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On Jul 14, 2015, at 2:53 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 7/14/15 2:46 PM, Andrew Pollack wrote: >> Of course we will (eliminate the stock market)! Why the fuck would you >> want a stock market under socialism? > > What this reveals is the frustration of so many veterans on the left that the > Greeks did not live up to their expectations. I thought this summed it up > nicely: > > It is revealing of the political landscape in Europe - indeed, the world - > that everyone's dreams of socialism seemed to rest on the shoulders of the > young Prime Minister of a small country. There seemed to be a fervent, > irrational, almost evangelical belief that a tiny country, drowning in debt, > gasping for liquidity, would somehow (and that somehow is never specified) > defeat global capitalism, armed only with sticks and rocks. > > https://www.byline.com/column/11/article/164 This is another straw man erected by those tortuously trying to justify the Tsipras’ leadership’s acceptance, reluctantly or otherwise, of the austerity program of the troika. No one expected Syriza, a radical democratic party, to introduce socialism. There was nothing in Syriza’s program about expropriating the Greek bourgeosie, or even for that matter of nationalizing the banks. It’s program in opposition was Keynesian - repudiate the debt, increase government spending to put people back to work, end the drive to privatize, defend trade union and pension rights, tax the rich in lieu of increasing consumption taxes, etc. You can refresh your memory here: http://www.syriza.gr/article/id/59907/SYRIZA---THE-THESSALONIKI-PROGRAMME.html#.VaVxR6Zg34Q As soon as the Tsipras leadership took office, it jettisoned that program in practice in order to satisfy its creditors. It quickly distanced itself from the party’s pledge to the Greek electorate that it would implement its reconstruction program “as early as our first days in power, before and regardless of the negotiation outcome.” That retreat culminated in this week’s rout when it agreed to the harshest austerity package to date - this, in direct contradiction to the massive democratic vote against such a package on July 5th. Under a more resolute leadership, events might have forced the government and its supporters to take defensive measures requiring it to move beyond Keynesianism towards socialist solutions, to a fundamental attack on the power and property of the Greek oligarchy. But this has not been a resolute leadership nor was socialism ever its starting or end point. Louis is again wrong in asserting that “the Greeks did not live up to the expectations…of so many veterans of the left.” The Greeks magnificently lived up - in fact, went way beyond - my expectations, and I’m sure that is true of most others on the liberal and radical left as well. It is their leadership which has disappointed - not, to repeat, in failing to achieve socialism, which was never the expectation, but in failing to defend, much less advance, the dwindling rights and benefits of the Greek working class. _________________________________________________________ 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
