After Syriza—the Future of the Left

Letter to the Editor:

guardian.letters@theguardian.com

July 15, 2019

Re: Gary Younge, ‘Syriza’s defeat shows the left needs a plan to sustain power’ The Guardian (12 July 2019) journal 1–2, <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/12/syriza-left-election>.

Gary Younge wrote that Syriza “folded,” and did so because “there is a limit to how much any election can achieve under neoliberal globalisation—because no matter who you vote for, capital and its proxies always get in, from currency traders to international organisations.” What currency traders?—Greece is in the Eurozone. All the key negotiations were among parties using the same currency.

As for international organisations—that is a euphemism for the European Union. Syriza failed because its leadership was more interested in taking direction from Brussels than from its own citizens, voters, and supporters. Had the Greek government abandoned the Eurozone (albeit, abandoning the Euro may have cost Greece EU membership**), the Greek government would have been better positioned to renegotiate its debt with both the EU and with its other creditors. The Syriza government chose not to do so, and that is why it lost the last election.

One might also see the broader lesson for the UK and the Left. If an elected government abandons its popular mandate, its election manifesto, and its commitment to national democracy (eg, referendums), voters have no reason to stick around. The Left, in the UK and elsewhere, has a similar choice. Parties of the Left, ie, its governments-in-waiting, can commit to holding public power in trust for actual citizens, or, instead, they can choose to wield power on behalf of mere consumers and patients—all the while taking direction from distant, unaccountable bureaucrats who lack democratic bona fides. The latter road—whether taken by parties of the Right or the Left—is not a path to meaningful electoral victory. Just ask Syriza. 

Seth

/s/

Seth Barrett Tillman, Lecturer

Maynooth University Department of Law

Seth Barrett Tillman, After Syriza—the Future of the Left, New Reform Club (July 15, 2019, 5:33 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2019/07/after-syrizathe-future-of-left.html>. 

**Characterizing the loss of EU membership as a “cost” is a contentious value judgment. That Greek exit from the Eurozone might also result in GREXIT (ie, Greek exit from the EU) might also be characterized as a feature, not a bug.