It would be inappropriate to take a position with absolute certainty - we do not live in the age of absolutes - on what is wrong or right, who is less right or more wrong, who will ultimately benefit and who will lose out from their choices.
It is also not useful at all, when we are talking about a political organisation, and in this case SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance, which is - as it seems - on the verge of a split.
The only conclusion that can be formulated as a certainty is that the image of SYRIZA-PS as it has been formed after the national elections of the summer cannot remain the same. The Gordian knot must be untied.
The 17.8% of the Greek people to SYRIZA-P.S. is not just an electoral number, it is not a mandate of repulsive disintegration. It is a mandate to SYRIZA-PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE to effectively exercise its duties as the official opposition, to defend the interests of society and to claim the governance of the country.
Even after the shock of May 21 and the heavy and unexpected defeat of SYRIZA-P.S. the leftist and progressive citizens of 20.07% did not give up their choice. Most of them defended it in the second elections as well, refuting the superficial political analyses that PASOK could be the new official opposition in Parliament.
SYRIZA-P.S. must stand up to vindicate its voters and all those progressive citizens who are watching from a distance and waiting for an alternative but complete and convincing political plan to hold on to. And that cannot happen as long as the current situation exists.
The gap that has been created after the latest developments is also becoming deeply political.
Alexis Tsipras in his last speech as President of the entire SYRIZA-PS spoke of «a historical cycle that is closing» and a «new beginning».
When a historical cycle closes, you have to assess the whole cycle and not just the period of government or opposition. We did not do so, and we continue today to avoid doing so in substance. The conclusions of such an assessment could untie the Gordian knot. We need to talk honestly with history. «A left that can bear self-criticism, knows what transformation, struggle and responsibility mean.».
SYRIZA-PS needs more than ever a conference of reflection, self-criticism and synthesis, to overcome the existing differences. It needs a congress of a strong, left-wing, democratic, progressive identity oriented towards tomorrow. We need social and political initiatives for the formation of a democratic front, but also a new organisational start with perseverance and patience for a mass party of active members and structures, with a stable social connection and organs that express the new composition.
Now is the time for the extraordinary congress to discuss the abolition of the now bureaucratic tendencies and their replacement with the creative contribution of currents of thought that will work from congress to congress.
In order for all this to become a reality, the party members, the only «owners» of SYRIZA-PS, will have to discuss everything without fear and passion through an exhaustive pre-conference dialogue, which must begin immediately.
Since its foundation, SYRIZA-PS has been a political meeting place for different currents of the Left, starting from the communist tradition and reaching the fringes of democratic socialism.
In the cave where we gathered, we started on the basis of a political agreement and political unity, with the perspective of forming a single political entity with an ideological and political identity and organisational autonomy.
This course was halted during the years of governmental duties.
Instead of the government in 2015 to act as a nucleus of social interconnection, government cynicism in fiscally suffocating conditions ended up leading to the nationalization of the party and its disconnection from the mass space. Ideas and actions retreated. Delegation and complacency prevailed. It was not SYRIZA which, by its contact with the social strata, put the task on the government to solve problems by demanding solutions, but the government on the party, the sole task of supporting it.
So we lost the richness of communication with the people of creation and labour and we were swallowed up by bureaucracy, we were incorporated by governmentalism.
The messages of the social processes did not reach the party, which evolved into a «bureaucratic elite», which, with «First Time Left», more as a slogan than as a complete political proposal, held together a minimal, but in essence rudimentary and weak party cohesion.
It is a requirement of the times that we are here, that we remain here, because we are our ideas, we are our positions, we are our proposals, we are our tradition. Together, united, we set the bar high to justify the hopes and aspirations of an entire people. «For a Left Forever»
Panagiotis Koumoundouros
Co-ordinator of SYRIZA-PS Laconia
