[P2P-F] [NetworkedLabour] Gindin and Panitch (from Athens): A Real Plan B

[Michel Bauwens]

I think you summarize well your understanding of the commons Francine,

Michel

On Tue, Jul 21, 2015 at 4:52 AM, Francine Mestrum <mestrum at skynet.be> wrote:

> I have only one question Orsan,
>
>
>
> Is ‘commons, people’s kitchens….’ a ‘real alternative to capitalism’? What
> will Monsanto think of this???
>
>
>
> Francine
>
>
>
> *Van:* NetworkedLabour [mailto:networkedlabour-bounces at lists.contrast.org]
> *Namens *Orsan
> *Verzonden:* 20 July 2015 22:34
> *Aan:* Theodoros Karyotis
> *CC:* gina vargas; CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES at jiscmail.ac.uk;
> p2p-foundation; <networkedlabour at lists.contrast.org>; WSFDiscuss List
> *Onderwerp:* Re: [NetworkedLabour] Gindin and Panitch (from Athens): A
> Real Plan B
>
>
>
> If I was Panitch or Gindin, or any academic-mainly thinker-left person,
> with good connections, I would ask them publicly...
>
>
>
> Since they didn't, can anyone from European Left or Syriza on the list
> answer why have you not being using state power, media, and resources to
> launch and lead a massive global campaign to foster commons, people's
> kitchens, solidarity economies, peer production, real alternatives to
> capitalism, that empowers people; if you really really needed to keep
> strong popular support and help people concretely on their livelihoods. And
> those who engaged with the project enthusiastically why not asked and push
> for this? While we and you all came to knew that is was what nationalist
> nazi greek capital has been doing  for years?
>
>
>
> Don't have any other question!
>
>
>
> Orsan
>
>
> On 20 jul. 2015, at 16:18, Theodoros Karyotis <tkaryotis at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> This is a terribly misguided article. It is just an attempt of the
> traditional left to cling on to what it stands for, while wrapping it up in
> a funky new vocabulary.
>
>
>
> For years I have been writing, in this list and in various articles, that
> the project of Syriza has nothing to do with the commons or with overcoming
> capitalism. On the contrary, it is a project of modernising and
> rationalising capitalism in a country that "lags behind" the other european
> countries in terms of opportunities for capital accumulation. I know that
> this opinion has been very unpopular, and that we had to wait and see how
> Syriza's plan plays out. But now we have enough data, so insisting on the
> same mistakes cannot be justified.
>
>
>
> The idea that society, under the guidance of a 'progressive' Syriza
> government can advance towards the plan C, is a dangerous fiction.
>
> Syriza is a governmental force that is now implementing an extreme
> structural adjustment that will further compress the lower classes and will
> attack the commons.
>
> Reluctantly, unwillingly? What difference does it make? The previous
> governments also hammered us with arguments that this is for the country's
> long-term benefit and that there is really no choice. Why should the same
> arguments be true if they are now uttered by the left-wing?
>
>
>
> In my hometown we spend 4 years mobilising the people against the
> privatisation of the water company. It was a hard and unequal fight, which
> had a big personal cost for the people who waged it. We managed to freeze
> the privatization process and oust -temporarily- transnational giant Suez
> from our city.
>
>
>
> Syriza is now obliged under the terms of the new memorandum to restart the
> privatization process. It has the judiciary to prosecute us, and the riot
> police -which it never reformed despite electoral promises- to throw
> teargas at us.
>
>
>
> What do you think our response should be? "Ok, dear Syriza govt, we know
> that you really don't want to sell off our water, but its is better that it
> is done by you rather than by those right-wingers."
>
>
>
> Oh come on people! Time to wake up from the dream!
>
>
>
> It cannot be overstated: By signing a new harsh memorandum and staying in
> power to implement it, Syriza has passed to the other side. It is now the
> enemy.
>
> It is a government that now subscribes to the TINA doctrine. Reluctantly?
> Unwillingly? What difference does it make?
>
>
>
> Syriza, with its charismatic leader and its reserves of political capital,
> has made possible an unprecedented attack on the people and the commons,
> which would be impossible under the previous government, which was isolated
> and fragile. It has made us believe that there is no other option, that
> resistance is futile.
>
>
>
> And the idea that it can somehow pass "positive" laws to counter the
> effects of the structural adjustment is preposterous. Signing this
> agreement, Syriza gave up the capacity of the Greek government to
> legislate. Laws will now again be written in Brussels or Berlin -same as it
> has been in the past 5 years- and voted in be Greek MPs without even being
> read.
>
>
>
> I have to reiterate that the commons movements should be radically
> independent from the state and political parties.
>
> The state's function will always be to ensure growth, attract investment,
> make the economy competitive, monetize everything. Otherwise it is a
> "failed state".
>
> These goals are synonymous to austerity, compression of the forces of work
> vis-a-vis capital, and an attack on the commons.
>
> And that is why the Plan B of a national productive reconstruction outside
> the eurozone is not a real solution either. Because it does not challenge
> the underlying assumptions of "return to growth" and the expansion of
> production, consumption and credit.
>
>
>
> The only place the commons have in Syriza's plan is as a "safety net", a
> method of social containment which will prevent social eruptions and will
> give the government an inexpensive instrument to exercise social policy,
> while at the same time dismantling the welfare state. This has already
> started, with the instrumentalisation of the social solidarity clinics.
>
>
>
> The Plan C should have an antagonistic edge, it should aim at creating new
> institutions and educate people for direct democracy and people's power. It
> cannot be an accessory to a program of lukewarm reforms that only aim to
> save capitalism from itself.
>
>
>
> And Syriza cheerleaders like Panitch should wake up to the new reality
> that emerges after Syriza's unconditional surrender.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> autonomias.net
> twitter.com/TebeoTeo
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ...buscar y saber reconocer quién y qué, en medio del infierno, no es
> infierno, y hacer que dure, y dejarle espacio...
>
>
>
> On 17 July 2015 at 12:04, peter waterman <peterwaterman1936 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> [image: Socialist Project - home] <http://www.socialistproject.ca/>
> *The   B u l l e t* <http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/>
>
> Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 1145
> July 17, 2015
>
> [image: Socialist Project - home] <http://www.socialistproject.ca/>
>
>
> The Real Plan B:
> The New Greek Marathon
> Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch
>
> In the face of being excluded from desperately needed funds and the threat
> of being kicked out of the European Union, the Greek parliament has now
> voted to accept the Troika memorandum
> <http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/07/12-euro-summit-statement-greece/>.
> The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras acknowledged – unlike social
> democrats *choosing* to implement neoliberalism as part of their
> ‘modernization‘ – that this was ‘a bad deal’ forced on the Greeks. Syriza's
> MPs were divided although three quarters of them followed Tsipras and voted
> yes. Outside in Syntagma Square thousands of angry demonstrators gathered
> and then marched through downtown Athens, this time the ‘NO’ being reserved
> for rejecting the memorandum. There is a strong current of dissent in the
> Syriza party Central Committee, which has yet to meet. Yet there is also a
> general sense we get from party members and supporters at all levels we
> have talked with here that the government should be supported and continue
> in office.
>
> In the face of these divisions and frustrations, what if anything might be
> done to revive and continue Syriza's struggle against neoliberalism? And
> since neoliberalism is what capitalism *is* today – there is no other
> kind – what can be done to lay the basis for ending capitalism? This is not
> just a question for Greeks, though crucial aspects of this dilemma are of
> course specific to Greece, but for how the left everywhere thinks about and
> responds to the challenges of coming to power in a hostile environment to
> try to protect people from the worst depredations of neoliberalism, and
> tries to embark on ‘really-existing transitions’ to a more egalitarian,
> solidaristic, substantively more democratic world.
>
> Sections of the Greek left and a good part of the international left have
> argued that the deal should have been rejected, and Grexit embraced
> instead. This opens up a number of scenarios but the most likely would be
> the government resigning, calling new elections, and Syriza running on a
> program that reversed its former support for staying in the eurozone.
> Whether or not the party would win its credibility would, according to this
> argument, be maintained and it would at least live to fight another day.
> Exiting the Euro, Leaving the State
>
> We would not dismiss the above argument out of hand. It reflects
> legitimate emotional sentiments and strategic orientations. Until recently,
> however, three of four Greeks opposed Grexit, and even if this has shifted
> dramatically with the referendum and its aftermath, there is no clear and
> deep consensus on leaving. Tsipras and a good part of the leadership is, in
> this regard, not simply ‘tailing’ the public but deeply committed to Europe
> on both economic and cultural grounds. For those of us who have long argued
> that eventual exit is essential, especially from a socialist perspective,
> the challenge is not so much to condemn this but to ask: When is the right
> moment to take this on? What practical steps, ideological and in terms of
> state capacities, might be argued for now to move the party and its base
> toward a consensus?
>
> As for counselling Syriza to risk losing its governing status, it needs to
> be noted that Syriza already faced this question in the run up to the 2012
> elections, and concluded that the responsible decision was to enter the
> state and do everything it could to restrain the neoliberal assault from
> *within* the state. Its electoral breakthrough that year was based on
> Tsipras's declaration that Syriza was not just campaigning to register a
> higher percentage of the vote but determined to form a government with any
> others who would join with it in stopping the economic torture while
> remaining within Europe. It was only when it came close to winning on this
> basis, that Syriza vaunted to the forefront of the international left's
> attention, and by the following summer, Tsipras was chosen by the European
> Left Parties to lead their campaign in the 2014 European Parliament
> elections. Syriza's subsequent clear victory in Greece in this election
> foretold its victory in the Greek national election of January 2015, when
> it became the first and only one of all the European left parties to
> challenge neoliberalism and win national office.
>
> Even apart from the humanitarian measures it immediately introduced
> without allowing the Troika's representatives to vet the legislation, the
> very attempt by the new government to challenge the Troika has helped
> expose the neoliberal essence of the EU and to generate discussions on what
> alternatives, however difficult to imagine, might be. It strikes us as
> premature to conclude from the denouement to this five month challenge that
> was finally reached this week, however sobering it has been, that it is
> better for Syriza to leave the state to its bourgeois opponents. It seems
> better to move beyond outrage and protest, let alone resignation, and
> instead struggle with what kinds of changes remain possible in the state to
> support the needs of the majority of Greek people who voted OXI in the
> referendum and to contribute to the much-needed further development of
> their already powerfully demonstrated capacities for solidarity and
> innovation. Without this a productive path out of the eurozone, and perhaps
> even the EU, to escape neoliberalism would be inconceivable. It is this,
> not just surreptitiously making plans for a new currency, that properly
> preparing for Grexit would really need to be about.
>
> Those advocating an exit from the euro acknowledge that there will be
> costs. Yet they also tend to understate, sometimes rather glibly, the chaos
> this would entail especially for a state steeped in two centuries of
> clientalist practices. Along with this comes an exaggeration of what
> exiting the euro would, in itself, achieve. The economics of a new devalued
> currency are sure to lead to high inflation and further dramatic reductions
> in living standards, nor can it of itself produce new competitive
> industries. Where the depth of the crisis is as severe as it is in Greece
> and partly rooted in the very restructuring of its economy that came with
> its deeper integration into Europe, changes in the currency are unlikely to
> restore old industries or develop new ones. It is worth remembering how
> many states with their own currencies are unable to withstand the ravages
> of neoliberalism.
>
> That the options open to the Syriza government are even more limited by
> the way the new memorandum is structured to cruelly discipline Greece's
> integration into neoliberal Europe is obvious enough. It should also be
> increasingly obvious to those in the party whose commitment to the EU was
> foundational that staying in the eurozone is inconsistent with restraining
> neoliberalism's negative impact on most Greeks. It is much to be hoped that
> Syriza, and the European Left Parties in general, will abandon the notion
> that an even more centralized transnational European state would be more
> progressive. But it does not follow from any of this that it would be
> correct for Syriza to lead a Grexit right now, without a much deeper
> preparation for dealing with the consequences.
>
> What about resigning from office to free itself from administering the
> memorandum? It would be highly irresponsible, having entered the state in
> the first place promising to try to at least ameliorate the effects of
> neoliberalism in Greece, to step down now after what has been imposed on
> the Syriza government for its anti-neoliberal orientation and its
> democratic temerity in calling the referendum. This only deepens its
> responsibility to do all it still can to restrain the impact of
> neoliberalism. To do otherwise would be to acquiesce in the goal of those
> who tried to use the negotiations as a way to bring this government down.
> Toward a Real Plan B
>
> The point we are getting at is that framing the issue in terms of an
> exhausted Plan A (negotiating with Europe) and a rejection of the euro
> (Plan B) is too limited a way to frame the dilemmas confronting Syriza.
> What the deeper preparation for leaving the eurozone and possibly also the
> EU, actually entails is *to build on the solidarity networks that have
> developed in society to cope with the crisis as the basis for starting to
> transform social relations within Greece*. That is the real plan B, the
> terrain on which both Syriza and the social movements might re-invigorate
> now. What, more concretely, might this mean?
>
> The recent years of struggle have developed the famous grassroots
> solidarity movement that began – as all organizing must – by addressing the
> needs of people. Out of this grew the some 400 solidarity groups
> <http://www.solidarity4all.gr/> all across Greece addressing basic
> community needs through self-organized democratically run collectives which
> provide support for people's health, food, housing and other needs. Syriza
> members were among those deeply involved in establishing and maintaining
> the solidarity networks and its MPs elected in 2012 contributed 20 per cent
> of their salaries to them. But since the Syriza government was elected this
> year it has done very little to change and use the state so as to sustain
> and broaden this remarkable movement.
>
> Two leaders of the ‘Solidarity for All’ assembly of these groups told us
> how frustrated they were that they could not even get from the Ministry of
> Agriculture the information they need on the locations of specific crops so
> they might approach a broader range of farmers and develop more direct
> links between them and people in need. Only 12 people in total are employed
> in working for Solidarity for All – their numbers should be multiplied with
> the state's help. The military trucks sitting idle between demonstrations
> could be used to facilitate the distribution of food through the solidarity
> networks as a way of offsetting some of the cuts to the poorest pensioners,
> and of compensating for the increased VAT on food imposed by the latest
> memorandum. Various state departments could be engaged in identifying idle
> land – of which there is plenty in the countryside and in light of the
> crisis also in urban areas – which could be be given over to community
> co-ops to create work in growing food, and coordinating this across
> sub-regions.
>
> The Ministry of Education should be actively engaged in promoting the use
> of schools as community hubs that provide spaces for the social movements
> organizing around food and health services, and also to provide technical
> education appropriate to this. We talked with many students who were
> clearly enthusiastic about working in the community but were also quick to
> admit that while they were adept at competing in student union elections
> and good at distributing pamphlets and organizing demonstrations, their
> skills for longer-term community organizing were very limited. The Ministry
> of Education could help overcome this by setting up special programs to
> prepare students to spend periods of time in communities, contributing to
> adult education and working on community projects.
>
> Similarly, the privatizations forced on the Greek state should be
> accompanied by requirements that the new owners make a compensating
> commitment to establish industrial parks where new jobs might be created.
> Privatized firms might be required to source inputs inside Greece, while
> the state's own purchases of furniture, materials and supplies (including
> for schools and hospitals) might be sourced from new production units set
> up his way. With so many structures standing idle and under-used (like the
> Olympic sports facilities), all manners of co-ops and small businesses
> should be supported in setting up operations in them, aided by groups of
> young architects and engineers recruited to reconfigure these spaces. The
> U.S. New Deal Work Projects Administration
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration> could serve
> as an example not only in this respect, but especially in respect to the
> broad range of artistic, theatrical and cultural activities in which so
> many unemployed young people are already engaged.
>
> We do not want to overstate this. These experiments would not themselves
> be 'solutions’. And they would no doubt lead to objections that they negate
> the intent of the new memorandum's structural adjustment demands. But seen
> strategically, they invite a constructive approach to linking the state to
> communities in new ways that would offset the black and grey markets which
> might otherwise overwhelm an economy that moved out of the eurozone. And it
> helps lay the foundation for a new stage in addressing the domestic
> barriers imposed by the inequalities of wealth and private property, and
> concretizes the need for investment planning and public ownership so as
> circulate society's social surplus to local, regional and sectoral
> institutions.
> Conclusion: Leadership of a New Kind
>
> The Syriza government currently retains a store of good will, even if this
> has been damaged by the memorandum. To prevent the further erosion of that
> popular support it will need to concretely counter the Troika-imposed
> legislation. For every negative bill it puts forth it should creatively put
> forth a positive bill that confirms its continuing commitment to the fight
> against neoliberalism. Syriza's ministers must never depart from treating
> the negative impositions as something positive, and indeed be expected to
> act as socialist educators, helping people grasp the barriers to improving
> their lives and raising rather than lowering long term expectations by
> continuing to attack neoliberalism and speak to a socialist vision of
> solidarity and democracy. And it is this that should inspire and guide the
> transformation of state structures away from the old clientalism.
>
> None of this can happen unless Syriza as a party develops the orientation
> and capacities to lead the Greek state and society in this direction. We
> have met with people in the party and social movements, as well as the
> state, who are concerned that Syriza falls well short in this respect.
> Among the various reasons for being critical of Syriza, this is the most
> significant. •
>
> Sam Gindin is adjunct professor and Leo Panitch is distinguished research
> professor at York University, Canada. They co-authored The Making of
> Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire
> <http://www.versobooks.com/books/1145-the-making-of-global-capitalism>
> (Verso). Both are currently in Athens, Greece.
>
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