THE IDEOLOGICAL STRUGGLE TO KEEP SYRIZA ON THE SOCIALIST PATH

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Black First Land First

SYRIZA came to power after proving considerable traction with the Greek masses on the basis mainly of it’s election promises to respond fully to the peoples needs. It’s anti imperialist, anti capitalist, anti austerity and pro socialist vision as reflected in its election manifest suggests how SYRIZA intended to respond to the people’s needs once it took office. At that point of taking power the country had already experienced in excess of five years of austerity and it was characterized by all the ills of capitalist imperialism being a high level of unemployment, extreme poverty and general social upheaval. After signing the February 2015 austerity agreement with the “troika” (the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund) the country was consequently subjected to structural adjustment plans (SAPS) that plunged it into deeper debt. Subsequent to paying creditors over €13 billion since signing the agreement in February, Greece was unable to make further debt repayments and consequently begged the “troika” for further financial relief. However the Tsipras Government did not meet the expectations of the “troika” who required it to employ tighter SAPS on an already insanely pauperized population. It was consequently also unable to pay the IMF the £1.6 billion that was due in June 2015.

SYRIZA is now confronted with addressing this question: How can it remain in power without compromising its Marxist principles? Post the national elections five months ago, the SYRIZA leadership, via its approach to austerity signaled a shift to a more “moderate” approach on addressing people’s needs. To this end the commitment to building society along socialist lines had to be postponed so as to deal with the “immediate crisis” (crisis of capitalism) that the country was experiencing. We saw this with the February agreement when the SYRIZA government reached a compromise with the “troika” that effectively via austerity involved the restructuring of the Greek economy. In this context the Left Platform within SYRIZA, which is made up mainly of the Internationalist Workers Left (DEA), Kokkino and the Anti-capitalist Political Group (APO), has consistently called for a return to the election promises of SYRIZA. The party’s declaration of principles and the political document concluded at its 2013 Congress are exposed to both radical left and conservative right interpretations. It indicates, for example, the renegotiation of loan agreements with the “troika” so as to cancel most of the debt instead of repudiating the debt entirely. It also indicates no desire to leave the Eurozone, but that it must prepare itself for any possibility.

It must be stated that the Left Platform’s unrelenting struggle to radicalize the political program of SYRIZA flowing from the party’s congress resolutions bore it’s revolutionary fruit when Greece voted NO to austerity in the referendum held on July 5, 2015. The future of Greece now depends very much on the continued commitment of the Left Platform within SYRIZA to keep the Party on it’s revolutionary path to a truly socialist society.

The September National Imbizo (SNI) now re-issues two statements of Sotiris Martalis and Antonis Davanellos who are members of the Internationalist Workers Left (DEA), the Left Platform as well as the Central Committee of SYRIZA. These statements were also attached to the article “Greece says no to austerity and yes to solidarity” published in the Socialist Worker website on July 6, 2015:

“Sotiris Martalis

EVERY ONE OF you knows the news, but I want to have the pleasure of telling you again. With all of the ballots counted, the “no” vote has won with 61.3 percent of the vote.

The second thing I can tell you is that in Syntagma Square, there is a huge demonstration taking place right now against austerity and in celebration of the “no” vote. At the same time, in the opposite camp, the conservatives have asked for the resignation of the former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras as head of the New Democracy party. Meanwhile, a meeting has been called of leaders of all the governments in Europe because Europe faces a crisis.

This was a hard struggle. They used everything against us. They closed the banks. They canceled bank cards. Every day in the news, for hours and hours, they would show pictures of lines of people out of banks. They spread fear, promising that tomorrow, you will have no money. Tomorrow, you will have no medicine. Tomorrow, you will have no pension.

The European governments and media also helped to spread the terror. They changed the question of the referendum from “yes or no on the austerity agreement” to “yes or no on the eurozone.”

They tried everything. And against all this, the people succeeded.

We have come a long way, but we have a very long way still to go. Our goal–socialism–is a long way off. This was the second victory in the battle, but the war is not over. We must continue the war. We have many problems in front of us, and we must work to overcome them.

How did we get to this point? The first victory came with the election of January 25, which created a huge disruption for the ruling class and its austerity program. They tried all through these months to reverse the result of the election. But today’s vote showed that the opposition was deep, and that people want to continue this fight.

What was the basis for these victories for SYRIZA? One was the party’s promise to stop austerity. But the leadership of SYRIZA said to the people that there would be an easy way to accomplish this. They said they would be able to stop austerity by negotiating with the lenders. They said that because the right’s program has reached a dead end and is destroying Greek society, we could make an agreement with the lenders that will be a win-win agreement–one where both sides will benefit.

But from the beginning, the Left Platform in SYRIZA said that this promise was false. From the beginning, we said there must be a hard challenge to the lenders.

In February, the leaders of the government made an agreement that was a serious mistake. They said that we would pay all the debt, and do so on time. And for this, the promise was that the lenders would release some funds for the bailout. But in the five months since then, nothing has gone to Greece. On the contrary, they have taken 17 billion euros from Greece–7 billion euros since the victory of SYRIZA in January.

And still, the leadership of SYRIZA retreated further and went back to the lenders with a proposal that was unacceptable to the people inside and outside the party that supported it. Their proposal accepted the privatizations, increased the value-added sales tax and so on.

The Red Network stated its disagreements with this proposal. We said openly and publicly that we would not vote for this kind of agreement, either in the Central Committee of the party or inside the parliament. We organized with other forces to make this statement at public meetings. And other forces of the Left Platform said the same thing, at least with respect to the vote in the Central Committee.

Tsipras was caught in the crossfire. On one side was the lenders, who want to smash this government in order to show Sinn Fein and Podemos and every other force of resistance in Europe that there is no alternative–that this is what happens if you challenge austerity.

But on the other side was the left of SYRIZA. We said we would not vote for this agreement, and Tsipras knew that the government would fall.

How will Tsipras act now that the referendum is over? His main line was that we needed a “no” vote so that he will have the democratic demand of our people to go back to negotiations in a stronger position. Our campaign for a “no” vote was different. In the unions, in the branches of SYRIZA, in the communities and everywhere, we said simply that a vote for “no” was a vote to stop austerity, to stop the privatizations, to stop the layoffs and to increase the wages of the people.

These are very different positions. And this is the problem we will face in the coming days. I can think of 20 scenarios of how this might play out, but the point is not to guess about them.

The important point is that the left is in a much stronger position going into the next steps of the struggle.

I want to finish on a personal note.

These have been disastrous times for people like us in Greece. They have cut salaries by 35 percent. The cost of taxes has increased by eight times–not by 8 percent, or 80 percent, but eight times. There are 1.5 million people who are unemployed, which is 30 percent of the working class. And in addition to that, there are 800,000 people who are working, but they haven’t been paid in weeks or months.

There is so much misery. But at the same time, I am happy. We are making history in Greece. We are living history now. These are chances that revolutionaries do not always get even in their whole lifetimes. And I have seen it twice in my life–once after we overthrew the dictatorship in Greece, and now we have a chance to overthrow austerity.

You are fighting in very difficult conditions here. We know that you are in the heart of the capitalist system, but you must know that at the same time, we fight for you and with you, and we have gained a great deal of support from your organization.

And so I will close with the words that have been chants in Greece: SYRIZA, Podemos, venceremos! Oxi, oxi, oxi!

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Antonis Davenellos

Dear comrades, we are living in a historic moment in Greece. As we write this message, we don’t know the result of the referendum. We don’t know whether we will suffer a major defeat or we will achieve a huge political victory, against mighty enemies.

As all the leaders of the European Union have said, the referendum in Greece is a choice between accepting and rejecting austerity policies. That is why the neoliberal leaderships all around Europe are weighing in decisively in favor of a “yes” vote.

They are openly blackmailing and threatening the population of Greece with economic strangulation. Their stated goal is to overthrow the government of SYRIZA, the first government in modern European history that is led by a party to the left of social democracy.

Inside the country, the referendum has created a clear class and political divide. On the side of the “yes” vote are the capitalists, the rich, the upper middle class that still has savings in the banks. Politically, they are supported by an alliance of the right wing, the social democrats and the “post-political” center-left Potami party. Most importantly, they are supported by the mass media and the constant blackmail of employers who are campaigning actively in favor of a “yes” vote.

On the side of the “no” vote are the workers, the popular classes, the poor. Politically, they are supported mostly by SYRIZA and–thank god–ANTARSYA, which had the courage to overcome sectarianism and take a clear stand in favor of a “no” vote.

The Communist Party, in this incredibly polarized situation, chose the road of abstentionism. They advocated a spoiled ballot, neither yes nor no! They are giving a better chance of victory to the worst enemies of our class. They will pay a price, both in elections and on the streets, in the years to come.

We state again that we don’t know whether we will win or lose. What we do know is that we fought, we are fighting, and we will continue to fight. That is why we believe that the left in Greece will remain strong and continue the struggle.

Many people, even among the international left, believed that SYRIZA was like a star falling from the sky in the middle of the night–that it would shine for a while before it disappeared forever. Underestimating the harsh difficulties we were facing, they preferred to provide us with predictions, rather than solidarity: SYRIZA will be a betrayer in the future, SYRIZA will be a betrayer right now, SYRIZA has already betrayed us. Together with thousands of activists of the left in Greece, we have proved them wrong.

Today, all around Europe, our class is facing a major assault, one of historic importance. This is what neoliberalism is about–a war unleashed by our enemies, a war that until now they are winning.

In Greece, the workers’ resistance escalated to such a point that it caused a political break. It gave rise to an anti-austerity party, SYRIZA and brought it to power in government.

We are aware that we are the “advanced guard” unit of the European left that has reached the enemy lines and is facing the ferocity of the enemy forces. As a unit that is leading the charge, it is possible that we might be defeated–that we might suffer major casualties. But we will have paved the way for our brothers and sisters who are coming after us–in Ireland, in Spain, in Portugal.

We will hold on as long as we can until the major battalions of our class arrive at the battlefield–the left in France and Italy. And then we shall win.

Forgive us for the warlike tone of this message. But this is how we are experiencing the situation in Greece right now. We are facing a merciless political and class war, and we are under heavy enemy fire.

We understood SYRIZA and related to it in this open way from the beginning, with our most important criterion being the escalation of class struggle and the political struggle. This never meant that we underestimated–or even worse, collaborated with–the retreats of SYRIZA’s leadership. We could easily provide you with a long list of persistent and difficult conflicts with the leadership of SYRIZA.

But for us, the important thing was that we had built the left wing of SYRIZA systematically and in an organized manner. This left can raise its voice on the front lines when it agrees with the party’s policy, but it can also prevent compromises and unacceptable retreats when it disagrees. Today, everyone, from Angela Merkel to the Greek mass media–knows that they cannot make plans for Greece without taking into account the strength of a genuinely radical left current inside SYRIZA.

This is why we are standing before you with pride, because we know that we have done our duty. And that is why our organization is stronger and healthier than ever.

Dear comrades, we know that you are fighting for the same goals we fight for, and in this struggle, you are facing the mightiest enemy on the planet. The best help you can give us is to keep up this struggle. With one additional goal: Defend and strengthen the International Socialist Organization. You are providing an example–as we do and as other comrades all over the planet do–that in the most different situations, the insistence on the building of revolutionary socialist organization is an indispensable part of the more general plan for the political victory of our class.

And in this struggle, you should know, dear comrades, that on the other side of the seas, in a small country called Greece, a large and active left will continue, under all circumstances, to fight for you, too.”

We Are The One’s We Have Been Waiting For

Issued By September National Imbizo

South Africa

9 July 2015

SEPTEMBER NATIONAL IMBIZO CELEBRATES THE 145TH ANNIVERSARY OF COMRADE VLADIMIR IIYICH LENIN’S BIRTH

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Black First Land First

The struggle of the glorious Socialist October Revolution of 1917, which overthrew Russian capitalism and landlordism was led by the Great Comrade Lenin who displayed outstanding leadership skills and qualities as a revolutionary leader of the working class and of the oppressed people in general.

Lenin was exemplary as a leader of the masses and to this end demonstrated his grasp of Marxism which included revolutionary strategy and tactics as well as the building of the mass movement in the development of the struggle. His leadership was characterised by his ability to meld theory with practice. Lenin maintained the liberating truth that there can be no revolutionary movement without revolutionary theory, and in this regard revolutionary theory delinked and in isolation from the organized mass struggle is to no revolutionary end.

As a tribute to Comrade Lenins 145th birthday, the September National Imbizo, is re-issuing an offering by Comrade Nadezhda Krupskaya (Lenin’s wife) “Reminiscences of Lenin”

On the Eve of the Uprising

On October 7 Ilyich moved to Petrograd from Vyborg. It was decided to keep his whereabouts a strict secret, and not even the members of the Central Committee were to know his address. He was put up at Marguerite Fofanova’s, in a big building on the corner of Lesnoi Prospekt, Vyborg District, tenanted almost exclusively by workers. It was a very convenient place, the family, including the servant, still being out in the country, where they had gone for the summer. Fofanova herself was an ardent Bolshevik, who ran all Ilyich’s errands for him. Three days later, on October 10, Ilyich attended a meeting of the Central Committee at Sukhanova’s apartment, where a resolution was adopted calling for an armed uprising. Ten members of the C.C. voted in favour of the resolution. They were Lenin, Sverdlov, Stalin, Dzerzhinsky, Trotsky, Uritsky, Kollontai, Bubnov, Sokolnikov, and Lomov. Zinoviev and Kamenev voted against it.

On October 15 a meeting of the Petrograd organization took place at Smolny (this in itself was significant). Delegates from the various districts were present, including eight from the Vyborg District. I remember Dzerzhinsky speaking in favour of an armed uprising, while Chudnovsky opposed it. The latter had been wounded at the front and his arm was in a sling. Deeply agitated, he argued that we would suffer inevitable defeat, that we should take our time about it. “Dying for the revolution is the easiest thing, but we shall only harm the cause of the revolution by letting ourselves be shot down,” he said. Chudnovsky, in fact, did die for the revolution, losing his life during the Civil War. He was no phrasemonger, but his view was absolutely wrong. I do not remember the other speeches. When it was put to the vote the resolution in favour of an immediate uprising was carried by an overwhelming majority. The Vyborg delegates voted for it in a body.

Next day, the 16th, an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee was held at the offices of the Lesnoi Prospekt Sub-District Council, which was attended also by members of the Executive of the Petrograd Committee, the military organization, the Petrograd Trade-Union Council of factory committees, the Petrograd Okrug Committee and representatives of the railwaymen. Two lines were discussed at this meeting – that of the majority, who stood for an immediate uprising, and that of the minority, who were against it. Lenin’s resolution was carried by an overwhelming majority of 19 votes, with 2 against and 4 abstentions. The question was decided. At a closed meeting of the Central Committee a Military Revolutionary Centre was elected.

Very few people were allowed to see Ilyich. The only ones who visited him were I, Maria Ilyinichna, and occasionally Rahja. I recall the following incident. Ilyich had sent Fofanova out on some errand; it was arranged in such cases that he was not to open the door to anyone or answer the bell. I was to knock at the door by a pre-arranged signal. Fofanova had a cousin, who attended some sort of military school. When I came that evening, I found the lad standing on the landing, his face a study. Seeing me, he said: “Someone’s got into Marguerite’s flat, you know.” “What d’you mean?” I said. “Well, I came and rang the bell, and a man’s voice answered me. Then I rang again and again, but no one answered any more.” I told him a tale about Marguerite having gone to a meeting that day, and that it must have been his imagination playing him tricks. I did not calm down myself until I had seen him get on a tram and ride off. I went back and knocked in the pre-arranged manner, and when Ilyich opened the door I began to scold him. “The boy might have raised an alarm,” I said. “I thought it was something urgent,” Ilyich pleaded in excuse. I was running his errands, too, all the time. On October 24 he wrote a letter to the Central Committee urging the necessity of seizing power that very day. He sent Marguerite with this letter, but, without waiting for her to come back, he put on his wig and went off to Smolny. Not a minute was to be lost.

The Vyborg District was preparing for the uprising. Fifty women workers sat all night in the council office, where a woman doctor gave them instructions in first aid. In the rooms of the District Committee they were busy arming the workers; group after group came up and received weapons. But there was no one to be put down in the Vyborg District; only a colonel and several cadets who had come to have some tea at a workers’ club were arrested. In the night Zhenya Yegorova and I went down to Smolny in a lorry to find out how things were going.

Long Live Comrade Lenin!
We Are The One’s We Have Been Waiting For
Issued by SNI
22 April 2015

EFF LEADERSHIP, STOP CORRUPTING FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES!

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Black First Land First

We the concerned members of this Revolutionary Movement, the Economic Freedom Fighters, demand that our leaders account to our people who voted for the EFF! We have seen the following patterns of misconduct with EFF mis-leader’s:

1. Constitution

The Constitution of the EFF is under attack from those who wish to use it as an instrument to fulfill their own selfish needs. At the NPA we watched in disbelief while our constitution was violated, when leaders did everything against our Constitution to elect the leaders they wanted in all positions from Top 6 to the CCT additional members, so they can hold our movement to ransom. The election of the top six as well as the additional members at the NPA was each a blatant act of voting according to the wishes of Malema. We witnessed how Malema’s will became the will of the people and in this regard how it was a case of election by a choir master. We watched too how the voting choices of Malema had his desired consequences. Those members that Malema did not raise his hand for did not make the threshold. It is clear to us that the reason for these underhanded irregularities is that Malema and Shivambu wanted to manipulate the results of the NPA so as to ensure that only loyalists to them were elected to the CCT.

2. Political line

The political line of the EFF is under liquidation. We see open attempts to appropriate Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Thomas Sankara and Chris Hani into bourgeois state power via Julius Malema and Floyd Shavambu in the name of EFF and to this end get our people to consent to an order of things destined to relegate the black liberation project to the periphery. This must be rejected! We cannot concede to our own demise. The politics of EFF (Marxism-Leninism-Fanonism) is against the containment of the liberation project within the anti black colonial project. We call on our members to be loyal to the political line of the EFF NOT to individuals.

3. Purges

Recently we witnessed how Fighters have been purged and expelled from the movement without any charges or proper procedures being followed. All Leaders and Fighters that question procedure in the EFF have been silenced. No one is above the constitution and the political line of the movement, not even Julius Malema. Any disciplinary action taken against any member in this fashion is unconstitutional and therefore a nullity.

4. Cardinal pillars

The non negotiable cardinal pillars of the movement are under attack! Cardinal pillar number 7 speaks of an “open, accountable, corrupt free government and society without fear of victimisation by the state agencies” yet inside the party we see how this pillar number 7 is being dragged through the mud by those who wish to use the EFF as a personal bank account. When informed by this pillar our members tried to hold our leader accountable, we were ridiculed, called names and our very lives were threatened. We see how our leaders have turned themselves into enemies of the people by their blatant disregard and disrespect of this 7th non negotiable pillar. They have used all sorts of threats to instill fear in those who dare to hold them to account! Those who raise their voices continue to be victimized and even silenced via the use of the movement’s resources.

5. Thuggery and hooliganism

Our movement has been turned into a militia gang where fighters are commanded and thugs are hired to physically assault members who disagree with the leadership. We have seen a lack of leadership from those we have given the responsibility to lead. They call upon members to use violence against those who dare to question them. Furthermore this call to violence by leadership is strongly made by leadership during official EFF meetings. No one at those meetings dares to question such backward and reactionary comments mostly for fear of their own safety! As a revolutionary movement our leaders see nothing wrong in promoting black on black violence as long it will ensure their looting of EFF funds continues uninterrupted.

6. Financial Mismanagement

The funds of the EFF have been used for personal things by some of our leaders. President Julius Malema and the Deputy Leader Floyd Shivambu have proclaimed that the EFF belongs to them. Overnight EFF has moved from a movement of the people to a private corporaton. Leadership of EFF have consistently ignored member’s questions concerning the financial affairs of EFF including the misuse of the movement’s credit card. Leadership simply doesn’t answer! Fighters have been constrained to now approach the courts to force leadership to be transparent with their management of party funds. Registering a vehicle in the name of EFF is not a problem! The fact that EFF bought a vehicle which was not registered in its name but was instead registered in the name of a company that has nothing to do with the EFF is scandalous and smacks of theft to say the very least.

7. Land

We have noticed how EFF which grounded it’s land policy on the expropriation of all land has reneged on that issue! It now encourage fighters to occupy “unoccupied” municipal land: we are concerned and convinced that this is a movement away from the radical land redistribution programme that made EFF different and rooted in radical revolutionary politics.The resolution of the land question has been corrupted! Since our NPA, EFF is no longer speaking about white monopoly capital but is now focussing on limited projects that openly avoids harming white interests. The programs for mining and land are now directed at black owned or controlled areas. The call for our people to occupy “unoccupied land” is an insult to the dignity and integrity of our people as it obviously only serves to send our people to go occupy municipality land so as to create more townships and shack settlements. This can’t be central to our struggle. We need to change the land ownership patterns in the country and land occupations is key for this. This can’t be done by building shacks. Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu and their loyalists post the NPA are not talking anymore about occupying land on farms obviously because its white owned land. What about the land claimants who have not got land restitution in last 20 years? Why are we as EFF not focussing on those land claimants? On mining we now targeting mines of blacks for occupations and blockading. The exploitative practices of black mine owners notwithstanding why are we not focussing on white mine owners who are the biggest and longest beneficiaries of wealth theft.

We say to Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu stop derailing the movement from its revolutionary path. The EFF is here to fulfill the mandate of our people who voted for it in the interests of the black majority!

Land or Death! Victory is certain!