In the June 17 Greek general election SYRIZA, the coalition of the Radical Left, won 26.9% of the vote in the, up from 17% while the banksters right-wing party, New Democracy,  came in first with almost 29.7%.  Although “SYRIZA was up against enormous odds, with the weight of Europe’s ruling classes unleashing an all-out propaganda offensive against it” they’ve been written off by the bankster media. That means nothing because this election will not solve the Euro unions crisis or end the swiftly developing European Depression. 

History has a different future in store for Greece and Europe, and it doesn’t include the banksters and their kept press: “Tsipras (a SYRIZA leader) … was joined on the stage by the World War II hero Manolis Glezos who in a first act of resistance against Nazi rule tore down the swastika from the Acropolis. The 92-year-old hailed the left’s … vote. “Who would have thought, or calculated, that we would go from 4.6% to this?”, he enthused punching the air with his fist. “We must raise the flag, the flag of victory.” Links international Journal of Socialist Renewal 06 18 2012  

In Egypt, as expected, the right wing pro-Obama military junta has abrogated the election and declared that they’ll run the country. Again the reaction of the bankstes press was to declare an end to the Revolution. Egyptian workers, students, women and GLBT activists think otherwise: ” Egyptian activists and political figures accused the ruling military council of having carried out a “soft coup” … Egyptian activists and political figures accused the ruling military council of having carried out a “soft coup” following a court ruling that dissolved the parliament on Thursday and kept Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister eligible for the presidential runoff election this weekend. … The court ruling set the stage for the military and remnants of the old regime to stay in power.  Several hundreds of Egyptians marched to the iconic al-Tahrir Square on Thursday night in preparation for mass rallies against the court’s decision on Friday.” Al Arabiya with Agencies 06 18 2012 http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/14/220717.html

None of these were setbacks in any sense of the word. They’re just bumps on the rocky road to real change, fundamental change, revolutionary change.

In the US, in the wake of the Democrat debacle in Wisconsin, the bankers media have declared the union left and the Occupiers defeated. Bull. Wisconsin was a well deserved defeat for the Democrat, not the unions. It demonstrates that unions, the union left and our allies in the Occupy movements have to press for unleashing of the sleeping tiger of the left, the AFL-CIOs Labor Party and other independent political action groups, to see elections useful only as educational and organizing tools, and to promote and plan for general strikes as the next big step on the road to our ultimate goal, the creation of a government exclusively of, by and for working people.  

Bill Perdue, Railroad Workers United, Transportation Communications Union, International Association of Machinists, AFL-CIO,  retired