The tremors from the Melenchon campaign for the French presidential elections and the meteoric rise of the radical left forces in the Greek elections this week have shaken capitalist apologists the world over. SYRIZA, the Greek left front, defeated the traditional ‘left-of-centre’ party PASOK and came second in the election results. More than two third Greeks voted against the ‘right-of-centre’ New Democracy (ND) and PASOK, who were pursuing severe austerity policies to prop up crisis-ridden Greek capitalism. After the fall of Sarkozy, this was the 11th government that has fallen victim to the catastrophic crisis of capitalism in Europe. Over the last few weeks, the British Tories and the Liberal Democrats suffered a drubbing in local bodies elections and the right wing government in the Netherlands fell. A radical left political tendency has resurged in the stormy period that is unfolding in Europe and throughout the world. However, there are concerted efforts being made by bourgeois commentators and analysts in the mainstream media to distract the attention of the masses from the reality of a renewed wave of class struggle. After a prolonged period of perplexity, anguish and despair due to the capitulation of traditional workers’ leaders to capitalism, the struggle of the masses against the vicious attacks of the ruling class on their living conditions is now beginning to have its impact in the political arena. If this crisis could have been solved within the confines of capitalism, the experts of the ruling class would have resolved it long ago. Capitalism in its epoch of terminal decay has failed to recover from the deep slump in spite of all the bailouts and unprecedented attacks on the working masses by the mainstream parties. Greece is a case in point. Even if all the drastic austerity measures are carried out to the letter, the crisis will not abate. The economy is in a downward spiral with flagging production, economic growth, wages and incomes. As the representatives of SYRIZA pointed out in their election campaign, if the colossal amounts of finance capital stashed away in the Swiss and other banks by the Greek billionaires are retrieved, they can be used in building new roads, schools, hospitals, houses, infrastructure and social welfare. There would be no need for austerity, economic growth would revive, unemployment be abolished and workers wages doubled. But this cannot happen within the capitalist system based on class exploitation and immense inequality of wealth. In the last analysis, the fundamental interests of the ruling and the toiling classes are in sharp conflict and irreconcilable. To retain capitalism, austerity must be carried out, despite the agony, pain and misery it inflicts upon the vast majority of the ordinary people. The last few years have been a nightmare for the Greek masses. The crisis has plunged Greece into unprecedented poverty, unemployment, homelessness, price hike and even a stark rise in suicide rates. Youth unemployment has shot up to 54 percent. The social welfare benefits in health, education and other services are being vandalised. Yet Angela Merkel and the troika — the European Central Bank, IMF and the European Commission — are trying to force the Greek government for even more stringent austerity measures. This has given rise to mass fury and revulsion. There have been several general strikes, occupations of factories and central squares and militant protest demonstrations. Now the masses have vented their rage in the elections by spurning the mainstream political parties. SYRIZA’s support jumped from 4.6 percent in 2009 to almost 17 percent in the present election. Even a coalition of the ND and PASOK cannot muster a majority in parliament. After almost four decades, the working class has returned to the communist movement. With the fabricated rules of the bourgeois state, the ND got 50 extra seats for being first. It got 18.8 percent of the vote but got a tally of 108 seats while SYRIZA secured 16.8 percent of votes but was allotted only 52 seats in parliament. If the Democratic Left party (19 seats) does not betray its election pledges, it will be difficult to engineer a pro-austerity coalition. However, it will provoke a mass revolt of an enraged people that voted massively against these attacks. If a new coalition government is not formed by May 17, there will be a new election in June in which SYRIZA is expected to get 128 seats according to Thursday’s polls. The Communist Party (KKE), with its present 26 seats, will also substantially increase its support. It will be a challenge for the SYRIZA leadership. They have to come up with radical steps as the demands they are raising can only be realised through a socioeconomic transformation. The market economy has to be replaced with a planned economic order under workers democratic control and management. They ought to form a united front with the Communist Party. This relatively loose alliance of the left groups and Synaspismos must be converted into a mass organised proletarian party with a revolutionary socialist programme. The victory of the radical left came amid severe attacks by the bourgeois media and dominant intelligentsia. Now there is an even more vicious crusade of threats and intimidation by the capitalist politicians of Europe against any measures to reverse the brutal austerity plan. Faceless grey men in grey suits are talking about the expulsion of Greece from the euro zone and are presenting a doomsday scenario for Europe if their policies are not implemented. Pressures are being built by plummeting of the markets and the fall of the Euro. Paradoxically, a greater victory of the communist left in the next elections will send a revolutionary message throughout Europe. Almost every country of the continent is in deep crisis and social convulsions. The masses are yearning for a change. Social democracy and conservative mainstream parties carrying out cuts are being discredited. The rise of the communist left in Greece cutting across the obstacles of the media onslaught and the betrayals of the traditional leaders is a silver lining in the tragedy that is agonising Greece. A spectre of communism haunts Europe, once again. The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at ptudc@hotmail.com