The lessons of Greece

The word 'tragedy' is over-used in politics. But if has application anywhere it is surely to the journey from the high-point of Syriza's election - here was the socialist left getting an electoral mandate in a European country - to this week's climb down. An austerity package, the price of liquidity exacted by the EU institutions, will mean misery for millions, rising unemployment, stagnant wages, and may well not succeed even in the ECB's own terms. It should be seen, at least in part, as the punishment of an electorate for daring to elect a left-wing government and for voting 'no' in the referendum. It is a warning shot across the bow of voters in other countries, Spain and Ireland for instance - don't even try it...

There is resistance in Greece. Workers struck and marched yesterday. Thirty two Syriza MPs, including four ministers, voted against the bailout terms. These deserve our solidarity. More than that, such is the ferocity of the austerity that will now be unleashed that material support is essential. Please support Medical Aid for Greece.

There are lessons to be learned from Greece. Power in capitalist societies does not rest solely, or even primarily, with parliaments. Any serious challenge to capital will be met by extra-parliamentary action on the part of the capitalist class. They will use their newspapers, their money, and the international institutions that defend their interest, such as the institutions of the EU. Any left-wing government serious about implementing even moderate reforms is likely to be forced to break with those institutions. But more importantly, it needs to able to rely on extra-parliamentary action of its own. It is only the power of workers to withdraw our labour, to take control, and to unify internationally that is ultimately able to stand up to capital.

And that means that even at a time when we in the UK are rightly upbeat about happenings in parliament - Jeremy Corbyn's success and Mhairi Black's rallying call - we cannot focus all our energies there. Without a mass workers movement, militant trade unions and protest groups, and without a widespread commitment to socialist ideas and values, we might have the best MPs imaginable, but we will fail. The Greek electorate put a Marxist in the finance ministry. In the months that follow they will watch their hospitals close and their pensioners go hungry. There's been a lot of talk of a British Syriza. That is the last thing we need.