Neue Debatte - Special Edition - Long Essay on Left Strategy #002 - 04/2017 | Page 33

5 On the people
ciety and future, Of cause they have to prepare for a career may be in
a capitalist company or stately institution. But they inevitably gain
personal skills, pride and self-confidence. They are an individually and
sometime collectively fighting, tough people. They are usually friend-
ly, helpful and open-hearted. Dear Yanis, I think you should accept
each invitation to a Greek or Turkish wedding when you have the
chance to remember what folks are like. Or take part in a street party
of a small Italian place or see a religious parade through the streets
of a Spanish place headed by a monstrance and an ear-deafening
brass band. Perhaps you find time for a Midsummer Night festival on
a Swedish lake at the foot of a castle ruin.
I have not yet mentioned the strike activities all over Europe. Just be-
fore the football Championship widespread strikes threatened to
paralyze whole France. Union activists blocked oil refineries and fuel
depots. They disrupted services involving nuclear power plants, pub-
lic transportation, ports and roads. The police fired tear gas into the
crowds in central Paris. The activists spoke of about 300.000 people
demonstrating across the country on May 23 rd and 1.2 Mill on March
3 rd already. 77 people were arrested. France’s workers have taken to
the street against a labor bill, which would loosen dismissal protec-
tions for workers. In Germany this year we witnessed heavy strikes of
the transport workers, the hospital staffs and the underpaid person-
nel of the kindergartens. Belgium rail workers, public transport, and
prison guards extended strike actions. I can’t list all workers’ fights in
2016.
The activists often act very courageously. Do we really estimate a
family father or a single mum to go on strike, their jobs being in dan-
ger by possible lock-outs of the employers, maybe illegalized by con-
frontations with the police. People have to be very furious and reso-
lute to take such risks.
The message is clear: There is no “silent majority”, no dull population
of the Yanis Varoufakis kind!
5.3 On our tasks
Consequently we, Diem, and all the other movements can put no-
body back into whatsoever, neither silent majorities nor folks of the
Eleanor Rigby-type. We have to be a concerned part of the existing
people’s and workers’ movements and try to give political orientation
by preventing all participants from following illusionary demands and
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