En Passant

As one public sector trade unionist told me last night during the “violent” negotiations in Brussels:

“The foreign media seem to think that if he [Tsipras] signs up to something and the parliament passes it then it’s going to happen. Quite simply – it is not. There will be an enormous battle.”

2) The executive of the ADEDY public sector union federation meets this afternoon. It is set to consider a call from the anti-capitalist left for a 24-hour strike against the new memorandum, whether agreed to by the government or imposed from without through a capital-enforced expulsion of Greece from the eurozone.

No one on the left of the party is responsible for breaking an “anti-austerity” government’s majority. The government itself did that when it broke from the party’s programme – even its most minimal one: no more austerity. There is an honourable tradition of representatives of the left finding themselves in a minority in an assembly on a matter of principle, only then to find – sometimes more quickly than they had anticipated – that they represent majority feeling in the society.

The result of the little game by the geniuses who run the EU was to further shatter New Democracy, the party of big business. The left has hegemony in Greek society for the first time since 1944.

The main point I wanted to make here is that in order to win the limited aim (the aim was limited, so the victory yesterday was both huge and partial) of winning the No vote, the government – which has been characterised by tactical improvisation without a clear strategy – had to adopt the tactics which the most radical of the left prioritise.

The movement has returned. Or rather, the strong beginnings of a movement which in its social molecular reality never actually went away. That’s an opinion. An estimation this morning. It is bright and sunny. And I am among the hopeful today.

For now, I’m confident of one judgement – the political system of the old order is broken. It goes without saying that a defeat for our side tomorrow is, to say the least, unwelcome. But, putting the same thing in another way, what of a victory for their side tomorrow? For several reasons we didn’t think tonight that that would stabilise things for them, despite the advantage it obviously would give.

Real social forces were rallied tonight!

Tonight’s rally was a big success.

The sheer size of it will be felt outside of Athens in the towns and villages and regional cities. The private media is very bad. But it was enormous and it has forced its way into the broadcasts with no one in a position to gainsay its size.