Greece’s Broken Democracy and the Fightback from the Streets

the fightback begins

by our Balkan Affairs correspondent

What was meant to be Greece’s “Economic Miracle” has ended up being a catalogue of scandals, tight executive control, no government oversight and shocking examples of corruption and tragic incidents that has led to many deaths. But there had to come a point where the masses fought back and that point has finally come.
European authorities promote Greece as a “post crisis success story”. Yet Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ right-wing government relies on spyware and the flagrant misuse of EU subsidies and is now overseeing a brutal cost-of-living crisis.
On the night of his election victory on 7 July 2019, new prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared that Greece was “returning to normal.” Leader of the right-wing New Democracy party, Mitsotakis promised a government of the “best and brightest” and drew a line under the previous four years of Syriza rule, vowing to erase its legacy piece by piece.
More than six years on, Mitsotakis’s tenure has become a cesspool marred by corruption, financial mismanagement, illegal surveillance, cover-ups, abuse of European Union funds, manipulation of the justice system, and a tightly controlled propaganda machine financed through state resources. It’s something that hasn’t  been seen since the fall of the military dictatorship. 
Mitsotakis came to power promising to break with that past, but his premiership has extended it. The first major crack in his stage managed image came in 2022, when the Predator spyware scandal blew open. Investigations showed hundreds of people, ordinary citizens, journalists, opposition figures, and even his own ministers ,under surveillance through a toxic mix of illegal spyware and “legal” phone taps, just after he put the intelligence service under his direct control. The trail led straight to his office. The head of the National Intelligence Service resigned, but no political figures have been prosecuted, and the government hurriedly shut down the parliamentary inquiry in what the opposition called a blatant whitewash.
Barely six months after the Predator revelations, the Tempe train crash on 28th February 2023, shattered what was left of Mitsotakis’s myth of competence. 58 people, mostly students, were killed when a passenger train slammed head-on into a freight train on the Athens–Thessaloniki line, Greece’s worst rail disaster in living memory. From the first hours, the government tried to shrink the story to a single “tragic human error,” throwing an overworked stationmaster to the wolves. Years of warnings about dead signalling systems, understaffing and stalled safety upgrades were brushed under the carpet.
Nearly three years on: no prosecutions, no real consequences. The families of the deceased have become the standard bearers for their dead relatives , staging mass rallies on the anniversary of the disaster and constantly attacking those responsible in the media and in Parliament . One would think that this level of anger and outrage would lead to electoral punishment , but in June 2023 , New Democracy cruised to an easy victory thanks to a divided left wing opposition and so New Democracy became the default government of the country.
Armed with this renewed mandate, Mitsotakis treated the result as a license to rule without restraint. The OPEKEPE scandal, named after the state agency that channels EU farm subsidies , exposed a subsidy system riddled with made up agricultural projects. Billions in EU funds were routed through this machinery while auditors were pushed aside and agency heads who questioned irregularities were removed.
A European investigation describes a systematic, organised fraud operation using OPEKEPE to siphon off Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funds. Brussels has already hit Greece with a €392.2 million fine and a five per cent cut to future farm subsidies for years of non-existent oversight. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back . After enduring wildfires in the Summer , floods in the Winter , crippling austerity measures, the scandalous actions of the Greek Coastguard who left boats filled with asylum seekers to their fate resulting in many deaths and anger over the Government’s support of Israel’s actions in Gaza: public servants started holding regular strikes, followed by the transport sector and finally the agricultural sector. General strikes have become a regular monthly occurrence and when news of the five per cent cut hit the farmers, they took to the streets, literally . 
This last month they have been blockading the main motorway between Thessaloniki and Athens. Blockading the port of Piraeus. Using their vehicles to bring cities to a standstill . Storming the main airport of Crete and disrupting flights. And when the police try to break up their rallies , they are pelted with anything that comes to hand , even overturning police vehicles as the police flee for their lives . And in the week beginning 15th December, a convoy of tractors numbering hundreds are heading to central Athens and Constitution Square for what will surely be a massive show of public support and a showdown with the infamous riot police.
These actions have not affected opinion polls , this is direct action completely separate from party politics and tribalism. It is the Greek people vs a tyrannical regime that plan to hold onto power until the next scheduled elections in 2027 . Few believe they will last that long , even with the Government’s international friends in the European Union, the USA and Israel. The time has come for a price to be paid and the writing is on the wall . 

Corbyn’s last stand?

Jeremy Corbyn has been blocked from standing as a Labour candidate at the next election. Labour's National Executive Committee voted 22 to 12 on Tuesday for a motion from current Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to prevent his predecessor from being endorsed for the seat he has been an MP in for 40 years. Corbyn said this was a "shameful attack on party democracy".
    None of us would disagree with the former Labour leader when he says "today's disgraceful move shows contempt for the millions of people who voted for our party in 2017 and 2019, and will demotivate those who still believe in the importance of a transformative Labour government. Now, more than ever, we should be offering a bold alternative to the government's programme of poverty, division and repression".
    Some of Corbyn’s supporters are urging him to stand for re-election as an independent Labour candidate. He’s held the seat since 1983 and over the years he’s built up a personal vote within the constituency. Whether that is enough to overcome Labour’s machine is another matter.
    Corbyn can rely on the support of his loyal constituency activists and what’s left of the Corbynistas in the Greater London area. But it’s highly unlikely that any of his former colleagues will stick their necks out to support Corbyn if he decides to defend his seat as an independent.
    It’s true that John McDonnell has given him some lukewarm backing. The former Shadow Chancellor who was once Corbyn’s Number 2 says he believes the decision can be overturned. He said it is a “matter of principle” and “quite a number of us will be campaigning to reverse this decision” in the hope that “common sense does prevail”.
    Jeremy Corbyn says he will "not be intimidated into silence". Sadly the same cannot be said of most of the Labour MPs who once supported him in the House of Commons.

Is Paris burning?

Barricades and fires. Tear gas and water cannon. Violence on the streets as millions of French workers take to the streets throughout the country in protest at the Macron government’s move to cut their state pensions. Sending in the riot police has only triggered more demands for President Emmanuel to stand down following his emergency presidential decree to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. No wonder Macron’s postponed King Charles’ visit to France.
    The turmoil in France is a bitter lesson for those who believe the European Union is some sort of haven for social progress and peace. Pensions cut to enable the rich to continue to live their lives of luxury and ease. Workers forced to pay for the billions spent arming the Ukrainian fascists. This is the reality of France today.
    The likes of Macron can be found all over Europe. Venal politicians who serve the ruling elites of Europe who, in turn, do the bidding of their masters in Washington, It’s what the European Union is all about.
    But the spirit of the French Revolution and the Paris Commune lives on. Passed on through generation after generation of French workers who struggled to wrest concessions from the grasping bourgeoisie they are now fighting to defend their rights on the streets of France today.

The language they understand

Budget Day is never good news for workers – least of all when it’s under a Tory government. But whilst the Chancellor droned on in Parliament workers were walking out in a new wave of strikes against the austerity regime. Tube workers and train drivers, junior doctors, teachers and civil servants were all taking industrial action over pay.
    Down the ages the employers’ mantra has always been “Management’s right to manage”. In its purest form, it is expressed in the Master and Servant laws of the Victorian era when unions were barely legal, and the ‘corporate’ laws of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In post-war Western ‘democracies’ the corporate class do their best to marginalise unions and limit the right to strike.
    The bosses claim that they have their workers’ best interests at heart and that strikes are pointless and useless. But no-one believes them.
    If it wasn’t for the unions, kids would still be climbing up chimneys whilst their parents slaved away in factories and mines six days a week for just enough to keep them going.
    The five-day week, paid holidays, pensions, free health care and education, all the trappings of what we used to call the Welfare State – were won by the labour movement. Genuine reforms by Labour governments brought in the health and safety legislation and recognition laws that empowered the unions in the 1970s.
    Those days may be forgotten but what workers still know is that free collective bargaining is meaningless without the ability to withdraw one’s labour. And at the end of the day, the only thing Management understands is industrial action.
    

One–Nil to Lineker

Gary Lineker has been reinstated as presenter of Match of the Day following an apology from the BBC. The BBC has wisely backed down over the Lineker saga whilst the Government tries to distance itself from a row that was clearly of its own making.
    The Government clearly wanted to silence Lineker who had Tweeted his objections to the Government’s new asylum seekers’ plan – a widely-publicised but clearly personal opinion made in his own time and on his own Twitter account.
    Many believe that the Government wanted the BBC to make an example of the sporting guru. The Government clearly believed that packing cross-Channel asylum seekers off to Rwanda was a vote winner that would shore up Tory support in the so-called “Red Belt” of northern seats taken from Labour at the last general election. But they were much mistaken.
    Millions of people supported the football guru who was suspended for comparing the language used by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, to introduce the new Tory ‘Illegal Immigration Bill’ to that used in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Millions more defended the former England player’s right to free speech – a right supported by Lineker’s colleagues who walked out in sympathy. Even the supine Labour leader was moved by the furore over the sports presenter to call on Rishi Sunak to “stand up to his snowflake MPs waging war on free speech” following the Gary Lineker row.
    What Lineker said was quite right. The Tory plans are indeed “beyond awful”. As he said: “There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ‘30s.”

Support the strikes!

We’ve seen the biggest wave of strikes for a decade this week. Hundreds of thousands of teachers, along with train drivers, civil servants, bus drivers and security guards walked out in a co-ordinated day of action on Wednesday. And their leaders warn of plenty more to come if their just demands for more pay are not met. While the mealy-mouthed Labour leader sits on the fence and tells his MPs not to join picket lines the TUC general secretary Paul Nowak rightly says “it really is now the responsibility of Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to get round the table and make sure resources are available to fund decent pay in public services”.
    Workers are taking industrial action across the public and private sectors, in response to 12 years of falling pay and an environment that has repeatedly asked workers to pay the price while dividends and executive pay have soared.
    For months and months the Tory government has refused to open serious negotiations with the unions. While energy prices soar and inflation rises the Tories smear the unions with talk about “Reds” and “wreckers”. While the Tories bleat on about the “economy” they can still find plenty to give the Western puppet regime fight the Russians in Ukraine. And there’s still plenty of tax breaks to ensure that the ruling class can continued to live their lives of ease while millions of out-of-work or poorly paid workers turn to food banks to survive.
    The bourgeois media have done their best to sway public opinion against the unions. But no-one believes them any more. Support for the workers remains high in the opinion polls and more importantly, on the street. The public want an end to the austerity regime and this is why Labour, if the opinion polls are to be believed, still has an astronomical 25 point lead over the Tories.
    The Sunak government can be forced back to the negotiating table. The new anti-strike laws can be defeated. But only through mass pressure and mass protests. This week’s strike could be the spark that ignites a movement to end austerity once and for all.

rotten to the core

Why it took two weeks for Rishi Sunak to get rid of Nadhim Zahawi is a mystery in itself. The Tory press has been full of stories about to the now disgraced former Tory party Chairman’s breach of ministerial rules in an attempt to cover up the fact he was facing a probe into his tax affairs.
    Now the Sunak camp is saying that this all goes back to the Johnson era and it has nothing to do with the new premier – which is at best slightly misleading as Sunak was, afterall, the most senior minister in Johnson’s Cabinet.
    Though Zahawi seems surprised at the furore in the media that may have ended his political career for ever nothing should surprise us about his antics. Tory politicians, like most of them on both sides of the House, are just in it for themselves. One goes. Another takes his place.

In the bleak mid-winter…

And it certainly will be for the millions struggling to cope in freezing temperatures with astronomical heating bills grossly inflated by the imperialist sanctions on the Russians who were one of the main suppliers of liquified natural gas to Europe before the war in Ukraine erupted this year. It won’t, however, be so bad for the rich who’ll still be rocking around the Christmas tree snorting coke and drinking themselves silly over the festive season while the rest of us are told to make the best of it, accept “the price of liberty” and blame it all on the unions, and of course, Vladimir Putin.
    Celebrating the winter solstice is a tradition that goes back thousands of years – from the Stone Age hunter-gatherers whose lives revolved around the seasons to the Roman Saturnalia when masters served their slaves in orgies of feasting and drinking in a festival in which all the rules of society could be temporarily broken.
    Though some of these traditions linger on in today’s orgy of consumer delight we are still supposedly celebrating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the man who told his followers that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”. But do any of the rich believe it?
    The great and the good will make their annual obeisance to the Prince of Peace, whom they claim to worship, on his supposed birthday while ignoring his teachings for the rest of the year. The Pharisees in the Established Church will churn out the usual platitudes about the “poor and needy” while ignoring the words of their Master who drove the money-changers out of the Temple and told his followers to “go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven”. And hundreds of thousands of people across England, Scotland and Wales will remain homeless – stuck in B&Bs, sleeping in cars and sheds or tents in the street. The festive clichés of the politicians and the princes of the church are meaningless to them.
    These people tell us this is the “season of goodwill”, but little of it will be shown to the poor and down-trodden – let alone the unions locked in bitter pay struggles over the Christmas period. A wave of strikes is sweeping the country. That’s why the Tories are squealing and bleating on about new laws to ban strikes to force people to accept pittance pay.
    The miserable efforts of the bourgeois media to demonise union leaders as “wreckers” who are “holding the nation to ransom” and “trying to destroy Christmas” have not worked this time round. Public support for the nurses, posties, teachers and railway workers is growing. On the street the craven Starmer leadership faces renewed demands to stand with the striking workers while some media gurus have broken ranks to argue for a realistic response to the unions’ demands to end this new winter of discontent and give the Tories a fighting chance at the next general election.
    Communists must naturally support all efforts to strengthen working-class organisations and bring them together and build support for all the strikes over the festive season. Now the workers are talking in the only language the employers understand. We must do all that we can to speed the day to victory.