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ABSTRACT
The imposition of the memoranda on Greece triggered dynamic reactions from the subordinate classes, rapid changes in the political scene and creation of the impression in the Western world that in Greece the possibility was emerging of profound radical changes, particularly after the coming to power of SYRIZA as the new Greek government. Employing the Leninist concepts of the weakest link, the imperialist chain, the revolutionary situation and the revolutionary crisis, this article explains on the one hand why Greece did not constitute the weakest link of the capitalist West, and on the other what the characteristics are of a weakest link on the basis of historical experience.
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Notes
1 For the relevant discussion see Michael-Matsas (Citation2011, 145), Davanelos (Citation2010), Campragkos (Citation2015), Lariposte.org (Citation2012), Soviet-Empire.com (Citation2011), and Revolution (Citation2011).
2 Stalin is mentioned here because from a methodological viewpoint he too enlists the concept of the “weakest link.” But while he is the only one among the protagonists, along with Lenin, to employ this term, he is not the only one to cite the possibility of constructing socialism in a single country. In his text “Lenin as a Marxist,” Bukharin in February 1924 argues that even in “one isolated country” socialism could be gradually established “along a revolutionary way” (van Ree Citation1998, 100–101). In April 1925 the party’s 14th Congress would adopt the position that the construction of socialism in a backward country such as Russia is not impossible, a position also espoused by Zinoviev and Kamenev (van Ree Citation1998, 104). The mistake which is being made is that of linking socialism in one country with the negative turn for attempts to build socialism, but I will refer to this at the conclusion to the present article.
3 In Greece, in addition to the monthly salary and the monthly pension, two additional salaries or pensions would be paid during the year.
4 In January 2015 early elections were held owing to the discontent that had been created (see below) against the New Democracy-PASOK government which continued to legislate harsh new austerity measures dictated by the troika (EU-IMF-ECB). The result was that SYRIZA emerged as first party with 36.3% but without having an absolute majority of parliamentary seats as it had won 149 of a total of 300. It therefore resorted to forming a government of collaboration with the Independent Greeks (ANEL), who had received 4.8% of the votes and elected 13 parliamentarians.
5 Τhe River was established in the spring of 2014 by the journalist S. Theodorakis, and espouses pro-memorandum positions.
6 Characteristics were the instances of the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz who threatened that if the “No” won the referendum, Greece would have to change its currency, and the Council of Europe, in a statement, said that the referendum did not comply with European standards, because a period of at least two weeks was not left for debate.
7 A far left front formation in which various political organizations participated (older splits from the KKE, Trotskyists, pro-Maoist groupings, etc.).
8 A neo-Nazi party which, owing to the crisis, succeeded in gaining parliamentary representation from 2012 to 2019.
9 The reference is to the compromise proposal of June 3 made by the Greek government to the lenders.
10 October 28 is a national holiday in Greece in remembrance of the outbreak of the Greek-Italian war of 1940.
11 Because of the very serious popular unrest, the PASOK government was forced to proceed with elections in May 2012. New Democracy emerged as first party from them with 19% and second SYRIZA with 16% whereas PASOK received only 13% (from 44% it had taken in October 2009). Because it was not possible to form a government, new elections were held in June, at which New Democracy received 29%, SYRIZA 26%, PASOK 12% and the Democratic Left (DIMAR, a breakaway from SYRIZA) 7%. Finally a government of collaboration (ND-PASOK-DIMAR) was formed with the leader of New Democracy Antonis Samaras as Prime Minister.
12 ERT ran three television channels and five nationwide radio stations. The Samaras government judged that the ERT programme was characterized by anti-government content and therefore decided to close it for an indefinite period until it could function again with less staff, who would be appointed from the outset after 2650 ERT staff members had first been dismissed.
13 Very briefly, after the 2010 elections, when SYRIZA didn’t succeed in winning any more than 4.5% of the vote, an internal confrontation began within SYRIZA. Almost all the groups (apart from the Synaspismos [Coalition] and the Ananeotiki Kommounistiki Aristera [Renewing Communist Left, AKOA]) in SYRIZA, which at that time was a front formation, were evidently reconsidering their participation.
14 SYRIZA has its political roots in 1968 when the then united Communist Party of Greece split into the pro-Soviet KKE and the Eurocommunist KKE (esoterikou). After the dictatorship, when the question was raised of Greece’s entry into the EEC, the KKE (esoterikou), unlike the KKE, came out openly in favour, judging that in that particular phase the policies of monopoly capital might be dominant but through common struggles with the workers of the EEC countries that could change and the “Europe of the Peoples” be established. The view that the EEC/European Union can be transformed “from within” was to characterize the entire course of evolution of the KKE (esoterikou) into SYRIZA.
15 For the way in which the EU is “a steel cage of capitalism,” as Weber (Citation2001) put it, see Durand (Citation2013), Moss (Citation2013) and Streeck (Citation2012).
16 Another example is the adoption of the Copenhagen criteria by the European Union when in the 1990s the question of entry by the countries of Eastern Europe came to be posed. They were told then that necessary preconditions for entry were adoption of the market economy and the Western model of parliamentary democracy.
17 The Greek-Turkish conflict has to do with sovereign rights over the Aegean continental shelf, the boundaries of the territorial waters and the boundaries of Greek national airspace. It has been going on for decades. To this there must be added the Cyprus issue, especially after 1974 and the invasion and occupation by Turkey of 37% of an island 80% of whose inhabitants are of Greek origin.
18 This is the party established after the retreat of SYRIZA, with participation from the left wing of SYRIZA which had already withdrawn and from a section of ANTARSYA.
19 According to Robinson,
An alternative to global capitalism must be a transnational popular project. The popular mass of humanity in its struggle for social justice must develop a transnational class consciousness and concomitant global political protagonism involving strategies, programmes, organizations and institutions that link the local to the national, and the national to the global. (Robinson Citation2012, 195)
20 For a more detailed presentation of this view see Sakellaropoulos (Citation2018), Milios and Sotiropoulos (Citation2009), Anievas (Citation2008), Cammack (Citation2007), and Barrow (Citation2005).
21 For the reasons why the EU is an alliance of national bourgeoisies see Sakellaropoulos (Citation2017), Sakellaropoulos and Sotiris (Citation2018).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Spyros Sakellaropoulos
Spyros Sakellaropoulos is Professor at the Social Policy Department of the Panteion University in Athens, Greece. His research interests are centred on the theory of the state, the study of the modern Greek, Cypriot and Nepalese societies, and the theory of development of the capitalist mode of production. His recent books include The Cypriot Social Formation (1191–2004) (in Greek; Topos, 2017) and Greece’s (Un)Competitive Capitalism and the Economic Crisis—How the Memoranda Changed Society, Politics and the Economy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).