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February 4, 2015 Published in Semiomata / Notes

PETER BRATSIS: SYRIZA,FROM HOPE TO EVENT?

Peter Bratsis

Barely one week ago, Syriza secured a landslide

Painting by Konstantinos Esslin

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fired by the Samaras

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2013. And, at the same

time, it was a message

that struggles can be

victorious! Cartoon by

Kipper Williams (“The

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LEFT IN GOVERMENT

victory in the Greek elections. Its electoral

slogan was ‘Hope is Coming’. The promise to end

austerity and the obvious futility and failure of

the then existing political trajectory in Athens

carried Syriza to become the first radical left,

anti-capitalist, party to win national elections in

Europe. With the defeat of the pro-austerity

forces, the mood in Greece quickly changed.

People celebrated long into the night. A new

cheerfulness became apparent in the streets

and cafes. The barricades in front of the

Parliament were removed. Riot police no longer

greeted demonstrators. The government

became more friend than enemy. Excitement

and hope took the place of dread and fear.

Only a few days later, with Yanis Varoufakis in

place as finance minster, Jeroen Dijesselbloem

(the Dutch finance minister and head of the

Eurogroup) visited Athens in order to discuss a

renewal of the so-called ‘bailout’ agreement. To

his surprise, after explicating some arguments

on why Greece had benefited from and should

continue with the bailout, Varoufakis

responded that Greece was not interested in any

further loans and would end its relationship

with the infamous ‘trokia’ of creditors. In

Varoufakis’ words, referring to the troika, “..

and with this if you want – and according to

European Parliament – flimsily-constructed

committee we have no aim to cooperate.” A

visibly shaken Dijesselbloem suddenly got up,

ending the press conference, reluctantly

shaking hands with Varoufakis and storming

off.

This dramatic, almost comic, moment has had

an immense impact within Greece. Going well

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beyond a renewed sense of hope, many now

took on a new subjective standpoint also. In one

afternoon, Greeks seemed to go from cautiously

optimistic economic monads to a defiant and

proud collective. Mikis Theodorakis, the famous

composer, very well summed up the force of

this moment and is worth quoting at length:

‘And so he arrived like an arrogant boss, to scold

a nation worthy of laughter and tears, a nation

that held its head high forgetting they are the

second-class citizens of Europe, the Eurogroup

and its President, Mr. Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

But then a miracle happened, like those

forgotten in the depths of my memory. Two

representatives of these second-class people,

Tsipras and Varoufakis, with a rare calm and

coolness, presented him with two luminous yet

kind “NOs” that angered him to the point of

forgetting his role as a “European nobleman”

— prompting him to storm away looking for the

fastest exit.

It is at this point that all is forgotten. We once

again become beautiful Greeks. We stand taller.

How and why it happened, and where it will

lead are details for the Greeks who have lived

and survived with symbolism. And I consider it

cowardly to focus on trivialities in a moment of

national pride.’

Theodorakis, who had not been a Syriza

supporter, suddenly declares that ‘all is

forgotten’, all the previous calculations and

capitulations go out the window, ‘a miracle’ has

happened. Now, a new fight has emerged, a new

subject in the making has appeared. To put

Various alternative,

collective and

grassroots

initiatives (se.g.

social clinics, squats,

co-aps, press

collectives etc.)

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things in more conceptually precise language,

what Theodorakis alludes to is what Alain

Badiou terms an ‘event’, a sudden rupture that

brings a new political body into being, a truth

that takes place and completely transforms that

which came before and that which may follow.

Most of us today who have been schooled in

Marxist theory are heavily indebted to Antonio

Gramsci. In his schema of class struggle there is

the ‘war of position’, which involves

transforming thinking and values through

struggle in the schools, media, arts, etc., and the

‘war of maneuver,’ which is the direct battle

between political forces for control of political

institutions and the machinery of physical

coercion. Accordingly, most of us have

conceived of radical social change as needing

the prior constitution of a revolutionary

political subject through the war of position,

through a successful counter-hegemonic

project that is sufficient for brining about the

actor who can wage the war of maneuver.

Badiou’s arguments are quite distinct. For him,

the revolutionary subject can come about

without such prior counter-hegemonic

struggles. We are all capable of recognizing the

truth and, when an event takes place, such

recognition does occur and leads to a new

political subject. Rather than a product of a

protracted counter-hegemonic project the agent

of revolution can emerge on its own.

Although I do not doubt the utility of Gramsci’s

arguments, the potential for the emergence of a

revolutionary subject despite the lack of a

sufficient war of position remains. The

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situation in Greece, very quickly unfolding as it

is, points to this. The sudden emergence of a

revolutionary subject being one potential

outcome of the current unrest and

uncertainties that characterize Greece today; as

the great Niccolo Machiavelli himself had noted

may times, political upheaval is a necessary, but

not always sufficient, condition for the new to

emerge.

Indeed, in the aftermath of Varoufakis’ ‘event’,

everyday political discussions quickly changed.

From trying to predict the chances and costs of

a ‘Grexit’ (from a cost-benefit calculation on

demanding a debt reduction verses continuing

with austerity) we went to the demand for

dignity and political autonomy above all else.

Where you would once hear arguments on how

bad it would be if Greeks had to go back to the

old days of a weak currency and expensive

imported goods now people shrug their

shoulders and laugh, saying that a quick death a

preferable to a slow bleed and, regardless, to

stand once again as a self-governing people is

worth the economic risks. For many who did not

even vote for Syriza a week ago, this one

moment qualifies the current government as a

success and has transformed them from being

observers paralyzed by trepidation and fear to

enthusiastic participants for the battles that

may come. This transformation has been

completely unexpected and unbelievably

widespread.

It is certainly too soon to tell if we are in the

midst of an ‘event’ and the emergence of a new

revolutionary subject. Recent years have seen

other potentially transformative ruptures

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(Hurricane Katrina) that ended up becoming

quickly forgotten and politically

inconsequential while others (May 68) are still

playing out and opaque. The incredible

transformation taking place in Greek society,

however, has been so abrupt, unexpected, and

widespread that a new set of political

possibilities and judgments are now thinkable.

At a minimum it would appear that Syriza has

been very fortunate in happening upon a

newfound reservoir of militant support for its

efforts to transform the tenor of European

politics and break with the dominance of neo-

liberal policies.

A new political subject that looks down on

economic calculation and thinks itself an

eternal truth (‘forgotten in the depths of my

memory’ in the words of Theodorakis) may

emerge that will radically and completely

transform the current political situation in

Europe and elsewhere. A new agent of change

that has broken free of the shackles of

consumerist desire and economic reason is a

real possibility. A sudden rebirth of the

‘beautiful Greeks’ once again may demonstrate

the unpredictability of history and the rapidity

with which revolutionary change can happen.

Peter Bratsis teaches at the Borough of

Manhattan Community College of the City

University of New York. He is the author of

Everyday Life and the State.

The original text was first published

on:

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