The historical context of Greece’s election

No matter the outcome of Greece’s election circus, the capitalists are losing the war. Can the Left take advantage of this?

Kevin Ovenden has a very interesting post to Counterfire, Dispatches from hope: a primer on the Greek election, in which he places the SYRIZA election campaign in the historical context of a long struggle against the neoliberalist political forces that emerged out of the 1970s depression. The present developments in Greece echo the struggles of the 1980s, says, Ovenden, but while the tune is familiar, the words have changed:

Really, I am done with the Left

Now here is an interesting argument made to me today on twitter:

“The shutdown was not an attack on the system, it was an attack on the welfare state!”

This how the Left usually begins its defense of the fascist state: the state is bad but has parts or elements that are for the working class: “[Insert personage or group here] is not aimed at the bad parts, but is only aimed at the good part” Thus opposition to the state must also be aimed at the bad parts, or must be ignoring that [Insert personage or group here] only hates the good parts.

You can fill in [Insert personage or group here] with your preferred fascist in Washington or even in the states.

The Left will then argue, “We need [Insert favorite social welfare program here] because [Insert favorite social welfare program here] helps the working class.

[Insert favorite social welfare program here] can be any program alleged to directly or indirectly help the working class; among the candidates for [Insert favorite social welfare program here] are Head Start, WIC, food stamps, Social Security, Medicare.

Since any attempt at all to call the state into question, necessarily calls these fascist state programs into question, we must do nothing that calls the state itself into question. The Tea Party can call for an end to deficits and point to food stamps as a target to cut to balance the budget, but the Left cannot call for a balanced budget and point to the military as a target to be cut.

Why?

This is because, if pressed to reduce its deficits, the capitalists will only cut food stamps, not the military.

But, the capitalists are already cutting food stamps, you might argue. How does this help? The capitalist have already cut Social Security numerous times in the past 30 years — again, how does not balancing the budget help. In fact, workers are paying an overtly regressive payroll tax to quietly fund the military deficits — so really how the fuck does that help? So, while the fascists are busily cutting or underfunding the very social programs alleged to help the working class, while using its deficits and regressive payroll taxes to fund the military. No one can say, “Hey, the real problem is the state.”. because that helps the Tea Party or some other fascist group or personage.

The one excuse advanced by that peculiar brands of social-fascists on the Left who call themselves Marxists is this:

“The Tea Party doesn’t really want to get rid of the state.”

Really? I am completely fucking floored by this new information you guys just handed me. Imagine, GOPoseur fascists don’t “REALLY” want to get rid of their fascist state. The mind boggles. I guess next you will inform the rest of us that the Tea Party just wants to use the capitalist state to attack the working class — what an ingenious deception: They actually use the capitalist state to attack the working class.

So, if I get this right, we should not be trying to get rid of the capitalist state, because any attempt to get rid of it only helps those who are using it to attack the working class.

I give up. You win. If you consider yourself part of the Left, just stop following me — I am not interested in hearing your insane thoughts anymore. Just go the fuck away and leave me the fuck alone. I really mean this: If you consider yourself part of the Left, don’t tweet to me, don’t communicate with me.

Really, I am done with the Left.