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Greece: No to the deal, No to the political order by Kevin Ovenden Counterfire, June 29 <http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/17882-greece-no-to-the-deal-no-to-the-political-order> The following is a letter to the Turkish and Kurdish organisation Day Mer by Kevin Ovenden regarding the situation in Greece and the lessons for the Left . . . This has become more and more evident to the popular masses in Greece who voted for the left – Syriza and the left as a whole – in January. On Friday 26 June, the popular feeling registered directly in the political system. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras rejected, as thousands of us who demonstrated outside the parliament last weekend had demanded, the humiliating terms of the Troika. There will be a referendum on Sunday 5 July to give a popular Oxi, No, Hayir to the forces of capitalism and reaction across the continent. Some will hope that the referendum – an unpredictable bourgeois mechanism – will put the popular revolt back in the old framework which has been rejected by many people in Greece at the heights of struggle over the last five years. The government may hope that it will simply be a bargaining chip to secure a less humiliating deal from the Troika. That all may be so. But that is their business. What is gathering now and in the next few days is a popular No. A No from the society. A social movement around a plebiscite. This is what friends in Greece have taken from the practical experience of the victorious referendum on sexual equality in Ireland and the Scottish referendum campaign. This No is not just to the bad deal, but to the political order which has bled the working masses of Greece dry over the last five years. It is not a No to political engagement. It is a yes to a different politics, based upon popular mobilisation and directly challenging the instruments of oppression and exploitation. Friends across the Greek radical left and social movements here have also drawn strength from the historic advance of the democratic, left and Kurdish forces in the last legislative elections in the Turkish state: teşekkür ederim, s’efharisto, thank you. The evolution and development of the radical left is complex. There are national specificities. There are also some generalised lessons. I want to offer some here: . . . full at: <http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/17882-greece-no-to-the-deal-no-to-the-political-order> Why I will be voting NO in Sunday's Greek referendum by Antonis Vradis openDemocracy, 29 June 2015 <https://opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/antonis-vradis/why-i-will-be-voting-no-in-sunday%27s-greek-referendum> The symbolism of NO in Greece by Alex Sakalis openDemocracy, 29 June 2015 <https://opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/alex-sakalis/symbolism-of-no-in-greece> _________________________________________________________ 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
