This is certainly true - a lot of people who were willing to take risks, to sacrifice, to be engaged before have thrown in the towel for now.
Meanwhile I hope a lot of observers will turn their attention to what e.g. Podemos could do differently from what Syriza did during the period of challenge. Some ideas: 1. Don't bluff in confronting the European institutions. Don't make threats you're not prepared to follow through on, both in terms of your own actions, and in terms of where you're willing to try to lead people. 2. Don't cut off your own leverage. Regardless of whether we think it was ever realistic for Syriza to try to lead Greece out of the Euro, Varoufakis did two things which together make no sense. First, over a long period of time, he publicly yelled at anyone who suggested that Greece leave the Euro or publicly moot leaving the Euro or do anything to prepare for leaving the Euro or do anything to prepare for being kicked out of the Euro, saying it was impossible, stupid, a fantasy, a short road to fascism. Then, at the 11th hour, with their backs to the wall, Varoufakis yelled at his Syriza comrades for not being willing to leave the Euro, for not being willing to threaten to leave the Euro. These two things cannot both be right. One of them must be wrong. 3. Be realistic about how much help you can expect from international solidarity, from governments, institutions, public opinion, and prepare international public opinion and allies to be helpful. Think about what demands you can make that will resonate internationally, and prepare partners to make those demands resonate through their own institutions and governments, so that you can win concrete things in the confrontation, that people can taste, so that even if you don't overthrow the institutions in this round, you can say: we got something for resisting, we got something for our sacrifice. The rest of us should especially think about #3. If history is any guide, there are going to be more confrontations like this. In the short run, what happened in Greece is going to discourage a lot of people from challenging the European institutions. In the long run, the European institutions are likely to keep imposing the same policies and it's likely that eventually that will produce another explosion. How can we better prepare for the next explosion? If this were happening in El Salvador or Honduras or Haiti, there would be a group of people who follow those countries who are always ready to act, a "solidarity movement" in the 1980s sense. We wouldn't need to start from scratch at the 11th hour. Do we need to organize a "solidarity movement" for this? How do you organize such a movement, not knowing in which country the next explosion will occur? On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 7:46 AM, Marv Gandall <[email protected]> wrote: > The election results were consistent with the historical pattern after a > defeat - dashed hopes, political exhaustion, a mood of resignation and > retreat from active engagement, and, except for a very few, a chastened > reluctance to engage in further experimentation with social change. The > beneficiary of this new mood was Syriza, as the new governing party > representing the status quo. The major challenge to the status quo is now > likely to come from the fascist right, resorting to the basest instincts of > the most politically backward sectors of the population. > > On Sep 21, 2015, at 12:55 PM, Robert Naiman <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > PASOK, on the other hand, has resisted repeated predictions of its > demise. I wonder whether they are saying "I told you so" to their friends > in Syriza. I wonder whether they are resentful at all that Tsipras just got > re-elected as Prime Minister on the PASOK platform. > > > > > > > > > > Robert Naiman > > Policy Director > > Just Foreign Policy > > www.justforeignpolicy.org > > [email protected] > > (202) 448-2898 x1 > > > > On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 11:42 AM, Charlie <[email protected]> > wrote: > > For different reasons, the CP of Greece agrees. In any case, the best > table I've seen of the election results was posted by the CP of Greece at > > > http://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/The-KKE-will-utilize-its-forces-for-the-regroupment-of-the-movement-for-the-peoples-alliance/ > > > > Like Syriza, ANEL, the right-wing party that Syriza built a coalition > with last winter, lost votes and seats. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > pen-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > pen-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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