This Sunday, September the 20 the parliamentary elections called by former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will be held in Greece. Syriza has called to these elections in order to legitimize in the ballot boxes a pro-austerity policy that is the complete opposite of the popular mandate given by the Greek masses to Syriza in the elections of January 2015 (where despite the reformist strategy of this formation, the workers and the Greek people voted for it expecting to end the austerity policy of the Troika) and the of overwhelming OXI in the referendum on the agreement with the EU. By calling new elections Syriza shows once again that it is the new agent of the Troika in Greece, and seeks at the ballot box the legitimacy needed to implement the third Memorandum it signed.

The main election contenders, Syriza and New Democracy, express in varying degrees a policy that will turn around the implementation of the memorandum and the continuation of attacks on workers and Greek masses. Other parties of the old regime, as PASOK and its satellites, or «new» pro-Troika formations as the party To Potami, will constitute without a doubt an ally of the new pro-austerity Government. Most of the political alternatives present in these elections defend the continuity of the policy of attacks and destruction of social rights, if not an openly fascist policy as Golden Dawn.

On the side of the «left» in a broad sense, the most novel element is the formation of Popular Unity, born from a split of Syriza. Without a doubt, the rejection of the new memorandum and of the «betrayal» of Syriza to the OXI that are defended by Popular Unity constitutes a progressive element, as well as the fact that they have split from Syriza. The united front with Popular Unity for the struggles against the implementation of the new memorandum, to build a broad mobilization of workers and the people in the streets, should be a permanent policy of the revolutionaries.

However, the almost purely parliamentary strategy of Popular Unity, its refusal to focus its forces in building the fight in the streets against the austerity policies, and especially its policy of «national reconstruction» based on a euro exit that would not be accompanied by anti-capitalist measures (a «left nationalism” within the framework of the current capitalist system) constitute insurmountable strategic limits. If the common construction of the mobilizations with Popular Unity is essential, its political project does not constitute a global alternative for the exploited and oppressed in Greece.

Regarding Antarsya, this revolutionary coalition has resisted the pressure that constituted the formation of Popular Unity, deciding to present an independent anti-capitalist alternative in the elections, together with the comrades of the Workers Revolutionary Party (EEK). This coalition defends anti-capitalist policies, the rupture with the memorandum, the EU and the European imperialist institutions, a strategy that is not institutional but based on the fight in the streets, fights that the comrades have built for years and specially after the «treason» of Syriza.  We call to vote for Antarsya-EEK as the political expression of the struggles of the working-class against old and new memoranda, and as an anti-capitalist alternative, independent from reformist organizations.

Although the precise outcome of the elections and the Government coalition that will result from them are to be seen, it is clear that political forces that defend the attacks on the working class and the application of the diktats of the Troika will win the elections. That’s why, after this Sunday, we have to put all our forces in the construction of the struggles against the new memorandum, in the development of organisms of self-organization from below that can constitute a real counter-power to the institutions of the capitalist state, and in the construction of revolutionary organizations that fight for a perspective of anticapitalist and socialist transformation of society. Along with this, we have to reinforce the manifestations of solidarity with the struggle of the Greek workers of workers and peoples of Europe and of the world: our support and fraternal greetings to Antarsya comrades in this electoral campaign and in the fights that are to come is our modest contribution in this sense.

Socialism or Barbarism International Current

 (Nuevo Movimiento al Socialismo – Argentina; Nuevo Partido Socialista – Costa Rica; Socialismo o Barbarie Brasil; Juventud Socialista de Honduras; Socialismo o Barbarie Estado español; Socialismo o Barbarie Francia)