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<h3 class="title">Alain Badiou: Eleven points inspired by the
situation in Greece</h3>
<p class="byline"> By <a
href="http://www.versobooks.com/blogs?post_author=40275">Miri
Davidson</a> / 09 July 2015 </p>
<div class="synopsis">
<p><em>By <a
href="http://www.versobooks.com/authors/77-alain-badiou">Alain
Badiou</a>, Athens, 7 July. Originally published in <a
href="http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2015/07/08/onze-notes-inspirees-de-la-situation-grecque_1345294">Liberation</a>.
Translated from the French by David Broder.</em><br>
<br>
<img src="cid:part4.03090408.08020909@ziggo.nl" alt=""><br>
<br>
It is urgently necessary to internationalise the Greek people’s
cause. Only the total elimination of the debt would bring an
"ideological blow" to the current European system.<br>
<br>
1. The Greek people’s massive "No" does not mean a rejection of
Europe. It means a rejection of the bankers’ Europe, of infinite
debt and of globalised capitalism.<br>
<br>
2. Isn’t it true that part of nationalist opinion, or even of
the far Right, also voted "No" to the financial institutions’
demands – to the diktat from Europe’s reactionary governments?
Well, yes, we know that any purely negative vote will be partly
confused. It has always been the case that the far Right can
reject certain things that the far Left also rejects. The only
clear thing is the affirmation of what we want. But everyone
knows that what Syriza wants is opposed to what the nationalists
and the fascists want. So the vote is not just a generic vote
against the anti-popular demands of globalised capitalism and
its European servants. It is also, for the moment, a vote of
confidence in the Tsipras government.<br>
<br>
3. The fact that this is happening in Greece and not – as ought
to be the case – everywhere else in Europe, indicates that the
European "Left" has sunk into an irreversible coma. François
Hollande? German Social Democracy? Spain’s PSOE? PASOK in
Greece? The Labour Party? All these parties are now overtly the
managers of globalised capitalism. There is not – there is no
longer – a European "Left". There is a little hope, which is
still not very clearly defined, in the wholly new political
formations linked to the mass movement against debt and
austerity, namely Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece. As it
happens, Podemos repudiate the distinction between "Left" and
"Right". I do, too. It belongs to the old world of parliamentary
politics, which must be destroyed.<br>
<br>
4. The Tsipras government’s tactical victory offers
encouragement to all new propositions in the political field.
The parliamentary system and its government parties have been in
an endemic crisis for decades, since the 1980s. Syriza’s
successes in Greece – even if they are temporary ones – are part
of what I have called "the reawakening of History" in Europe.
This can only help Podemos, and everything that is to come, in
future and elsewhere, over the ruins of classic parliamentary
democracy.<br>
<br>
5. However, in my opinion the situation in Greece remains a very
difficult, very fragile one. It’s now that the true difficulties
will begin. It is possible that the Merkels, the Hollandes and
the other executors of European capital’s power will alter their
demands in light of the tactical success of the referendum (a
vote that makes them into defendants in the court of history).
But it is necessary to act without paying too much attention to
them. The crucial point, now, is to know whether the "No" vote
will expand into a powerful popular movement, supporting and/or
exercising acute pressure on the government itself.<br>
<br>
6. Indeed, how should we judge the Tsipras government today?
Five months ago he decided to start by negotiating. He wanted to
buy time. He wanted to be able to say that he had done
everything to reach an agreement. I’d have preferred him to
begin in a different way: with an immediate appeal for a mass,
extended popular mobilisation involving millions of people, with
its central demand being the complete abolition of the debt. And
also through an intensive struggle against the speculators,
corruption, the rich who don’t pay their taxes, the arms
manufacturers, the Church… But I am not Greek, and I don’t want
to give lessons. I don’t know if an action so centred on popular
mobilisation – in a sense, a rather dictatorial action – was
possible. For the moment, after five months of the Tsipras
government, there has been this victorious referendum and the
situation remains completely open. That is already a lot.<br>
<br>
7. I continue to think that the hardest ideological blow that
could be struck against the current European system is
represented by the demand for the complete elimination of
Greece’s debt – a speculators’ debt for which the Greek people
bears absolutely no responsibility. Objectively, it is possible
to eliminate the Greek debt: plenty of economists – far from all
of them revolutionary – think that Europe has to cancel it. But
politics is subjective, in which sense it is different from pure
economics. Europe’s governments are absolutely determined to
prevent a Syriza triumph on this score. Such a victory would
open the way to Podemos, and after that, perhaps other powerful
popular movements in Europe’s larger countries. So Europe’s
governments – urged on by financial lobbies – want to punish
Syriza, punish the Greek people, rather than resolve the debt
problem. The best way to punish these punishers themselves would
be to default on the debt, whatever the risks that this would
entail. Argentina did it a few years ago, and it isn’t dead –
far from it.<br>
<br>
8. Everywhere there is agitation over the possibility of
Greece’s "exit" from Europe. But in truth it is the European
reactionaries who are brandishing this notion. They’re the ones
making "Grexit" an immediate threat. They hope that this will
frighten people. The correct line, which up till now has been
the position taken by both Syriza and Podemos, is to say: "We
are staying in Europe. We only want – as is our right – to
change the rules of this Europe. We want it to stop being a
transmission belt between globalised liberal capitalism and the
continuation of peoples’ suffering. We want a really free,
people’s Europe". It’s up to the reactionaries to say what they
think of that. If they want to chase Greece out, let them try!
On this point, the ball is in their court.<br>
<br>
9. We hear of geopolitical fears mounting in the background. And
what if Greece did turn to people other than the Whipping
Fathers and Mothers [<em>Père fouettard</em>: a kind of
anti-Santa Claus, who punishes naughty children at Christmas] of
Europe? Well, I’ll say this: all European governments have an
independent foreign policy. They cultivate entirely cynical
friendships, like Hollande’s ties with Saudi Arabia. Faced with
the pressures to which it is being subjected, Greece can and
must have just as free a policy. The European reactionaries want
to punish the Greek people, and, as such, it has the right to
seek foreign help in order to diminish or prevent the effects of
this punishment. Greece can and must turn to Russia, the Balkan
countries, China, Brazil, and even to its old historic enemy
Turkey.<br>
<br>
10. But whatever comes of this outside help, the situation in
Greece will be resolved by the Greeks themselves. The principle
of the primacy of internal factors applies to this situation,
too. Now, the risks are all the more considerable in that Syriza
is only formally in power. We know – we can feel it – that
already the old political forces are engaged in intrigues behind
the scenes. Even beyond the fact that state power very rapidly
corrupts, when it is acquired in regular and non-revolutionary
conditions, we could obviously pose some classic questions: is
Syriza in complete control of the police, the army, the justice
system, the economic and financial oligarchy? Certainly not. The
internal enemy still exists, it remains almost intact, it is
still powerful, and it enjoys the support in the shadows of
Syriza’s foreign enemies, including the European bureaucracy and
the reactionary governments. The popular movement and its
grassroots organisations must keep a constant watch over the
government’s actions. To repeat – the "No" in the referendum
will only be a true force when it continues into very powerful
independent movements.<br>
<br>
11. International popular support – a ceaseless one, one that
demonstrates, one that catches the media’s attention – must
devote all its forces to Greece’s possible call for
mobilisation. Today, I’ll remind you, 10 percent of the world
population possesses 86 percent of disposable wealth. The world
capitalist oligarchy is very narrow, very concentrated, and very
organised. Faced with this, dispersed peoples lacking in
political unity and closed off within their national borders,
will remain weak and almost impotent. Everything today is
playing out at a global level. Transforming the Greek cause into
an international cause of very powerful symbolic value is a
necessity, and, therefore, a duty.<br>
<br>
<em>- See our <a
href="http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2071-greece-a-reading-list">Greece
Reading List</a> for more articles, interviews and books on
Greece and the Eurozone crisis.</em></p>
<p class="tags"> More in <a
href="http://www.versobooks.com/blogs?tag=5">#Articles</a> <a
href="http://www.versobooks.com/blogs?tag=78">#Syriza</a> </p>
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