Interview with SYRIZA activist Sissy Vovou

Vivian Messimeris does an Interview with SYRIZA activist Sissy Vovou.

I am one of the militant cadre of SYRIZA and there are thousands of us. We see that we have some signs of reconciliations with the existing political system, which is a totally bourgeois political system. We can see that some signs are very worrying. We are fighting and we are winning some battles and losing others. Now that we will become the government, well we hope that we will become government; we will try very hard to implement the priorities that will assist the working class and the unemployed. As for socialism this is a road, this is not tomorrow but a process that we have to work through. I want to say to the people who make these criticisms; we should be working together to achieve these things. If not for socialism, then at least for a more humanitarian situation and for a fairer distribution of income between rich and poor and between men and women. We must be inside the game. I beg these people, make your criticisms that’s fine, but we need your solidarity and support.

Emphasis Mine

The path to Socialism is not a dogmatic recipe. As the Russian, Chinese, Cuban, Vietnamese, Venezuelan, and Eucadoran revolutions have shown, there are multiple paths to Socialism with many road-blocks, pit-falls, regressions and reactions along the way. Not all of these revolutions had a Bolshevik party. All of them have been under attack from Capitalism both from within and without.

Each country has to be cognizant of its history, culture, political and economic development. SYRIZA has grown along a trajectory that is particular to Greek history and politics. One has to remember that a Communist uprising was brutally suppressed in the Greek Civil War of 1946-49. The ossification of the Greek Communist Party (KKE) dates from this period. The repression due to the Greek military junta of 1967-74 has also an effect on the direction of Greek politics.

One could see in the rise of SYRIZA a national struggle against the economic oppression through austerity by Germany and France. This struggle has enabled SYRIZA to put forward a concrete programme of action that addresses the immediate needs of the Greek people along with a vision of what a future Greek society should look like. This programme is not explicitly socialist, but originates from socialist principles.

The Greek revolution may develop along a trajectory similar to Venezuela and Eucador in that there is a long period of dual power accompanied by intense political debate and civil strife aided by the USA. To secure SYRIZA's position, similar victories need to happen in Spain, Italy, Ireland, Scotland, and Portugal. These are the nations that have been devastated by the austerity programmes demanded by the troika (ECB, IMF, EC).