Tassos Anastassiadis intervention (by Skype) in a solidarity meeting in Moscow, 4/7/2015

On 5/7/15 referendum in Greece

First of all, on behalf of Greek workers, I want to thank you for your solidarity and that of
our comrades in other countries.
The fact is that we are all united in the same common fight against power - essentially the
power of money.
This was made entirely clear precisely in the week running up to the referendum.
We saw it in the mobilizations here in Greece, we saw it in the polls: workers, young people
were pulled together in order to say no to the politics of austerity - whatever that may
mean.
Working for the yes we saw the coalition of power - economical and social, the political
system - the right and social democrats, the whole bourgeois class and almost without
exception, the media system and especially television.
And this coalition is not just Greek, it is quite clearly European! Not only at the economic
and political level, but also at the media level -with some exception in a few countries (I
don't know about Russia!).
But I have to add that internationally workers and young people expressed their support of
class with mobilizations in many mainly European countries.
And the reason is that what is really at stake is not a country but essentially it is a class
confrontation regarding the capitalist crisis in respect of who will pay.
Of course Greece was, for 5 years now, at the avant-garde of this capitalist offensive - which
includes toxic nationalism (nationalistic poison) (Greeks against Germans, Russians against
Europeans, etc.). It is also true that for years, Greek workers have given battle on economic
and social levels - but with no global success.
With SYRIZA they hoped to have a representative to negotiate with the institutions (The
Commission, the ECB and the IMF ) who could democratically bring about change and
relief from the catastrophic austerity imposed by this troika and the previous governments.
But what these last months proved was that this is not a question of rationality.
[The simple truth is that the social savagery called austerity could never produce the result it
was ostensibly intended to deliver.]
Even with a government which was ready to accept numerous ruinous measures (despite its
electoral pledges) in exchange simply for a little hope - for example debt restructuring - the
European (including the Greek) elites said no and Tsipras (the prime minister) was
obliged either to commit political suicide or to democratically organize a referendum, the
referendum that we have tomorrow.
The response of European capitalism was immediate: in a country without a central bank the
government does not control basic economic fundamentals i.e. the money. So the European
economic machine decided to close the banks in Greece in order to terrorize the people into
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voting correctly
It is true that this situation frightened a lot of middle class people, essentially pensioners but
also some workers who continue to have jobs.
But even with this disorganization of the Greek economic life decided by the European elite,
it seems that it was not creating enough panic and terror. So for the past two days now the
new terrorist propaganda is that (with a No outcome) there will be a haircut on all bank
deposits -as it was implemented in Cyprus some years ago. This new threat regarding every
bank deposit of more than 8.000 euros is the last weapon of international capital in order to
make Greek workers say yes to its plan.
That's why it is difficult to predict today what the outcome will be tomorrow.
But we have to say that the mobilization of people was extraordinary and also -it is not an
exaggeration - that the anti-capitalist left (essentially ANTARSYA) was often (at local level
at least) the main force along with many organized people of SYRIZA of course.
The essential problem with these last forces is strategic: the hypothesis of SYRIZA, of their
leadership, is that it is enough to have reason on your side or to have a democratically
elected government in order to persuade European powers. This hypothesis is not only
false but even made things worse and paralyzed its own militants.
Since February, the Greek government has payed the equivalent of 15% of its GDP net to its
supposed creditors without receiving any financing simply in order to present its good
will. And in these same five months, all important Greek capitalists have had the time to
export their money (about 30 billions of euros) freely. This means that now the Greek
economy and the government are weaker and the reason why the people in SYRIZA and
others were paralyzed. However what is crucial is that in spite of these weaknesses the
reflexes of the working class and the young people provided the essential force for this
referendum.
I can not assure you that we will win tomorrow: the bourgeoisie terrorism is aggressive and
in a situation where the worker's movement is active via a general strike appraisal, it may be
hard to withstand (the bourgeois terror may have a burden on the consciousness.)
Of course, it would be terrible if the outcome is yes, but it cannot be interpreted as an
acceptance of bourgeois violence.
If we win then the no give Greek workers a lot of confidence and also - and may be more
- to other workers in the world.
However at the same time it could mean an intensification of the economic war against
Greece in the days and weeks ahead. Solidarity from our comrades in the European Union
and of course in Russia and internationally will be crucial for the workers' fight.
We have to oppose
workers!

International capital by organizing this International solidarity of

Thanks
Tassos Anastassiadis
OKDE Spartakos and ANTARSYA
4/7/2015
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