Kasama is reposting the following English translation (the original can be found here) from the parliamentary delegation of the Communist Organization of Greece on their reasons for abstaining from a vote on the third memorandum. Posting this statement does not mean endorsement of its content. We seek to provide information from the point of view of a serious communist group in the heat of the popular struggle in Greece as our audience follows the developing situation there.
STATEMENT
We decided not to participate in the voting because: ·
This process is not just a negotiating mandate but it represents our commitment to a Third Memorandum, drawn up on demand of the Troika.
This decision will plunge the country into greater deadlocks. ·
We marched for years in the path of the anti-memorandum movement, we committed ourselves in positions and programs that clearly aimed at solving peoples’ problems.
Our aim was their liberation from the suffocating neoliberal surveillance programs, which made people poorer, which bargained away public wealth, which demolished any collective conquest.
We fought to stop the transformation of our country to a debt colony and to a protectorate. ·
Just few days after the resounding ‘NO’ that Greek people voted in the referendum, we cannot approve, as a basis for discussion with the lenders, the same issues that our people rejected despite the unprecedented conditions of blackmail.
An agreement that, in its outcome (after the negotiation procedures end) will probably be even more burdensome. Moreover we are being asked to approve a package of measures with fast track procedures that directly refer to the practices of previous governments. ·
It is unacceptable that a Left Wing Government loads on its shoulders a Third Memorandum, to implement policies and measures that even the most purebred pro-Memoranda political forces struggled to avoid.
With this plan, many projects and hopes will be canceled. Furthermore it becomes obvious that this plan ignores all the wishes and aspirations of the Greek people. ·
Despite the huge support it received from the people, the Greek government has made strategic mistakes.
Its illusions led to a dead end, which left the country with two painful choices/alternatives: a Third Memorandum or a ”Grexit”, but without any preparation of the people.
All our warnings raised after February 20th were ignored. · Citizens do not want the old political system to return. However, such an agreement does not stabilize the government but brings it into direct conflict with the masses and all the movements developed in the past. ·
To the extent that the government will follow such a hopeless and unpopular policy -and if there are no other political developments- it should be assumed that we cannot, as MPs of SYRIZA, support this course.
We were elected with a program, we are committed to the people to promote an anti-memorandum policy, and we consider that Politics and Morality should meet again. ·
Our choice not to participate in tonight’s vote signifies our opposition to the procedure followed, and mainly states in the clearest way the need for a total change of direction.
The fight for a political, economic and social way out goes on, thanks to the large reserves of courage of our people.
Athens, Saturday 11 July 2015, 04:00 AM
Vassilis Chatzilamprou, MP of SYRIZA for Achaia Dimitris Kodelas, MP of SYRIZA for Argolida Vassilis Kyriakakis, MP of SYRIZA for Fthiotida Eleni Sotiriou, MP of SYRIZA for Attica
Further information study KOE newspaper:
http://edromos.gr/
The KOE helped lead Greece to this point. If it didn’t help much, that is only because it was too small to play a larger role. It helped anyway as much as it could.
Where in this statement is there any hint of self-criticism, any indication at all that they have learned ANYTHING from this?
glad to see they’re finally catching up to the KKE
well said by the KOE.
i should wait till the butter clarifies, but i can’t resist noting the joke that it’s the imf that may derail the whole agreeement (at this writing) – since it can afford to see the emperor’s new clothes and has said that no way greece can handle this plan; it is not sustainable. i guess not when the greek people speak, but when the imf speaks…
also see the establishment economists to the left of tspiras – eg, j. stiglitz of nobel fame, says the bankers who caused this are ‘criminally responsible’ [ http://time.com/3939621/stiglitz-greece/ ] and before the referendum said that he would vote no (http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/29/joseph-stiglitz-how-i-would-vote-in-the-greek-referendum?CMP=share_btn_fb!) – and by ‘no’ he did not mean the meaningless ‘no’ of tspiras , but this:
“It is hard to advise Greeks how to vote on 5 July. Neither alternative – approval or rejection of the troika’s terms – will be easy, and both carry huge risks. A yes vote would mean depression almost without end. Perhaps a depleted country – one that has sold off all of its assets, and whose bright young people have emigrated – might finally get debt forgiveness; perhaps, having shrivelled into a middle-income economy, Greece might finally be able to get assistance from the World Bank. All of this might happen in the next decade, or perhaps in the decade after that.
By contrast, a no vote would at least open the possibility that Greece, with its strong democratic tradition, might grasp its destiny in its own hands. Greeks might gain the opportunity to shape a future that, though perhaps not as prosperous as the past, is far more hopeful than the unconscionable torture of the present.
I know how I would vote.”
this in contrast to the syriza faction that only wants to engineer the surrender.
and here’s a good idea: General Strike Called in Greece Against the Third Memorandum at
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2015/ovenden130715.html
so what’s wrong with this comment?
well said by the KOE.
i should wait till the butter clarifies, but i can’t resist noting the joke that it’s the imf that may derail the whole agreeement (at this writing) – since it can afford to see the emperor’s new clothes and has said that no way greece can handle this plan; it is not sustainable. i guess not when the greek people speak, but when the imf speaks…
also see the establishment economists to the left of tspiras – eg, j. stiglitz of nobel fame, says the bankers who caused this are ‘criminally responsible’ [ http://time.com/3939621/stiglitz-greece/ ] and before the referendum said that he would vote no (http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/29/joseph-stiglitz-how-i-would-vote-in-the-greek-referendum?CMP=share_btn_fb!) – and by ‘no’ he did not mean the meaningless ‘no’ of tspiras , but this:
“It is hard to advise Greeks how to vote on 5 July. Neither alternative – approval or rejection of the troika’s terms – will be easy, and both carry huge risks. A yes vote would mean depression almost without end. Perhaps a depleted country – one that has sold off all of its assets, and whose bright young people have emigrated – might finally get debt forgiveness; perhaps, having shrivelled into a middle-income economy, Greece might finally be able to get assistance from the World Bank. All of this might happen in the next decade, or perhaps in the decade after that.
By contrast, a no vote would at least open the possibility that Greece, with its strong democratic tradition, might grasp its destiny in its own hands. Greeks might gain the opportunity to shape a future that, though perhaps not as prosperous as the past, is far more hopeful than the unconscionable torture of the present.
I know how I would vote.”
this in contrast to the syriza faction that only wants to engineer the surrender.
Interesting article about situation in Greece
http://lesmaterialistes.com/english/cpmlm-declaration-67-about-syriza-s-victory-greek-parlementiary-elections