The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine extends its congratulations to SYRIZA and to the Greek people on a historic election victory on January 25, 2015. The Greek people came out to reject austerity and humiliation and economic subjugation, voting for SYRIZA in a clear message that the path of neoliberalism, repression and subservience to European imperialist powers is rejected.
The workers of Greece have had imposed upon them dictates of austerity that have meant rising poverty and unemployment while their governments pursue policies of military expansion, intervention in the Arab world and support for the Zionist occupation of Palestine through economic agreements and military aid at the expense of Palestinian rights. Austerity and imperialism have marched hand in hand with war-mongering, only producing more suffering and pain for working people.
The vote for SYRIZA today is one that demands a new path, a democratic path of economic development that prioritizes the needs of the people and of the workers, not the demands of banks and corporations. It came into being through mass rallies, community organizing and street protests that have demanded an end to the austerity program that has brought destruction to the Greek people.
The parties of austerity and neoliberalism in Greece and the Greek ruling class have allied themselves with the Israeli state and European imperialism through NATO exercises, the people of Greece have always stood beside the Palestinian people and reject Greek participation in imperialist war and intervention.
It is also a clear rejection of the ultra-right and fascist organizations that have sought to seize on the economic crisis in order to promote racist and anti-migrant – frequently, explicitly anti-Arab – slogand and ideologies. It is clear that the means to defeat fascism can only truly be found in a revolutionary force grounded in the working class that rejects racism, fascism, austerity, neoliberalism, imperialism and Zionism.
We know that the struggle only begins with these election results and that the Greek people will confront powerful parties who wish to maintain the process of austerity and neoliberalism and will exert all of their power in order to subvert and undo the will of the Greek people. And this will mean confronting those who seek only a new form of accomodation with such powers that does not change the fundamental relationship and balance of power. It is not the parliamentary elections themselves that will truly transform society, but the struggle of the Greek people. SYRIZA holds also a great responsibility: to uphold the promises to the Greek people and the trust they have placed in them today, and to resist all those forces that will attempt to undermine the demands of the Greek people for true social justice.
The same forces that have imposed a policy of subjugation on Greece are the same powers, and their imperial and colonial allies, that are engaging in an imperial foreign policy throughout the Arab world, who are cutting funds to support workers and social programs while investing more in NATO, in wars, in intervention and global oppression: for example, the German state donating nuclear submarines to Israel while demanding austerity from Greece. SYRIZA has rejected EU imperialism and upheld Palestinian rights, condemning Israeli war crimes and calling for freedom for Palestinian prisoners, including imprisoned PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat. We confront the same enemies: imperialist and capitalist powers who seek to profit from impoverishment, exploitation and colonialism on the backs of the working class and the people.
Every victory for the people of the world, for justice, for the workers, against imperialism, is a victory for the Palestinian people. Today, we congratulate SYRIZA and salute the Greek people who are taking a new step today in the ongoing struggle – our common struggle for liberation, justice and socialism.
