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That was my point. THIS general strike could be different because after the experience of failed previous strikes and failed parliamentary efforts,workers are open as never before to NOT going home when the strike ends... On Mon, Jul 13, 2015 at 9:13 PM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > As Louis noted, general strikes in Greece are somewhat a dime a dozen. The > Greek ruling class has long since grown accustomed to them. The problem is > that the workers strike for a day and then go back to work and nothing has > changed. > > The point about a general strike is that unless they're connected to the > question of *actual power* they are quite easily managed in a country like > Greece which has so many of them. (Of course, in many capitalist > countries, any strike wave around workers' rights would be a step > forward!!!) > > One of the problems in Greece is the one Louis alluded to. That Greek > workers had general strike after general strike and in the end, because > they didn't get anywhere, opted to use parliamentary politics and voted for > Syriza. The electoral process ran ahead of the process on the ground. > > Unless workers were occupying workplaces and beginning to organise > alternative structures of power, the possibilities for serious resistance, > let alone going on the offensive, were limited. For instance, what if the > government nationalised the banks, without workers having occupied them and > demanding workers' control over them? > > Tsipras was always going to do a deal, he's a social democrat at best. > Surely the role of the left was to prepare for that eventuality. > > In 2013 I interviewed a spokesperson for the Vio.me factory occupation in > Thessaloniki and he told me that after the general strikes and mass > protests, the Greek working class had gone home and tried to make ends meet > the best they could. Vio.me was very much an exception. But this, it > seems to me, is the road that hasn't been taken but offers a fruitful > alternative to trying to manage things within the confines of capitalism. > And surely the chief task of the global left is not around bemoaning the > fact that a social democrat acted in a social democratic way, but advancing > the struggle where we are and supporting concrete advances by workers in > Greece, like the Vio.me occupation. > > The interview is here: > > https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/workers-self-management-only-solution-interview-with-spokesperson-for-vio-me-occupation/ > > It links also to other articles on the occupation and a video: > > https://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/workers-self-management-only-solution-interview-with-spokesperson-for-vio-me-occupation/ > > Phil > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
