Socialist Progressives
Related: About this forumIglesias made the same mistake as Tsipras
The results of Sunday's elections in Spain didn't bring anything new. Unexpectedly, the People's Party of Mariano Rajoy gained 14 more seats (137) compared to previous elections, yet still far from the 176 seats required to form government.
Although Podemos managed to build a coalition with the United Left and other Leftist forces, forming Unidos Podemos, remained in third place with 71 seats. No much difference since the last elections in December 2015.
It would be unnatural to expect from the voters who voted for establishment (PP/PSOE) to change in only six months and go to Unidos Podemos. Yet, Iglesias made the same mistake as Tsipras in Greece. He actually ignored the truly disappointed Spanish voters who have chosen not to vote, and tried not to frighten the moderate pro-establishment voters in order to attract them.
As mentioned previously Corbyn, Iglesias, Tsipras, and others from the moderate European Left have made completely wrong diagnosis of where things are going. They think that a possible Brexit will be a significant loss against their dreams of a united Europe inside the framework of the Leftist internationalism. They live with the illusion that Europe can change course towards this type of internationalism, while in reality Europe has been directed with high-speed to the exactly opposite direction: the neoliberal internationalism through which the banking-corporate neo-Feudalism will soon become a reality.
Being part of the moderate Left, Iglesias has exactly the same illusions as Tsirpas. Not only he thinks that the current EU monster could be transformed into a Union that will truly serve its citizens under the lobby-occupied Brussels regime, but also that this can be achieved through "sincere" negotiations with the euro-hyenas.
Consequently, the European Left didn't dare to lead the battle against the EU neoliberal monster, starting from Brexit. So, the extreme nationalists exploited this fact to appear in the front line of another big battle.
Iglesias, Tsipras and others appear unable to understand that playing the moderate card won't lead anywhere. SYRIZA already has been transformed into a Social-Democratic entity that is forced to take further cruel measures for the majority of the Greek citizens. They don't understand that millions of disappointed voters won't buy the "revolutionary" speeches in campaigns by the Leftist leaders, when at the same time these sit on the same table to negotiate with EU's/eurozone's black priesthood.
Both SYRIZA and Podemos will start to decline into a stagnating situation by the fact that they are unable to attract millions of disappointed voters while try to achieve the impossible: create a humanitarian Europe through negotiations with the representatives of bankers and lobbyists.
The only way to escape from this situation is to declare, together with the European Left, a real war on these bankers and lobbyists, throwing out of the game the dangerous nationalists. Otherwise, the Left will be vanished again, and the nightmare of the Far-Right will start dominating Europe.
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2016/06/iglesias-made-same-mistake-as-tsipras.html
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)of what went on and a program for going forward, read this:
http://www.redflagonline.org/2016/06/brexit-a-setback-for-the-working-class/
It's not about the bosses' Europe, it's about going forward and building on what's already in place in the EU in order to turn the EU into a United Socialist States of Europe. It will be more difficult to do now because trying to build socialism in individual nation-states has failed spectacularly.
However, I agree that the problem IS with the moderate, social democratic left not going far enough. If you go into the game as a supporter of a "kinder, gentler, more democratic" capitalism, you've already lost because you've just accepted the RULES of capitalism. That's the house and you won't win playing against the house.