Monday, July 20, 2015

Homo Orientalis, Homo Occidentalis

Syrian refugees, Omonoia Plaza, Athens, 17 July 2015
"The East" is the name of a lie; the lie of the West. Consciousness of the lie is the only path to truth. The East reveals the lie in which western (wo)man lives -- a (wo)man less human the more s/he thinks s/he is human, more than other humans -- a human protected from dehumanization, the deprivation of human identity, because s/he is white and "civilized." The East reveals the need of the western (wo)man for the lie, their identification with the lie. The foundation of the lie is the belief that exploitation does not poison consciousness; that there is a "spontaneous" expression that is not based on exploitation within societies dominated by capitalist relations of production. The western (wo)man is the one who benefits from the fruit of such exploitation but refuses to acknowledge it. It is the (wo)man  who has forgotten the East, does not wish to know about the East, and yet pretends to "know" what exploitation is. The western (wo)man is the one who may accept debating capitalism but does not wish to speak of imperialism. Because for that (wo)man, "capitalism" is not something that concerns the East, that is baptized in its blood; its protagonist and its victim, western (wo)man believes, is, once again, western (wo)man. Like imperialism, western (wo)man is a parasitic entity dreaming of being the universal subject: dreaming that his/her fantasy is reality, his/her desires are a moral law, the satisfaction of their Ego a moral demand, their pleasure the historical end justifying the means of martyrdom for others. The world, which is not western (wo)man, will keep turning into hell for as long as every human being does not rebel against the infamy of being "western" -- nothing more than western.

What would the KKE do if it were in SYRIZA's place?

What would the KKE do if it were in SYRIZA's place?
Rizospastis, 19 July 2015

We often hear the following, well-intentioned question: "What would you have done if you were in the place of the SYRIZA government"?

The question is not illogical. But we must place it in the right perspective.

If we, the KKE, were in the "place" of SYRIZA, meaning the place of bourgeois management, the place of defending capitalist interests, in search of winning back profits, seeking to use the advantages conferred on capital by membership in the EU, the EZ and Euroatlantic alliances and NATO; if we were in the "place" of taking up a government that is a tool of the power of monopolies; if we were in the "place" of negotiating on behalf of Greek capitalism by sitting in the roundtables of the EU, the EZ and other imperialist organizations;

Friday, July 17, 2015

The poisonous politics of SYRIZA's Left Platform

"It is both them who are at fault!" SPD Poster, 1932.
The KKE has long argued that the role of the Left Platform is not at all, as it has pretended, to "radicalize" SYRIZA, or, in another of its formulations, to "pressure it to the Left", but rather to: a) bolster illusions that this is possible and even desirable for SYRIZA and the Left Platform itself; b) hence, prevent those who buy into the illusion from making a real left turn toward KKE; c) assist in the overall effort to create a fracture within the KKE -- hence regularly hosting and promoting those who have been expelled from the KKE in more recent years, including venomously anti-KKE initiatives like "Ergatikos Agwnas" (Labor Struggle), as well as other, increasingly anti-KKE formations like ANTARSYA, in a broad "more left than SYRIZA, but still anti-KKE" alliance.

PAME: We denounce the plans of the SYRIZA Government to attack the demonstrators using riot police forces

July 15, 2105 PAME demonstration
PAME salutes the thousands of workers, unemployed, pensioners, young workers and students, the women, the self employed and small farmers who took part massively at the demonstrations of PAME on July 15th, all over Greece. The demonstrations send a message of struggle, not disappointment, of militancy, not defeatism, against the new brutal measures of the 3rd Memorandum of the SYRIZA Government.

We denounce the upgraded provocation plan of the Government of SYRIZA, to use the oppression forces of the riot police, alongside with parastate mechanisms during the enormous demonstration of PAME in Athens, on July 15th. This was a plan that aimed to break the demonstration of PAME, to intimidate the workers and the popular strata.

The attack on PAME was planned

The Police attacks the PAME rally at the "Fix" juncture
The attack on PAME was planned
Rizospastis, Friday, 17 July 2015

The Tsipras government has been exposed following the police attack, on July 15, against the PAME rally. The attack took place as the Parliament was discussing the third Memorandum. Besides immediate experience, the collection of data regarding the attack leads to the conclusion that the attack was well planned. The police acted on a command plan and with the clear goal not only of emptying the area outside the Parliament, but of beating protesters far away from the Parliament. A characteristic example is the attack by police "Delta" teams, which took place at the "Fix" juncture, kilometers away from the Parliament, and at a time when the protesters were folding up their banners.

All the data leads to the same conclusion: well before the attack, groups of 6-7 members were spotted spread around the Syntagma plaza. At about 9 pm, i.e, at the time in which Parliament discussion was scheduled to start, a group placed near the Grand Britania hotel began throwing stones at police forces that were placed near the flower stores. As streets were empty of protesters, both toward Panepistimiou street, which was empty, and toward Georgiou street, which was empty as well,  the police opted to turn the initial small group of supposed anarchists toward the main body of the protest, using tear gas for that purpose.