On 2012-02-08, at 12:28 AM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> The Greek CP is not communist, it's not anti-capitalist; it does not have a fucking thing to say
> about any anti-capitalist movement, unless you mean that as part of the
> capitalist regime it ought to put the cops more on the alert. There's a
> certain word magic involved in this assumption that merely calling something
> Communist or Socialist makes it automatically part of the left.
The left parties, including the Greek CP, are not without their faults, but they have been spearheading the protests in Greece, which have often turned violent. Unlike the anarchists, however, the left parties and trade unions have not sought confrontation, but have typically responded in self-defence to police provocations. This is an important distinction.
The latest poll in Greece shows an increase in support for the Greek left on the eve of a a deal mandating further draconian job, pay, and benefit cuts expected to be concluded with the support of the centre-left Pasok and centre-right New Democracy Party. Pasok's support has plummeted to single digits while support for the NDP, which is expected to form the next government, hovers around 30%.
Wojtek previously suggested that NDP's poll numbers confirmed the passivity of the working class in the face of crisis, but he overlooked the combined popular support of left parties, which has surpassed Pasok and the NDP. At the other end of the list's political spectrum, Carrol and Shag have indicated they have more sympathy for the marginal anarchist fringe groups they evidently regard as the main engine of protest in Europe and the US.
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Greek Party Leaders Pore Over Loan Deal By NEKTARIA STAMOULI, ALKMAN GRANITSAS and STELIOS BOURAS Wall Street Journal February 8 2012
ATHENS—Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has set a new appointment Wednesday with party leaders backing his government to seek their approval on a raft of painful reforms needed to win a €130 billion ($170 billion) bailout and prevent a messy default.
After several delays, the leaders of the Socialist, or Pasok, party, the conservative New Democracy party and the small nationalist Laos party, are now scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. GMT, an official in the prime minister's office said.
[…]
The three parties are poring over a 50-page document outlining the terms of the loan package and the required reforms. The final document was the result of difficult negotiations between the Greek government and a visiting delegation of European and International Monetary Fund officials over more than two weeks.
The international lenders have asked Greece to come up with €3.2 billion in spending cuts for 2012 alone. They have also been demanding a reduction in private-sector minimum wages, new cutbacks in government spending, the mass layoff of some 15,000 civil servants in Greece's bloated public sector in 2012 and steep cuts in supplemental pensions paid to retirees.
[…]
Social push back in Greece has stepped up the domestic political risks for party leaders as they balance reform demands with the need to retain popular support ahead of new elections later this year. Protesters in central Athens claim that the new programs will impoverish households and sink the country deeper into recession.
Pressure on Greece has been piling up from its euro-zone partners to accept a new round of painful austerity in exchange for a €130 billion loan promised to the country last October. Without that aid, Greece faces a €14.4 billion bond redemption next month that it cannot pay, raising the specter of a disorderly default by the country.
As a condition for further aid, Greece's official lenders have demanded cross-party support for the reform and austerity program, to ensure there is no backsliding after a new government takes office later this spring.
But New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday that he opposes cuts in pensions that would push the country further into recession.
"Pensions have already been cut. Slashing them further will lead to even deeper recession," Mr. Samaras told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview. He predicted that the economy would contract by 4% this year and would stay in recession in 2013.
Mr. Samaras is widely expected to win Greece's next elections. A nationwide poll by the private Skai television station and the Kathimerini newspaper announced Tuesday sees his New Democracy party backed by 31% of voters. The Socialist party, which currently holds a slim majority in parliament, is backed by only 8% while the Laos party, which also backs the Papademos coalition, has 5% support.
Leftist parties, which openly oppose the austerity measures, saw their popularity rise significantly. The poll said Stalinist KKE is backed by 12.5% of voters, the newly formed Democratic Left by 18% and the Coalition of the Left by 12%.
"Look to what the recession has done. It's leading the country to the left and to the extremes," Mr. Samaras said. "The recession is eroding the social fabric."
Mr. Samaras also expressed opposition to the establishment of an escrow account proposed by France and Germany to guarantee Greek debt repayments.
"The escrow account is an indirect oversight of Greece by Germany," Mr. Samaras said. "I have a problem with that."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested Monday that any new bailout agreement include a provision for a blocked account that would ensure repayment of bond holders.
Against this backdrop, signs of popular protest are growing. Greece's two major umbrella unions held a 24-hour nationwide general strike Tuesday—the latest in a string of strikes called to protest successive waves of austerity measures Greece has taken in the past two years.
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