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Sarkozy concedes. Hollande is in… “That’s right! I’m back, and I’m a bloody animal! Yeah!”* May 6, 2012

Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.
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…we shall see.

* The French SP – natch!

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1. EWI - May 6, 2012

The wailing and gnashing of teeth among the likes of Marc Coleman bodes well for Hollande.

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WorldbyStorm - May 6, 2012

Heh, heh.

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EWI - May 7, 2012

Front page of the “Irish” Daily Mail this morning came out swinging hard against Hollande.

To quote a great man: “They don’t like it up ’em”.

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Tomboktu - May 7, 2012

The “Irish” Daily Mail is a bit late to that game. The front-page splash on Economist of April 28-May 4 was “The rather dangerous Monsieur Hollande”,

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2. John Meehan - May 7, 2012

Dramatic Results in the Greek General Election : Greece exit polls project no majority win :

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/05/201256165643443598.html

See also : Statement on the parliamentary elections to be held on May 6 in Greece

http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article2582&var_recherche=Greece

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3. CL - May 7, 2012

‘Lord Glasman, a senior adviser to Ed Miliband, the Labour leader said that avoiding a reaction from financial markets would make Mr Hollande cautious and push him into the arms of Germany.
“There is very little chance that the financial markets will give Hollande the room to be radical. Mitterrand, elected in the heyday of Thatcher, was forced to abandon policies by the markets,” he said.
That was before the euro, which is locked to political conservatism.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9249627/France-Greece-and-Germany-election-results-send-austerity-shockwaves-through-Europe.html

‘Being pushed into the arms of Germany’….
‘Nine years ago, Mr Schröder warned his country: reduce social benefits, loosen up labour markets and accept individual responsibility – or else.’
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/german-adjustment/

‘The Hollande team stressed that fiscal and economic reforms would be based on supply-side changes’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/06/francois-hollande-rescue-french-economy
Reagonomics comes to France under the guise of social democracy-the German ordoliberal version.

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4. Tomboktu - May 7, 2012

A headline this morning demonstrates the pure power at play: “Europe’s left turn worries markets“.

The markets — and that language is problematic to start with, because there are more markets than the bourses — are given the human charateristic of being worried.

I don’t recall any headline that said when the bankers’ proxies were put in power: “Europe’s right turn stresses masses of unemployed“

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Eugene - May 7, 2012

Comrades.Thought people might be interested in the opinion of the KKE. I think it more important what is happening in the weakest link in imperialism chain at this time Greece.

KKE: In the frontline of the struggles from today against the new anti-worker storm

“The election results definitely show a reversal of the political scene we were familiar with, the interruption of the rotation of the two parties, PASOK and ND. We are moving into a transitional phase where there will be an attempt to create a new political scene with new formations, new figures with a centre-right orientation or based on a new social democracy that will have SYRIZA at its core, aimed at preventing the rising radicalism of the people that would lead things towards a true overthrow in favour of the people. There will be an attempt to form a government either from these elections or from the elections to follow, a government made up of all parties, or a government of national unity, or a coalition government aimed precisely at preventing the creation of a majority current that will struggle for change.

We address the members of the party, the members of KNE, the friends, the supporters, the voters, the people who cooperate with the party, to everyone who has been with us at the frontline of the movement and the electoral battle and call on you to be at the frontline of the struggles in the next days because we have pressing, serious issues which are in progress, such as the collective bargaining agreements, the protection of the unemployed, the bankruptcy of the social security funds, the new measures which amount to 11,5-14,5 billion euros which will be paid for out of the pockets of the people. We cannot waste any time. The people must not waste time.

We urge the voters of PASOK and ND in particular, those who belong to the working class and the other popular strata to be at the frontline too, together with us and other militants, in the struggles, in the workplaces, in schools and universities, in the people’s neighbourhoods. They are the ones who have to provide a new momentum and a mass character to the struggle. We call on the people not to be deceived by the attempt to disguise the political system that will take place in the days and months to follow. The election results, despite the fact that the votes were scattered in both directions, right and left, objectively demonstrate a positive tendency: that radical changes are maturing or will mature in the peoples consciousness, that the movement of the real overthrow will mature and this movement will not be far from, or even more so will not be in opposition to the political proposal of the KKE on the immediate problems, for the workers’ and people’s power.

We consider significant, positive and at the same time a great legacy for the next period the fact that we confronted on our own the pro-European, pro-EU forces in their entirety, irrespective of the positions they took concerning the memorandum, the fact that we fought in order to promote our own alternative proposal which responds to and satisfies the people’s interests. We consider that this proposal constitutes a significant legacy for the people and of course will add a new momentum to the people’s struggles. We feel that our responsibilities and our role in relation to the people and their problems must be strengthened and we believe that, in fact we are certain, we will continue to be the irreplaceable force that defends the people’s interests.

Regarding the election result of the KKE: of course the CC will issue a comprehensive assessment after studying the results as a whole and the tendencies of the electorate in each region so as to draw more complete conclusions. But we can say that the KKE literally went through obstacles on both sides. On the one side there was the anger, the protest, the indignation which was absolutely justified but it was mainly without focus and on the other side there were the illusions. As the results show up to this point the KKE had a small increase. Of course we would have liked a bigger one. Nevertheless, I have to say that the CC and the party as a whole had no illusions that the votes of the KKE could increase exponentially because the performance of the KKE in the elections is above all related to the formation not only of a militant people’s movement but to the formation of a powerful majority current that will be emancipated from the well-known dilemmas but also from the regenerated illusions.

The KKE had made public in good time, before the elections and without any hesitation, what kind of stance it will take towards any government that will emerge from the elections, centre-right, centre-left or “left’ as it was served up or in the instance of a government of national unity or an all-party government as is being discussed right now.

We clarify our position: of course we are sure that neither PASOK not ND will make us a proposal for cooperation. They are very well aware of the deep differences between us. But we would like to answer once again the proposal that SYRIZA repeated after the elections concerning a government of the left. We will answer clearly without invoking what we can all see, namely that the votes and the seats are not sufficient. Maybe SYRIZA thinks they are enough, as it will try to gain support and votes from MPs of all the other parties. We clarify our position: we continue to say no to the cooperation because in the final analysis we have not come to this no position according to our high or low expectations regarding the results of the elections.

We heard that the president of SYRIZA will ask for a meeting and that they want to hold private discussions about the programme of the coalition government. Logically whoever has made a proposal for a coalition government should have said in detail before the elections what they will do in June, in July, in relation to concrete issues etc instead of general slogans and general denunciations of the memorandum. Or at least they should have been ready now. What do they want exactly? We have only heard about some allowances which can be ensured or other such things.

Nevertheless a government, irrespective of its composition, must deal with the whole spectrum of the problems. It should not merely denounce the memorandum but return to the people the gains that were abolished before the memorandum – because most of the gains were lost before the memorandum- as well as many others abolished after the memorandum. A government has to manage everything and not merely the unemployment benefit, as was mentioned. It has to manage issues of economy, the stance of the business groups towards the working people, the list of the privatisations adopted in the previous years. It has to handle issues of foreign policy such as the general commitments that arise from the EU, NATO, from the strategic alliance with the USA. There is no government that tears the agreements into pieces, abstracts politics and only promotes the packet of measures of the next day.

In order to agree with such a government the KKE needs to make a U-turn, a summersault and not merely a small retreat, a small turn. It must make a root and branch change. And above all it would have to make unacceptable compromises that have nothing to do with the people’s interests. Maybe the people are not interested in the ideological purity of the various parties, but in a party that all these years, from the very first moment of its foundation, has been in the frontline of the struggle does not want to abandon this position in order to gain some ministries. The people do not need this kind of KKE”.

ATHENS 06/05/2012
THE PRESS OFFICE OF THE CC OF THE KKE

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scabbyrabbit - May 7, 2012

A predictably but unfortunately sectarian statement there by KKE.

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Jim Monaghan - May 7, 2012

The KKE has not alwyas been against coalitions even ones across teh political spectrum
“Participation in government
In 1944, KKE participated in the national unity government of George Papandreou, holding the positions of Minister of Finance, Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Labor, Minister of National Economy and Public Works, and Deputy Minister of Finance.
In 1988, KKE and Greek Left (Greek EAP; the former KKE Interior), along with other left-wing parties and organisations, formed the Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos). In the June 1989 elections Synaspismos gained 13.1 per cent of votes and joined a coalition with New Democracy to form a short-lived government amidst a political spectrum shaken by accusations of economic scandals against the previous administration of Andreas Papandreou’s Panhellenic Socialist Movement. In November of the same year Synaspismos participated in the “Universal Government” with New Democracy and Panhellenic Socialist Movement which appointed Xenophon Zolotas as Prime Minister for 3 months. In 1991, KKE withdrew from Synaspismos. Some of its members left the party and remained in Synaspismos, which evolved into a separate left-wing party that is now an alliance of Synaspismos with other leftist groups called the Coalition of the Radical Left.”
And for those who think the Irish Left is confusing
“Syriza – coalition of the radical left, biggest party in this is Synaspismos (left eurocommunist background). Apart from Synsapismos there are 11 other groups, of whom the most important are AKOA (eurocommunist), DEA (SWP split, sister organisation of the American ISO), Kokkino (FI observers), KOE (“post Maoists”), Roza (autonomist), Dikki (left split of PASOK in the mid 90’s). Other smaller groups are KEDA (split from KKE), Greek Ecosocialists, a group called “radicals”, the group of Manolis Glezos and APO (split from Kokkino). The sister organisation of the British SP was also in Syriza, working close with Kokkino but left a year ago.
Independent Greeks are an Anti memorandum, nationalistic, recent split from new democracy,
Democratic Left is mainly a rightwing split of Synaspismos, they are against austerity, left of pasok social democrats
Golden Dawn are a very dangerous neo nazi party, in the last general elections (I think) they had 0.3%
Laos is a populist far right party, that split from New democracy around 10 years ago
Democratic coalition is a recent very neoliberal split from new democracy (their leader was expelled from new democracy after voting for the first austerity measures). They have joined the european liberals
Greens are on the left of most european green parties and if they pass the 3% it will be the first time that they will have MPs
The leader of Drasi (Action) was an MP of new democracy many years ago and at some point was also an MP of PASOK. The politics of this party are very liberal, identical to the politics of the democratic coalition
Antarsya is a far left coalition that includes OKDE the greek fi section, the greek SWP, NAR a split of the Communist party in ’89 and two other eurocommunist friendly organisations (ARAN and ARAS).”
Talk about confusion.

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dilettante - May 7, 2012

Didn’t KKE form a government with New Democracy back in the ’80s?
“Catharsis” is a term that springs to mind.

Not to say that their current analysis is wrong. Just to say that there might be objective circumstances in which it is conceivable to join bourgeois forces for progressive objectives.

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