The Words that Maketh Murder

Mr. Stathis Stavropoulos

The international Press is full of praises for the high intellectual quality and caliber of SYRIZA cabinet and fans, praises usually written by SYRIZA cabinet and fans; for instance Stathis Kouvelakis, or "Prospect Magazine", enraptured as it was by Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, "nemesis of the Germans". Often, as in the case of Kouvelakis' essay or  Mr. Charalambous' recent piece, SYRIZA's cerebral superiority (the result, pace Mr. Charalambous, of a blend of Marxism and Keynesianism bound to defeat inferior and antiquated Leninist ideas) is highlighted by comparison to the lowly intelligence of the inveterate and atavistic "Stalinists" of the KKE -- to all intents and purposes, a party of boorish "proles", as George Orwell would have it; no matches for the superhuman intelligence of the Zizeks, Negris and Balibars of this world, certainly.

But let us shift focus to the national context. Mr. Stathis Stavropoulos was a cartoonist for "Rizospastis" until the 1991 split, when he left the newspaper and made a great career for himself working in the Greek bourgeois press; he was, after all, a talented cartoonist.

Mr. Stavropoulos was a candidate MP for SYRIZA in the 2012 Parliamentary elections, and was expected to be a candidate again, though he did not make the final list this time. He is a columnist for news portal Enikos, while his essays are frequently hosted by "Iskra", the electronic organ of SYRIZA's "Left Platform" (to which, incidentally, Mr. Kouvelakis belongs).

So, allow me to translate the second half of a piece Mr. Stavropoulos wrote today, using its "Communist" publication venue as a source. I believe it's instructive and revealing of the kind of superior intellectuality routinely demonstrated by SYRIZA when it attempts to deflect KKE criticism. His article is entitled "From trumpets to casseroles." The "casseroles" in question are a reference to the "cacerolazo" movement against Allende, to which a number of the "ultra leftists" of SYRIZA and of ANTARSYA (Petros Papakonstantinou, Aggelos Hagios) have recently been comparing KKE protest against the new government. In this brilliant conceit, Mr. Tsipras and Co. are the Allende government, Greece in 2015 is 1971 Chile, and KKE and popular protest against the new stage of austerity is...well, the path to fascism, to the fascist dictatorship of Pinochet. I leave it to my readers to imagine what a Greek "leftist" convinced by this brilliant analogy is supposed to understand as his/her duty toward the workers who will be demonstrating tomorrow: possibly, something analogous to "democratic duty" toward PAME demonstrating workers in Syntagma on 20 October 2011, when unemployed construction worker and PAME member G. Kotzarides died.

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No matter what, the rooster has barely sounded yet, the first laws are not even in Parliament yet, but things will be tested quickly. The negotiations continue, government must begin.

If for no other reason, then for fear of the KKE! Which, in the name of revolutionary vigilance, is speedily bringing the people to the streets to show the damn Germans that if SYRIZA fails, we are not scared of the return of the extreme right right [sic]. After all, in a sense, the Right has never left, since this Left [SYRIZA] is a Right. A Right of monopolies, corruption and submission. You are totally right, comrades, and now that I have a temperature I recognize it. Don't cackle with malice, let the damn Germans* impale "right-wing" SYRIZA members in neighborhoods and alleys and then ask, as trophies of your victory, for the casseroles of your bitter vindication. You always knew, you, who have never supported the effort for things to have been otherwise now, that nothing in this life, except the torments of capitalism, can lead to the advent of socialism. So the time has come. After the thousands of honest demonstrations of communists in Syntagma, let their descendants take up the first casserole demonstration. Alas...

* "Germanarades": Like most of the members of the "Radical Left" of SYRIZA's "Radical Left", Mr. Stavropoulos routinely abuses the German people en masse in the Greek press, apparently finding in rabid social chauvinism a very useful substitute for Marxism-Leninism...