest that the initiative of Papandreou to proceed with a "Euro or Drachma" referendum is what led to the formation of the coalition government. They had been preparing it for a long time. Of course this was the opportunity.

     Capital in our country and the EU wanted to impose a dynamic and strong government. It did not want to have ND as an official opposition. It wanted a unified alliance government.

     A large section of the people feel humiliated by the interventions of the EU and the statements of Merkel and Sarkozy. If they want to be liberated from this humiliation they must, first of all, be liberated from the power of the monopolies in our country, to disengage from the EU. Otherwise such humiliations will remain and we reiterate that they will be even worse.

     Contemporary patriotism for us is this: Socialisation of the monopolies, working class‑people's power, disengagement from the EU, which in today's conditions also entails the unilateral cancellation of the debt.

     This government will not be for a few weeks only. They intend to drag it on for as long as possible. But even if it is for a few weeks it will take measures which concern the life, the living standards and the rights of the people for at least 10 to 15 years.

Indeed, the IMF talks about a two‑year government. We call on the working class, the popular strata to cast down this government with their struggle as quickly as possible, to make its life difficult, to utilise whatever difficulties the new alliance government has and to shorten its stay as far as possible, before final decisions are made, and to impose elections. Of course what is needed here is an unprecedented struggle and particularly that the workers, the popular strata who still believe in PASOK and ND, should not have any inhibition about this. They must not hope that this alliance will bring about something better...

     The people have an additional weapon today, not only their just cause and experience which they have acquired in the past and recent period, but also the fact that the EU is experiencing serious difficulties. The governments of the EU cannot manage the crisis.

     The people must not be anxious about the weaknesses of the bourgeois system. The debts, the deficits, the memoranda, the medium‑term programs, whether they will be passed or not, is the anxiety of the ruling class of our country and the parties which serve it. The people must be anxious about one thing: how it will be able to prevent and overthrow measures, how it will be able to be victorious.

     They are threatening the Greek people that they will expel Greece from the Eurozone. The people must use this threat, to lift their heads and say: With our decision, with our strength, with our project from now on we will disengage from the EU.

     It is not impossible; it is possible that in the following years the EU might not look as it does today. Countries might be expelled from the Eurozone, from the EU, the EU might be split, and something else might appear in its place. Indeed there was a discussion to transform the EU to an organisation like the USA. They think that they can abolish the nation state through political decisions. The reason is that this is a way to subjugate the people, to suppress their militancy. And secondly, it is a way to ensure that the struggle between the monopolies is carried out in the best possible way for them. Nor can this plan abolish the crises in the capitalist system, the rivalries and the divisive splits.

     As regards the question Euro or Drachma, our answer was that there are sections of capital, not only in Greece but in other countries as well, which are interested in Greece remaining in the EU and leaving the Eurozone because their economic position in the system is appropriate for speculation.

     However our answer is: disengagement. We will not take sides with the speculators of the Euro or the Drachma. The people's interests will not be served by a general "anti‑memorandum" front, no matter if it is called progressive, patriotic or left. Until now ND classified itself amongst the forces against the memorandum and you see where it has ended up.

     The front we need today must not be simply an "anti" front. It must say where the people should go. We are talking about a social popular front for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies, for their socialisation, for the workers' and people's control, for the disengagement of Greece from the EU and NATO and of course all these entail the cancellation of the debt. We do not want the anti‑worker policy either with the Euro or with the Drachma.

     From this point of view any fronts against the memorandum like these are not only temporary - they will split sooner or later - but they also constitute one of the ramparts to protect the bourgeois class, which on the one hand wants a clear reactionary conservative front, but at the same time it can utilise a front for struggle as a form of protection. Anyone who fights within the framework of the EU in terms of negotiation and changes in the political formula does not constitute a threat to the system...

     We believe that fronts of struggle must develop immediately. The forthcoming budget will cut expenditures even further, it does not leave anything for education, healthcare, welfare, nurseries, for the elderly, for the persons with special needs, for the special problems of women and youth, for unemployment...

     The fronts of struggle arise from the people themselves in the neighbourhood, in the factory. Consequently we need to immediately use all forms of struggle - strikes, demonstrations, people's committees and social alliance at the ground level. There cannot be any factory or people's neighbourhood without centres for action and struggle. All of these must gather together in a massive torrent for the overthrow of the power of the monopolies. There is no other alternative solution today.

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(The above  article is from the December 1-31, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)