9.6.2012
Dear
Comrades of the EEK
The world
working class stands before a unique opportunity in that there is the
possibility for the working class to take power in
With 27
national strikes over the past 18 months, the working class in
What makes
the period so significant is that all over the world, including in every
imperialist centre, the working class is on the move and the capitalist class
is on the back foot. If the Greek working class seizes power, it shows the way
to the rest of the world proletariat. In particular, the working class in
The rapid
growth of the Syriza expresses the desire of the
masses to decisively end the austerity programme. Insofar as Syriza is already beginning to move away from its reformist
programme, and when the masses see their inability to deliver on their demands,
they will turn away from them. It is good and well for the EEK to expose the
limitation of the Syriza programme, but a huge
section of the working class still has the remnants of constitutional
illusions. It is good to call for workers councils but the question is how to
set these into motion now to create a dual power situation, especially in the light
of the movement of the fascists to become more bold. The setting up of workers
councils is not a task to be postponed until after the June 17th
elections.
We have
noted (sorry we may be mistaken as we rely on the very poor version of
Google-translate from Greek to English) that your proposed emergency programme
is almost identical to that of Antarsya. We propose
that you publicly call Antarsya to a meeting to
discuss a united front on fighting for this programme. This means that you at
all times appear before the masses with your programme and banner with complete
freedom to differ with all other groups. Our proposal is that you then ,
together with Antarsya, but never submerging the EEK
as an entity, publicly call for a meeting with the Syriza
and the KKE to discuss a united front to fight for your programme. Of course,
the KKE will refuse, but their rank and file will see that EEK is the one that
wants to unite the working class. The proposal is that you give critical
support and call on the working class to vote for Syriza,
based on your programme, but with one central condition, namely that there be
immediate setting up of workers councils and a call for an armed workers
militia to defend the organizations of the masses from the fascist attacks. In
this way, still, the entire Greek working class will see that EEK wants unity
in action and a real fight for an anti-austerity, workers government. You have
to warn even now, that the Syriza may back down from
the agreements, may even form a government with the Pasok
and ND, so workers need to be ready and not wait until then, but take immediate
steps now. We have to make it clear that the anti-austerity emergency programme
can only become a reality if the working class seizes political power- only the
working class in power can carry out the demands of the masses. This needs
workers councils and for the working class, in the birthplace of democracy, to
overcome bourgeois democracy. There has to be direct rule by the working class.
We need to
warn the masses that in this period of capitalist crisis, the world bourgeoisie
has to resort to temporary reforms in order to save the system from being
overthrown- thus a Syriza-bourgeois coalition may
offer some sops to attempt to win time for the capitalists. But this would only
be a half-way measure. At the same time, the capitalists would openly prepare
their fascist gangs. Imperialism and Stalinism do their best to divide the
working class, we say, it would be fatal for us to wait until after the
elections. Immediate steps are needed.
Please
consider the above. The masses in
We
apologise that we send this message via several means as we are not sure if
they are reaching you.
Lastly it
is obvious that there be a call made for the revolutionary organizations of the
working class to gather in
Are we
wrong? We await your earnest reply.
WIVP
Dear
Comrades of the EEK
We propose
an additional point,namely that a call should be made
on the PAME, [GSEE] and ADEEDY to also support a critical vote for the Syriza, but on the basis of your programme and , centrally,
that there be an immediate call for setting up workers councils, which has to
go with armed workers militia (committees for self-defence), firstly for
preparing a defence of all workers organization against the fascist gangs.
These self defence organs and workers councils would lay the basis for a dual
power, namely to turn from defence to offence, once the real Syriza is exposed in front of the eyes of the masses. Thus
on the Leninist basis, of extending critical support like a noose for them to
publicly hang themselves- in other words to take the masses through the last
remnants of electoralism, to expose finally its
capitalist nature and thus support the turn to workers councils and the contest
for power in the streets.
These are
for urgent consideration.
Note that
as Syriza is a coalition, the imperialists are
pressuring it from the right. Our proposal is to support the left tendency
within it, with the central aim of exposing finally, the remnants of electoralism as a capitalist fraud, helping to break the
masses finally from the capitalist trap and towards workers councils.
12.6.2012
Dear
Comrades of the EEK
A further note of clarification:
The
discussion on the Greek crisis has made us return to re-study Lenin’s Left
Wing Communism –an infantile disorder (the chapter on ‘Left wing’ communism in Britain); we
would suggest that you have a look at it again, and perhaps you may be able to
get an even closer approximation of what is required, than what we are
suggesting, to take the masses through the experience of the Syriza to discredit them and parliamentarianism once and
for all.
We can only
say that Lenin’s text argues rather strongly for critical support of the Labour
party which was at that time rather to the right of what the current position
of Syriza is. We say that the lessons show that we
cannot disregard the necessity for huge sections of the masses, including its
backward sections, to go through this experience with Syriza.
The question is how can we use this moment to help decisively discredit
parliament once and for all.
The
programme of the EEK and the Antarsya appear in
essence to be the same (even though both of you fall short on directly calling
for the closure of the Nato bases, which Syriza is calling for). Even if the name of the EEK cannot
appear on the ballot paper, but there is agreement that in all platforms of the
Antarsya, the EEK has the freedom of criticism and
freedom of agitation as the EEK, inside and outside Antarsya,
this should have been sufficient to form a united front with them. The idea is
not to haggle over the number of EEK candidates. EEK does not stand for the
purpose of winning parliamentary deputies but to use the platform to discredit
parliament. We would argue that the EEK (whether inside or outside of a united
front with Antarsya), should in any case have limited
its candidates and should be mobilising for a critical vote for the Syriza. This is to say to the masses, here is the EEK
programme which we should be fighting for, we know that the Syriza
is already having secret meetings with the bankers and imperialism, they would
not want an overwhelming victory because they would have no excuse not to carry
out their minimalist programme; we will mobilise workers to vote for Syriza, What we want to emphasize is that a workers
government based on workers councils, the dictatorship of the working class is
better than parliament, which is a form of the dictatorship of the handful of
capitalists; we will defend a Syriza government from
attacks from the ND, Pasok and the fascists but we
cannot take any iota of responsibility for its actions. We think the Syriza will betray- you do not believe us now, but when the
Syriza government turns its back even 1 millimetre on
the masses, there has to be a confrontation with it and the entire Greek
regime. This time, it will not be through parliament, but in the streets. It is
for this result that we invite all workers to start preparing for NOW.
So while
you are preparing for elections, we call on the working class to help build
workers councils and self-defence committees- already the fascists are
mobilising- we dare not wait for after the elections. History is full of
half-way regimes, such as Allende in
The
leadership of Syriza may disagree to meet with EEK
(and Antarsya)- then you can clearly show that they
are closer to the bankers than to the fighting organizations of the working
class. Even then the EEK should still call for a critical vote for Syriza- raising all your criticisms.
It is
unlikely that the Syriza will agree to the entire EEK
programme- if they do, they would have to change their party programme. But
your mere approach to meet them will remove their highground
of posing as willing to form an anti-austerity workers government. EEK will
have the high ground.
Even if the
Syriza does not agree to all of the EEK programme,
but only part of it- they can be exposed on the reasons where they differ. For
example, you can unmask them by saying- you gained the majority in
Unless
there is a massive experience before the elections that makes the masses see
through the reformism of the Syriza, we would argue
that there is still grounds, even in cases of partial or no agreement, of
calling for a critical vote for Syriza.
The
overnight bailout of Spanish banks with billions of Euros, supposedly without
conditions, is being used by imperialism to bolster support for the ND-Pasok and even a Syriza
government to argue that loans should continue. However already the Greek
masses have paid 600 billion euros- really, they owe no-one, yet imperialism
insists that the masses pay more and borrow more. Postponing payment is just
delaying a debt which was not of the making of the Greek masses- the Syriza regime will turn its back on the masses at some
stage to make them pay.
Further, we
want to emphasize that we do not call for a critical vote for the KKE- its
leadership has for the past 60 plus years played a counter-revolutionary role
against the working class- we should call on the rank and file KKE members to
break with it and to join the EEK/Antarsya.
Time is
running out, but we hope that you may still be able to make a decisive
intervention. We are ready to assist.
For the
political committee
WIVP