Re: <nettime> "An outrageous defeat, not for Greece, but for the

[Eric Beck <ersatzdog@gmail.com>]

   On Tuesday, July 14, 2015, <sebastian@rolux.org> wrote:

     YV: Well, when I go to parliament, I have to look at the right hand side
     of the auditorium, where more than ten Nazis sit, representing Golden
     Dawn. If our party, Syriza, that has cultivated so much hope in Greece,
     to the extent that we managed to score 61.5 percent in the recent
     referendum, if we betray this hope, and if we bow our heads to this new
     form of postmodern occupation, then I cannot see any other possible
     outcome than the further strengthening of Golden Dawn. They will inherit
     the mantle of the anti-austerity drive, unfortunately, tragically.


   This guy. In January he and his party formed a government with a
   ultranationalist antiausterity party, even handed them the keys to the
   defense ministry, and now in July he gets worried about Nazis and
   far-rightists taking over the country? I think it's a little too late
   for that Dr. V,; you already put them there.

   Where does this complete lack of self-awareness come from? Like their
   supporters around the world, Syriza seems to think that since they are
   pure of heart and not racist maniacs themselves, their rationality will
   win out and their role in creating a renationalized Greek body politic
   is not a substantive feature of their politics but a negotiating ploy,
   just as the initial alliance with ANEL was described as a mere
   "parliamentary maneuver." My guess is that this distinction is lost on
   the victims--migrants, queers, children subjected to Orthodox
   orthodoxy, pensioners, unemployed youth and women--of this new
   nationalism, who are not sophisticated to understand Syriza doesn't
   really mean to endorse far-right politics when it gives ANEL a prime
   ministerial appointment.

   But this isn't politics; it's adminstration. I guess that is
   appropriate since Syriza has spent the last three-plus years draining
   Greek social movements of their life, of their politics, in order to
   get to its leadership position. And it's this tiff over administration
   that lies at the heart of various debates over the last few days, the
   Gindin-Panitch vs. Seymour one being exemplary. Both love Syriza, and
   have no problem with its tactics over the last few years, but are
   quibbling over last-minute negotiating strategies, because for both
   sides it's not a question of whether there are political differences
   within Greece--there aren't--or whether Greeks should be managed by
   socdem technocrats--they should be. The left's propensity to want to
   saddle swarthy people on the periphery with regimes they'd never
   countenance themselves inches a little closer to the center.

   So Dr. V worries about nationalist, racist politics taking over. But
   read his interview and it's clear the language of aggrieved nationalism
   is already prominent: fretting over "national sovereignty," worrying
   about "dignity," feeling a national "humiliation." If the Golden Dawn
   does take power, Syriza will have opened the door for them.


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