Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald today interviewed Petros Tzomakas, a Greek far-left activist and member of Xekinima , which is the Greek division of the Committee for a Workers' International . The party is a member of Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). Tzomakas also sits on his local 5th Athens Municipal District committee, which is a joint effort by left-wing parties including SYRIZA, the Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow and a number of other political parties to oppose austerity measures proposed by the government. All left-wing parties in the country except the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) are involved. Tzomakas explained that the KKE prefers not to co-operate with other radical left-wing groups. Has slavish pursuit of free-market capitalism been the cause of Europe, and particularly Greece's, economic woes? How, given the Soviet collapse , and China being communist in name only, would your vision of a communist system have been better for the majority of citizens? Petros then gave some statistics on Greek defence expenditure. He stated that Greece is the 5THin the world in such expenditure; but, has only the 28TH-highest GDP combined with the 73RD highest population count. Picking up on your comments about defense expenditure: Is that expenditure a result of a perceived threat from Turkey, and if so, is this really an issue or a creation of a problem where there isn’t one? It is an artificial thing created by [the] government[s]. Of course these things can escalate; both Greece and Turkey have a policy of arms buildup. We recently had the sledgehammer controversy in Turkey where they planned to create incidents within Greece in an effort to seize power. I have heard that people in Greece are upset that the euro has weakened Greece’s economic position, as the Drachma ’s low value actually encouraged spending by foreigners. What steps would a socialist government take to encourage new spending in Greece by both foreign tourists and investors? Also especially in Greece, the term "communist" is used by many in the left, it's almost a synonym. The majority of the left would strongly disagree with a one-party model. The Stalinist leaderships - what erroneously most people call "communists" - would probably desire such a system, but no-one would advocate such a demand today. The only political forces that everyone in the left agrees should be banned are those of the ultra-right, with racist and fascist agendas, and this because they stand against the principles of democracy in any case... As we can see however throughout Europe and in history the capitalist system needs such "allies" especially in times of crisis. In Greece for instance the ultra-right populist La.O.S [ Popular Orthodox Rally ] party has proven itself an invaluable ally of PaSoK [Panhellenic Socialist Movement] in supporting the most vicious anti-labour measures, suppression of workers' rights, even a "no-questions-asked" policy of currency depositing that would favor money-laundering for illegal trades such as narcotics or human trafficking. In the mean time it tries to put the blame for the crisis caused by the financial system on scapegoats such as the immigrant and refugee populations. Unfortunately the un-democratic Stalinist traditions and practices of the KKE are deeply-rooted in the Greek CP [Communist party] - one has only to read the analysis of their last congress to see this. Therefore the KKE cannot stand in coalitions as an equal to other opinions. The current leadership of the KKE not only refuses to collaborate with the rest of the left but treats it as a class enemy, on the pretext that Synaspismos (the largest faction in the SYRIZA coalition) voted for the " Maastricht Treaty ". This became more obvious during the December 2008 uprising where it denounced the youth as "agent provocateurs that seak to destabilize the country manipulating the masses to violence" and that SyRizA was "harboring vandals and criminal elements", earning shameful congratulations from the government and the far-right. Also the KKE through its union front P.A.ME. refuses to collaborate with other unions in industrial action except general strikes, and then always with separate demonstrations and rallies. This behaviour however has not gone unnoticed by the rank-and-file members, and there is sizable discontent with this hardline approach. The only thing that holds them is traditional strict party discipline and the occasional weaknesses of SyRIzA in terms of less militant, and more reformist positions projected by Synaspismos. In both cases, we expect to see developments that will answer to the indeed-confused public that does not give mass support to the left mostly because of disappointment over sectarianism, lack of militancy and larger demands rather than disagreement on principles.
Wikinews reporter Iain Macdonald today interviewed Petros Tzomakas, a Greek far-left activist and member of , which is the Greek division of the . The party is a member of (SYRIZA). Tzomakas also sits on his local 5th Athens Municipal District committee, which is a joint effort by left-wing parties including SYRIZA, the and a number of other political parties to oppose austerity measures proposed by the government. All left-wing parties in the country except the (KKE) are involved. Tzomakas explained that the KKE prefers not to co-operate with other radical left-wing groups. Has slavish pursuit of free-market capitalism been the cause of Europe, and particularly Greece's, economic woes? How, given the , and China being communist in name only, would your vision of a communist system have been better for the majority of citizens? Petros then gave some statistics on Greek defence expenditure. He stated that Greece is the 5THin the world in such expenditure; but, has only the 28TH-highest combined with the 73RD highest population count. Picking up on your comments about defense expenditure: Is that expenditure a result of a from Turkey, and if so, is this really an issue or a creation of a problem where there isn’t one? It is an artificial thing created by [the] government[s]. Of course these things can escalate; both Greece and Turkey have a policy of arms buildup. We recently had the in Turkey where they planned to create incidents within Greece in an effort to seize power. I have heard that people in Greece are upset that the euro has weakened Greece’s economic position, as the ’s low value actually encouraged spending by foreigners. What steps would a socialist government take to encourage new spending in Greece by both foreign tourists and investors? Also especially in Greece, the term "communist" is used by many in the left, it's almost a synonym. The majority of the left would strongly disagree with a one-party model. The leaderships - what erroneously most people call "communists" - would probably desire such a system, but no-one would advocate such a demand today. The only political forces that everyone in the left agrees should be banned are those of the ultra-right, with racist and fascist agendas, and this because they stand against the principles of democracy in any case... As we can see however throughout Europe and in history the capitalist system needs such "allies" especially in times of crisis. In Greece for instance the ultra-right populist La.O.S [ ] party has proven itself an invaluable ally of PaSoK [Panhellenic Socialist Movement] in supporting the most vicious anti-labour measures, suppression of workers' rights, even a "no-questions-asked" policy of currency depositing that would favor money-laundering for illegal trades such as narcotics or human trafficking. In the mean time it tries to put the blame for the crisis caused by the financial system on scapegoats such as the immigrant and refugee populations. Unfortunately the un-democratic Stalinist traditions and practices of the KKE are deeply-rooted in the Greek CP [Communist party] - one has only to read the analysis of their last congress to see this. Therefore the KKE cannot stand in coalitions as an equal to other opinions. The current leadership of the KKE not only refuses to collaborate with the rest of the left but treats it as a class enemy, on the pretext that (the largest faction in the SYRIZA coalition) voted for the " ". This became more obvious during the December 2008 uprising where it denounced the youth as "agent provocateurs that seak to destabilize the country manipulating the masses to violence" and that SyRizA was "harboring vandals and criminal elements", earning shameful congratulations from the government and the far-right. Also the KKE through its union front P.A.ME. refuses to collaborate with other unions in industrial action except general strikes, and then always with separate demonstrations and rallies. This behaviour however has not gone unnoticed by the rank-and-file members, and there is sizable discontent with this hardline approach. The only thing that holds them is traditional strict party discipline and the occasional weaknesses of SyRIzA in terms of less militant, and more reformist positions projected by Synaspismos. In both cases, we expect to see developments that will answer to the indeed-confused public that does not give mass support to the left mostly because of disappointment over sectarianism, lack of militancy and larger demands rather than disagreement on principles.
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Xekinima
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Committee for a Workers' International
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Coalition of the Radical Left
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Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow
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Communist Party of Greece
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Soviet collapse
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GDP
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perceived threat
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sledgehammer controversy
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Drachma
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Stalinist
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Popular Orthodox Rally
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Synaspismos
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Maastricht Treaty