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On 2/1/15 3:48 PM, James Creegan via Marxism wrote:
I have cataracts in both eyes and a macular pucker in the left. Your
bullshit is trouble enough to read by virtue of its ultraleft
setarianism this is just beyond my patience to wade through. I am afraid
that I will lose my sight entirely after 100 words. You fucking have to
learn how to skip a line between paragraphs to start with. You posted a
thread from the Weakly Worker here the other day that was even worse
than this in terms of readability. It truly reflects on your utter
indifference to get people on your side--the art of politics, in other
words--by neglecting the most important question: how to communicate.
Take Syriza. Louis assures us that its victory will “swell the army”
of all those fighting injustice around the world, and justifies its
coalition with ANEL on the grounds that it is a minor compromise in
the service of their larger goal of “beating back” austerity . Now
granted that the party’s electoral victory is acting as a major
fillip to Podemos and other anti-austerity forces throughout Europe
and beyond. But has Proyect ever stopped genuflecting before
Tsipras-Veroufakis long enough to consider the prospect that Syriza
may just fail? What effect would that have on anti-austerity
forces? Let us take stock. I don’t claim to know how things will turn
out, but if I were a pro-austerity Eurocrat or banker, I might
calculate as follows: “We have within our power an enormous capacity
to make the Greek economy scream even louder than it already is, and
to underwrite anti-Syriza forces. Greece is a small country whose
default, even exit from the Eurozone, is something we can withstand.
It therefore makes more sense to tighten the screws and make an
example of Syriza now than pursue some genuine compromise that will
only embolden Podemos and others. We can certainly offer Tsipras a
few sops in return for his agreement to act as the human face of
austerity. But, beyond that, what’s to be gained by compromise?” How
could Syriza respond? Its base has indicated that it is fed up with
austerity, but not fed up enough to leave the Eurozone, and Alexis
Tsipras has put himself forward as the political conjurer who can
fulfill this self-contradictory dual desideratum. But can he? What
would be his options in the face of EU intransigence? Proyect never
seems to ask himself these questions, let alone answer them. There
may perhaps be a Russian card to play here, in light of the growing
Russian-NATO falling out, and Tsipras seems not entirely unaware of
this option. But it would also be difficult to imagine an effective
counterthrust without strong measures against Greek and foreign
capital, which would in turn require mass support and mobilization.
But it seems to me that such a mobilization would demand, inter alia,
a strong alliance between the Greek working class and the immigrant
population—two major groups on the receiving end of austerity. Is
such a potential alliance made more or less likely by the coalition
with ANEL? Will the hundreds of thousands of immigrants now in
detention centers, or under threat in their neighborhoods from
fascist thugs, be inclined to regard this nod in the direction of
anti-immigrant demagogues as a minor tactical expedient? Will this
lash up enhance or retard the possibilities of a unified fight
against Golden Dawn, which is likely to supply Greek capitalism with
needed shock troops should the confrontation with the Eurocrats move
from parliament to the streets? One pole of Proyect’s Manichean
political universe obviously consists of non-dogmatic, with-it,
up-to-date progressive-ecumenicists like himself, who seize every
opportunity to burnish their anti-sectarian credentials with effusive
praise for the left-reformist flavor of the month. At the opposite
pole are the Socialist Equality Party, the Spartacists, etc., who
reflexively denounce any left-tending popular movement for
non-conformity to their preordained ‘revolutionary’ script. Joined by
the latter at this pole—and virtually indistinguishable from them
according to Louis—are all those in the least inclined to evaluate
the slogans and promises of left-reformists in the light of past
experience and present possibilities rather than simply enthusing. A
Manichean universe, if ever there was! Jim Creegan
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