Taking the first step in a new direction
The (DEA, according to its initials in Greek) is a Greek revolutionary socialist group and co-founding member of SYRIZA, the Coalition of the Radical Left. DEA is a leading force in the Left Platform within SYRIZA, with several members represented on the party's Central Committee and among its parliamentary representatives. This editorial published in DEA's newspaper last week looked ahead to SYRIZA's election victory and the struggles and challenges to come.
THE VICTORY of SYRIZA in the elections of January 25 is a landmark moment in the struggle of the working class, the poor, the youth and the left. The overthrow of the final Memorandum government removes the mechanism by which the Troika and Greek ruling class have orchestrated their unprecedented operation to demolish labor and social rights.
This victory is first of all a victory for the working class and the social movements, which with their struggles and their left-wing opposition, have removed the last political supports for the Memorandums and have caused three governments that accepted and implemented austerity to fall. It comes at a time when global capitalism and imperialism are in crisis and the structure of the Eurozone is fracturing.
SYRIZA and Left must now justify the hopes placed in it by the working class and social movements, not only in Greece, but across Europe and far beyond. It now has a historic mandate based on these hopes.
However, there should be no illusion: This political victory in the elections--as great and important as it is--is only the first step. It is a new starting point along a difficult path that will be marked by tough and decisive battles against the system.
The owners of the mass media, the Bankers and industrialists, the Schäubles and Draghis [referring to conservative German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi] will try to extinguish the fire of Greece's rebellion against austerity. They will use the carrot and the stick--threatening and blackmailing on the one hand, but also proposing compromises whose effect would be to prolong the Memorandum framework.
The reversal of austerity has begun, but the decisive path lies ahead. We must remain unwavering in our fundamental objectives of abolishing the Memorandum and removing austerity in order to be in a position to win the great battles that will come--to have a chance of completing process, we must stay strong in the political commitments put forward for a government of the left. We must confront both the "stick" of blackmail and threats, and the "carrot" of the "fair compromises" that maintain the priorities of the Memoradums.
To succeed, we must utilize our greatest strengths--the mobilization to the greatest degree possible of the membership and organizations of SYRIZA, the continuous effort to maintain a united front of organizations and parties of the left, but, above all, the activity of workers and the popular masses.
This we must incite, organize and support by any appropriate means, with the aim of taking back everything that has been taken from us--not only what was lost in the years of the Memorandums, but also what has never been won before!
Translation by Antonis Martalis
