For ten days in September, I visited Athens. Across the ancient capital of Greece, in a country of 10 million in the south-east corner of Europe, I witnessed inspiring political events. This included a mass demonstration on the 13th anniversary of the murder of popular rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a member of the fascist party Golden Dawn. I joined a rally for migrant workers’ rights, and a protest by teachers against new unfair regulations. I spoke to scores of activists at a roof-top celebration of Jose Marti Brigadistas who delivered material aid to revolutionary Cuba.
A highlight of the trip was a two-hour meeting with leaders of the anti-capitalist united front ANTARSYA. The name is an acronym that embodies the tumultuous history of the workers’ movement: “Anti-capitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow”. It formed in 2009 in response to chronic deficit (due to corporate non-payment of taxes), credit downgrades, market lockout, and spillover effects of the global Great Recession. The EU insisted on making the working class pay for the capitalist crisis by slashing wages, benefits and social services. One after another, conservative (New Democracy) and fake leftist (Syriza) governments capitulated to the Troika -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The massive assault on the working class saw unemployment spike and living standards plummet; it set off a wave of protests and general strikes. Sadly, social democracy (PASOK) and an ultra-sectarian Stalinist party (KKE) derailed the movement.
ANTARSYA has over 2,000 members. Over half belong as individuals. Affiliated parties include the Alternative Ecologists, the Initiative for an Anti-capitalist Revolutionary ANTARSYA, Communist Liberation, the Organization of Communist Internationalists of Greece–Spartacus, the Revolutionary Communist Movement of Greece (EKKE), the Socialist Workers’ Party, and the Youth of Communist Liberation. ANTARSYA is active in many labour unions and social justice campaigns. It fields candidates for parliament and local councils, with the aim of raising working class consciousness, without any illusions in the capitalist state. This united front is widely recognized, garnering under one percent in national elections, 2 to 4 percent in regional contests. It can easily field over 500 candidates, including allied groups and personalities. That’s a solid base.
ANTARSYA identifies its priorities as anti-capitalism, workers’ rights, and socialist transformation. Its positions are expressed in party congress decisions and official declarations, by majority vote. To amend the constitution a two-thirds majority is required. Every participating party is guaranteed representation on the central committee. Most seats in the leadership are filled by direct election of slates and individuals – one person, one vote.
ANTARSYA advocates the unilateral cancellation of Greece’s public debt, which it considers illegitimate and unsustainable. It calls for Greece to exit the Eurozone and the European Union, arguing that membership prevents any meaningful anti-austerity or anti-capitalist policy. The party also supports nationalization of banks and major industries under workers’ and popular control, without compensation where mismanagement or layoffs have occurred.
The coalition prioritises rebuilding class-based labour and social movements, restoring collective bargaining rights, along with wages and pensions reduced under austerity, and defending trade union freedoms. It calls for workers’ control of production, including cooperatives and occupations in sectors facing closure or redundancies.
ANTARSYA rejects external supervision by the EU, European Central Bank, or International Monetary Fund, and promotes popular sovereignty free from international lenders. It supports radical democratic reforms, expansion of participatory mechanisms, and defends civil liberties against authoritarian legislation.
The party places strong emphasis on ecological struggles, linking them to anti-capitalism. It opposes extractivist projects such as large-scale gold mining in northern Greece, calls for the abandonment of fossil fuels, and supports investment in renewable energy under social and community control.
ANTARSYA supports the rights of migrants and refugees, safe and legal routes, and full social and political rights for all residents. It campaigns against racism, xenophobia and far-right violence, and defends gender equality and LGBTQ rights.
ANTARSYA is in explicit opposition to the “social reformism“ of Syriza and its leadership (former P.M. Alexis Tsipras), which ultimately supported austerity policies.
The coalition also supports a comprehensive banning of layoffs; a minimum salary, currently determined to the amount of 1,400 euros per month; a reduction of working time to 35 hours per week, without reduction in wages; complete disarmament of the Hellenic Police; the granting of full political and social rights to all immigrants; and an eco-socialist response to the ecological crisis.
The coalition describes itself as a “front of the anti-capitalist,[1] revolutionary, communist left, and of radical ecology“ in Greece. Its major positions are:
Exit from the European Union and the Eurozone, with re-adoption of a national currency,
Default on Greece’s debt, and
Nationalization without compensation of all major industries in the country
Does the above political program look familiar? No wonder. It parallels the policy of Capitalism Can’t be Fixed.
When Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney proposes ‘associate membership’ in the EU, remember the bitter experience of Greece. Uphold the goal of socialist transformation. Break with NATO and Norad. The current Greek government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis (New Democracy) tightly embraces the Zionist state and fervently backs the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. It is clear that ‘forever wars’ for imperial plunder can be stopped only by international working class solidarity. During World War 1, the famous Zimmerwald Conference brought together ostensibly anti-war workers’ parties. The Zimmerwald Left, led by V.I. Lenin, paved the way for the Russian Revolution in 1917 and the Communist International in 1919.
Today a high priority is to unite the anti-capitalist left globally -- to forge a worldwide anti-imperialist, anti-war united front. Such forces in Greece, Canada, Argentina, and on all the continents should be included. ANTARSYA leaders with whom I spoke expressed strong support for this perspective.