Videos and Photos from Greece

The videos and photographs below are from Monthly Review, which has compiled a good swag of resources on the insurgency.

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Greece: the struggle continues

by Panos Garganas (Socialist Worker, December 15, 2008)

The anger that exploded in Greece following the police killing of 15 year old Alexandros Grigoropoulos is still raging.

Workers’ strikes, student occupations, walkouts by school students, mass demonstrations and clashes with the police are intensifying the pressure on the right wing New Democracy government.

The shooting of Alexandros on Saturday 6 December has become a focus for all the discontent in Greek society – over job cuts, low wages and lack of opportunities.

Instead of dying down, as the government had hoped, the revolt has instead taken on a more organised form.

Teachers struck on Tuesday of last week over the killing, as Alexandros’s funeral took place. Thousands of school students also demonstrated.

A general strike of workers over the government’s austerity budget plans shook the country the following day.

Trade union leaders cancelled a march that was to take place in the centre of Athens and held a rally instead. But the Anti-Capitalist Left coalition went ahead with the march.

And it was massive – with several thousand joining it. The march reinforced the feeling that it is possible to act and to demonstrate – and that we will not let the police teargas us off the streets.

Many students refused to go to school the next day. They marched to the local police stations and attacked them.

When the police fought back, local people intervened on the side of the students to help chase the police away.

A coordinating meeting of university students has called for a day of action and national demonstration on Thursday of this week. It also urged the unions to call a new strike.

Hospital workers are already planning to strike on that day against cuts and privatisation, and the teachers’ union is also expected to join the action.

The Greek TUC has called a demonstration outside parliament for Friday of this week, as that is the day of the budget debate.

The following day there will be an anti-racist demonstration against recent attacks on Pakistani immigrants.

While things may calm down over the Christmas period as schools and universities are closed, there are signs that the movement will re-emerge in the new year.

There is already a day of action planned for 12 January, when teachers will commemorate a colleague killed by right wing thugs during a wave of industrial action in 1991. The day will also now be used to remember Alexandros.

The revolt has intensified the government’s crisis. Its support is plummeting, with polls showing it trailing the centre left Pasok by 5 to 7 percent.

But the parliamentary left is in disarray. The Anti-Capitalist Left has argued that the riots should turn into an organised movement that could then overthrow the government.

The first part of this has happened. Now many people are pushing for the second part to take place.

There is a massive feeling in society that the government must go. So there is a big opportunity for the radical left—and we are trying our best to grasp it.

The solidarity protests across the world have shown us that we are not alone. People around the world should continue to stand with the uprising in Greece.

Greece: Left prospects in the post-PASOK era

By Michalis Spourdalakis

In the last few years, the political alignments in the European Union (EU) countries have changed drastically. In the 1990s, social-democratic parties and centre-left political forces were dominant. Under the banners of “progressive governance” or “modernisation” these parties ruled numerous countries and dominated the political scene on the continent.

Today, it is no secret that after long years in government, these political forces, what some like to call the “governmental left” are, to say the least, in retreat. It is indeed no secret that social democracy is in deep crisis: the recent congress of the French Socialists proved that this party is going through a period of self-questioning over the issue of its leadership, but also that it had nothing new to offer or, as a conservative daily commented, it appears as if “it does not think any more”.

In Germany the situation is even worse as the social-democratic party, the SPD, is displaying an unprecedented obsession over the personalities of its leadership. In the UK, George Brown and his Labour Party resemble more and more John Major’s Conservatives just before their devastating defeat in 1997. In Italy, after its defeat by the right-wing Forza Italia of Silvio Berlusconi, the Democratic Party has turned into a real Babel, which has completely paralysed its capacity to oppose the government’s often reactionary policies.

This trend, with the possible exemption of Spain under the prime ministership of Jose Zapatero of the Socialist Party, is clear and the conclusion rather obvious. The “third way” of the “governmental left” has led to a turn to the right. The rejection of the so-called European Constitution in the French and the Dutch referendums in 2005, and even the recent Irish rejection of the latest version of the new neoliberal EU Constitutional Treaty (Lisbon Treaty), did not slow down the deepening of social-democratic crisis. In fact, the gap created by the decay of the reformist left has brought to the fore the need to resist right-wing policies and hegemony. This has energised once dormant attempts to mobilise the radical left and has generated initiatives towards the mobilisation of those political forces on the left that do not subscribe to the conformism of “new social democracy”. Die Linke in Germany and the Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc) in Portugal seem to be the most prominent and successful examples of the rising new left forces on the European scene.

Situation in Greece

The situation in Greece is no exception to this pattern. In fact, as recent developments have shown, the “Greek case” could provide a good example for the direction of the left and leftists where the local social democratic, centre-left, or labour parties are incapable of resisting right wing aggression and have definitely abandoned any intention of or even promise for the structural transformation of the society.

Indeed, PASOK (the Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement) dominated the Greek political scene for 11 consecutive years, most of it under the banner of aggressive “modernisation”. It was then followed by two consecutive victories of the right-wing New Democracy (ND) party. But today, with its modest but hopeful performance in last year’s election (5%), the radical independent left, under the name the Coalition of Radical Left -- SYRIZA, is expected to at least double its electoral support in the next election. The sudden explosion of the influence of the left in Greece becomes even a greater surprise when one considers that the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) commands 8 per cent of the popular vote. What has happened? Under what conditions is the radical left in Greece about to make a major breakthrough? Before we look at these questions, let us briefly turn to the developments of the Greek left after the fall of the Junta (1974).

Charting the Greek left

1974 was the turning point not only for the Greek left but also for the overall politics of the country. After some three decades of a restricted democratic regime and a seven-year dictatorship, a genuine transition to democracy was inaugurated. This gave the left, in both its social-democratic and communist form, a chance to develop freely. Thus, on the one hand, Greece had the creation of the Pan-hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and, on the other, the legalisation of the parties of communist origin and orientation.

PASOK’s “socialism”, a mixture of populist radicalism and Keynesian reformism, was far from a class-based politics, without at the same time excluding those who subscribed to the latter. In the context of the post-dictatorship radical environment, PASOK, thanks also to its charismatic leader Andreas Papandreou, gave the impression that it was not only further to the left than its European counterparts but even more radical than the country’s communists. In the 1980s, PASOK came to power and were nothing more than a typical example of mainstream social democracy at the time. This reformism was enough, however, to co-opt a large segment of the traditional left’s social base. After a short interlude away from government, PASOK regained power in 1993, but the new PASOK –- especially after 1996, under the leadership of K. Simitis, a firm proponent of modernisation –- bore no resemblance to its radical foundation. The new PASOK, which dominated the country’s politics until its defeat in 2004, was very close to the politics of Tony Blair’s New Labour and in tune with the new governmentalist European social democracy.

On the other side of the left spectrum, the KKE, even after the collapse of the regimes of Soviet-inspired communism, is a typical party of the Third International tradition. It is the heir to the ``glorious party'' that led the resistance during the Second World War and was defeated during the civil war that followed. During the Junta years it underwent a major crisis and split into the KKE and the KKE-Interior (1968). The former dominated communist politics and the latter developed as a Eurocommunist party. In 1988, the two parties of the communist left and a number of other independent socialists formed Synaspismos (the Coalition of the Left and Progress -– SYN). Three years later the KKE left SYN, which in effect led to another split of the KKE since almost half of is central committee and thousands of its members remained in SYN. The KKE maintains a strong stand against the EU and its discourse is often simplistic and anthropomorphic. To the KKE, all other parties, including SYN, are the same since they all promote capitalism and reproduce the system, which provides it with the excuse to rule out any possibility for co-operation and legitimises its segregationist strategy, even in the trade union movement. At the same time, as the problems of the economy and in the Balkans mounted, the KKE’s anti-imperialist stand often gets sidetracked into populist xenophobia and nationalism.\

SYRIZA

In 2000, at the height of PASOK’s modernising project, a number of small leftist extra-parliamentary organisations, groups and networks as well as a number of independent activists formed the Coalition of Radical Left -- SYRIZA. The coalition was an initiative of SYN, which was struggling to meet the threshold of 3 per cent required to enter the parliament. As could have been expected, SYN became the backbone of SYRIZA. In 2004, a former member of KKE and a European MEP (member of the European Parliament) for many years, Alekos Alavanos, took over the leadership of SYN and crafted a strategy to strengthen SYRIZA. SYRIZA would have to become the unifying agency of the entire left –- a presence so strong that it would no longer feel squeezed between the PASOK’s conformist governmentalism and KKE dogmatism. Support for this project had to come from the labour and social movements that the new leadership actively tried to strengthen by forming ties with them. The strategy was founded on the principle of “empowering the powerless”. It evolved through giving increased opportunities for positions to the party’s young members, something rather unusual for the communist origin left.

The much criticised choice of Alexis Tsipras, then a 32-year-old engineer, to stand as the party’s candidate for mayor in Athens in the fall of 2006 municipal elections is a very good example of SYN’s new spirit. The success of this initiative (Tsipras won an unprecedented 10.5 per cent of the popular vote) strengthened and stabilised the party’s new strategy. However, the real political impact of this strategy was demonstrated during the 2006-7 mobilisation of students against the constitutional amendment that would allow the establishment of universities by the private sector. SYN was pivotal in changing public opinion to such an extent that PASOK was forced to change its position on the issue, a development that annulled the Government’s efforts on the issue.

More importantly, SYN’s strategy on this and other issues seems to be breaking away from instrumentalism vis-à-vis the power structure, as was traditionally denoted by the strategy and the tactics of the left. This was an instrumentalism that revealed a formalistic perception of political power expressed either when the left-wing movements and parties are completely preoccupied with their presence in public office; or when they separate their mobilisation initiatives from the societal base through the functioning of the state institutions. By mid-2007, it was becoming clear that SYN, along with its front organisation SYRIZA, was much more confident about the outcome of the upcoming elections.

The result of the 2007 September election was not a surprise. SYRIZA won 5 per cent of the popular vote and 14 seats in the 300-seat parliament, and the KKE an impressive 8.1 per cent and 22 seats. PASOK experienced its second consecutive defeat by a further loss of 2.5 percentage points and started to display signs of fatigue and a political inability to mobilise effectively. The slim parliamentary majority (by only two seats) of New Democracy and the entrance of an ultra-right party into the parliament, in combination with the leadership crisis of PASOK, elevated SYRIZA to the prime opposition force to the government. In February 2008, SYN held its fifth congress, where Tsipras was elected as party leader. He thus replaced Alavanos, who remains however the leader of the SYRIZA. Since the election, SYRIZA has displayed a steady increase in its popularity. In fact for more than half a year, all the public opinion polls show that the party has more than doubled its popular support.

Conditions ripe for hope on the left

Clearly the developments noted above cannot be taken as proof of a turn of Greek society to the left. This is not simply due to the pessimism of left intellectuals. It is because the turning of a society to the left is a rather complicated process that cannot simply be detected through conjunctural electoral gains. It has more to do with the change in the balance of social powers and radical changes in the society’s values to such an extent that realistically result in the building of counter hegemonic structures.

However, although it is obvious that the dynamic of SYRIZA on the Greek political scene does not prove we are witnessing a general turn of the society leftwards, at the same time it is more than clear that the Greek left has drawn upon certain important social developments that characterise advanced capitalist societies. These developments have created a conducive environment for the Greek radical left to make a major breakthrough and to reshape the balance of power in the country. This will be so as long as its leadership and its political organisations continue to see these as new openings, and insist on capitalising on them in a creative fashion as they have done in the last couple of years.

This is not the place to elaborate extensively on the overall developments that have facilitated the prospects of the Greek left wing making advances a realistic and even short-term goal. However it is worth highlighting three wider European developments.

First, the impact of various applications of the strategy of neoliberalism for the restructuring capitalism in the last three decades has radically shaken the long lasting belief that the young generations could realistically hope to have a better and more prosperous life than their parents. The years of security and of improved real incomes seems to belong to the past. Even Eurobureaucrats and the political elites openly admit that the maximum the EU countries can hope for is to introduce policies in order to manage the social issues in a way that there are not going to result in major social shake-ups. The debate on “flexicurity” across Europe is a good case in point.

Second, the frequent alternation in power between right-wing, conservative or Christian-democratic and reformist social-democratic parties in power in the European countries has generated a political cynicism that has forced large numbers of citizens to seek their political representation elsewhere. The mobilisations around the European Social Forum and other campaigns and movements, which were not so much part of the political tradition of Europe as they were part of the tradition in North America, are good examples.

Third, the combination of the above two developments, along with the liberating effect of the collapse of the “actually existing socialism” and the end of the “Cold War” has widened the audience for the radical left.

In addition to this situation, which seems to be more or less common to most EU countries, the Greek case displays several additional traits that have had a positive impact on the left’s recent positive dynamic.

Opposition to `reforms'

First, for the last five years, the right-wing government has introduced a number of what it calls “reforms” that have generated tremendous social reactions. These “reforms” are justified as necessary in order to deal with PASOK’s governmental errors. But they have resulted in policies whose origin and philosophy can in fact easily be attributed to the PASOK modernisers. This strategy is part of the government’s tactics of “blaming everything on PASOK”. Along with PASOK’s internal rivalries over its leadership, the parliamentary scene gives wide space for SYRIZA’s intention to express social discontent -– it is a realistic and viable project. Indeed, SYRIZA was the only political force to challenge the government’s incomes policies and bring to the fore the issue of what it calls the “700 Euro generation” (the ``G700'' generation of young Greeks between ages 25 and 35 who make 700 euro a month and are overworked, underpaid, debt ridden and insecure) to play a key role to hamper the government plans to privatise universities and to mobilise against the reforms in country’s pension plans system. On all these issues, SYRIZA’s political action was innovative. It adopted a fresh discourse which, although remaining within its overall strategy for the unity of country’s left, managed to demarcate itself from PASOK without at the same time sliding into the alienating simplistic logic of KKE that wants to equate PASOK with the ND.

Second, although part of PASOK’s defeat can be attributed to widespread phenomena of corruption during its terms in government, it did not take long for the ND government to elevate corruption and the mismanagement of public funds to a real art. This phenomenon further contributed to an extensive disenchantment with the two government parties of the country or with what it called “system of bipartism”. As this disenchantment has also been expressed in anti-party, anti-collectivist and apolitical attitudes, SYRIZA’s effective opposition strategy has managed at least to stop this trend from spreading.

Third, EU policies have, in the last few years, become more and more reactionary. The great alliance in the early 1990s formed around the axis between the French socialists and the German Christian democracy, which managed to somehow to protect the EU from Thatcherism, has long collapsed. Instead the phenomena of complete submission of the EU’s policies to finance capital and the market are far too frequent. The latest decision of the Council of Ministers to extend maximum working hours to 60-65 per week, the complete deregulation/privatisation of the energy sector, the increase in interest rates, which contributes to the phenomena of recession and the recent policies on immigration that intend to “fortify” the EU against the invasion of immigrants -– all highlight the political direction of the EU.

SYRIZA once again has been the only political force in the country that can legitimately challenge these policies. As PASOK and ND offer their unconditional support to the EU initiatives and KKE has always been a dogmatic Eurosceptic, SYRIZA, with its pro-EU background can now convincingly challenge these policies and promote a well-grounded vision of a socialist EU along with the parties that participate in the Party of the European Left.

Finally, another very positive factor contributing to the advancement of the radical left is the fact that neither PASOK nor ND and even less so KKE have renewed their political personnel. This phenomenon has contributed to the anti-political and anti-party sentiment of the population. At the same time the fresh and young leadership -– both in style and in age -– of SYRIZA creates an obvious comparative advantage. This point may sound rather superficial, however, in the age of electronic media, such phenomena cannot be considered insignificant.

Challenges ahead

The above presentation of all the positive elements in the socio-political environment of the Greek radical left, may have led the reader to picture the future in rather rosy hues. One should not rush to conclusions. There are still a number of serious dangers and challenges in the future prospects and the dynamics of SYRIZA and the Greek left in general.

The major dangers for the building of a new Greek left derive from an over-anticipation of the rapid success of its strategy. This may lead its often young and/or inexperienced leadership, and even its membership, to strengthen its understanding of politics as a public relations project. It would not be so difficult for something like this to happen under the present conditions of “media-driven politics”. This, in turn, may shrink its ambitious strategy to focusing on success at the polls. Winning elections is part of the project but an obsession with elections can lead to a paralysing and short-sighted electoralism.

Furthermore, the international and domestic social and political dynamics have generated so many pressing contradictions that they have made SYRIZA’s opposition and mobilisation efforts an easy affair. This ease may result in the creation of an anti-neoliberal but not anti-capitalist political party. Such a development could lead to the absurdity of a “left-wing party without socialism”. Signs of the latter can already be seen in Die Linke in Germany and they may spread to its Greek counterpart, given their close collaboration within the Party of the European Left.

In addition to these dangers, the Greek left is faced with a number of other important challenges. Key among them is how to transform its political, electoral advances into social gains. How, in other words, can it convincingly demonstrate that the problems faced today are structural by-products of the system and not simply side-effects that can be treated through some kind of reforms? To put it crudely: how can it prove that reformism is probably the most illusionary idea of our times?

All these dangers and challenges can be confronted if SYRIZA manages to put forward a comprehensive plan for party building that can capitalise on the experience both of its origin and of the new social movements. It needs to be an organisation that would respect our society’s social division of labour between parties and other movements and capitalise on the new technology of political mobilisation. This social project, in addition to everything else, is about an organisation, a political party. For, it is our organised collectivity that is not only the cornerstone of our current struggles, but also a small-scale model of the society of tomorrow about which we dream.

[Michalis Spourdalakis teaches political science at the University of Athens, Greece. This article first appeared in the October-December, 2008, edition of Relay, magazine of the Socialist Project (Canada), and has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission. It was written before the latest youth uprising throughout Greece.]

Down with the government of murderers! Greek left statements following the murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos

December 10, 2008 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal is publishing a number of declarations, statements, calls and articles from Greek left organisations in response to the assassination by Greek police of Alexis Grigoropoulos. Please keep in mind that the translations may be less than perfect, but due to the urgency of the situation they have been posted as is.

We’ll add more as we receive them. Thanks to ESSF and Rustbelt Radical for the initial compilation.

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Common statement of anti-capitalist left organisations

Down with the government of murderers!

Our answer will be to resist and to keep fighting to overthrow the policy of police oppression, austerity and racism

Demonstrate: Sunday 7/12/2008, Assemble Museum, 13.00 Monday

We, the organizations of the anticapitalist Left that sign this text, want to condemn the murder, in cold blood, of 16 year old Alexis Grigoropoulos by a police special guard in the evening of December 6th. We salute the demonstrations against the government of murderers all over Greece. In our opinion the reason for what happened is not the “extreme zeal”, or the “loss of temper” or the “lack of training” of a police special guard but the whole policy of the New Democracy government.

It is a policy that not only reinforces police oppression and legitimizes the use of lethal weapons against demonstrators, but also privatizes the Ports and Olympic Airlines, attacks social security and the rights of students.

It is the policy of police beatings of students, of the kidnappings of immigrants from Pakistan, of illegal interceptions of phone communications and of racist attacks that lead to the death of refugees that came here looking for asylum and a better future.

It is the policy of special “antiterrorist” legislation, of full compliance to the measures adopted by the EU against democratic liberties and against immigrants.

It is the policy of the new legal framework for the Universities, of legalizing Private Universities. It is the policy of lower wages and rising taxes. Amidst an economic crisis the government is trying on the one hand to offer billions of euros to the Banks and on the other to find scapegoats either in radical youth or in immigrants.

After the brutal murder the government has chosen the path of police repression. That is why police anti-riot squads attacked those who were demonstrating. The Socialist Party, PASOK, has offered his consent to this policy. The message is simple: the government will enforce its policy at any cost, a policy that will make the workers pay for the economic crisis, by means of austerity, flexible work, privatizations, implementation of the EU policies.

The anger of the demonstrators is fuelled by the policies of the government, of the forces of capital, of the EU. That is why the protest must grow stronger. We must meet in the streets with the struggling workers, farmers and students. We will not pay for their crisis. Today anger is not enough. What is needed is collective and militant struggle in every workplace, every neighborhood, in order to transform them into places of resistance and overthrow the government and its policy.

Down with the New Democracy government of murderers and its policy
Capital must pay for its crisis, not the workers and youth.
Let’s escalate the struggle for our rights
The ministers that are responsible must resign
The police must be disarmed, police forces must keep away from demonstrations, and Police Special Forces must be disbanded.
Release all people arrested during the demonstrations.
Repeal “antiterrorist”˙ and authoritarian laws

8/12/2008

The organizations of the Greek anticapitalist Left : ARAN (Left Recomposition), ARAS (Left Anticapitalist Group), EKKE (Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece), EEK (Workers Revolutionary Party), OKDE, OKDE-Spartacus (4thInternational), SEK (Socialist Workers Party ), NAR-N.K.A. (New Left Current-Youth Communist Liberation), K.O. Anasyntaxi (Communist Organization Regroupment), K.A. (Communist Renewal), EN.ANTI.A (United Anticapitalist Left), ME.R.A. (Front of Radical Left).

Melbourne: Rally for Alexandros Grigoropoulos Dec 13

More on Greece: Greece's main unions have called for a general strike. Teachers at universities in Greece have also gone on a 3 day strike in response to the murder of student Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Sunday night (Melbourne time).

A rally (see below) has been called in Melbourne in response to a global call-out for solidarity with Greece and Alexandros' family. Students, teachers, and unionists unite in solidarity!

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Media Release
Solidarity with Greece: Rally for Alexandros Grigoropoulos

KEYWORDS: , Greece, protest, Police violence, students, youth, current affairs

On Saturday 6th of December at around 10pm, two Greek policemen were in patrol in a central street by Exarchia square, in the center of Athens. They had a verbal argument with some young people who were there. During the argument, one of the cops pulled his gun and shot a 16-year-old minor twice. The victim was moved to Evangelismos Hospital to be pronounced dead. According to eye-witnesses, the cop had been swearing against the young boy, and showing his genitals, before shooting him.

In a spontaneous response, thousands of people gathered in the centers of most Greek cities over the past three days in riots. In Athens, people gathered outside Evangelismos Hospital, in order to prevent the cops from entering the building. A little later the riot police attacked in a street in Exarchia resulting in one person being arrested. The evening in Athens evolved with a spontaneous assembly in the Polytechnic University, many rioted in the center of Athens, including attacks against police departments and banks, until the early hours of the next morning. Meanwhile, a spontaneous demonstration took place, but it was confronted by the riot police with tear gas. Rallies, demonstrations, direct actions and riots took place all around the country.

Solidarity actions have already been held around Greece, in London, Edinburgh, Berlin, and Vienna.

There is a planned rally/vigil for Alexandros Grigoropoulos in Melbourne – the city with the biggest Greek population outside of Greece:

Saturday, 13th December, 2008
1:00PM outside the Greek Consulate
37-29 Albert Road, South Melbourne (take St Kilda Rd trams)

For more information: contact David Vakalis on 0404 722 687
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More resources on events in Greece:
http://www.antiimperialista.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5895&Itemid=55
http://www.theage.com.au/world/anarchys-child-20081209-6uvb.html?page=-1
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16684
http://athens.indymedia.org/?lang=en
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7772645.stm#map
http://www.theage.com.au/world/worst-in-decades-fourth-day-of-greek-violence-20081210-6v4q.html?page=-1
http://www.theage.com.au/world/unrest-in-greece-rages-for-fourth-day-20081209-6uxj.html?page=-1

On the riots in Greece

Via Socialist Unity blog:

Statement by Greek Communist Party:

We appeal to the youth to express its indignation, to protest, to condemn and to make, through its organised struggle, accountable politically and criminally those responsible for the police attacks.

Schools, universities, TEI (Technical Education Institutes), IEK (Vocational Training institutes) and evening schools should be closed down. The mass organisations should release statements condemning the police attacks and organise mass demonstrations and rallies. The youth along with the popular labor movement should participate organised in:

i) the demonstration organised by KKE and KNE throughout Greece against the state authoritarianism (in Athens at 18:00 in Omonia)

ii) in the general strike on Wednesday 10/12 along with the class oriented movement, PAME, in the rallies organised in 63 towns throughout Greece (in Athens at 10:30 in Omonia)

Dear comrades

Some information about the developments in Greece:

Activities of KKE (Communist party) and KNE (Greek Communist Youth)

Since the first moment KKE and KNE spoke out condemning the murder of the 15-year-old boy by the police, and highlighting the huge political responsibilities of ND’s government and noting that the anti-democratic and authoritarian measures and attitudes, the state repression, are the natural supplement of a policy that delivers blow after blow to the labour and social rights of the workers and the youth.

A KKE delegation went to central police headquarters in Athens on Sunday and lodged a protest over the death of the young boy, whose funeral will take place today at 3 pm.

Yesterday, December 8th, the KKE held a series of protests and demonstrations in the major cities of Greece against the state repression. In Athens the General Secretary of the CC pf KKE Aleka Papariga addressed a massive rally in the centre of the city. She noted that the events that led to the murder of the boy is an “Chronicle of a Death Foretold” by a policy that considers people as the enemy, by a policy that detests the strike, the demonstration, the struggle.

Also, the MPs of KKE submitted a parliamentary question to the government over the case.

At the same time the KKE has also called upon the trade unions and other mass organizations of the people and the youth to organize their own mass protest actions, stressing that the state repression and authoritarianism target first and foremost the labour and peoples’ movement.

Since morning of Monday December 8th, all faculties are closed upon initiative of KNE

The students’ coordination board of Athens has decided to close all schools from 8-10 of December and has called for a demonstration on 9 of December in Athens, while strong local students’ protests take place all over the country.

Also today December 9th, 24-hours strikes have been declared by the professors in the secondary schools and higher education, while the civil servants will hold work stoppage after 12 pm. The funeral of the murdered boy.

Higher Education Professors are staging a 24-hour strike on Tuesday indicating their bereavement to the loss of 15-year-old Alexis. Kindergarten a primary schools will remain open. However, the teachers’ Federation is staging a strike. The funeral of the 15-year-old will take place at Faliron cemetery at 15:00

For Wednesday, December 10, the general strike that had been announced over the pensions, salaries, against lay-offs, for the right to education and healthcare, will be definitely linked to the events.

About the riots

At the same time KKE stressed that what is needed today is political condemnation of the government, of the whole net of mechanisms of intimidation and state repression, including the invisible ones. The reply to state autocracy is organised struggle within a mass movement in order to ensure the true causes were not covered up.

The continuous organized and co-ordinated riots that we witness parallel to the huge mobilizations and protests have little to do with spontaneous expression of anger and rage, and more and more take the form of open provocations against the growing wave of protest. In any case the way to react does not lie in retaliatory riots. On the contrary such events are quite accommodating for those that want to impose fear and intimidation to the people, who are trying to prevent the emergence of an organized and mighty mass movement that will be able to to sweep not only the ND and any other anti-peoples’ government, and pave the way for a real change at the level of the power in favour of the people. They will be used as an excuse for the further intensification of anti-democratic and repressive measures and attitudes.

The political context

The events found Greece in a moment when peoples’ unrest was growing, and the position of the ND government was already quite difficult. The recently announced “crisis measures” in favour of the monopolies, the demands of the industrialists for further reversal of labour and social rights – the even spoke of working week of 4 days!-, the state budget, the scandals, the rising toll of lay-offs have already built up dissatisfaction. At the same time centres of the establishment make concrete efforts in order to rejuvenate the system of the bi-partisan alteration that was loosing reliability before the eyes of the popular strata. In fact, at the last opinion polls PASOK appears to be on the lead. In the opinion of KKE the most urgent task is the stepping up of the mass, organized action of the labour and people’s movement. Only this can provide an adequate response to the anti-peoples policy and the repressive measures, can check and isolate maneuvers, provocations and plans to entrap the emerging radicalism, and at the same time pave the way for positive developments for the people.

There is also extensive discussion taking place at Lenin's Tomb.

Socialism's comeback

At the beginning of the century, the chances of socialism making a return looked close to zero. Yet now, all around Europe, the red flag is flying again, writes Neil Clark in The New Statesman

"If socialism signifies a political and economic system in which the government controls a large part of the economy and redistributes wealth to produce social equality, then I think it is safe to say the likelihood of its making a comeback any time in the next generation is close to zero," wrote Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History, in Time magazine in 2000.

He should take a trip around Europe today.

Make no mistake, socialism - pure, unadulterated socialism, an ideology that was taken for dead by liberal capitalists - is making a strong comeback. Across the continent, there is a definite trend in which long-established parties of the centre left that bought in to globalisation and neoliberalism are seeing their electoral dominance challenged by unequivocally socialist parties which have not.

The parties in question offer policies which mark a clean break from the Thatcherist agenda that many of Europe's centre-left parties have embraced over the past 20 years. They advocate renationalisation of privatised state enterprises and a halt to further liberalisation of the public sector. They call for new wealth taxes to be imposed and for a radical redistribution of wealth. They defend the welfare state and the rights of all citizens to a decent pension and free health care. They strongly oppose war - and any further expansion of Nato.

Most fundamentally of all, they challenge an economic system in which the interests of ordinary working people are subordinated to those of capital.

Nowhere is this new leftward trend more apparent than in Germany, home to the meteoric rise of Die Linke ("The Left"), a political grouping formed only 18 months ago - and co-led by the veteran socialist "Red" Oskar Lafontaine, a long-standing scourge of big business. The party, already the main opposition to the Christian Democrats in eastern Germany, has made significant inroads into the vote for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in elections to western parliaments this year, gaining representation in Lower Saxony, Hamburg and Hesse. Die Linke's unapologetically socialist policies, which include the renationalisation of electricity and gas, the banning of hedge funds and the introduction of a maximum wage, chime with a population concerned at the dismantling of Germany's mixed economic model and the adoption of Anglo-Saxon capitalism - a shift that occurred while the SPD was in government.

An opinion poll last year showed that 45 per cent of west Germans (and 57 per cent of east Germans) consider socialism "a good idea"; in October, another poll showed that Germans overwhelmingly favour nationalisation of large segments of the economy. Two-thirds of all Germans say they agree with all or some of Die Linke's programme.

It's a similar story of left-wing revival in neighbouring Holland. There the Socialist Party of the Netherlands (SP), which almost trebled its parliamentary representation in the most recent general election (2006), and which made huge gains in last year's provincial elections, continues to make headway.

Led by a charismatic 41-year-old epidemiologist, Agnes Kant, the SP is on course to surpass the Dutch Labour Party, a member of the ruling conservative-led coalition, as the Netherlands' main left-of centre grouping.

The SP has gained popularity by being the only left-wing Dutch parliamentary party to campaign for a "No" vote during the 2005 referendum on the EU constitutional treaty and for its opposition to large-scale immigration, which it regards as being part of a neoliberal package that encourages flexible labour markets.

The party calls for a society where the values of "human dignity, equality and solidarity" are most prominent, and has been scathing in its attacks on what it describes as "the culture of greed", brought about by "a capitalism based on inflated bonuses and easy money". Like Die Linke, the SP campaigns on a staunchly anti-war platform - demanding an end to Holland's role as "the US's lapdog".

In Greece, the party on the up is the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), the surprise package in last year's general election. As public opposition to the neoliberal economic policies of the ruling New Democracy government builds, SYRIZA's opinion-poll ratings have risen to almost 20 per cent - putting it within touching distance of PASOK, the historical left-of-centre opposition, which has lurched sharply to the right in recent years. SYRIZA is particularly popular with young voters: its support among those aged 35 and under stands at roughly 30 per cent in the polls, ahead of PASOK.

In Norway, socialists are already in power; the ruling "red-green" coalition consists of the Socialist Left Party, the Labour Party and the Centre Party. Since coming to power three years ago, the coalition - which has been labelled the most left-wing government in Europe, has halted the privatisation of state-owned companies and made further development of the welfare state, public health care and improving care for the elderly its priorities.

The success of such forces shows that there can be an electoral dividend for left-wing parties if voters see them responding to the crisis of modern capitalism by offering boldly socialist solutions. Their success also demonstrates the benefits to electoral support for socialist groupings as they put aside their differences to unite behind a commonly agreed programme.

For example, Die Linke consists of a number of internal caucuses - or forums - including the "Anti-Capitalist Left", "Communist Platform" and "Democratic Socialist Forum". SYRIZA is a coalition of more than ten Greek political groups. And the Dutch Socialist Party - which was originally called the Communist Party of the Netherlands, has successfully brought socialists and communists together to support its collectivist programme.

It is worth noting that those European parties of the centre left which have not fully embraced the neoliberal agenda are retaining their dominant position. In Spain, the governing Socialist Workers' Party has managed to maintain its broad left base and was re-elected for another four-year term in March, with Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero promising a "socialist economic policy" that would focus on the needs of workers and the poor.

There are exceptions to the European continent's shift towards socialism. Despite the recent election of leftist Martine Aubry as leader of the French Socialist Party, the French left has been torn apart by divisions, at the very moment when it could be exploiting the growing unpopularity of the Sarkozy administration.

And, in Britain, despite opinion being arguably more to the left on economic issues than at any time since 1945, few are calling for a return to socialism.

The British left, despite promising initiatives such as September's Convention of the Left in Manchester, which gathered representatives from several socialist groups, still remains fragmented and divided. The left's espousal of unrestricted or loosely controlled immigration is also, arguably, a major vote loser among working-class voters who should provide its core support. No socialist group in Britain has as yet articulated a critique of mass immigration from an anti-capitalist and anti-racist viewpoint in the way the Socialist Party of the Netherlands has.

And even if a Die Linke-style coalition of progressive forces could be built and put on a formal footing in time for the next general election, Britain's first-past-the-post system provides a formidable obstacle to change.

Nevertheless, the prognosis for socialism in Britain and the rest of Europe is good. As the recession bites, and neoliberalism is discredited, the phenomenon of unequivocally socialist parties with clear, anti-capitalist, anti-globalist messages gaining ground, and even replacing "Third Way" parties in Europe, is likely to continue.

Even in Britain, where the electoral system grants huge advantage to the established parties, pressure on Labour to jettison its commitment to neoliberal policies and to adopt a more socialist agenda is sure to intensify.

Left Regroupment Issues and Prospects

frontline volume 2, issue 6. March 2008

The left in Britain has been better at coming apart than coming together in the last year. Gregor Gall examines the prospects for left regroupment and looks to Europe to see if there are lessons to learn.

The radical left unity projects in Scotland (the SSP) and England (Respect) made small but significant electoral breakthroughs between 2003 and 2005. Both recognised the importance for the radical left of contesting neo-liberalism in a meaningful way in the electoral arena where most of what passes for ‘politics’ goes on. Of course, this was not their only focus – indeed, the basis of making some electoral advance was predicated on strength in communities, campaigns and workplaces and high public recognition and visibility. After the implosion, the fratricide and the traumatic times, the vital issue of radical left regroupment is beginning to re-emerge in new and different ways in both Scotland and England. Both processes are taking place within the overall context of the objective conditions of hegemonic neo-liberalism, continuing imperialism and the decomposition of social democracy demanding that the idea of a radical left unity projects is not jettisoned for reasons of any short-term difficulties.

A Wider Regroupment

For the radical left in Scotland and England, the issue of regroupment is not just about discussing whether there is any basis for the organisational re-unification the SSP and Solidarity or Respect Renewal and Respect (the SWP version) albeit, there is in my view, a role for these discussions in terms of individuals from both organisations being able to work with each other inside new, future left unity projects (see my Sunday Herald article, 4 November 2007). With the key outward looking change in the orientation of the Labour left and its Communist Party of Britain outriders (through the Labour Representation Committee), the development of a radical left critique amongst environmentalists (linking the crisis of the environment with capitalism), the continued prevalence of activists within community and anti-poverty groups and the existence of thousands of former radical left activists and the many that might become radical left activists, there is now the prospect of a much wider left regroupment than has hitherto been the case. For example, Respect Renewal may be able to form an alliance with the RMT union for the Greater London Assembly elections in May this year and the left in Scotland needs to consider having a single candidate for the 2009 European elections because of the nature of the electoral arithmetic and constituency involved. So this kind of regroupment is not about uniting the far left as the SSP and Socialist Alliance attempted to do. It is a stage moved on from this, recognising the weakness of what these projects attempted to do in a situation where the left is now collectively weaker and needs to desperately expand out of its historical ghettos.

So when regroupment is being discussed, it is important to understand it can take three basic forms. First, genuine working together and cooperation with different stands of left opinion and currents of left thought in broad-based campaigns on poverty, racism, peace, environment and women’s rights (whatever their origin) and organisations (like unions, tenants’ groups), where there is more than just token involvement or support from different left organisations and groups. Rather, priority should be given to having properly organised and resourced participation in these campaigns, where members of different left organisations work to further the interests of the campaign in non-factional ways. For instance, more non-Labour Party affiliated unions now have political funds for campaigning with and are looking for allies to do this with. Obvious cases are the RMT, FBU and now PCS and possibly the NUT. The premise is that stronger campaigns and class organisations will provide a more fertile basis for the left to operate in. In particular, those non-aligned or independent-minded activists would be more receptive to the arguments of the radical left where these groups operated in constructive ways. (And, moreover, this form of radical left unity should be seen as being pre-figurative for the two higher forms of unity.)

Second, electoral alliances in the plethora of representative bodies that now exist (and of which some are subject to proportional representation) like parliaments/assemblies and local councils as well as in other organisations like unions. Again, this form could be seen to be pre-figurative of subsequent full(er) fusion. Whilst the majority of citizens are not be aware of what takes place within campaigns and class organisations, they are aware, to a greater degree, of what goes on within the electoral arena. Presenting a united left face and position is vital to make a credible pitch for the allegiance and support of the ‘ordinary’ citizens – those who are not active or that ‘political’. When the prize of elected representation (that allows a platform for the radical left to speak to the mass of citizens) is at stake, minor differences must be put in perspective in order to allow the broad critique and demands to be put across. Finally, where there is a prospect of gaining some elected officials, discussions need to sort out the distribution of these across the participants involved and the means for holding elected members accountable.

Third, there is the organisational fusion of new and existing forces and groups. The basis of collective working together in the party organisations must be that of overwhelming consensus on the grand political questions of our age, whereby this forms the bedrock of a common ideology for radical left unity, from which questions of how to operate are secondary and subject to fraternal discussion and debate. This has often been described as the ‘80:20 equation’, where the 20% of disagreement is not allowed to get in the way of agreement and action on the 80% of issues where there is common ground and consensus. Consequently, to facilitate agreement (the 80%) and fraternal discussion (on the 20%), radical left projects must be characterised by pluralism, openness and relative broadness, with some degree of interim internal autonomy to the pre-merger constituent parts.

Unity should not be made a fetish of for its own sake. Unity that is poorly conceived and constructed will not last or be effective. Disagreements must be allowed to be aired and debated but it behoves those on the radical left to engage with each in ways that makes dialogue and cooperation possible for the historical reason that as the radical left has invariably been weaker than the forces it opposes (of the right, centre, neo-liberalism and capitalism), a premium is put on unity of its small forces. Therefore, to be a credible option for a growing body of disillusioned and progressive opinion, unity and cooperation amongst itself are vital. Uniting the radical left together is not just about making one new alliance or organisation the sum of its constituent parts so that it is not divided, important though that is. Rather, it is about making the new organisation more than the sum of its parts. Therefore, unity can help prefigure growth of members and influence through pooling resources, pushing in the same direction, working to common priorities and being more credible to wider social movements and the like.

The wider context of radical left unity projects in Europe is that the social justice movement (with its important anti-capitalism or anti-capitalist globalisation components) that emanated from the ‘Battle of Seattle’ of 1999 and immediately before is no longer the movement it once was. It no longer has the form or focus of before, with some of that being the product of it engaging in what could be described as ‘political tourism’ – the endless round of demonstrations and social forums. Something similar can be said about the current state of the anti-war/anti-imperialism movement. To me this re-emphasises the importance of the party as agency, particularly in the need to help create, organise and coordinate resistance on the much broader and therefore more difficult terrain of fighting neo-liberalism in workplaces and communities.

A Party for Socialists

Clearly, the tenor of what I’m arguing is that socialists working with other socialists and the wider radical left still need to be organised in a party because of the requirement of an organisational form to pursue their politics with, and this is broadly conceived of in terms of the way the SSP has operated in the past as a party rather than network or alliance within which pluralism operates. This means that the party has a need to promote itself, recruit, organise interventions and have its own newspaper and publication but do so in a way where promoting the party does not mean that this has to be done in a direct way. What I mean here is that members can win respect and admiration for and from the campaigning work they do and this is as good a recruiting and mobolising tool as any. Any political party is a vanguard party in the sense that it is the organised expression of a set of ideas and policies that the majority of people in a society do not hold. The job of the political party is then to lead and reflect, and balance the tension the two in its attempt to gain ground for its ideas. Consequently, in discussions we should be mindful of conflating ‘vanguardism’ per se with the self-style practice of far left parties of the Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist nature.

The basic approach of a party operation has taken on a more important meaning not just in the light of discussion about left regroupment but because there is a detectable trend of opinion within the SSP at the moment that is heading in the direction of ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ because of the demoralisation and reduced involvement of members that is evident. In the discussion of ‘what next for the SSP?’ after the split of 2006 and the electoral wipe out of 2007, and cohering around the debate on party structures in the form of the party commission, some are advocating a much looser structure of networks, no newspaper, no leadership role for the national executive, de-prioritising branches and the like. The conclusion to this drift would be to see the fragmentation and demobilisation of a previously (relatively) coherent organisation.

On the other hand, the direct implication of what I’ve argued above is that there is no contemporary role for a far left type of internal party regime based on leadership domination through democratic centralism, intolerance of dissent, sectarianism – the stressing of differences over agreements with others - and extremely high levels of cadre activity.

So, who then is the unity and regroupment to be amongst? In the instance of common working together, all on the left, aligned and not, should be included. In the instance of the electoral alliances, all left forces who take the electoral arena seriously should be included – thus, the CWI and SWP, for to not include them (and given their current electoral orientations) would be self-defeating for a united left electoral alliances. However, we it comes to the third type of unity and regroupment, the likes of the CWI and SWP do not figure in my thinking because they have their own specific party building projects which are either incompatible in practice with broader radical left parties or these organisations become an unnecessary weight – a diversion, irritant etc – to building and advancing these broader parties. The reason for this exclusion is also attributable to the democratic centralist nature of organisations where the centralism dominates over the democratic and which fundamentally cannot deal with dissent and difference within their own ranks. Organisations of this kind – particularly where they have sufficient numbers to carry this out – show that they do not have the same aims and objectives as the broad party of the radical left. The salient point here is not really that the aims and objectives are different but that they are too different and lacking in commonality and being complimentary enough. This is most keenly seen in how the members of these organisations view how the issues of reform and revolution relate to each other, where the traditional far left raises maximum demands in an ‘impossible-ist’ manner. That said it is interesting to note that in two of the most successful left unity projects in Europe – Germany and Greece - far left organisations like these have been allowed to participate. Maybe this is more to do with a function of their very small size in these countries.

What I want to do in the remainder of this article is look in some detail at three successful left unity projects (Germany, Greece and Portugal). Before moving to do that, and following my survey of radical left unity projects in thirteen continental Europe countries (see Scottish Left Review, January-February 2008 issue (slrp.co.uk)), it is clear that not all radical and far left groups and parties are involved in these projects. Indeed, the communist parties with sizeable numbers of elected representatives still exist in Portugal, France, Italy, Greece outside radical left unity projects and here both radical left unity projects and sizeable communist parties exist alongside a plethora of other assorted leftists groups.

Germany

The important development of Die Linke, fusing together the former PDS, a breakaway section from the social democrats (SPD) and various far left groups is a very important development. It is amply analysed elsewhere (Victor Grossman, Scottish Left Review, January-February 2008 (slrp.co.uk), Christophe Spehr, Red Pepper August/September 2007, and Christoph Jünke, ‘A New Formation with Potential Pitfalls: The New German Linkspartei’, the Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 15/3, 2007). Suffice it to note it has been borne out of a severe crisis of the left and social democracy in a context of rising struggles against neo-liberalism, the active role of public figures like former SPD finance minister ‘red’ Oskar Lafontaine has been significant, and it has the support of sections of two major unions – the engineering union IG Metal and the public sector union ver.di – and has approaching 90,000 members. The party two over two years to form and this process has had its severe ups and downs. In 2005, its predecessor gained 8.7% in federal parliament with 54 seats and it has had recent successes in gaining members in the Bremen (8.4%, 7 MPs), Hesse (5.1%, 6 MPs), Lower Saxony (7.1%, 11 MPs) and Hamburg (6.4%, 8 MPs) state parliaments and forcing the Social Democrats to the left in policy and actions (and without losing sufficient votes to prevent Die Linke gaining elected members).

Greece

The Coalition of the Left of Movements and Ecology is commonly known as Synaspismos or SYN. Until 2003, it was called the Coalition of the Left and Progress and is overwhelmingly the major component of the parliamentary Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA). According to one observer (Yiannis Kokosalakis, Emancipation and Liberation, No. 15, Autumn 2007), the politics of SYRIZA are pretty much the politics of SYN.
SYN emerged initially as an electoral coalition in the late 1980s, with two communist parties (both which had either left or been expelled from the original communist party, the KKE) being its largest constituents, and securing over 10% of the vote in parliamentary elections and a substantial number of MPs. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the coalition moved to become a party in 1991. Electoral fortunes were mixed in the early to mid-1990s but parliamentary representation was secured (10 MPs in 1996 on 5% vote, 2 MEPs in 1999 on 5% vote). In elections in 2000, SYN was supported by left ecologists, gaining just over 3% of the vote and 6 MPs. In parliamentary elections of 2004, SYN together with several smaller left and left ecologists parties formed SYRIZA alliance, gaining 3.4% of the vote. SYRIZA comprises ten organisations which include various far left groups but critically a large breakaway from PASOK, the social democratic-cum-Labour party.

The alliance with the smaller parties was formed again at the end of 2005, providing a firm basis the 14 MPs gained on a 5% vote in the 2007 parliamentary elections, which makes SYN the fourth biggest party. It is important to recognise that Greece uses proportional representation election systems, and that meanwhile the Greek Communist Party (KKE), with some 10,000 members, gained 8.1% giving them 22 MPs. According to Yiannis Kokosalakis (Emancipation and Liberation, No. 15, Autumn 2007), the KKE has refused to cooperate with the wider left, i.e. SYN and SYRIZA.

In addition to its MPs, SYN also has many councillors, being the third biggest party in local government, and a sizable, semi-autonomous youth wing. SYN aspires to be an ‘umbrella’, where people of varying left ideological and theoretical backgrounds can find a natural home. Therefore, SYN members are encouraged to form and participate in internal platforms which mount open discussions and publish magazines, but may not work against party policy. These platforms are invited to put forward theses on party policy and strategy at triennial congresses.

SYRIZA’s genesis arose in a forum of the radical left in 2001 called the Space of Left Dialogue and Common Action, which in turn led to an electoral alliance for the 2002 local elections, and provided the basis for its formal establishment in 2004. However after the 2004 election, the smaller parties accused SYN of not honouring an agreement to have one of its MPs resign so a member of one of the smaller parties could take the seat. This crisis led SYN to run independently from the rest of the Coalition for the 2004 European elections but later in that year SYN returned to SYRIZA. By 2007, several new radical left and green organisations joined SYRIZA, helping it secure its breakthrough. Again, according to Yiannis Kokosalakis (Emancipation and Liberation, No. 15, Autumn 2007), SYN has made the error of downplaying socialist and class struggle politics given that the KKE has shown there is a large opening for this type of politics. This compares to a much healthier assessment of SYN from its one of its (Trotskyist) officer bearers (see Socialist Resistance, No. 48, October 2007).

Portugal

Left Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda, LB) was founded in 1999 from a number of far left parties from Maoist, Trotskyist and communist backgrounds. All of these parties had stood in elections and became currents within the LB. Initially developed as a coalition, the LB has since become a party while its constituent components have maintained their existence and some levels of autonomy, leading to a loose structure. This structure may also provide an umbrella for other interested socialist organizations. In 1999, the LB polled 2% in the Portuguese parliamentary election with this rising to 3% in 2002. These results were generally better than the collective results of its predecessor components. In 2005, the LB achieved a breakthrough with 6.5% and 8 MPs. It also has 1 MEP and many local councillors, making it Portugal’s fifth biggest party. The LB’s presidential candidate in 2006 received 288,224 votes (5%). With support from students and unions in particular, the LB is becoming to be seen as a credible left alternative to the older, more established communist party and the more centre-left socialist party because it has become a pole of attraction for many involved in various social movements. The BL proposed Portugal’s first law on domestic violence, which was passed in parliament with the support of the socialist party.

Portugal is unusual in that it has another radical left unity project, the Unitarian Democratic Coalition (UDC), consisting of the Communist Party, the Ecologist Party and Democratic Intervention. The coalition was formed in 1987 to run in the simultaneous national and European parliamentary elections, and in every election since these parties have stood together at the UDC, even though the Communist Party is the major element within it. Tensions are minimalised by the sharing out of lead candidatures. Since 1987 the UDC has had in: the national parliament between 12 and 31 MPs (8% to 12% vote); local government in excess of 200 councillors (11% to 13% vote); and the European parliament 2 to 4 MEPs (9% to 14% vote).

Conclusion

What can we learn from these three successful instances? The most obvious points are that facilitating the moving away of sections of people from the social democratic parties is critical as is winning significant union support. This may then lead new and existing non-aligned people to look at the projects as being credible and worthwhile. When they join and become involved, these project achieve some kind of critical mass and lift off as they cease to be amalgams of what their constituent parts were (like the SSP achieved between 1999-2003 in a small way). Nonetheless, other than in Greece, there has been a lack of engagement with green/ecologist parties, organisations and milieus. What may be different is that in all three countries, large communist parties existed providing a more ingrained left culture.

Gregor Gall is Professor of Industrial Relations at the University of Hertfordshire and author of The Political Economy of Scotland – Red Scotland? Radical Scotland (University of Wales Press, 2005). He lives in Edinburgh.