The following document was distributed by the Internationalist Communists of Greece before the elections on September 20. The document is clear, explaining in particular why participation was only 56%. The outlook presented here were already confirmed by the 'pre-ordained' results of the election, where Syriza still claimed itself to be the ''hope'' the Greek people. The failure of the Syriza shows us that there is no hope for those who believe more in a ballot than in their own capacity, as the document in fact rightly points out.

What is at stake in this election is obvious. It is nothing but the election of a government to implement the infamous Third Memorandum, which is three times worse than the previous two. Whatever the result, whether the vote delivers rule by a single party or a coalition, the government that finally comes in will have a "popular mandate" to faithfully implement the Third Memorandum. It will do this, of course, under the watchful eye of the state’s international loan shark-creditors who will have a veto over the budget, will control all government actions through their technical cadres on the ground, will define policy goals, will set timelines and will demand additional measures. The short election campaign between the current local rulers of Greece will focus on who will be the best to carry out the current harsh Memorandum that “our country is forced to apply anyway”, as the once “irreconcilably anti-memorandum” SYRIZA already agreed to sign it, after "hard negotiations", and New Democracy voted for it in Parliament "for the good of the country".

That’s why it is obvious that any participation of the class who live only by their labour in this well-established farce of a parliamentary regime, which is the climax of so-called "popular sovereignty" on which parliamentarism is supposedly founded, can only act against them. The day after the elections this large mass of modern proletarians – employed bread-winners, underemployed, employable and unemployed – who produce the wealth of capitalist society, will be in the sights of any government produced by this false plutocratic democracy. It will be targeted by sweeping attacks on the remuneration of a constantly devalued labour force as well as the incomes of other subordinate social strata.

There can be no argument, therefore, that our position on the elections of September 20th can only be a clear and simple "abstention", as it was in all previous electoral "clashes", according to the basic principled position that dictates any serious opposition to the parliamentary dictatorship of capital, in which the citizen is nothing but an obedient subject under the rule of capitalism – in fact a modern slave conning and deluding himself that s/he is "free". That is why the vote in this parliamentary exercise has no real value. This is because it means entrusting the voter’s life as a citizen to others, i.e. the respective managers of the system, of right or left, as well as giving democratic legitimacy to the domination of the capitalist system.

And especially in these elections the system of power, both in its international and national dimensions, i.e. from the Troika to the Greek bourgeoisie, is blatantly seeking democratic legitimacy for the implementation of the Third Memorandum. This is its big gun in the process of devaluation of labour power, the radical redistribution of wealth and the destruction of weaker capital as essential preconditions for overcoming the crisis in favour of the ruling class. Consequently, participation in the elections – in which the result is already absolutely preordained regardless of which governmental combination gets in – means acceptance and legitimacy of the process of capitalist reconstruction and the defeat of the world of work (and unemployment).

The only solution is to turn our backs on the bourgeois game of parliamentary cretinism, stop being spectators of the actual destruction of our lives and dynamically take matters into our own hands, without entrusting candidates, bourgeois politicians and bureaucrats as 'saviours'. Without pointless rearguard actions or aimless rifles, through self-organisation and struggle, with collective spirit and firm decision until the final victory, starting from the immediate defence of our position with a view to the final goal: a society of freely associated producers, who will share equally the common wealth that they themselves produce.

The number one question is the awakening of the working class and their realisation that no political crook will save or even help them, but instead they should take their lives into their own hands and fight for them. It is necessary that the world of labour, workers and unemployed, finally finds itself. The biggest obstacle for this is our lack of confidence in our own strengths and abilities. But in order to find ourselves we must first forget ourselves. We must forget the image that our rulers and various supposed well-wishers have created for us. We must have confidence in the tremendous potential of our collective strength, which we have only glimpsed so far.

The first step is to realise the meaningless of voting and the fraud of the parliamentary system and to engage ourselves in the organisation of direct struggles that will put a brake on the ongoing social hurricane.

However, as we have continuously repeated since the beginning of the crisis, in the current situation it is easier to overthrow the system than change its policies. Our perspective is to be found in the formulation of a class politics independent of the bourgeois political system, the state and capital, and the creation of a revolutionary class political organisation in order to overthrow capitalism and create a collectivist and self-managed society.

Either socialism or barbarism. There is no other way!

Athens, 29th August 2015

Internationalist Comrades

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