about the electoral results in Greece by the NAR for the Communist Liberation

First Announcement about the electoral results in Greece by the New Left Current (NAR) for the Communist Liberation

1. The parliamentary elections of 7 July were the end of the political phase of the multiple electoral confrontations since last May, which has formed a deeper anti-popular political balance of forces.

The result of the parliamentary elections marks the passage into a new political phase, the end of the cycle of social and political upheavals in recent years and a conservative political shift. The bourgeois political system succeeded and made a significant step towards its stabilization, with the emergence of a new bi-polar party system (ND-SYRIZA with 71% or 80% for the parties that applied the policies of the EU-IMF memoranda during the last decade, if we also add the party of KINAL, ex-PASOK). At the same time the bourgeois system managed to squeeze the left forces and the small parties.

However, this political stabilization does not correspond to a social stability. The wounds of the crisis of capitalism remain open for the working class, the youth and the lower strata as Nea Dimokratia promises and plans a new round of "growth" with low wages, flexible working hours, reduced pensions, and the hitting of democratic rights and popular freedoms. The Mitsotakis government may have 158 out of 300 MPs in the parliament, but it does not have a real majority in the society and it will face – sooner than they believe - the popular reactions to its policy.

2. The main reason for the formation of this new conservative political reality is the end of the SYRIZA venture, which reversed the notion of the Left in people’s consciousness, which in fact brought back ND as the “first violin” of the bourgeois orchestra. The governance of SYRIZA legitimized the right-wing Nea Dimokratia again in the consciousness of thousands of people through its policy of "no alternative" (TINA) and the acceptance of the basic political lines of the EU and the IMF (the need of yearly bloody surpluses in order for the debt to be paid, the austerity, the numerous privatizations of significant state infrastructure, the logic of capitalist profitability, the deeper engagement with the US factor and the EU in their imperialist policies). Within this framework, SYRIZA pursued a policy of a "workhouse", succeeding in maintaining its influence on important sections of the lower strata (also taking advantage of the opposition of ND to any signs of social policy). First, the incorporation of the radical left-wing current of 2010-15 into the government stewardship of SYRIZA and then the disappointment that the acceptance of the TINA logic by SYRIZA brought resulted in the retreat of the mass movement and consequently in the dominance of the “lesser evil” logic which finally – as always – brought the greater evil back. Thus, now the Greek capital with Mitsotakis on the wheel will attempt to escalate the anti-labor and anti-grassroots attack in all areas of social and political life, having secured the "responsible" and systemic opposition on the part of SYRIZA who is already dressing up the "new" democratic progressive faction.

3. The great fall of the Golden Dawn neo-Nazi party and their exit from parliament is a positive fact. The constant activity of the anti-fascist movement contributed to this but also the change in the priorities of factions of the system that promoted the enhancement of ND which held a nationalist agenda (e.g. Macedonian issue) and adopted important aspects of the far-right positions. Finally, the emergence of the Hellenic Solution party which holds heinous and strongly racist positions and can work more effectively in favor of the system in the new phase is yet another reason for the weakening of the Golden Dawn. The workers', peoples’ and anti-fascist movement will continue their struggle to put fascists in prison until the final disappearance of the Golden Dawn from the political map, but we will also work for a serious blow for the defeat of all sorts of extremist, racist and neo-fascist politicians and forces.

4. MERA diem 25 (Varoufakis’ party) managed to enter parliament, expressing a tendency to protest the current state of affairs and seek for a way out. Yet the political program of MERA25 is blurry, based on new delusions. The systemic and favorable towards the EU, technocratic party of Varoufakis, can by no means be seen as a left-wing power and it cannot express the needs and rights of the workers since it claims to support the "healthy entrepreneurship" and co-operation (sic) between employers and workers, ie a "modern" version of class-peace and inter-class collaboration. MERA25 will be tested in the new conditions, where it will have to take specific positions in the political and class debate.

5. The result of ANTARSYA (0,41%, 23.500 votes) is negative, as was the recent result in the European elections in May. ANTARSYA lost one third of its votes to the European elections, failing to express a campaign of different quality for the anti-capitalist Left. Mainly its programmatic and political inadequacies, its limited social composition and, of course, the contradictory choices of its forces that created confusion for its physiognomy and its political orientation were the basic elements which on the ground of the retreat of the mass movement and the whole radical current, that contributed to the great struggles of the 2010-15 period, led to these poor electoral results. In addition, NAR and ANTARSYA have to confront openly and boldly with the question of why the big number of people that support and fight along with the anti-capitalist left in the movement, the different struggles, the union elections and/or the municipal / regional elections, do not yet recognize us as an independent political force capable of expressing its interests as a whole against the capital, the state and the different governments. Why is the logic that regards the anti-capitalist left as a complementary force of reformist and managerial powers still so strong, even when SYRIZA has become openly bourgeois.

6. The KKE (Communist Party of Greece) remained stuck at the levels of the European elections (5,3%), and experienced a small decrease comparing to the parliamentary elections of 2015. Most importantly, however, the large decline in the KKE's rates in the years of the crisis is enshrined. It may seem like the only real left in political and parliamentary terms, but it does not inspire anyone for "something more", and what’s more for the necessary programmatic, grassroot and total reconstruction of the left. LAE (Popular Unity) saw an even bigger decline, losing half of its votes compared to the May 26th European elections. The formal change of leadership without a change in its physiognomy and politics led to this result. Other organizations and parties of the extra-parliamentary left have had a rather bad election result. In total, the left-wing space was squeezed and plundered (this time) by the extortionist dilemmas and the theory of the “lost/unuseful vote” set by SYRIZA. In any case, for the results of the left in the elections, the retreat of the mass movement (despite some important and heroic battles) during SYRIZA’s governance has also played a major role. It is obvious, however, that critical deficits emerge in the strategic, political, social-class and organizational spheres, from which no one can "escape" without substantive discussion, self-critical view, and active reconstruction. This applies also for NAR and ANTARSYA.

7. Facing the new period that we are entering, the front of the anti-capitalist left holds de facto the responsibility of bold decisions and incissions in the direction of the construction of an anti-capitalist pole, with a strong political agreement and a deeper democratic constitution. The necessity for a radical, coherent and comprehensive reconstruction of the anti-capitalist and contemporary communist left is necessary and imperative. Having as its starting point the achievements of ANTARSYA so far, and at the same time the knowledge that they are insufficient, deeper incisions are needed at all levels. ANTARSYA is due to organize the necessary dialogue on these issues both internally and with all the struggling activists of the movement and the anti-capitalist Left. NAR for the Communist Liberation will also contribute with its own initiatives in this direction, particularly on the side of the dialogue and rallying of fighters inspired by the path to a modern communist program and party.

8. We salute the 23,500 activists and social fighters who, in difficult political and movement conditions, have chosen to support the ANTARSYA ballot papers. In the regional elections of May ANTARSYA won 12 seats in regional councils (including 2 in Attica which is the most populated region in Greece). The percentage of ANTARSYA in the regional elections ranged from 1,38% to 2,06% with 86.000 votes nationwide. In the municipal elections ANTARSYA supported 31 municipal anticapitalist lists and won 26 seats in local councils all over Greece. The best results were in the working-class suburbs of Athens and Thessaloniki (ranging from 3,23% to 4,41% in some of the most populated municipalities).

We welcome the thousands of members and friends of the anti-capitalist Left, the workers, the young and the elderly, the unemployed and the women who fought these complicated and difficult four electoral battles with self-denial and made serious efforts to prevent the strategic defeat of labor policy and the revolutionary and Communist Left. Their struggle, even if it had limited results, has shed a seed of a new victorious counterattack.

9. At present it is urgent to organize the militant workers' and popular opposition to the escalation of the attack by the ND government and the systemic forces as a whole. NAR for Communist Liberation, the Communist Liberation youth and ANTARSYA will be at the forefront of the battle to rebuild the mass movement. For new struggles which can be effective and victorious, which will be guided and controlled by the workers themselves and not by the “yellow” bureaucratic national syndicates. We need to "break" the political boundaries they will try to put in the mass movement and clash with the fake "opposition" of SYRIZA. We need to go beyond the logic of protests in order to "draw conclusions" and change our vote, as is the logic of KKE. NAR for the Communist Liberation invites all class and struggling forces, fighters and activists of the movement to work together for the class and political rebuilding of the movement.

The Political Bureau of New Left Current (NAR) for the Communist Liberation

Athens July the 8th 2019