Greek elections

[J Ed]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...europe-including-isis-jihadists-10097432.html

Mr Kammenos said: “If they deal a blow to Greece, then they should know the the migrants will get papers to go to Berlin.”

“If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and it will be even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadists of the Islamic State too.

Mr Kammenos, who is also the leader of Syriza’s minor coalition partners Independent Greeks, specifically referred to the Schengen area of free travel in his threat, and said his country would give all comers papers so they “could go straight to Berlin”.

Hah! This is genius, hilarious that it takes a right-winger to understand what sort of German prejudices to play on perfectly here.

 

[phildwyer]

I wasn't dismissing your point I was taking a punt at why Syriza is reacting the way it has.

And are they definitely not mobilising their support?

Their erstwhile supporters are demonstrating against them already.

Syriza are just waiting for Podemos.

 

[brogdale]

Syriza are just waiting for Podemos.

Interesting that 'polling peak Podemos' coincided with the Greek election campaign and that since Syriza's coalition assumed power their support in national polling appears to have waned slightly. Obviously the pro-austerity parties of neo-liberal capital will seek to present Syriza's impotence and Greece's economic chaos as a warning to the elctorate.

 

[phildwyer]

Interesting that 'polling peak Podemos' coincided with the Greek election campaign and that since Syriza's coalition assumed power their support in national polling appears to have waned slightly. Obviously the pro-austerity parties of neo-liberal capital will seek to present Syriza's impotence and Greece's economic chaos as a warning to the elctorate.

Which is why they shouldn't hang around. Let the troika do its worst, just get a move on or this window of opportunity will slam shut for good. Expropriate now or fail forever.

 

[brogdale]

Which is why they shouldn't hang around. Let the troika do its worst, just get a move on or this window of opportunity will slam shut for good.

Syriza appear to be most intent on buying time and stalling.

 

[phildwyer]

Syriza appear to be most intent on buying time and stalling.

What a bloody waste if so. Still too soon to be sure though...

 

[phildwyer]

It's not like anti-capitalism gets many chances. The least they could do is take one when it finally comes around.

What's Greek for "carpe diem?"

 

[newbie]

Their erstwhile supporters are demonstrating against them already.

are they? what about, the troika, grexit, domestic social issues, something else?

 

[butchersapron]

A short piece from Antonis Davanellos, a Syriza CC member and left platformer:

Greece: the road forward for Syriza

The task of preventing a further retreat also lies with the left outside SYRIZA, which still has considerable strength in Greece. It can challenge the government by putting forward demands on wages, retirement pensions, education and health care, but also by showing in practice that there is another option for dealing with the lenders other than capitulation. This political relationship with the “other left” – the only viable and principled political alliance for SYRIZA in today’s circumstances – must be systematically and consciously encouraged by SYRIZA.

 

[phildwyer]

are they? what about, the troika, grexit, domestic social issues, something else?

About their supposed capitulation to the troika.

 

[newbie]

ta. I was wondering whether there were already people on the streets "putting forward demands on wages, retirement pensions, education and health care".

 

[Patteran]

Does anyone have any info abut how (or not) Syriza are opening up or encouraging wider social participation in their aims/plans/organising?

Wide ranging Lapavitsas interview in Jacobin magazine, includes at least (or at most?) a nod to the extra-parliamentary collective activity that you were asking about.

What we’re talking about is public and collective solutions. Yes indeed we need the commons. Yes indeed we need activity from below. Yes indeed we need contributions and actions by the communities. But first we’ve got to sort the macro questions out, sort the state questions out. Unfortunately communities cannot do it at that level.

 

[butchersapron]

Wide ranging Lapavitsas interview in Jacobin magazine, includes at least (or at most?) a nod to the extra-parliamentary collective activity that you were asking about.

Thank you - i have an hours train journey in a bit, that's perfect. The other week he was saying that it had to be collective mobilisation that changed the centre of gravity - things looking tougher now.

I think something like a collective of people prepared to do greek translations might be useful here - beyond google news type stuff, proper bottom up stuff.The greek people i knew and who had roots in that stuff seem to have dissapeared since jan.

 

[J Ed]

Thank you - i have an hours train journey in a bit, that's perfect. The other week he was saying that it had to be collective mobilisation that changed the centre of gravity - things looking tougher now.

I think something like a collective of people prepared to do greek translations might be useful here - beyond google news type stuff, proper bottom up stuff.The greek people i knew and who had roots in that stuff seem to have dissapeared since jan.

Yes, throughout this I feel like we must be missing out on a lot because we are reliant on Anglophone media.

 

[phildwyer]

It's a bit dated now, but since people have been asking about the demonstrations against Syriza's go-slow policy, here's a representative report. One imagines we'll be seeing lots more of this in the near future:

http://www.businessinsider.com/greeces-far-left-is-already-rioting-protesting-against-syriza-2015-2

 

[newbie]

thanks Phil. It's a shame Dimitris doesn't seem to post any more.

 

[Idris2002]

Pro-EU liberals don't like Syriza, in fact that they think that the Tsipras lad is the next Slobodan Milosevic (no, really):

https://opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/manos-matsaganis/trouble-with-syriza

 

[Coolfonz]

Apologies if this has been posted before: some interesting stuff about the negotiations, albeit from a friend of Varoufakis.

And when you are getting props from Fortune magazine, you know that...er...Fortune really despise the EU.

http://fortune.com/2015/02/20/greece-germany-yanis-varoufakis/

 

[brogdale]

So Tsipras is in the belly of the Merkiavellian beast, and coinciding with his visit Draghi's presser offers up a new term for us...

 

[brogdale]

...and Tsipras publicly asked Merk for the war reparations....

Greece’s leftwing prime minister Alexis Tsipras stood beside German leader Angela Merkel and demanded war reparations over Nazi atrocities in Greece on Monday night...

It was believed to be the first time a foreign leader had gone to the capital of the reunified Germany to make such a demand. Merkel was uncompromising, while appearing uncomfortable and irritated. “In the view of the German government, the issue of reparations is politically and legally closed,” she said.

 

[brogdale]

Presumably the Eye's next cover?

Caption heaven....

 

[butchersapron]

Stathis Kouvelakis in Jacobin again:

Time Isn’t on Our Side - For Syriza, there is an alternative to “strategic retreat.”

Makes the case for negotiated exit and suggest would need popular endorsement though referendum and the grounds are being laid as weapon almost to break any potential 'impasse'. Poll at start of this week has Syriza up on 49% support.

 

[newbie]

Grexit without a referendum is unthinkable while the Euro remains more popular than the government.

losing it would leave Syriza in tatters but it does seem their arguments are shifting opinion

March 15 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Greeks with a positive view of the euro dropped more than 10 percentage points in March from a month earlier, an opinion poll showed, as austerity measures contributed to a sixth year of recession.

Nearly six out of 10 Greeks, or 59 percent, were supportive of the single currency, down from 70 percent the month before, according to a poll conducted between March 8 and March 12 by Public Issue SA for Skai TV.

 

[brogdale]

Varoufakis tweeting to deny his own resignation....



Hmmm...

 

[Patteran]

'A ‘light party’ that interprets society instead of trying to transform it'. Some background & context of Syriza's history, structure & approach in the latest London Review of Books by Alexander Clapp, a US journalist/academic who works for Greek daily Kathimerini.

 

[butchersapron]

Sorry just to pile texts on for now - i've seen very little from the anti-state communists around this issue - a piece from TPTG from the days after the election has just been translated and is well worth a look - despite being a month old - for a number of reasons.

An update from TPTG:

60 days older and deeper in debt

 

[Diamond]

An update from TPTG:

60 days older and deeper in debt

Wow. I could only manage a paragraph.

Matrix, eurozone crisis, "capitalisme ou barbarie" - that's someone who needs an editor.

Absolutely incomprehensible pseudo-analytical crap.

 

[brogdale]

Wow. I could only manage a paragraph.

Matrix, eurozone crisis, "capitalisme ou barbarie" - that's someone who needs an editor.

Absolutely incomprehensible pseudo-analytical crap.

If you read the other 25 or so paragraphs you might be in a position to make some comment about the content.

 

[Diamond]

If you read the other 25 or so paragraphs you might be in a position to make some comment about the content.

That's correct but I choose not to because it fragments into incoherent blather within a hundred or so words.

Perhaps you can summarise them for me if you would be so kind?

 

[coley]

An update from TPTG:

60 days older and deeper in debt

I owe my soul to the company store
Sorry