New Left Current

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.

The Synaspismos was an electoral alliance between the Communist Party of Greece (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.

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 was revealed in public. In response, KKE expels the dissidents from the Youth organization, along with a significant number of the organization's members.

At the same time, prominent members of the Communist Party itself, such as Kostas Kappos,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). leave KKE.

Establishment

Following a December 1989 country-wide meeting of sympathizers, a tentative platform was 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 was 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.

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

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.

Τhe New Left Current supports the notion that capitalism has evolved beyond what Lenin denoted as its uppermost, ultimate stage, that of imperialism, 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.

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 and, though he never officially returned to the Communist Party, he would declare he'd never left the KKE.

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.

:1 Radical Left Front :2 Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow :3 Left Front Coalition :4 Workers Revolutionary Party

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Youth of Communist Liberation

The New Left Current's youth organization, the Youth of Communist Liberation (Νεολαία Κομμουνιστική Απελευθέρωση, νΚΑ; nKA), founded in 1995 (as Κομμουνιστική Νεολαία Ελλάδας – Νέο Αριστερό Ρεύμα, KNE-ΝΑΡ; KNE-NAR), participates in the United Independent Left Movement, a coalition of left-wing student formations, and is active in the country's educational institutions.

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

Notes

References

References

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2. Markopoulos, Yorgos. (1 January 2020). "Καίριες απαντήσεις σε καίρια ερωτήματα προς τον Δημήτρη Δεσύλλα". Pantiera.
3. (20 September 2019). "Η ανταρσία της ΚΝΕ 1989 - Χρονικό". NAR.
4. (11 September 2005). "Πέθανε o Κώστας Κάππος, πρώην κοινοβουλευτικός εκπρόσωπος του ΚΚΕ". [[in.gr]].
5. NAR's Co-ordination Committee became in a short time its Political Committee. See Pantiera (2020).
6. (January–March 2023). "Το οπορτουνιστικό ρεύμα ξανά σε αδιέξοδο". Communist Review.
7. Mottas, Nikos. (10 February 2019). "ΑΝΤΑΡΣΥΑ: Οι επιστήμονες του οπορτουνισμού σε ρόλο συκοφάντη ενάντια στο ΚΚΕ". Atechnos.
8. Mottas, Nikos. (4 December 2023). "ΝΑΡ: Το κόμμα της Αριστεράς στο οποίο ήταν ο Κοτζιάς, η Βαλαβάνη και ο… Πολάκης". Atechnos.
9. Lenin, Vladimir. (2018). "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism". [[Marxists Internet Archive]].
10. (June 1997). "Θέσεις Σ.Ε.: Η σύγχρονη καπιταλιστική κοινωνία - Νέο στάδιο ανάπτυξης και κρίσης του καπιταλισμού". NAR.
11. (2023). "Κώστας Κάππος". [[IANOS]].
12. (10 September 2018). "Κώστας Κάππος: 'Ποτέ δεν έφυγα από το ΚΚΕ. Είναι δυνατόν να αρνούμαστε και τις ιδέες μας τώρα;'". Katiousa.
13. (13 September 2005). "'Εφυγε' ο Κώστας Κάππος". [[Rizospastis]].
14. (15 October 2017). "Κώστας Κάππος – Το μόνο που δεν ήξερε ήταν η αντοχή του". Katiousa.
15. (23 May 2011). "Ανακοίνωση νΚΑ για τις φοιτητικές εκλογές". Youth of Communist Liberation.
16. (23 May 2011). "Τι είναι η νΚΑ". Youth of Communist Liberation.