سايت سازمان کارگران انقلابی ايران (راه کارگر)

جمعه ۱ اسفند ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۲۰ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Social and democratic rights radically challenged!

The mainstream media often mention the dangers of the Eurozone falling apart, the failure of austerity policies to fan the embers of the economy, tensions between Berlin and Paris or Rome, or even London and the Eurozone, disagreements between ECB directors, the enormous difficulty in agreeing on the EU budget or the winces of certain European governments concerning IMF remarks about austerity levels. These problems are real but they should not overshadow the essential issues....nThe European authorities also strengthen the “Fortress Europe” policies by blotting out the rights of non European nationals to enter the European territories. As they “refine” their criminal methods they cause thousands of deaths among applicants fleeing to the European shores. The right to asylum itself is trampled upon...It is clear, that behind the smoke screen of official announcements, a terribly unjust and deadly logic is at work. It is high time it be exposed, in order to better resist it and defeat it.

جمعه ۱ اسفند ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۲۰ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

SYRIZA, socialists and the struggles ahead

Antonis Davanellos, Sotiris Martalis

Greece’s left-wing government is on a collision course with the rulers of Europe over the commitment of the Coalition of the Radical Left, or SYRIZA, to reverse drastic austerity measures imposed under the Memorandums negotiated with the European Union (EU).
One question SYRIZA must face now is what happens when former leaders of these social democratic parties try to come to SYRIZA. SYRIZA has problems just based on its size. Its membership is around 35,000 people, and it won 2,250,000 votes—that’s a very big gap. So that’s another problem that reality has presented to SYRIZA, and that it must solve

جمعه ۱ اسفند ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۲۰ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

'On the razor's edge' by Stathis Kouvelakis

Stathis Kouvelakis

nd herein, maybe, lies hope. It can´t be ruled out that the escalating demands of the EU and the lenders will be rejected by a government that has undertaken some basic commitments to its people. And, more importantly, that they will be rejected by a people that is believing in hope again and taking to the country´s streets and squares. A retreat should not be treated as unavoidable, and the Greek government deserves support to the extent that it is holds firm in the war unleashed against it. Whatever the conclusion, one thing is certain. All the reassuring arguments that have circulated in the past few years - about a European “bluff”, about the possibility of overthrowing austerity within the Eurozone framework, of separating lending agreements and memoranda, of solutions in the lines of the 1953 London conference on the German debt (that is, of a favourable restructuring for the borrower agreed by the lender) - in other words the constituent elements of the narrative of the “good Euro”, have all collapsed. At some point, we are owed explanations about all this as well.....

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

The Coercion of Greece

by MARK WEISBROT

European coercion would come into play in the event of an exit too. The European authorities could try to block trade credits (this was another threat to Argentina) and otherwise injure the Greek financial system. They could try to pressure China and other countries not to provide loans. But it is unlikely that they would succeed in isolating Greece, and it is not clear that they could get political support in Europe for this kind of vindictiveness.
For now, at least, the coercion does not seem to be intimidating the Greeks. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis made it clear on Monday that ultimatums would not be accepted. Tsipras’ approval rating is running at 75 percent, including 42 percent of those who voted for the then-ruling party in the January election. This is a triumph of democracy for Greece, and for Europe

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Dont Tell Anyone in Berlin

Ironman Varoufakis’s Revolutionary Plan for Europe

MIKE WHITNEY

Unless we have a new deal for Europe, Greece is not going to get a chance….It’s a necessary condition that the eurozone finds a rational plan for itself…. until and unless the eurozone finds a rational plan for stopping this train wreck throughout the European Union, throughout the eurozone, Greece has no chance at all.....

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Rejecting Austerity, Greece Squares Off with Its Creditors & Risks Future in Eurozone

Any Goodman speaks to Paul Mason

Greece just elected a government led by a party that about a third of which are, you know, far-left Marxists, and the rest of which are—belong to that new left tradition in Europe that would put them way, way to the left of any Democrat politician. So, we’ve got—this is just about more than money. It’s about a cultural and political clash. The Greeks are going to be sending to the European institutions people who indeed have been trained as Marxists, so Marxist lawyers. There is a Marxist criminologist in charge of the police force. This is something that nobody in Europe expected, least of all the Germans. And the Germans just basically now—I think that Schäuble there and the German political class just can’t get their head around the idea that a party has been elected that wants to do something so radically different, that they can’t do it without breaking the rules that the eurozone has been formed around. So it’s becoming cultural.

And remember, of course, the oldest member of the European Parliament for Syriza, this left-wing party that now runs Greece, is Manolis Glezos. He’s 94. And in World War II, he was jailed by the Nazis for ripping the swastika down from the Acropolis. So, this is living memory stuff. And you bet, in the mountain villages of Greece, there are people still alive who remember when the Germans occupied their village. That’s how cultural and personal it is getting.

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

The Next Syriza?

The Next Syriza? As Greece Rejects Austerity, Meet the Activist Who Could Become Spain’s New PM

By Pablo Iglesias and Amy Goodman Source: Democracy Now

Probably we are the answer, the answer to austerity policizing in our country. I never thought it was possible, a political phenomenon as us in our country, and probably we are the result of the disaster of these policies of austerity in Spain. And probably, we are the expression of the hope now. People in my country is starting to understand that in democracy, when something is going wrong, you can do the things well. And probably we are a new opportunity, a new opportunity of change in Spain. And we are pretty happy to be an instrument of the people for the political change......

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Syriza Will Have to Choose between Scylla and Charybdis

Jerome Roos

eedless to say, both options will come at a very high cost. Yet it now seems increasingly obvious that a costly standoff with Scylla is the only way to avoid a deadly dance with Charybdis and save the ship. Without default and exit, Greece will be sucked into the whirlpool of a deflationary debt trap for decades to come. Sooner or later the left-led government will be compelled to choose between a radical experiment outside the euro or a painful defeat within it. As the heroes of Greek antiquity knew well, there can be no glory without struggle — and no victory without sacrifice.

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Syriza and its allies responded to crisis in a way no one could have imagined. Will it work

How Greece Put an Anti-Austerity, Anti-Capitalist Party in Power

The left forces of Greece are finally on the march, sustained by the material desperation and the tenuous hope of their countrypeople. One wrong move, and there is every possibility that they will be swallowed up by the forces of reaction, by the troika’s decrees and the fascists’ appeal. “I have been an activist for forty years,” says Christos, the Solidarity for All organizer. “Now, for the first time in my life, I’ve started realizing how much pain and effort it takes to conquer space and change the smallest thing. To open the cracks through which you can see the horizon takes so much effort. Everything we do is tested on the ground. If you’re useful to the people, you’re recognized......

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

TEXT-GREEK REQUEST LETTER FOR BAILOUT EXTENSION - RTRS

In this context, the Greek authorities are now applying for the extension of the Master Financial Assistance Facility Agreement for a period of six months from its termination during which period we shall proceed jointly, and making best use of given flexibility in the current arrangement, toward its successful conclusion and review on the basis of the proposals of, on the one hand, the Greek government and, on the other, the institutions.

پنجشنبه ۳۰ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۹ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Understanding Syriza

By Tom Vouloumanos and Michael Albert

Syriza does not see itself as a social democratic party, in the sense that it does not want to simply manage a more humane version of the capitalism. This is clearly stated in it manifesto: “For us, socialism is not the embellishment of capitalism or the supposedly ‘populist’ management thereof”. Syriza’s manifesto is clear that its goal is to transcend capitalism and replace it with what it calls socialism: “Capitalism constitutes a (…) system (…) that we were fighting against the very core of”. “For us, socialism is not a utopian vision based on abstract ideals or simply in moral values, but it is a socially and politically feasible strategic objective.” Its manifesto defines socialism as the organization of society based on social – and not state-ownership and social management of productive forces: “For us, socialism is a form of organization of society based on social and not state- ownership and management of productive means”.....

چهارشنبه ۲۹ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۸ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

The Not So Erratic Philosophy of Yanis Varoufakis

Marx, Syriza and the Future of Greece

ANN ROBERTSON and BILL LEUMER

This is not the philosophy of Kant where all are treated as equal, atomized individuals, it is the philosophy of Marx. It is raw class war. The Syriza government is out to defend the working class majority at the expense of the rich, who have been shirking on paying their taxes and are waist-deep in corruption.

How I became an erratic Marxist adapted from a lecture originally delivered at the 6th Subversive Festival in Zagreb in 2013

چهارشنبه ۲۹ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۸ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Greece: tensions rising after Eurogroup talks break up

by Stathis Kouvelakis

So it seems that, faced with rising pressure and increased EU blackmail, the Syriza government has no alternative but to hold firm. In taking this road, it will enjoy the active support of its own people, but also that of a growing section of European public opinion, which is becoming conscious of the stakes of this confrontation for the future of the entire continen...

سه-شنبه ۲۸ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۷ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

No Time for Games in Europe

Yanis Varoufakis

I am often asked: What if the only way you can secure funding is to cross your red lines and accept measures that you consider to be part of the problem, rather than of its solution? Faithful to the principle that I have no right to bluff, my answer is: The lines that we have presented as red will not be crossed. Otherwise, they would not be truly red, but merely a bluff.

Greece bailout talks break down after Athens rejects 'unacceptable' eurozone demands

سه-شنبه ۲۸ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۷ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Weimar on the Aegean

Paul Krugmann

What would happen if Greece were simply to refuse to pay? Well, 21st-century European nations don’t use their armies as bill collectors. But there are other forms of coercion. We now know that in 2010 the European Central Bank threatened, in effect, to collapse the Irish banking system unless Dublin agreed to an International Monetary Fund program
The threat of something similar hangs implicitly over Greece, although my hope is that the central bank, which is under different and more open-minded management these days, wouldn’t go along.

يكشنبه ۲۶ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۵ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Gambling with the Euro

Nantina Vgontzas

There’s only one thing that a left government can and should bet on, which is that people will take to a credible program if they are given the space and time to debate it. All other bets, as Tsipras himself declared, should be called off.

Dani Rodrik Reforming Greek Reform

يكشنبه ۲۶ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۵ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

The Greek Hope

By Stathis Kouvelakis and Tariq Ali

Tariq Ali discusses the situation in Greece with Stathis Kouvelakis

Telesur English

Greece votes in a new government Sunday, in a snap election that could see the country shift to the left and reject austerity policies imposed by the IMF and European Central Bank. The Syriza party has been ahead in recent polls and is predicted to win the vote. In the latest edition of The World Today, Tariq Ali talks to the Stathis Kouvelakis, from Syriza's leadership about the parties progressive alternative for Greece.

پنجشنبه ۲۳ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۲ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Greece: European elites declare war on SYRIZA government; Thousands rally in Athens

Dick Nichols

The call by the Party of the European Left to make February 11-17 a week of solidarity with the Greek people is a good first step along the road to building the pan-European movement essential for a victory for the Greek people—and the tens of millions of other victims of neoliberal capitalist brutality.

چهارشنبه ۲۲ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۱ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Syriza in a bind

Frédéric Lordon

They’re bastards. All of them, everywhere. Reuters revealed the gist of a German report drafted in the run-up to the 5 February finance ministers’ meeting [3]: ‘No’ to everything. No and nothing: the two great watchwords of European-democracy-in-compliance-with-the-treaties. Should we deduce that Germany is alone responsible for this tough line? Come off it: all of them are. Neither Spain nor Ireland nor – most shameful of all – ‘socialist’ France came to Syriza’s aid. For a very simple reason: none of them have the slightest interest in this alternative lasting – why, it might even succeed! And then what would these gentlemen look like, having imposed destruction on their populations all for nothing? Well, they’d look like what they are. Imbeciles, as well as bastards.

چهارشنبه ۲۲ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۱ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

Greece needs an exit option

Of course Greece would be far better off retaining the euro and negotiating a budget that allows it to resume growth, but it is far more likely to get the necessary concessions if it also has an exit strategy. Germany and other northern countries are concerned that a successful Greek exit could set an example for other countries facing crisis, such as Spain, Portugal and Italy. The result would be a rump euro of Germany and a few small neighbors.

But this outcome can be avoided if Greece has a good exit strategy on the table.

چهارشنبه ۲۲ بهمن ۱۳۹۳ برابر با ۱۱ فوريه ۲۰۱۵

‘The Prospects and Consequences of a Possible Syriza Government’

Jamie Galbraith

I’ll start out by qualifying my role. I consider that I’m a friend of the movement for a change of government in Greece, and specifically a friend of Alexis Tsipras. I’ve been a colleague for the last couple of years of Yanis Varoufakis, who is now running for parliament in Athens at the moment on the Syriza ticket. He was preselected by Syriza for what is the largest multi-seat constituency. The night before the vote in Parliament, where the third round of the presidential selection precipitated this election, I sent a personal note of encouragement to Alexis Tsipras, which they released to the Greek press. So my position is known in Greece.