Why SYRIZA is Greek for hope

Stuart Munckton explains Why SYRIZA is Greek for hope.

The victory comes on the back of ongoing social struggles by millions of Greek working people. They include the “movement of the squares” (the Greek version of Occupy), dozens of general strikes and many battles by working people and others for their rights, against state repression and against the (still-present) threat of fascism.

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By the end of the year, SYRIZA could be joined by Podemos in Spain — a new anti-austerity party that emerged out of Spain's mass movement that is ahead in the polls.

Since the global economic crisis broke out in 2008, the capitalists and their government representatives have sought to make working people bear the brunt of the crisis. The Greek people, in particular, have been made to suffer.

As a result of austerity measures, unemployment has risen to 31% (about 50% for youth), and 20% of those who have jobs still live under the poverty line. Suicides have risen dramatically.

The victory for SYRIZA is the first big breakthrough in the popular resistance to what is, in reality, a brutal form of class war.

We know the struggle has only just begun. Unsurprisingly, the rich and powerful are far from impressed at losing control of the Greek government.

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Renegotiating Greece's debt is crucial to reversing the human catastrophe caused by austerity. Every victory in Greece against austerity sends a powerful message to victims of capitalist austerity everywhere — we don't have to accept this, there is an alternative.

We know this is not simply a struggle of Greece's people. It is the struggle for all the victims of austerity — who are being made to pay for the capitalist system's crisis — across Europe. Beyond that, it is a struggle against the deeply unjust global system.

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The Occupy Movement is beginning to bear fruit. There is an ebb and flow in the affairs of humankind, but one has to know whether the tide is coming in or going out.

We have a convergence of several crises: enviromental, political, economic.

The last quarter of a century has seen Capitalism's great victory in the Cold War turn to dust—literally in the deserts of the Middle, and figuratively elsewhere.

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Rich are scared — let's make their fears come true

Stuart Munckton writes that the Rich are scared — let's make their fears come true.

These are certainly interesting times — where growing inequality, ongoing injustice and the threat of climate disaster make a potent brew of deep uncertainty.

Just ask our rulers. A January 23 article in The Guardian titled “As inequality soars, the nervous super rich are already planning their escapes” said: “With growing inequality and the civil unrest from Ferguson and the Occupy protests fresh in people’s mind, the world’s super rich are already preparing for the consequences.

“At a packed session in Davos, former hedge fund director Robert Johnson revealed that worried hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes. 'I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway,' he said.”

But it seems more than just the fear of being targeted by riotous mobs that is keeping the super-rich up at night. In Greece, five years of crippling austerity — imposed to protect the interests of the big banks — led to radical left party SYRIZA sweeping the January 25 elections. Panicked markets started to tumble.

Before the year is out, SYRIZA could be joined in Spain by fellow anti-austerity party Podemos — a new group that emerged out of the mass indignado movement, Spain's equivalent of Occupy, except on a much larger scale.

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Inequality makes the Capitalists do stupid things. Instead of trying to placate the masses, they plan to escape instead.

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