New far-left organization
GREECE marked by two events; the success — unequaled in 15 years — of the January 15 general strike and the mobilization of the student youth following the acquittal of a cop who murdered a young demonstrator.
is formed
The latter mobilization was launched by the United Student Union (EFEE) led mainly by the KKE. It involved demonstrations, concerts and the occupation of
THE FOUNDING CONGRESS of the New Left Current (Neo
Aristero Rema-NAR) was held in Athens February11-12
This grouping is made up essentially of activists coming from the Communist Youth (KNE) and from the Communist
Party (KKE).
ANDREAS SARTZEKIS
T
HE COMMUNIST PARTY and through major crises in recent months as a result of the
KKE's political evolution and the electoral coalition, the Synaspismos, formed with the small Greek Left (former
Eurocommunists) and some personalities. After focusing its campaign against
PASOK (Andreas
Papandreou's
Hellenic Socialist Movement, which was in power from 1981 to 1989), the Synaspismos participated with the right in the first "clean-up"
government (June to
November 1989).
In this way, the coalition claimed to bi the real scandals in which was mired. Then, finally, after last November's elections, it ended up alongside PASOK and the right in a class collaboration government attacking the
Communist Youth reject coalition
The Communist Youth rejected the
Synaspismos orientation outright, and then had its majority expelled by the
KKE leadership in September 1989.
Thousands of young activists found themselves in the KNE-Grapsas (called by the name of its secretary), which led very militant mobilizations (of students so young activists. The NAR arose from these two currents (ex-KNE and exKKE). Its appearance seems to have been a sufficiently disturbing phenomenon for the press to keep quiet about it. Of course the NAR is not homogeneous on many notably the USSR and East Europe. The extent to which its members have broken with the heritage of the KKE is uneven. From this standpoint, the activists coming from the Young Communists are more advanced.
However, because of its desire for an opening to the left, its project of building a revolutionary party, its roots in the struggles and its composition, the NAR has a dynamic that has already outdisthe united-front groupings that have been launched in recent months to the left of the traditional organizations.
The congress took place in a period