On January 25, voters in Greece issued a clear rebuff to the anti-worker policies of privatization and austerity that have left the country with a 25 percent unemployment rate and a shredded social safety net. The left wing SYRIZA party won 149 seats and has formed a government headed by Alexis Tsipras. The new government has moved fast to undo the damage that has been imposed on the country by the dictates of the “Troika” of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The election result and the initial measures of the new government have sent a shock wave through the European ruling class and has given not only the Greek people but millions Europe-wide a new sense of hope. The people of Greece have shown that they are determined to chart their own future course. And immediately there was a tremendous echo of the Greek events in Spain, where on Sunday hundreds of thousands marched in Madrid to denounce and reject the same policies of privatization and austerity that led to the Greek uprising. More manifestations of this fighting spirit are been seen all over Europe.

The ruling class in Greece, Europe and worldwide will not accept this without a fight. Already threats are being made, by the German government, the bond rating agencies (Moody’s, Standard and Poors) and others, to punish the Greek people for their temerity in defending their country’s independence and their own economic interests through their vote. If Greece is able to defend itself against the backlash that is coming from Brussels, Berlin and Wall Street, it would be a tremendous victory for workers not only in Greece, but in all of Europe where similar anti-worker, anti-people measures have been imposed on Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland and other countries.

The right wing and the corporate elites are trying to impose the same kinds of measures in the United States. Although the word “austerity” is not very familiar to U.S. voters, the attack here, through budget cuts and privatization schemes, on Social Security, pensions, public schools, health care, environmental protections and the whole social safety net, as well as the relentless campaign against workers’ unionization rights, amounts to the same thing and is promoted by the same corporate elites and right wing political forces.

So if Greece wins this one, working people in the United States will win too.

For this reason it is imperative that workers and all progressive people in the United States actively defend the Greek people’s right to choose against any and all who threaten it.

The Communist Party USA calls on all its members and friends to oppose through solidarity actions any attempt to thwart the sovereign rights of the Greek voters and the interests of the Greek working class and people.

We urge our members and friends to sign on to the following petition to ask our own government to respect the will of the Greek people.

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