Political parties
Throughout the period following the 16th Congress of KKE, the Party's estimation on the character and strategy of the two major bourgeois parties - New Democracy [N.D.] and PASOK- has been verified, as they both have been serving and promoting the interests of the monopolies and the imperialist institutions. The weakening of those two parties' political and ideological influence on the working class and youth constitutes a serious precondition for a change in the political balance of forces and the establishment of the Anti-imperialist, Anti-monopoly Democratic Front [AADF].
All ND and PASOK governments have been and are at the service of capitalist profiteering. It is their intention to simply "manage" the consequences resulting from the worsening of working/life conditions of the working class and other lower strata, so as both to facilitate the enforcement of their general strategy and to keep popular unrest in check.
During the previous elections - local elections in 2002, national and European ones in 2003- people's discontent was expressed by the diminishing of PASOK's power in national and European institutions, while strengthening ND's participation accordingly.
However, ND is being confronted with a variety of obstacles during the rapid realization of its policy. The flow of foreign capital demands a rapid reactionary restructuring of the welfare sector and industrial relations. ND is unsure of how to secure its victory in the latest elections, while dealing with people's discontent, at no political cost.
The government promotes a misleading social profile aiming at increasing its influence over the "center-left" political spectrum, without departing from its bourgeois neo-liberal character. Whatever its strategy, it deploys the "arsenal" provided by the institutional framework and takes advantage of the policies put into effect by the previous government [PASOK], in order to preserve the same line of policy.
Having faithfully exercised the same neo-liberal line of policy, PASOK, as the major opposition party, is now facing similar difficulties,. PASOK's internal crisis is not only a result of the defeat in the latest elections but is deeply rooted in its ideological and political nature. PASOK's programme and character is of a bourgeois and neo-liberal nature, a feature that prevents any possibility of differentiation from ND.
The so-called social policies of PASOK and ND, are limited to mainly one choice: through state intervention, depending on the pressure the popular movement exerts on it, to set a poverty limit, for either a short-term or long-term period, followed by retrospective wage raises and poor pensions and pension supplements; the preservation of a low-quality - if not unspeakably poor- semi-public health system; a social welfare system which generally speaking, the lowest paid, lowest pensioned and the unemployed part of the working class and the other social strata are forced to use because they have no other choice. It preserves an outdated educational system which sustains and is directly interrelated to private capital, serving its need to create cheap labour.
Both parties, ND and PASOK- each one taking its turn in the country's governing- systematically foster delusions, corrupt and threaten consciousness by promoting a financial policy totally hostile to the people's interest.
Their amendments, such as the retroactive raise of the tax-free limit of employees and pensioners, are late and are a result of the popular movement and the threat of upcoming elections and after all they are necessary for the very functioning of the system. As a rule, they are accompanied by anti-labour interventions in tax scaling. In the short run, whatever positive effect they have on the people's income, is annulled and accompanied by unchecked tax breaks and reinforcement for big capital which deepens class confrontation and polarization.
As far as Synaspismos is concerned, it continues to support old-fashioned social-democratic ideas as well as imperialist policies of the European Union. As a supporter of opportunism and despite all the favouritism it has been granted over the past 10 years, it hasn't managed to achieve it declared goal of increasing its political influence at the expense of the KKE and to influence the latter's political orientation.
In fact, Synaspismos' poor results in the elections of 2004, has sharpened oppositions and various tendencies towards conflict within this party. The escalation of such conflicts embraces the issue of the party's very functioning, the nature of its political statements - whether to follow classical social democracy or the current social-democratic liberalism- as well as its coalition policy.
People's Orthodox Alert (L.A.O.S.) appears to represent the political expression of the nationalist, xenophobic and racist theories.
As a general conclusion, whatever managerial policy is applied in Greek or international capitalism, more or less liberal or of Keynesian form, it cannot relieve the capitalist economy of its crisis.
All ND and PASOK governments have been and are at the service of capitalist profiteering. It is their intention to simply "manage" the consequences resulting from the worsening of working/life conditions of the working class and other lower strata, so as both to facilitate the enforcement of their general strategy and to keep popular unrest in check.
During the previous elections - local elections in 2002, national and European ones in 2003- people's discontent was expressed by the diminishing of PASOK's power in national and European institutions, while strengthening ND's participation accordingly.
However, ND is being confronted with a variety of obstacles during the rapid realization of its policy. The flow of foreign capital demands a rapid reactionary restructuring of the welfare sector and industrial relations. ND is unsure of how to secure its victory in the latest elections, while dealing with people's discontent, at no political cost.
The government promotes a misleading social profile aiming at increasing its influence over the "center-left" political spectrum, without departing from its bourgeois neo-liberal character. Whatever its strategy, it deploys the "arsenal" provided by the institutional framework and takes advantage of the policies put into effect by the previous government [PASOK], in order to preserve the same line of policy.
Having faithfully exercised the same neo-liberal line of policy, PASOK, as the major opposition party, is now facing similar difficulties,. PASOK's internal crisis is not only a result of the defeat in the latest elections but is deeply rooted in its ideological and political nature. PASOK's programme and character is of a bourgeois and neo-liberal nature, a feature that prevents any possibility of differentiation from ND.
The so-called social policies of PASOK and ND, are limited to mainly one choice: through state intervention, depending on the pressure the popular movement exerts on it, to set a poverty limit, for either a short-term or long-term period, followed by retrospective wage raises and poor pensions and pension supplements; the preservation of a low-quality - if not unspeakably poor- semi-public health system; a social welfare system which generally speaking, the lowest paid, lowest pensioned and the unemployed part of the working class and the other social strata are forced to use because they have no other choice. It preserves an outdated educational system which sustains and is directly interrelated to private capital, serving its need to create cheap labour.
Both parties, ND and PASOK- each one taking its turn in the country's governing- systematically foster delusions, corrupt and threaten consciousness by promoting a financial policy totally hostile to the people's interest.
Their amendments, such as the retroactive raise of the tax-free limit of employees and pensioners, are late and are a result of the popular movement and the threat of upcoming elections and after all they are necessary for the very functioning of the system. As a rule, they are accompanied by anti-labour interventions in tax scaling. In the short run, whatever positive effect they have on the people's income, is annulled and accompanied by unchecked tax breaks and reinforcement for big capital which deepens class confrontation and polarization.
As far as Synaspismos is concerned, it continues to support old-fashioned social-democratic ideas as well as imperialist policies of the European Union. As a supporter of opportunism and despite all the favouritism it has been granted over the past 10 years, it hasn't managed to achieve it declared goal of increasing its political influence at the expense of the KKE and to influence the latter's political orientation.
In fact, Synaspismos' poor results in the elections of 2004, has sharpened oppositions and various tendencies towards conflict within this party. The escalation of such conflicts embraces the issue of the party's very functioning, the nature of its political statements - whether to follow classical social democracy or the current social-democratic liberalism- as well as its coalition policy.
People's Orthodox Alert (L.A.O.S.) appears to represent the political expression of the nationalist, xenophobic and racist theories.
As a general conclusion, whatever managerial policy is applied in Greek or international capitalism, more or less liberal or of Keynesian form, it cannot relieve the capitalist economy of its crisis.
e-mail:cpg@int.kke.gr