LENIN'S TOMB

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Greece on the brink posted by Richard Seymour

Greek austerity plans "threaten growth", they say. They go on to add that "The economy is forecast to shrink by 5.5 per cent this year, and a further 2.5 per cent in 2012, bringing the total contraction since 2008 to 14 per cent." There is no growth to threaten. That is why Greece is on the brink. That is why the state is dysfunctional, with ministers and international financial inspectors locked out of government offices by striking civil servants. That is why the government fears "complete lawlessness" as the state's capacities disintegrate in several ways. That is why new forms of militancy have emerged, with struggle committees arising to express the popular goals. That is why the whole infrastructure is shut down in major and small ways every day by strikes and protests. That is why the "mother of all strikes" is shutting Athens down.

Of course, the resistance is very exciting, but the level of resistance and upheaval is proportionate to the level of social distress. A constellation of capitalist powers, from the banks to the IMF, EU, European Central Bank, and the government itself, are putting the Greek working class through an incredible trauma. On every possible index, from wages to poverty, unemployment, working conditions and health, they are being put through the grinder. Living standards have taken an unprecedented plunge. And every time the austerity measures produce a renewed contraction, and make it impossible for the debts to be repaid, the banks come back for more, demanding further austerity and more bailouts for financial corporations. They don't care how much suffering it causes. This is mainly because it is an imperative for the major European banks to retain solvency and keep the Euro afloat as a global currency. This is also an imperative for large sectors of European capital, in whose interests the EU has been constructed. If the problem is insoluble on capitalist terms, and if there isn't going to be a renewed wave of capitalist growth, then I think the 1% would sooner take as much as possible and wait in their fortressed enclaves for the deluge to hit the 99%.

It's not just Greece. The reason we have seen a global movement erupt is because capitalism is an international system, and it's doing the same thing to all of us, everywhere. What was done to the Third World in terms of structural adjustment is now being done to the working classes in advanced capitalist societies. What is being done to Greece is being rolled out across Europe. This means that what happens in Greece, as a weak link in the capitalist chain, is of incredible importance to what happens to us. There is no immediate happy ending in sight. Whether the Greek government forces through austerity, or is compelled to withdraw from the Eurozone and default on its debts, things are going to be very difficult. As long as Greece is subordinated to the logic of capitalism, it is faced with a choice of evils.

This is one of the reasons that, while there is a very powerful mass movement, it is not yet united around a clear alternative. The idea of default and withdrawal from the Euro is advanced by many on the Left, who point out that the EU system is exploitative of peripheral countries, and that the most predatory lending and austerity measures are being forced on Greece by European institutions far more than by the IMF. Germany in particular hopes to become, as Costas Lapavitsas puts it in his recent Socialist Register article, "undisputed master of European capitalism" as a result of the crisis. But social democracy across the continent is placing its hopes in a 'good euro'. These formations exert a gravitational pull on other left parties as well as the union bureaucracy. Radicals to the left of social democracy, such as French economist Michael Husson (quoted here), argue that default and withdrawal by itself would not shift the balance of forces in favour of workers, pointing to the example of British capitalism which is outside the Eurozone. While there's an element of truth in this, it ignores the core/periphery relationship, wherein Greek subordination within the EU is a major factor in its austerity drive and in intensifying the exploitation of Greek workers in general. And since it is increasingly unlikely that default will be avoided, it is crucial that there is a leftist pressure to ensure it happens on terms that are relatively beneficial to the working class. Above all, though, there needs to be a response to austerity at the continental level. Lapavitsas argues that "working people in both core and periphery have no stake in the success of the EMU", and that radical left strategy across Europe should be based on this understanding. This would involve different concrete proposals in each country, as the precise forms of exploitation differ in each case. In Germany, the focus should be on raising domestic demand, breaking wage restraint and moving away from an export-led economy. In the peripheral countries, it should be on finding radical ways of dealing with the debt/deficit burden. But the social forces assembled behind this should also operate at a pan-European level: a Europe-wide general strike, coupled with a political campaign for a social Europe involving the left parties - the Portguese Left Bloc, Die Linke, NPA, etc. - is surely the minimum plausible response.

Things are moving very fast, and in such circumstances of organic crisis, as Gramsci reminds us, the troops of many different parties can suddenly pass under the banner of one party that better represents their interests. The left parties have been gaining spectacularly, even if they remain divided, and even if the bureaucratic, parliamentarist and Stalinist elements have arguably held the struggle back in various ways. Yes, the ruling class has its trained cadres, and changes its personnel and programmes much faster than opponents. It is highly adaptible. Just look at the way "corporate leaders say they understand protests". Look at the way New Democracy are trying to capitalise on the government's woes; if social democracy has lost its ability to achieve austerity through bargaining, the ruling class will just turn to the Tories to use the whip instead. But in such times, the ruling class can also lose the capacity for initiative. It can make catastrophic mis-calculations, attack at the wrong moment, lose the loyalty of sections of its repressive apparatus.

The situation is extraordinarily precarious. It's important to remember that even amid the confidence and optimism of militant struggle, social misery of the kind Greece is going through also produces enormous despair. And ruling classes have always been able to benefit from the disruption caused by strikes. A serious setback for the struggle would be toxic, strengthening those who want to blame the strikes for the misery, and even worse those who want to scapegoat and terrorise immigrants, Muslims and the oppressed. At the moment, even the lower middle class are effectively on strike. Tax collectors aren't collecting taxes; and small businesses aren't paying VAT. If it isn't the 99%, it's at least the 80%. (Though, as is reported today, 99% of Greek small businesses and shops are closed for the strike.) Their success now depends entirely on how those forces are placed, politically and strategically.

Labels: austerity, capitalism, class struggle, eu, europe, european left, eurozone, exploitation, greece, neoliberalism, working class

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

No2U2 posted by Richard Seymour

I don't know about you, but I've had quite enough of positive politics. I have endured as much looking forward and not back as I can stomach. And if I have another bite of change I can believe in, my vital organs will rise up in mutiny and have it out with the host in an orgiastic gorefest that will make 300 look like a children's party. As to the whole business of positivity, forwardlookingness and changiness, you can keep it. Do what you like with it. Fuck it with a prize-winning turnip and put it on Youtube for all I care. Just don't bother me with it. This is by way of saying that when you vote in the European elections this Thursday, it should be on a negative, awkward, and obstructionist basis. It should be a vote designed to delay, sandbag, stonewall, frustrate, hamstring and bloody well barricade. No to the EU, no to neoliberalism, no to the fash - this our troika. No offense to the excellent antifascists at Searchlight, but I am tempted to raise the slogan: "Hate not Hope".

Recent polls [pdf] have shown that parties collectively designated 'Other' have a historically high combined vote of 21%. Worryingly, the BNP have the support of about 5% [pdf] of voters, although this is reduced if you count only those certain to vote. This represents a state of flux and fragmentation in the base of the main parties, so there is a good chance of improving representation for the left. For that reason, I have been perusing the array of possibilities for left-wing voters. There is, of course, No2EU, supported by the RMT, the Socialist Party, and the Respect Party. Though I fundamentally disagree with their stance on migrant labour and their bewilderingly polyannaish approach to the 'British Jobs for British Workers' strikes, they are doing their best within the terms of a flawed argument. They defend public services, oppose the Lisbon Treaty, defend workers' rights, oppose racism against asylum seekers and Muslims, and have daringly chosen Bob Crow - one of the most demonised figures in British politics - as their figurehead. They may as well have picked Abu Hamza. For sheer chutzpah, I like it. There is just one problem - they have about as much chance as an ex-choirboy in a Roman Catholic seminary that has recently appointed Father 'Fingers' O'Flahertie as its dean and has as its slogan 'We come in all shapes and sizes'. I don't just mean that they won't get a sizeable enough vote to make that 'no' loud enough. I mean that they are obviously not a durable coalition and therefore it might even be cruel to encourage them with your meagre gesture of support. Still, a vote for them is a vote for the left, and my understanding is that in some cases the PR system is such that any vote for a small party will help thwart the BNP. [Not in the vast majority of cases, though. As it turns out, a vote for No2EU will probably split the left vote in the last round and thus give the BNP a seat - see the comments thread].

Then there is the Green Party. They are reasonably big-hitters in the polls, and are the main left-of-centre party to benefit from the accumulated disaffection and polarisation brought about by the recession and the recent parliamentary scandals. Yougov polls usually give them between 4 and 6% of the vote, although some ComRes polls give them over ten percent and, though I can't vouch for this, the Greens are claiming that a new poll to be released tomorrow will give them 15% and place them ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Admittedly, they do have a rather unpleasant liberal leadership, and they dabble in appallingly pious and vacuous rhetoric. (They are, apparently, "the only party bold enough to set out a positive vision". I hope I am not the only party bold enough to jab two fingers in that vision.) But still, give them their due: their call for a 'Green New Deal', with increased public investment and low-cost housing, isn't at all bad. They are opposed to neoliberalism and propose to boost the welfare state with a citizens' income, precisely the opposite of the current trajectory. They propose to revise the posted workers' directive so that it doesn't undermine national pay and conditions agreements, oppose the UK's opt-out from the working time directive, and generally favour workers' rights. And unlike other European Green parties, they haven't yet descended into humanitarian imperialism. By no means as traditionally left-wing as No2EU, they're still a decent 'no' vote.

The last chance saloon is, of course, New Labour. They are going to be destroyed and, to be frank, they deserve it. As cynical as they are contemptible, as weak as they are nasty, they represent the nadir of British reformism. You really have to be in a desperate position if you're going to throw your vote at this miserable shower. You'd have to be stuck with a choice between them, UKIP, the BNP, and the Tories. And imagine how dirty you're going to feel after rewarding this pathetic tribe of Third Way sycophants. If they're the only way to keep out the far right, then by all means give your vote to the most right-wing component of the Party of European Socialists. But that is like paying off a protection racket, impoverishing yourself to forestall grievous bodily harm. So if you have to do that, please remember how it felt, and redouble your efforts toward ensuring that you are never left with a choice like that again.

Well, that's it as far as I can see. Those are your options. And even as you prepare to vote 'no', remember that for the European Union 'no' means 'yes' until they're forced to see things differently. Your vote matters, but it matters less than what you do about it afterwards.

Labels: bnp scum, elections, eu treaty, european left, european union, green party, new labour, tories, ukip