[lbo-talk] [Pen-l] Syriza's Tsipras offers reassurances

[Lenin's Tomb]

In fairness, the Syriza Left had won, prior to the party’s electoral surge, support for the slogan of ‘not one sacrifice for the euro’.  But that slogan was quietly dropped before the May 2012 election, and never revived.  And in fact, given the choice between accepting a degree of austerity or leaving the eurozone, most Syria members appear to prefer the former.  This is unsurprising.  The only serious proposal for a Grexit coming from the Left is Costas Lapavitsas’s.  It’s a good programme, but essentially it is itself a form of austerity which depends on a massive increase in the rate of exploitation in order to get the country up and running again outside the eurozone - it would be a heavily punished economy too, as the EU would want to make an example out of such a state.  It’s a tough sell.


> On 6 Nov 2014, at 17:16, Robert Naiman <naiman at justforeignpolicy.org> wrote:
> 
> Syriza was *never* going to leave the Eurozone. It was always pro-Euro. It
> always claimed that Greece could have gotten a better deal from Europe, and
> it always said that if it were in power, it would negotiate a better deal.
> 
> Also, if Syriza doesn't work to moderate its image - which is as much due
> to the distortions of opponents as to its own past rhetoric - it has no
> chance of winning the election and taking power. A key talking point
> against Syriza is the current "Syriza premium" on Greek debt. If Syriza's
> line were "set Greece's creditors on fire" its chances of winning the next
> election would be zero.
> 
>