Lessons of Syriza victory for JVP-JHU-Sobitha

Mass anger against moribund European capitalism

Handsome and photogenic Alexis Tsipras can teach Anura Kumara a lesson
or two on strategy
by Kumar David-January 31, 2015
Leftist Syriza led by charismatic Alexis Tsipraz won 149 seats in the Greek
parliamentary elections of 25 January falling two short of an absolute
majority in the 300-member parliament needed to govern without the
burden of an encumbering coalition. In 2012 Syriza took 27% of the vote
to emerge as the second largest party, last week it won 37% and came
first. It got 3.3% in 2004 and 5.4% in 2007. Two hundred and fifty
parliamentary seats are distributed proportionally, but 50 extra seats are
allocated to the party that obtains the largest number of votes (plurality).
This bonus system makes for stable government since, to the best of my
knowledge, a single party has never secured 50% in Greece. The New
Democracy party which was pushed out of office secured 76 seats, semifascist Golden Dawn 17, the CP 15, Social Democrats 13, and the liberal
Independent Greeks 13.
A portrait of Rosa Luxemburg adorns Syriza headquarters, but Apollo like
Che gilds the walls of JVP branches; the distinction between the most
gifted Marxist of the Twentieth Century on the one hand, and the scourge

of imperialism on the other has more than symbolic relevance. Rosa Lenin called her a soaring eagle - is a beacon of civilisation beyond
moribund capitalism; Che a hero in the struggle against decaying
imperialism. The future of civilisation, or in her own words ending
"barbarism", is therefore the task of 21st Century internationalist Rosas.
There is more than a cultural and emotional twang to these remarks as I
will explain anon.
Syriza is a fusion of about 15 left entities which merged in 2013 to form a
unitary party and elected Tsipras leader by 74% conference vote.
Interestingly, Left Platform a group which stands to the left of the
mainstream secured 30% of the places on the Central Committee and
Communist Platform (Greek section of the International Marxist
Tendency) secured two places. This fusion of several left and Marxist
entities to form a unitary left party is what made the 2015 election victory
possible. This is a lesson that is entirely lost on the buffalo brains of
Lankas hidebound and sectarian leftists whose only interest is to protect
their own bits of turf. This is true, obviously of the Dead Left, but also of
Siritungas USP, Bahus NSSP and clueless Frontline. Unfortunately it is also
applicable to the JVPs higher-and-holier-than-thou standoffish sneering at
other leftists. I will return to how Syriza interleaved organisation and policy
firmness with sensitivity to the over-determining issue in the minds of the
people after a brief digression to economics.
The economic catastrophe
I can only spare a few
paragraphs to sum up the
catastrophic Greek economic
collapse which is the
background to Syrizas
election victory. First let it be
plainly stated that this is not
a tragedy of Greek
capitalism but a deep
structural fissure in global
capitalism which manifested
itself at different moments,
with different severity in
different countries,
depending on local factors and how these factors coalesced into the global

picture. The earthquake first hit US finance capital in the autumn of 2008
in the worst depression of world capitalism since the 1930s. The reasons
why a collapse of capitalism in the form of a death-agony of US banking
(rotten balance-sheets, unserviceable debt and ridiculous derivative
instruments) was unavoidable in general, and why it manifested itself at
that time in that location, has been much analysed and this is not the
place for a summary. (Of course nobody expects me to resist the
temptation to gloat over the validation and vindication of Marx and his
method!)
European banks were not immediately inundated by the 2008 tsunami but
they did not take long to fall like ninepins (Britains Royal Bank of Scotland,
Spains Santandar, BNP Paribas in France and Irelands Allied Irish, to
name some big ones). European sovereign economies, except Germany,
then went broke as well. Spain and Italy were bad but Greece was the
basket-case with rotting banks and a bankrupt government that could not
service sovereign debt. International financial institutions had used Greek
banks as an entry point for risky financial transactions, tax evasion and
financial sector corruption. The failing government was propped up the
European Central Bank (ECB) and European capital markets as the debt to
GDP ratio soared. Greece, a plaything of the European money game, when
it collapsed was a threat to the pan European house of cards. This must
not be read as criticism of a criminal enterprise but as brisk and
entrepreneurial capitalism doing its natural thing.
When the sovereign state and private banks went into free fall, desperate
measures were needed. The ECB bailed out the state, European banks
bought or held on to Greek bank bonds to help the sector tide over, and
most significant, unbearable austerity was imposed on the people. When
capitalism goes bust society has to carry the burden of rescuing the rotting
carcass. But Syriza said No, we will not abide by European Union (EU)
imposed austerity; no we repudiate some sovereign debt imposed by ECB
financial gaming. This is the logic of Syrizas refusal to honour some
sovereign debt and its repudiation of austerity measures which were
driving people to desperation and suicide.
It is the boldness and determination of this programme that underpinned
victory. Speaking to thousands of supporters Tsipras said Greece was
leaving behind "catastrophic austerity and five years of humiliation and
anguish". He said he would cooperate with Euro-zone leaders for "a fair
and mutually beneficial solution". He may have his eye on Spain, Portugal

and Italy where left leaning alliances will do well in future elections.
Spains fast growing left alliance Podemos, which tops opinion polls in a
country where despite economic recovery unemployment still stands at
24%, may be set to repeat the Syriaz experience.
The JVPs Syriaz opportunity
The Syriaz triumph was made possible by blending together three factors
viz; a bold and decisive approach to the principle issue facing the country,
second a broad democratic appeal to the whole of society, and third
unifying several like minded movements into a single programme and
party. It rejected the ECB-IMF imposed austerity package to which the
previous government had been a slave and boldly defied trans-European
capitalism. While not insisting on quitting the Euro-zone it is prepared for
the eventuality that Greece may be expelled. It mobilised people and
prepared them to face the consequences of rejecting the supremacy of
European and global capitalism. Out of necessity Syriaz has now formed a
coalition government with the right of centre Independent Greeks who
have agreed to reject austerity. (This is like the JVP forming a coalition
government under its leadership with the JHU, General Fonseka and radical
UNP sections to cleanse the entrenched Mafia-State out of Sri Lankas body
politic).
What is the principal or over-determining issue that needs to be addressed
in Lanka at the present conjuncture I am leaving out the national
question? It is the State; the Authoritarian-State, the Mafia-State. The
dismantling of authoritarianism commenced with the defeat of Rajapaksa
and the next forward step will be when (if?) the Executive Presidency is
abolished. (Drafters Jayampathy Wickremaratne and J.C. Weliamuna will
have a lot to answer for if abolition is not thorough. Ceremonial supremacy
of the armed forces will be invested in the president like in India, but I see
not the remotest reason for vesting the slightest real executive authority in
a president).
It is progress in dismantling the Mafia-State which put down deep roots in
the Rajapaksa period that has been slow, confused and prone to reversals.
President Sirisena has made bad appointments and gives the impression
that he lacks the will to apprehend crooks who grew into giants under the
previous government in which he served. The public mood, just listen to
the people phoning into Sinhala TV channels, reflects disappointment and
frustration. The official explanation is it takes time to catch big fish and

evidence for prosecution must be meticulously prepared; this is true. But it

is also true that signs of the worst vermin of the Rajapaksa days crawling
back in hordes and compromising the post-election government are
widespread. The Sirisena-Ranil government is squandering its credibility by
not showing itself determined to root out the Mafia-State.
I have to repeat a quotation used last week about the Mafia-State because
it is important to drive home what happened in the Rajapaksa period and
to help people understand this grotesque monster.
"In recent years, a new threat has emerged: the Mafia-State. Across the
globe, criminals have penetrated governments to an unprecedented
degree. The reverse has also happened; rather than stamping out criminal
gangs, some governments have instead taken over their illegal operations.
In Mafia-States, government officials enrich themselves and their families
and friends while exploiting the money, muscle, political influence, and
global connections of criminal syndicates to cement and expand their own
power. This fusing of governments and criminal groups is distinct from the
more limited ways in which the two have collaborated in the past. In a
Mafia-State, high government officials actually become integral players in,
if not the leaders of, criminal enterprises, and the defence and promotion
of those criminals become official priorities. Mafia-States integrate the
speed and flexibility of transnational criminal networks with the legal
protections and diplomatic privileges enjoyed only by states".
The challenge of ensuring complete abolition of the Executive Presidency
and the battle to smash, root out and cleanse Lanka of the Mafia-State is
the Syriza-moment of the JVP, Sobitha Thero, and on the second point,
that is anti-corruption, the JHU as well. Unwavering determination to press
forward with the principal issues of the moment for Syriaz rejecting
austerity, for us defeating corrupt, authoritarian state power is the lesson
that Lanka can learn from the last weeks Greek election.
Rosa versus Che
f you think in terms of human progress and ferret out the figure on the left
on whom the mantle of Marx most naturally descends, it is not Lenin or
Trotsky, nor of course Mao, Fidel or Che, it is Rosa Luxemburg. Among
socialist leaders of her day, among those among them who saw a new
world, Rosa is the acme of European civilisation. Though nearly a century

has passed since her assassination on 15 January 1919 this revolutionary

socialist, internationalist, philosopher and economist, is a Twenty-first
Century harbinger of a new world. Lenins revolution grew out of struggle
against Tsarist primitivism; Mao cultivated even more ancient ground.
Naturally they painted on a canvas narrower than Marx visioned as
socialism which lays the foundations of a new culture. (Cuba and Vietnam,
diminutive in philosophy and geography, have little to offer).
Without pushing the point too hard and giving offence, and keeping my
remarks deliberately metaphorical, it would be good if the JVP could widen
its civilisational horizons and progress from its early Che Guevara origins
to Rosa Luxemburg vistas.
Posted by Thavam