ANTARSYA: "Political Decision of the 2nd Conference"

A. The crisis, the new political situation and class struggle in Greece

1. Working people and oppressed popular strata around the world, in Europe and particularly in Greece, are confronted with a deep structural crisis of contemporary capitalism and a violent and qualitatively reactionary acceleration of attacks on the part of the capital, the governments, the IMF, the EU and all supranational mechanisms, that take advantage of the capitalist crisis to pass a sweeping capitalist restructuring. With the intensification of imperialist antagonisms and the strengthening of the propensity for military conflicts, especially in the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, new, unprecedented risks emerge for work, social welfare, democratic freedoms, culture, the environment, education and healthcare. For millions of workers around the world, and more so for those in Greece, the anti-capitalist overthrow of this attack with a revolutionary perspective constitutes a condition for survival. At the same time, there is growing evidence that a large global cycle of uprisings remains active through a wealth of important struggles around the world—the most recent example being the heroic uprising of the Turkish people.
2. Three years after the first Memorandum, Greek capitalism has imposed a "social holocaust" at the expense of work. However, not only there has not been any growth, but also the crisis has deepened further. Additionally, the EU and particularly the Eurozone, not only did not overcome its own crisis, but now runs the risk of pulling the trigger and becoming the first victim of a new international cycle of crisis. The strategic choice of the Greek capital to remain in the euro and its absolute connection with the EU and its more reactionary perspective, is a factor that both supports the internal attack against labor and against the people and exacerbates the crisis of Greek capitalism. Contrary to the contention of the tripartite coalition government of New Democracy-PASOK-DIMAR, recession in the Greek economy will continue for at least the next two years. The Greek public debt is "unsustainable" even in capitalist terms. Based on the above, a new "haircut" and a fourth memorandum is a matter of time.
3. The events of 2010-2012 constitute a first cycle of revolts, a political period marked by massive, diverse, and persistent resistance struggles of the working class and the people against the Memorandum raid, that contributed decisively to the exacerbation of instability and to the political crisis of the bourgeois system, shaping thus the first elements of a crisis of hegemony. This political crisis was expressed by the fall of two governments and was reflected in the elections through the fragmentation and decline of the bourgeois parties and the rise of the Left, that was thereof exploited by the “managerial” politics of SYRIZA. The workers’ and popular struggles have delayed the implementation of the measures, they have created great difficulties for the materialization of the attack, and now constitute a valuable legacy for the significant showdowns to come. The fact that these struggles failed to cause qualitative ruptures, and much more, to thwart the attack, is due to many reasons; While shaken, the hegemony of bourgeois politics and of the trade union bureaucracy over labor and popular movements remains in place in conjunction with the strategic and political failure of the reformist Left, namely SYRIZA and KKE. This stresses the need for an anti-capitalist and revolutionary perspective, a strategic reestablishment of the Left and a class reconstruction of the labor and popular movements to overthrow the attack. The shaky bourgeois and bureaucratic hegemony that is now obvious in the unions, as well as the great experiences from the struggles between 2010 and 2012, provide new qualitative possibilities towards this direction.
4. Since mid-2012, class struggle encounters new difficulties in terms of the mass development of workers’ and popular struggles, that are due both to the formation of the coalition of New Democracy-PASOK-DIMAR as a temporary answer to the question of government instability and second, to the effect of imposing reactionary measures, to the pressure of unemployment and poverty. The capital, using as vehicle the coalition government of Samaras accepts the humiliating oversight of the Troika (EU-ECB-IMF) under the German hegemony, in order to pass with its help a general, reactionary reconstruction of Greek capitalism, in the hopes of attracting massive investments and achieving a quick recovery, which will be based on a 'medieval' exploitation of labor and on widespread misery among the people. This orientation reinforces the tendency to impose an undemocratic, authoritarian, emergency regime of parliamentary totalitarianism by reversing workers’ and people’s freedoms, using violence openly against the mass movement and the Left as well as the systematic use of "social automation." In this context, the capital uses the fascist threat and racism as a terrorist aggressive spear, and protects and supports the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn. The aggressive stance of New Democracy around the so-called "anti-racism bill" confirms that a reactive, aggressive, political tendency is dominant in the circles of capital. This extreme reactionary political shift represents a major danger and a challenge for the working class movement and the Left.
5. At the same time, there is preparation for every possibility, putting pressure on SYRIZA’s leadership for a full integration into the system with the aim of continuing the same politics even so in a milder version, its final transformation into a "responsible" power and opening channels for dialogue, recognizing them as a discussion partner.  This trend is further reinforced by the choice of SYRIZA leadership to deal with the crisis in a “managerial” way, within the confines of EU policies and of capital. Based on the above, there should not be any more illusions that any "government of salvation with SYRIZA" might follow a qualitatively different anti-memorandum politics of rupture and subversion for the people. The Communist Party, on the other hand, despite its anti-capitalist, even revolutionary rhetoric, is strategically and tactically inadequate to address both the reactionary policy as well as the politics of integration. Its line eventually leads to defeat. ANTARSYA, however, will continue its tactic for unity both in relation to SYRIZA and KKE, and as an open and comradely discussion and debate on the basis of the overall rise of the movement, joint action and unity of class forces, especially within the labor movement.
6. ANTARSYA believes that political instability, political crisis, and those elements of a crisis of hegemony will reappear more acutely in new forms in the arena of the complexities of the crisis and of mass struggles. At the same time, sectoral, operational, and popular struggles and resistance of lately (e.g., Metro, OLME, MEVGAL, Skouries, etc.) despite their weaknesses, suggest, nevertheless, that the labor and popular movement are seeking avenues in order to break the violence and terror, to force the capital and government to a first defeat, to pave the way for the overthrow of the brutal "Memorandum" intrusion. In the dynamic of correlations, despite several turning points in class struggle, we see the development of a trend noted by the first ANTARSYA Conference for a «historical period characterized by multiple social explosions, unexpected popular uprisings, even revolutionary events." This trend is certainly not linear, nor does it overlap with the cycles of economic crisis. It creates, however, the medium-term conditions for the outbreak of revolutionary conditions in any one country, even in capitalist developed countries, in a transnational interaction, more so in our country. This trend will be addressed by the capital with the intensification of the counter-revolutionary attack. ANTARSYA the anti-capitalist, revolutionary and communist Left, the subversive left, and the working class grassroots movements must prepare theoretically, politically, and tactically in order to capitalize on the upcoming showdowns for an anti-capitalist subversion of the attack and in order to pave the way for the revolutionary process.
7. The current deep structural crisis of capitalism remains active, and will experience new complications, and possibly a transient, loose and anemic recovery. However, the structural crisis of capital will be eventually solved, either through the violent destruction of the capitalist over-accumulation of capital and a new qualitative, reactive and total reconstruction of the system, or through a violent revolutionary expropriation of capital, for the overcoming of capitalism and the abolition of capital relations, on the road to socialism-communism of our time; The only historical perspective that can save people from barbarism. These "two perspectives" spawn a new era of class struggle. They lead to a higher conflict between labor and capital, to a new round of revolutions towards socialism and communism, to the confrontation with the question of power and government of workers and working classes allies. The contemporary working class, the collective worker of our time, not only is subject to greater exploitation and precarity, above all, s/he has the knowledge and the possibilities for a new organization of production and society, where s/he will be in charge. ANTARSYA enlists in this perspective.

B. The political proposal and programme of ANTARSYA
8. In the present historical period, ANTARSYA’s central political objective is the anti-capitalist subversion of the attack waged on the part of the capital, its governments, the EU and the IMF, with the necessary anti-capitalist transitional programme. The anti-capitalist overthrow will be imposed by a militant front of rupture and subversion with a reconstituted class labor movement at its core, the political hegemony of a strong pole-a political front of the anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-EU and subversive Left and under the power of a popular workers uprising. The anti-capitalist subversion of the attack will pave the way for the revolution, for claiming and seizing power and the government by the fighting forces of workers and the popular movement, the conflict and, ultimately, the destruction of the bourgeois state.

9. Definitive elements of such a trajectory are persistence and the emergence of the necessary transitional anti-capitalist programme. It is a programme for the survival and the substantial improvement of the economic and social life of workers and people in general, that is inextricably tied to the struggle for debt cancellation, the exit from the euro and the EU, workers' control, nationalizations, unilateral termination of all memoranda of 'medium-term frameworks and loan contracts; A programme that defends jobs and the collective productive capacity of society against the laws of the market and EU policy. This programme meets the immediate and vital interests of the masses. It inextricably connects the struggle for life of the working class and the people with the revolutionary perspective, paving the way for the socialist-communist transformation of Greek society. It is convincing to the degree that when we rely on the forces and the struggle of the people, we can live, we can produce and survive, we can have fuel and infrastructure, healthcare, education and security, justice and quality of life, without the euro and the EU, without debt, above and beyond the market logic; With elements of a true democracy against authoritarian and reactionary transformation of the political system.

10. This programme is anti-capitalist since it clashes with the forces of capital and the laws of the system, a logic thereby imposed by the nature of the crisis. It is anti-imperialist to the degree that it is situated against imperialist forces and organizations highlighting the class roles and their alliance with the Greek oligarchy. It is democratic because it incorporates both modern democratic rights of workers and the anti-fascist struggle. It aims at uniting the fragmented working class in the political struggle and at building its alliance with other popular and exploited strata that are destroyed by the onslaught of big business and multinational monopolies through labor hegemony. It is not intended to form an "alliance" with the non-monopoly strata of the bourgeoisie.

11. The main axes of struggle of this programme are:
- Unilateral termination of Memoranda for immediate improvement of the position of the working class and the oppressed people founded on the abolition of all laws stemming from the memorandum regarding income, pensions, collective bargaining agreements and with an eye on further improvement.
- The overthrow of ND-PASOK-DIMAR coalition government and of any government implementing the memoranda and only “manages” capital’s attack.
- The elimination of Troika EU-ECB-IMF and all para-mechanisms of the EU, the conquest and expansion of the working people's sovereignty and the right of people to decide their fate.
- Debt cancellation with immediate cessation of payments to creditors.
- The nationalization of banks and large businesses, including those that are closing down and firing workers, with worker-popular control and without compensation for losses.
- The exit from the Euro and the EU that ANTARSYA promotes as a demand with an anti-capitalist character for a new internationalist course.
- The overthrow of the undemocratic politics of violence, repression, and state of emergency through democratic gains to the benefit of workers and the people.
- The fight against the fascist threat and racism for the defense, legalization, and naturalization of the children of immigrants; safeguarding immigrants' rights as an integral part of the working class.
- The exit from NATO, the closedown of military bases, the conviction and refusal to participate in imperialist campaigns around the world, and right now in Syria. Preventing the threat of an imperialist war in our region, the dissolution of the Greece–Israel axis.
- The defense of a collective production potential in order to keep the businesses open and the factories under workers control, to cultivate the land by the small and poor peasantry and for the survival of self-employed working classes and their cooperatives.
- The defense and expansion of social and political rights of women and of all people who are discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.
- The defense of nature and the environment from the pillaging invasion of capital.
12. Overall, ANTARSYA’s transitional anti-capitalist programme proposes the route of struggle to mass labor and popular movements. It collides with the bourgeois political hegemony and domination, and directly seeks material changes in the power correlation, becoming thus a blueprint for action, and for making gains in the interest of workers. The struggle for the implementation of this programme will demonstrate that the final deliverance from exploitation and oppression can only come through a revolutionary process and the power of the workers themselves. Based on the above, it is clearly a programme of "transition" towards the revolution, socialism and, eventually, communism; It is a programme that brings together different forces and bridges the movement’s present with its future.
13. On the basis of such a programme, a powerful, politicized labor-popular movement can bring down the government and the memoranda, "dismantle" the memorandum 'acquis' of the bourgeoisie, and restore and expand on the working class rights. Such orientation requires a new round of massive and decisive fights; it requires a multifaceted "prolonged popular war." By contrast, confronting the government in terms of "parliamentary standby" leads to defeat.

14. Through the process of class struggle and popular uprising, people will be organized by building their own institutions for the movement, with workers’ democracy in the unions and generalization of forms of coordination that clash with the union bureaucracy; by holding popular assemblies in neighborhoods and generalizing movement-inspired solidarity practices; expanding forms of popular self-defense here and now; struggling against the fascist threat and against the escalation of repression.
15. This programme, in its entirety, will be implemented by the government and the political power of the working class and its allying popular strata. Claiming the power of workers requires: First, a transitional anti-capitalist programme that takes a position in relation to basic questions, such as leaving the euro and the EU, debt relief, nationalizations, etc., breaking with the "legality" and the "acquis communautaire." Second, an actual confrontation with repressive mechanisms and capital’s power, combined with extra-parliamentary and parliamentary forms of struggle. Third, it requires a vigorous grassroots movement with counter-institutions of popular power, with forms of popular solidarity, self-organization and self-defense. Workers cannot have any power without any and all forms of struggle, with which organized people will materialize the transitional programme. That is why we insist that, in any case, the possibility for a revolutionary overthrow and an actual way out for workers goes necessarily through the formation of independent forms of struggle for workers' power, forms that are competitive with and external to the bourgeois state. Otherwise, the risk of incorporation or defeat will remain open.


C. The Militant Front of Rupture and Overthrow
16. Both the new situation, as well as previous experiences call for a decisive improvement of the political line of the militant front of rupture and overthrow (AMPA), putting at its core a class reconstituted labor movement, that will be linked with and inspired by the anti-capitalist transitional programme; The aim is to establish a social alliance of the fighting popular masses, with workers’ hegemony and a subversive political perspective. This is the only alliance that can confront the government and reverse the attack, one that can make gains and reverse the current historical trajectory.

17. The class reconstruction of the labor movement as the core of AMPA passes through:
- The creation of a unified and massive coordination of primary unions, militant associations and mass committees for struggle that will constitute a real militant point of reference within the labor union movement; Unions that will collide with and overcome trade union bureaucracy in GSEE-ADEDY federations and associations.
- The organized, copious effort for reconstructing unions both in the public and private sector and for creating new ones, especially in the private sector.
- The strengthening and coordination of class political unionist formation, so as to contribute to a working class cluster constituted by all the forces of anti-“managerial” unionism aiming at the class reconstruction of the trade union movement.
- Finally, we need to consolidate the political initiatives that will allow the labor movement to strengthen its political role as organizer and force of impact of the broader popular demands in the upcoming battles.


18. AMPA is further built through the efforts towards:
- A contemporary movement of the unemployed with local committees in all neighborhoods and areas; a movement that is connected with the labor movement and trade unions.
- A labor and popular front of struggle for freedom and democratic rights that supports the work of KEEDE.
- A massive anti-racist and anti-fascist movement with the contribution and cooperation of ANTARSYA with KEERFA in unified frontal action in neighborhoods, with anti-fascist committees coordinated in “movement” terms and not via the logic of the "constitutional arch."
- The struggle against the EU and the euro, and the support of any relevant initiative.
- The forms of popular self-organization, solidarity, disobedience to taxation and self-defense in neighborhoods and cities, with a class militant orientation.
- A militant mass youth movement with a subversive orientation in alliance with the working class movement.
- Multiple fronts of struggle in defense of public social services (healthcare, education, water, energy, transportation, etc.) against privatization and the wholesale of public property,
- The fight to defend the environment and the city against the predatory capital investment.


19. In order to build a militant front for rupture and subversion, we are calling on the base and the leadership of all social and political currents of the struggle and all the forces of the Left for joint action in the mass movement and on all existing fronts, with terms of equality and respect of opinions, based on the achievements of the movement. The joint action of the Left, especially that of militant forces, irrespective of where they belong to, is a strong prerequisite for the development of a movement for rupture.

D. The pole of the anti-capitalist, revolutionary, subversive Left and the frontal political joining of forces for subversion.


20. ANTARSYA’s aspiration is to rally the widest possible array of forces for the creation of a massive pole/a political front of the anti-capitalist, revolutionary Left and the broader forces of subversion, with the hegemony of an anti-capitalist transitional programme. This massive pole/political front is objectively necessary for the creation of a militant front of rupture and subversion and the reconstruction for the class labor movement.

21. An immediate step toward this direction is the "frontal political joining of forces for rupture," the collaboration of the forces of the anti-capitalist, anti-EU, anti-imperialist and radical Left. Such forces are, first of all, the men and women political activists in the different movements, people fighting in the Left, the "natural avant-gardes" who are born out of the class struggle and who feel more and more the distance between the needs of the struggle and the political inadequacy of the reformist Left’s leaderships. They are activists from the base of the Left, forces oriented to overthrowing the capital’s politics and the EU, with class intervention in the labor movement. They are forces with a communist referent; Forces that articulate decisively the issue of struggle against the euro and the EU, such as the Plan B - Front of Solidarity and Subversion. There are organizations of the revolutionary and anti-imperialist Left, such as KOA, EEK, OKDE Workers' Struggle and other organizations. There are the currents of Left that differentiate themselves from the various "patriotic," cross-class and apolitical currents of the anti-memorandum struggle.

We unite with all these forces on the basis of the following: an emphasis on the escalation of the struggle, the search for a modern anti-capitalist transitional programme, the persistence on the release from the euro and the EU, addressing the question of power in terms of rupture and not in terms of “management.”
Our assessment is that there are possibilities today for such a joining of forces. ANTARSYA aims at capitalizing on these opportunities to the fullest extent, and we invite the various forces to do the same. Ultimately, everyone will be judged by the substantial contribution to this effort.


22. Such a frontal joining of power is based on the necessary and indispensable transitional anti-capitalist programme today. More specifically: The unilateral cancellation of the memoranda and other loan contracts. The refusal to pay—debt cancellation. The ousting of the troika and of any other “guardian.” The exit from the euro and the EU as well as from NATO. The nationalization of the banking system and of strategic companies without any compensation for damages. The worker and social control in production and throughout society. The struggle for real democracy and popular sovereignty of the working people and the liberation from the shackles of modern totalitarianism of capital. The defense of the lives of workers in the struggle for survival and the improvement of their position against the dictatorship of the memoranda, profits and competitiveness. The overthrow of the government and its politics, and of every government that follows policies against the people. The escalation of the fight, the anti-managerial logic and the awareness that there is no room for a "populist" governmental management in the context of the euro, the EU and the system, the insistence on the need for revolutionary changes and for claiming a modern socialist perspective.


23. In this direction, based on the content that was developed, ANTARSYA enlists uniformly and takes on the political initiative to address the forces and the activists mentioned earlier. Together with those forces and militants who will agree on the necessary content, as it is determined in the previous paragraph, we proceed directly to join political forces for rupture and the joint intervention in the major social and political battles. Each joint force maintains its independency and we aim at making this process a concern not just for those organized but also for independent activists; we want this concern of joining forces to be debated widely on all levels and not to become just an issue for the leadership or for “media management.” Here and now ANTARSYA proposes a common political intervention on the following four fronts: a) in the battle for the exit from the euro and the EU, b) against civil mobilization (conscription) and generally for democratic workers' and people's freedoms, c) the creation of a large unified labor coordination and more generally, the class reconstruction of the labor movement, d) the struggle against the fascist threat and racism and the struggle for the legitimation and defense of immigrants as part of the working class.
24. Frontal politics requires the independence and strengthening of ANTARSYA, as a front of the anti-capitalist, revolutionary and communist Left, for the hegemony of the anti-capitalist transitional programme. It does not imply diffusion of ANTARSYA, much less its substitution with a frontal joining of forces for rupture.



E. For the most complete programmatic, frontal, and organizational constitution of ANTARSYA

25. The existence of ANTARSYA as an independent, coherent force, a visible pole within the Left is particularly important. ANTARSYA should become today a pioneer of the anti-capitalist Left, one that functions democratically, that processes a modern revolutionary strategy, that deepens the anti-capitalist struggle and is connected to a modern socialist and communist perspective.

On this basis ANTARSYA:
- Takes the initiative for a serious theoretical and political debate around the issue of the relationship between the state, revolution, power and government in the new era of class struggle.
- Sets up a plan for militant independent promotion of its overall political proposal and its frontal politics.
- Organizes the steps for a more in-depth processing, integration, and intervention particularly in the labor movement, but also in other fronts, such as democratic, anti-fascist - anti-racist, anti-EU, environmental fronts, etc.
- Sets up new committees and enhances the political and democratic operation and intervention of all committees, especially sectoral, for the development of deeper political ties with the working class and the popular strata.
- Upgrades qualitatively its frontal democratic character for an ANTARSYA of the organized forces and of independent political activists, for an ANTARSYA of the fighters and the thinkers.