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(From Edward Rooksby on FB. I am bit puzzled by the reference to a Stathis Kouvelakis/Alex Callinicos debate since they both come across as left critics of Syriza.)
On the Stathis Kouvelakis - Alex Callinicos debate last night - you may have seen Kouvelakis' comments on FB earlier about how 'remarkable' it was and about there being 'some kind of electricity in the air'. There certainly was something quite electrifying about this meeting. I don't remember having attended anything like it for a long time. It was very full and it's the first meeting I've been to with people sticking their heads into the meeting room through windows because the hall was so packed - it contributed to the excitement of the occasion (and an oppressively hot room!).
In terms of what Kouvelakis and Callinicos said - the nub of Alex's argument, it seemed to me, was a point about the 'deep state', the internal coherence of the repressive apparatuses of the state and about the need, sooner or later, to 'smash' them (though he didn't use that term). At least one of the questions from the floor for Kouvelakis was about this too. I have to say I thought Kouvelakis dodged this point. Kouvelakis stressed the acheivement of Syriza in terms of knitting together a party/movement of a new type which was actually able to challenge seriously for power and take office. He also emphasised how the Thessaloniki programme, and in particular the identification of the issue of the debt as the main question, connected concretely with Greek people's immediate concerns and presented the programme in terms of a set of transitional demands. I thought he could have responded more directly to AC's key point by pointing out that the question of rupture and a test of strength with the RSAs (which I don't think he denies is necessary) doesn't even come on to the agenda without cohering a social and political force that can take power - which Antarsya clearly hasn't. Rupture does not emerge by insisting on its necessity - if it is to emerge it will only emerge organically from a process of contestation, which for me necessitates the process of transitional demands and the radical dynamic such demands are supposed to catalyse that Kouvelakis spoke about. It also presupposes the presence of organised left forces aware of the necessity for rupture - but the point is that it won't emerge as a real possibility for those organised left forces to nurture and bring to a head without the prior emergence of a force that can galvanise the sort of change to put it onto the agenda. As Kouvelakis indicated, the Antarsya strategy is and has been concretely tested (not just the Syriza one(s)) - and the outcome was a 0.6% share of the vote.
The common ground between them was an agreement that last week's agreement was a retreat and a defeat and Kouvelakis was clear that the most dangerous thing at the moment was the Syriza leadership's attempt to spin it as a victory which, he said, only paved the way for future retreats. They also agreed about the need for a challenge to the leadership from the left. The SWP/Antarsya vision of this appears to be an immediate seizure of banks and imposition of capital controls 'from below' - I'm not sure how grounded in reality this is at present. I do think that the SWP tend to counterpose a largely imaginary revolutionary movement to the real constraints and concrete dilemmas faced by those following various strategies of 'reform' and invoke 'mass struggle' as a kind of magic talisman that somehow dissolves all problems.
Fantastic meeting though. More like this please! _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
