New Left Current

Political party in Greece

The New Left Current (Greek: Νέο Αριστερό Ρεύμα για την Κομμουνιστική Απελευθέρωση; Neo Aristero Revma, NAR) is a communist political party in Greece, formed in 1990 mainly by former members of the youth organization of the Communist Party of Greece.

Background

In 1989, following the June and November general legislative elections in Greece, after which no party obtained the necessary majority to be able to form a government, the New Democracy and Synaspismos parties agreed to form a coalition government led by New Democracy's Tzannis Tzannetakis, as prime minister.[1]

The Synaspismos party was an electoral alliance between the Communist Party of Greece, aka KKE, and the Greek Left party. The coalition government's stated, primary objective was to deal with the Koskotas scandal, ostensibly linked to PASOK's leadership. The decision of the KKE to enter into a government with the liberal-conservative party of New Democracy was met with objections by many of its members, with the strongest ones coming from the party's youth organization.[2]

The dissidents held the majority in the Youth organization's leadership council and, from November 1989 onward, held a series of meetings and assemblies throughout the country against the "electoral coalition with the Right." The Communist Youth's Secretary General Yannis Grapsas, asked whether he will follow the party's directives, states publicly "I will certainly not obey," the first time that such a disagreement from the Youth leader is revealed in public. In response, KKE expels the dissidents from the Youth organization, along with a significant number of the organization's members.[3]

At the same time, prominent members of the Communist Party itself, such as Kostas Kappos,[n 1] leave KKE.[4]

Establishment

Following a December 1989 country-wide meeting of sympathizers, a tentative platform is put into circulation, titled "Proposal for a dialogue: For a new prospect of the Left in 1990's Greece," that clearly aims at establishing a new organization.

On 10 and 11 February 1990, the 1st All-Greece Assembly of the New Left Current is held in the facilities of the Athens Polytechnic, in which some four hundred elected representatives from across the country participate, vote on the party's political platform, and elect the Co-ordination Committee.[3][n 2]

The Communist Party denounces NAR as "opportunists" and "social democrats", accusing the new party that, in demanding the "re-nationalization of privatized public enterprises," supports the delusion of state capitalism.[5] Other voices of the Left, accuse NAR of promoting the notion of "managing the capitalist system" rather than replacing it with socialism, and, also, of "smearing KKE."[6]

Ideology

Αs related by Political Committee member Dimitris Desyllas, the New Left Current supports the collaboration within the movement of the "fighting Left" for the implementation of a radical, anti-capitalist program.[2] NAR's political objectives are denoted as capitalism's overthrow and the establishment of a workers' democracy in a communist regime. The basic tenets of such a regime would be the end of private, capitalist ownership of the means of production in ever "basic" sector of the economy, control of production by workers' councils, and freedom of expression in society.[7]

Τhe New Left Current supports the notion that capitalism has evolved beyond what Lenin denoted as its uppermost, ultimate stage, that of imperialism,[8] into a "totalitarian capitalism," a state of affairs that could not have been foreseen at the time, according to NAR's position, since "inter-state totalities," such as the European Union, did not yet exist.[9]

Elections: alliances and votes

Soon after its inception, the New Left Current has entered into co-operations and alliances, permanent or tactical/electoral, with other formations of the left.

In 1990, NAR participated in the general election as "New Left Current - People's Opposition" (Νέο Αριστερό Ρεύμα - Λαϊκή Αντιπολίτευση) and received 14,365 votes or 0,22% of the total. Ex-KKE Central Committee member Kostas Kappos was a prominent figure in the party's electoral campaign. In 1993, NAR joined the Left Struggle political coalition, along with the Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece), the Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist), and the Workers' Revolutionary Party. The Struggle received 8,160 votes in 1993 and 10,443 votes in the 1996 general elections, or 0.11% and 0.21% respectively of the total. In December 1990, Kappos left NAR[10] and, though he never officially returned to the Communist Party, he would declare he'd never left the KKE.[11]

In 1999, NAR, the Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece, and the Workers Revolutionary Party, along with other, smaller formations of the left, allied themselves as the Radical Left Front. Some ten years after, in 2009, the New Left Current participates in the broader coalition of ANTARSYA.

Various former NAR members became prominent figures in the Syriza party, some of them becoming ministers in the Suriza government as well, such as Nadia Valavani, Nikos Kotzias, Pavlos Polakis, and others.[7] Foundational NAR member Kostas Kappos, one of the most heavily tortured prisoners of the 1967-74 dictatorial regime, enjoyed the respect of the Greek left's whole ideological spectrum, as shown by the expressions of mourning upon his 2005 death, such as the KKE obituary.[12][13]

Election results
Results since 1990
(year links to election page)
Year Type of Election Electoral coalition Votes % Representatives
1990 Parliament Popular Opposition 14,365 0.21% 0/300
1993 Parliament Left Struggle 8,160 0.11% 0/300
1994 European Parliament Left Movement Against EU 14,006 0.21% 0/25
1996 Parliament Left Struggle 10,416 0.15% 0/300
1999 European Parliament MERA1 10,884 0.17% 0/25
2000 Parliament MERA 8,183 0.11% 0/300
2004 Parliament MERA 11,285 0.15% 0/300
2004 European Parliament MERA 13,387 0.22% 0/24
2007 Parliament MERA 11,859 0.17% 0/300
2009 European Parliament ANTARSYA2 21,951 0.43% 0/22
2009 Parliament ANTARSYA 24,737 0.36% 0/300
2010 Regional ANTARSYA 97,496 1.80% 7/725
2012 Parliament ANTARSYA 75,439 1.19% 0/300
2012 Parliament ANTARSYA 20.389 0,33% 0/300
2014 Regional ANTARSYA 128,154 2.27% 9/703
2014 European Parliament ANTARSYA 41,299 0.72% 0/21
2015 Parliament ANTARSYA - MARS3 39,497 0.64% 0/300
2015 Parliament ANTARSYA - EEK4 46,094 0.85% 0/300
2019 European Parliament ANTARSYA 36,327 0.64% 0/21
2019 Regional ANTARSYA 87,676 1.62% 13/703
2019 Parliament ANTARSYA 23,239 0.41% 0/300
May 2023 Parliament ANTARSYA 31,746 0.54% 0/300
June 2023 Parliament ANTARSYA 15,969 0.31% 0/300
1 Radical Left Front
2 Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow
3 Left Front Coalition
4 Workers Revolutionary Party
1990, Parliament
 
 14,365
1993, Parliament
 
 8,160
1994, European Parliament
 
 14,006
1996, Parliament
 
 10,416
1999, European Parliament
 
 10,884
2000, Parliament
 
 8,133
2004, Parliament
 
 11,285
2004, European Parliament
 
 13,387
2007, Parliament
 
 11,895
2009, European Parliament
 
 21,951
2009, Parliament
 
 24,737
2010, Regional
 
 97,496
2012, Parliament
 
 75,439
2012, Parliament
 
 20,389
2014, Regional
 
 128,154
2014, European Parliament
 
 41,299
2015, Parliament
 
 39,497
2015, Parliament
 
 46,094

Youth League

The New Left Current's youth organization, the Youth of Communist Liberation (Νεολαία Κομμουνιστική Απελευθέρωση or nKA), participates in the United Independent Left Movement, a coalition of left-wing student formations, and is active in the country's educational institutions.[14]

By the 2010s, nKA has come to define itself as "politically autonomous."[15]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Kappos, as member of the Greek Parliament, representing KKE, refused to give a confidence vote for the New Democracy-Synaspismos government in June 1989 and was expelled from the party's Central Committee. See in.gr (2005).
  2. ^ NAR's Co-ordination Committee became in a short time its Political Committee. See Pantiera (2020).

References

  1. ^ Chrostodoulou, Kostis (2 July 2014). "Τέλος εποχής: Από τον Συνασπισμό των Φλωράκη και Κύρκου στον Σύριζα του Τσίπρα" [End of an era: From the Alliance of Florakis and Kyrkos to Tsipras' Syriza]. I Efimerida (in Greek). Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b Markopoulos, Yorgos (1 January 2020). "Καίριες απαντήσεις σε καίρια ερωτήματα προς τον Δημήτρη Δεσύλλα" [Timely answers by Dimitris Desyllas to timely questions]. Pantiera (in Greek). Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Η ανταρσία της ΚΝΕ 1989 - Χρονικό" [The 1989 KNE rebellion - Chronicle]. narnet (in Greek). NAR. 20 September 2019. Archived from the original on 19 November 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Πέθανε o Κώστας Κάππος, πρώην κοινοβουλευτικός εκπρόσωπος του ΚΚΕ" [Kostas Kappos, ex-KKE MP, died]. in.gr (in Greek). 11 September 2005. Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  5. ^ "Το οπορτουνιστικό ρεύμα ξανά σε αδιέξοδο" [The opportunist current in a dead end again]. Communist Review (in Greek). January–March 2023. Archived from the original on 30 September 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  6. ^ Mottas, Nikos (10 February 2019). "ΑΝΤΑΡΣΥΑ: Οι επιστήμονες του οπορτουνισμού σε ρόλο συκοφάντη ενάντια στο ΚΚΕ" [ANTARSYA: The specialists of opportunism as KKE smearers]. Atechnos (in Greek). Archived from the original on 4 July 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  7. ^ a b Mottas, Nikos (4 December 2023). "ΝΑΡ: Το κόμμα της Αριστεράς στο οποίο ήταν ο Κοτζιάς, η Βαλαβάνη και ο… Πολάκης" [NAR: The left party in which members were Kotzias, Valavani, and ...Polakis]. Atechnos (in Greek). Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  8. ^ Lenin, Vladimir (2018) [1916]. "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism". Marxists.org. Marxists Internet Archive. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Θέσεις Σ.Ε.: Η σύγχρονη καπιταλιστική κοινωνία - Νέο στάδιο ανάπτυξης και κρίσης του καπιταλισμού" [The Co-ordinating Committee positions: The modern capitalist society - new stage of capitalism's evolution and crisis]. narnet (in Greek). NAR. June 1997. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  10. ^ "Κώστας Κάππος" [Kostas Kappos] (in Greek). IANOS. 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  11. ^ "Κώστας Κάππος: 'Ποτέ δεν έφυγα από το ΚΚΕ. Είναι δυνατόν να αρνούμαστε και τις ιδέες μας τώρα;'" [Kostas Kappos: I never left KKE. Can we really fefure our ideology?]. Katiousa (in Greek). 10 September 2018. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  12. ^ "'Εφυγε' ο Κώστας Κάππος" [Kostas Kappos 'gone']. Rizospastis (in Greek). 13 September 2005. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  13. ^ "Κώστας Κάππος – Το μόνο που δεν ήξερε ήταν η αντοχή του" [Kostas Kappos - The one thing he did not know was his endurance]. Katiousa (in Greek). 15 October 2017. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  14. ^ "Ανακοίνωση νΚΑ για τις φοιτητικές εκλογές" [nKA announcement for the student elections]. nKA (in Greek). Youth Communist Liberation. 23 May 2011. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  15. ^ "Τι είναι η νΚΑ" [What is nKA]. nKA (in Greek). Youth Communist Liberation. 23 May 2011. Archived from the original on 9 December 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2023.

External links

  • New Left Current official page
  • Youth of Communist Liberation official page
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