Greek socialists oppose warmongering
September 28, 1992
GREECE cal war on independent Macedonia, a war which is expanding from political declarations (non-recognition) to economic embargos, and perhaps ultimately to military intervention. In this war, Greek imperialism must be defeated. Otherwise it will remain a permanent danger with the Greek population itself as a constant target....
THE embattled New Democracy government in Greece has attempted to stifle popular anger over continuing attacks on living standards and rights by seizing on the issue of Macedonia.
The former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia has declared its independence, and some extreme nationalist currents there have laid claim to Greek Macedonia, including the country's second largest city Salonika. The Greek ruling New Democracy Party has been whipping up nationalist hysteria against the alleged threat to Greece's integrity presented by the new government in
Skopje; attempts to protest against this campaign have met with repression (see /V no. 229, May 25, 1992).
One point of dispute between Athens and Skopje has been the use of the name Macedonia by the latter, which the Greek side insists implies claims on Greek territory. Support for the Greek view has come from the European Community, which has refused to recognize the Skopje government.
We print below extracts from a resolution giving the position of the Greek revolutionary Marxist organization, the OKDE
(Spartakos), which has been active in the anti-nationalist campaign, on the Macedonian question.
DOCUMENT
REEK imperialism has decided to strangle — culturally, economically, politically and
— d whole population, that of Slavic Macedonia. For this purpose, which is one of a classic imperialist type, it has not only enjoyed the solidarity of the other EC states but has succeeded in winning the support of much of the Greek population, with the help of the big reformist parties,
PASOK (social democratic) and the KKE
(the Communist Party).
We are confronted with a form of racism that wants to reserve privileged rights for the "Greeks" at the expense of the "Slavs" and others and which suppresses the democratic rights of the national minorities in Greece. In the course of the advance of the nationalist steam-roller even the most elementary democratic rights get crushed.
Furthermore Greek military involvement either alone or as part of an imperialist alliance cannot be excluded. The most crucial problem for the Greek workers is how to fight the chauvinism which is being systematically cultivated by the big
26 reformist organizations. Regardless of
International Viewpoint # 235 nuances, all of these share the same "Stalino-Menshevik" view that the nation is a suprahistoric entity equipped with rights that have to be imposed on living human beings. They disregard the nationalism of oppressed peoples as creations of "imperialist instigation"; this police philosophy leads them today to support Serb and Greek great nationalism.
Their various proposals - both in terms of supporting Greek nationalist aspirations and in demanding a UN conference on the Balkans, ignore existing populations and leaves the way free for their political suppression on national grounds. Most directly affected by this orientation are minority nationalities inside Greece (Slavs, Turks, Pomaks and so on).
Despite these parties' declarations about human rights — which we have to use to further the anti-nationalist cause - they accept and take part in the hvsteria which identifies every "member of a different race" "stranger" or "heretic" as an agent of the "enemies of Hellenism".
Greek imperialism is seeking to forbid the people of Slavic Macedonia from deciding independently what they want to be and do. It has therefore declared ideologi-
Right to self-determination
Just like any other nation, the Slavic Macedonians have the right to self-determination, state independence and their exercise of this right must be supported unconditionally, above all in the neighbouring countries, including Greece. The historical discussion about the "nationality" of the ancient Macedonians is absolutely irrelevant from this point of view. What is at stake is the possibility of human beings and of populations to freely decide for themselves, and neither states, in particular the Greek state, nor historians have the right to deny their independence.
Greek nationalism, like all aggressive nationalisms, presents its imperialist intentions as defence against external threat. It insists on a Greek copyright on the word "Macedonia" and considers its use by non-Greeks as a threat. Such an approach can only reinforce the political positions of both Greek and Macedonian Slav ultra-nationalists - expressed for example in the "war of the maps" [showing respective territorial claims]... To the ideology of expansionist "liberation" we must oppose the principle of free self-determination. It is up to the Macedonian Slavs to choose their own name and the duty of the Greek workers movement to demand that the Greek government recognizes at once and unconditionally the Republic of Macedonia.
Revolutionary Marxists must defend the rights of minorities in their own country. The Greek state increasingly violates these rights. It denies certain citizens - for example, the Turkish minority - their nationality and tries obstinately to forbid the Slavs in Greek Macedonia from using their mother tongue, claiming that their language is non-existent. Greek political parties are called on to state that "there are no Macedonian Slavs in Greece", but only "people with two languages" and repeat the allegation that there are no Turks, only "Muslims"...
### Right to difference
The arrogance of the Greek ruling class, who are imposing terms and identities on other peoples and using their political and economic advantages (economic embargo, EC membership) as means of coercion to this end is based on a conception of the
A strike wave with a political edge
Greek state which wants to impose "unity" and annihilate difference. The Greek workers and socialist movements have to declare openly and struggle stubbornly for the following:
a) Cultural and human rights for all this country's citizens. These include freedom of language, religion and nationality.
b) Selt-determination for all the peoples of the Greek state; this means the destruction of the Greek apartheid which divides citizens into different categories.
c) The breaking-up of imposed national integration and the acceptance of difference as a source of cultural wealth.
d) The free unification of the Balkan peoples in a socialist, polyglot and multinational confederation as an integral part of a Europe of the working people. * Sri Lanka NSSP leaders arrested EIGHT members of the Nava Sama Samaja party (NSSP -Sri Lankan section of the Fourth International), including its general secretary Vickramabahu Karunaratne ("Bahu") were arrested on July 1, 1992 while taking part in a Jana Gosha (people's noise") campaign to oppose government policies and demand new elections. Before the arrests the demonstration was violently dispersed by police who were particularly vicious towards women taking part on behalf of disappeared people - presumed taken by the authorities.
According to a Reuters report quoted by the Island (Colombo - July 2, 1992), "thousands of Sri Lankans lit firecrackers, blew horns and banged pots in a lunch-time anti-government protest organized by the opposition.
"Police armed with machine guns, batons and tear-gas stood by as demonstrators... called for the overthrow of President Ranasinghe Premadasa and his ruling United National Party government."
The eight NSSP members are charged with leading illegal demonstrations and violating Emergency Regulations. They are currently out on bail; their case is to be heard on November 19. *
IN RECENT weeks Greece has seen a wave of mass protests against the policies of the rightwing New Democracy government.
NICOS SIMEONIDES
September 15, 1992
A FTER the coming to power of the
rightwing New Democracy Party in April 1990, Greek workers have faced a huge attack; while inflation has been rising at an annual rate of 17%, wages have been frozen; more than 10,000 public sector employees sacked; state companies privatized or closed; sharply rising unemployment; and restrictions on union rights. Several times, demonstrations have been broken up by police.
The same two years have seen a number of struggles by the mass organizations against the right's policies, but all have failed to halt their progress. Nonetheless, there remains a widespread mood of opposition expressed through renewed struggles and the hope for a new government which will reverse current policies.
The general discontent was revealed by the results of a recent by-election in Athens where the New Democracy and the Communist Party did not run candidates and called for an abstention or spoiled ballot; the social democratic PASOK party, however, did stand, describing the poll as a referendum on government austerity measures and raised its vote from 280.000 to 400.000.
Since then everybody has been predicting crushing defeat for the New Democracy government at the next elections (scheduled for April 1994) and a PASOK victory. redundancies in the Athens public bus company and the firm's 8,000 workers launched an all-out strike. The government responded by closing the company down. Since then there has been no bus service in Athens; people are travelling in military trucks and buses driven by soldiers. The 8,000 sacked workers, who are organized in a PASOK-led union, have been coming into the streets every day to demonstrate against their layoff. support of the bus workers which was a big success, bringing out tens of thousands in August. The same month, the government announced a social security law, raising the retirement age and cutting pensions. This provoked a big strike wave headed by the electricity company, the banks, and posts and
GREECE telecommunications, which have been on strike for several weeks.
The CGT called a 24-hour general strike for September 3, a 48-hour strike for
September 9 and 10 and another for September 16 and 17. The turnout has been very high in the public sector and adequate in the private sector. The union organized demonstration on September
10 brought out more than 100,000 people, who shouted "Down with the New Democracy".
The struggle is highly politicized, with even the more moderate unions raising the question of a new government. Even the bosses have taken fright, with the Alliance of Industrialists calling on the government to make a deal with the unions, while leading officials of the New Democracy Party have been calling for a more subtle economic policy. However Prime Minister Mitsotakis has rejected such ideas, with the support of the European Community.
What is saving the government for the moment is the attitude of the opposition parties who first refused to give this struggle a political perspective, and, now that such a perspective has been raised from below, are trying to bring the movement to an end as soon as possible. PASOK's solution is that it should take over government and is demanding early elections to that end. However it is remaining coy about what measures it would take once in power.
### United front rejected
The Communist Party (KKE) and the Left Alliance (Synaspismos) which it dominates are against raising the demand for the downfall of the government, against early elections and claim that PASOK and the New Democracy are the same. In general they reject any united front against the government.