Announcement of the KKE on the Third Memorandum the Government signed with the Institutions

The third Memorandum, agreed upon with the Institutions by the SYRIZA-ANEL government, and coming to the Parliament for approval, must face the greatest possible reaction on the part of workers and the entire people. It contains measures of such harshness and cruelty that no government in the past dared implement, fearing popular reaction. This is the great contribution of the SYRIZA government to the system. Using the fairytale of the "left government" and of the "Prime Minister who tried but was prevented", the government is moving ahead with the implementation of barbaric measures, that were permanent demands of big capital and of EU directives, and that demolish whatever was left standing of worker and people's rights.

The third Memorandum and its accompanying implementation laws include the continuation of all previous Memoranda and the commitment that anti-popular measures will be implemented to the letter. It contains new, painful measures on labor rights, insurance, the self-employed, small and middle farmers, making their survival even more difficult. At the same tie, it contains the implementation of measures aiming at the improvement of competitiveness and profitability of capital, the concentration of wealth into even fewer hands, through privatizations, OECD directives, the recapitalization of banks, the further liberalization of the energy market, the fund to which 50 billion euros worth of state property will be deposited.

In fact, the third Memorandum constitutes a permanent threat against the people, who will be constantly blackmailed to new sacrifices to achieve the goals of primary surpluses, fiscal austerity and, above all, capitalist recovery. After al, the Council on Fiscal Policy, which has already been voted for as a prerequisite, can introduce new cuts in popular income at any time if the goals of the government and the institutions are not attained.

The people now has concrete and indisputable evidence showing that no government cannot even bring some basic relief to the people, far less adopt a pro-people policy within the framework of the EU and the capitalist economy. Given that the SYRIZA-ANEL government, like the previous ND-PASOK governments, considers the capitalist path to development as the only path, the agreement for a new Memorandum was only a matter of time. With its policy, the government effectively legitimates the previous governments, constituting, along with ND, PASOK, and Potami, a parliamentary front for the ratification and implementation of the new, barbaric measures.

The responsibility of the cadre of the so-called "Left Platform" of SYRIZA is vast. After it disseminated a spate of delusions to left-wing and radical people concerning the SYRIZA government, after supporting all the steps toward the new Memorandum (the agreement of 20 February, the 47 page Tsipras proposal, etc.), it now differentiates itself, continuing to support the government. Its proposal is the --equally futile for the people-- policy of a capitalist Greece with a national currency, advocated by reactionary forces, albeit with a different starting point: Schauble, other fascist and extreme right forces of euroscepticism in Greece and Europe. They are hiding the fact that exit from the euro alone, without disengagement from the EU, without radical changes in economy and power, will lead to the same result from a different path: to the bankruptcy of the people, at the time when certain sectors of capital are multiply benefitted.

The time has come for the people to resist, take its fate in its own hands, use its own power, which until now it has left unused, hoping in a future government management, that would supposedly solve its problems for it. But all the governmental alternatives within the walls of capitalism proved a nightmare for the people. If the people consents today, if it does not resist, then the worst is ahead; it simultaneously runs the risk of losing valuable time.

The KKE says to the people that there is hope. The Memoranda, poverty, unemployment, the exploitation of the people for the benefit of a few are not the only path, nor can it be a future for the people and for the coming generations. What is now necessary is the organization and reinforcement of struggle against the third Memorandum and its measures. It is the reinforcement of class and radical forces in the worker-popular movement, for the abolition of anti-worker and anti-people laws, the satisfaction of contemporary needs, in a rupture with the EU, capital and their power.

What is needed is a common path, support and strengthening of the KKE, that never lied to the people, has always stood by their side and today proffers the only realistic pro-people path: the total disengagement from the EU, the unilateral cancellation of debt, the socialization of monopolies, of the wealth of the country, with the people itself in power.

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