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While I'm a great deal more respectful of James Creegan than Is Louis Proyect, I'm in agreement with Louis' focus on the relationship of forces - for me, the central issue in any political conflict - and it seems to me the onus is on Jim to provide some answers. What evidence is there that the Greek and European working class is now prepared to break with electoral politics and establish structures of dual power, as in Russia in 1917? What is their current state of combativity and consciousness? Is there any indicatiion of mutinous sentiments in the armed forces and other repressive state agencies? Jim wants Syriza or forces to its left to prepare the masses for an insurrection, utilizing transitional demands, but is there any doubt that the Greek military and bourgeoisie, backed by NATO, would quickly move to crush any incipient movement in this direction before it could gain any traction? The likelier outcome would be Hungary and Germany 1919 rather than Russia 1917 in circumstances which are far less favorable than those which faced Bela Kun and Karl Liebknecht. Unless circumstances change radically, the most that can be expected, alas, is some loosening of the austerity straight jacket squeezing the working class in Greece and other European debt colonies by a ruling class which has concluded that modest concessions are necessary in the interest of political stability and economic recovery. > On Mar 6, 2015, at 3:05 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism > <[email protected]> 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. > ***************************************************************** > >> On 3/6/15 5:54 PM, James Creegan wrote: >> >> This is called dodging the question. How do you envisage the Greek >> situation as unfolding, or how would you like it to do so? > > This is something I told you already when you badgered me last time on this. > I wrote this before Tsipras took office and the self-anointed > rrrrevolutionaries began denouncing him for selling out. I would not change a > word: > > http://louisproyect.org/2015/01/25/reflections-on-syriza/ > > Of course the real question is whether Syriza can deliver such reforms given > the relationship of forces that exist. Germany, its main adversary, has a > population of 80 million and a GDP of nearly 4 trillion dollars. Greece, by > comparison, has a population of 11 million and a GDP of 242 billion dollars, > just a bit more than Volkswagen’s revenues. Given this relationship of > forces, it will be a struggle to achieve the aforementioned reforms. To make > them possible, it will be necessary for the workers and poor of Greece to > demonstrate to Europe that they will go all the way to win them. It will also > be necessary for people across Europe to demonstrate their solidarity with > Greece so as to put maximum pressure on Germany and its shitty confederates > like François Hollande to back off. But if your main goal in politics is to > lecture the Greeks about the need for workers councils, armed struggle and > all the rest, you obviously have no need to waste your time on such measly > reforms. > > Part of the problem for much of the left is its inability to properly > theorize the conditions of class struggle in a post-Soviet world. In Latin > America and southern Europe, states are struggling to improve the lives of > their citizens but without abolishing capitalism. In an interview with > Stathis Kouvelakis for Jacobin magazine, Sebastian Budgen asked what Greece > would look like if Syriza won the election, adding, “We all know that > socialism in one country doesn’t work. To what extent would a left social > democracy in a poor, backward European country with no access to > international lending, excluded from the Eurozone be able to change things? > What kind of society would that be like?” > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/marvgand2%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
