iron cage of the memoranda<\/a>, the crisis demands a comprehensive program of its own.<\/p>\nThe obvious basis for such a program is to support and protect public services and common goods, public health, education, and care. Universal vaccination should be the primary weapon within a comprehensive protection plan, but neither conceded to capitalist governments and businesses nor isolated as the sole, self-sufficient solution. The fight for public health also needs to be combined with a defense of civil liberties and a rejection of the use of the pandemic as an excuse for reinforcing state authoritarianism.<\/p>\n
There is an urgent need for a social policy in favor of the weaker parts of the society, based on the taxation of wealth, the protection of labor, the reduction of working time, a guaranteed income, the right to housing, and similar. A broader restructuring of the economy also demands breaking from Greece\u2019s destructive dependence on tourism and the neoliberal obsession with privatizations and foreign investments. Finally, restoration of burned land, support for those affected by the disaster and protection of the environment are vitally important.<\/p>\n
Such demands have constantly emerged in recent struggles \u2014 and were discussed extensively this summer. But the debate needs to go further, and it needs to engage with vision of a radically different future based on modern socialist and communist, but also ecological and feminist, principles.<\/p>\n\n \n \n
\n Many Lefts, No Alternative<\/h2>\n \n But even the best program doesn\u2019t provide the impulse for an alternative. For the fundamental condition for this lies in the political forces of the Left and movements\u2019 own collective structures.<\/p>\n
Here is where the greatest difficulty lies, as the contradictory experience of the past decade has produced multiple effects. For some left-wingers within or around Syriza, the party’s experience in government has brought a clear shift toward a search for more “realistic” solutions; a change which has continued even after the Right\u2019s return to power, and as Alexis Tsipras seeks to mount a more “institutional” opposition. Meanwhile, for the parties and organizations of the radical left, defeat has produced a sense of impotence in changing Greece\u2019s course, or even inspiring and organizing large-scale social resistance.<\/p>\n
Despite Syriza\u2019s transformation \u2014 and its declared intention to move toward a social-democratic center-left \u2014 it does remain the main opposition party and a reference for many people on the Left. It upholds an anti-government discourse and articulates social demands, but it is neither able nor willing to lead a social struggle aiming to overturn the framework of EU directives and austerity measures. For this reason, it clearly will not be able to reiterate the role it played during the 2010\u201315 anti-austerity mobilizations.<\/p>\n
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) remains, by current standards, a mass party. As it did not participate substantially in the 2011 squares movement, the 2015 referendum battle, and, naturally, the Syriza government, it seems to have increased its credibility and organizational strength. It is the most consistent political force in the labor movement but its overall political attitude remains passive, closing down the possibility of leading a new social unrest aiming to shake the political landscape.<\/p>\n
In 2019, MeRA25 and its leader Yanis Varoufakis scored just over the 3 percent threshold for parliamentary representation, partly \u201cfilling the gap\u201d on the left of Syriza. MeRA25 holds on to the radical legacy of 2015 and a desire to express new radical social demands in the economy and environmental and gender issues. Nonetheless, its leader-centric structure and lack of any significant connection to social movements severely limits its potential role in rebuilding the Greek left.<\/p>\n
Finally, while Greece\u2019s numerous far-left organizations continue to have a grassroots presence, especially within the youth movement, overall they are still in a state of fragmentation and stagnation, despite some recent attempts to rebuild the radical left.<\/p>\n
Yet while there are plenty of left-wing forces both inside and outside of parliament, there is a void in terms of building an alternative. Instead, left-oriented people are increasingly taking their distance from the organized left, alienated by its fragmentation and disappointed by Syriza\u2019s experience in government.<\/p>\nEven the best program doesn\u2019t provide the impulse for an alternative. For the fundamental condition for this lies in the political forces of the Left and movements\u2019 own collective structures.<\/q><\/aside>\nIn this sense, the main problem today is not the lack of anti-governmental or even anti-capitalist criticism but the severe weakening of movements and political organizations. Their leaders rarely address the issue \u2014 which would necessarily mean discussing their own mistakes and shortcomings \u2014 and activists follow developments at a distance, sometimes participating in specific actions while also frequently turning to the private sphere.<\/p>\n
Such attitudes cannot fill the void of theoretical dialogue and effective action. Only the collective pursuit of a response and a new radical project, based on grassroots organization and interventions relevant to the issues of everyday life, can provide viable answers.<\/p>\n
Yet while the dominant forces are seeking to reaffirm the dogma of TINA \u2014 \u201cThere Is No Alternative\u201d \u2014 the situation is not entirely without hope. Although weakened, the Left remains a relatively mass, electorally influential force. Social movements are lively and new mobilizations are always emerging. New generations are approaching the Left and communist ideas in significant numbers. But what remains crucially missing is the belief that struggles can bring actual political change.<\/p>\n
The devastating consequences of the “left government” as represented by Syriza between 2015 and 2019 are still being felt. This experience has generated fatigue, frustration, and, often, aggressive attitudes within the Left, especially among the older generations. But the experience of the previous decade is also more complex than this. People have also learned that popular struggles can turn the political scene upside down. If this happened once but stopped midway, why could it not happen again, in a more radical way?<\/p>\n
A new coherent effort to reconstruct the movement and the radical left may find fertile ground, especially among younger activists. What is needed today is a unifying and militant effort of this kind. After an endless summer, the winter may not be as dark as we fear.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n
\n \n\n\nThis post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCrystal-clear waters, constant sunshine, explosive local flavors and sublime sunsets\u201d: so promised the \u201cEndless Greek Summer,\u201d Greece\u2019s official 2020 campaign to promote tourism. A year and an environmental disaster later, everyone is asking where this summer went \u2014 and who actually enjoyed it. According to a poll for the \u0399nstitute of Retail Consumer Goods (IELKA), [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345920"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346137,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345920\/revisions\/346137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}